A sermon by Dr. David Booth on
Hosea 6:11b-7:16 (evening worship)
Sermon Title: “Dangerous Alliances”
[11] For you also, O Judah, a harvest is appointed, when I restore the fortunes of my people. [7:1] When I would heal Israel, the iniquity of Ephraim is revealed, and the evil deeds of Samaria; for they deal falsely; the thief breaks in, and the bandits raid outside. [2] But they do not consider that I remember all their evil. Now their deeds surround them; they are before my face. [3] By their evil they make the king glad, and the princes by their treachery. [4] They are all adulterers; they are like a heated oven whose baker ceases to stir the fire, from the kneading of the dough until it is leavened. [5] On the day of our king, the princes became sick with the heat of wine; he stretched out his hand with mockers. [6] For with hearts like an oven they approach their intrigue; all night their anger smolders; in the morning it blazes like a flaming fire. [7] All of them are hot as an oven, and they devour their rulers. All their kings have fallen, and none of them calls upon me. [8] Ephraim mixes himself with the peoples; Ephraim is a cake not turned. [9] Strangers devour his strength, and he knows it not; gray hairs are sprinkled upon him, and he knows it not. [10] The pride of Israel testifies to his face; yet they do not return to the LORD their God, nor seek him, for all this. [11] Ephraim is like a dove, silly and without sense, calling to Egypt, going to Assyria. [12] As they go, I will spread over them my net; I will bring them down like birds of the heavens; I will discipline them according to the report made to their congregation. [13] Woe to them, for they have strayed from me! Destruction to them, for they have rebelled against me! I would redeem them, but they speak lies against me. [14] They do not cry to me from the heart, but they wail upon their beds; for grain and wine they gash themselves; they rebel against me. [15] Although I trained and strengthened their arms, yet they devise evil against me. [16] They return, but not upward; they are like a treacherous bow; their princes shall fall by the sword because of the insolence of their tongue. This shall be their derision in the land of Egypt.