Hosea 7

November 30, 2025

FBC Baxley

Pm svc

Hosea 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.

-Pray

Sermon “When the Heat Reveals the Heart”

SERMON IN A SENTENCE

God uses the heat of circumstances to reveal the true condition of our hearts—so He can call us back before it’s too late.

INTRODUCTION —

Several years ago a tiny bakery in a small town went up in flames in the middle of the night.

When the fire investigators arrived, the cause surprised everyone.

It wasn’t faulty wiring. It wasn’t an oven explosion.

It was a single neglected cake placed too close to a heating element.

The baker admitted later, “I didn’t do anything wrong—I just didn’t do anything at all.”

Neglect, not action, had destroyed the bakery.

Sometimes the greatest dangers in life are not the sins we commit deliberately—but the spiritual conditions we allow to burn unattended.

A cake can burn without anyone touching it—just leave it alone long enough.

That’s Hosea 7.

Israel didn’t collapse because of one sudden act of rebellion.

Their downfall came from the slow burn of spiritual neglect.

Here in chapter 7, God exposes a people who are outwardly religious, politically active, and spiritually talkative—but inwardly smoldering with unrepentant sin.

Hosea 7 is God saying: “The heat of life has exposed the heart of My people.”

And what the heat exposed was tragic.

SETTING THE SCENE — THE NATION IS FALLING APART

Hosea ministered in the Northern Kingdom during its final, chaotic days.

Jeroboam II had ushered in a time of prosperity, but after his death, the nation spiraled.

Over roughly 30 years, Israel experienced six kings—four of whom were assassinated.

The land was politically unstable, morally corrupt, and spiritually confused.

They practiced idolatry while claiming to worship Yahweh.

They made alliances with foreign nations instead of trusting God.

They offered sacrifices but not obedience.

Douglas Stuart (NICOT) said that Hosea 7 shows Israel “not simply sinning, but celebrating sin, normalizing it, and institutionalizing it.”

*”We see people’s true colors when the heat is turned up.”

Hosea 7 shows what Israel was when the heat was on.

I. UNDER THE SURFACE: THE HEART IS COOKING (Hosea 7:1–7)

**** “God sees the sin we stir, not just the life we serve.”

When Hosea opens this chapter, God says, “When I would heal Israel, the iniquity of Ephraim is revealed” (v.1).

In other words: “Every time I move toward them in mercy, their sin rises like smoke.”

In verse 4, He compares them to “an oven heated by the baker.”

The Hebrew term for “heated” (ḥammām) paints the picture of a fire left to itself—slowly growing hotter, hotter, and hotter.

Israel’s sin didn’t boil over suddenly. It simmered. It intensified. It baked into their hearts.

Their leaders were corrupt (v.3).

Their passions were unrestrained (v.4).

Their political life was murderous and unstable (v.5–7).

And the nation was burning from the inside out.

Matthew Henry writes,

“They sinned till sin became their delight, and iniquity baked itself into their nature.”

This wasn’t one great act of rebellion.

It was the fruit of an overheated, unguarded heart.

Illustration

Forest fires rarely start with a lightning bolt.

Many begin with one neglected ember.

A single spark in dry grass can devour thousands of acres.

So can a single unchecked sin.

Some of us aren’t being undone by big decisions against God—but by small decisions without God.

Not rebellion—neglect. Not hatred—lukewarmness. Not sudden collapse—but slow burn.

II. HALF-BAKED RELIGION PRODUCES HALF-BROKEN PEOPLE (Hosea 7:8–10)

**** “You can’t live fully for God if you’re only half-done with sin.”

Hosea uses one of the most vivid images in the Old Testament: “Ephraim is a cake not turned” (v.8).

The Hebrew phrase (ʿuggāh belî hăpūkâh) means:

Half-done

Uneven

Unusable

Imagine a pancake cooked on one side and raw on the other.

Good for nothing.

Israel wanted God’s favor but the world’s friendship.

They wanted God’s protection but their own idolatry.

They wanted the appearance of devotion without the surrender of obedience.

John MacArthur, “Israel’s mixture with the nations diluted their devotion and neutralized their witness.”

Verse 9 adds that “strangers devour his strength, yet he knows it not.”

Israel was spiritually decaying—and didn’t even realize it.

Just like gray hairs appear gradually, spiritual decline often begins subtly.

Illustration

Have you ever bitten into a pancake that wasn’t flipped? Looks great on one side. Nasty on the other. Unpleasant all around.

A half-baked Christian may look impressive on one side—church attendance, spiritual language, religious activity—but the other side is raw with compromise and sin.

*God is not looking for perfect people, but He is calling for people who are fully His.

He wants Christians who are flipped—repentant—surrendered.

III. LOOKING EVERYWHERE BUT UP (Hosea 7:11–16)

**** “You cannot fly with God while chasing rescue from everyone else.”

Israel, seeking help, flitted back and forth between Egypt and Assyria.

Hosea says they are like “a silly dove without sense” (v.11).

The Hebrew picture is of a bird fluttering about—directionless, frantic, gullible.

Instead of trusting the God who redeemed them, they trusted:

political alliances

foreign armies

human strategies

worldly solutions

But verse 13 breaks God’s heart: “I would redeem them, but they speak lies against Me.”

And verse 16 is the tragedy of the chapter: “They return…but not upward.”

They returned in movement, not in direction. They turned around, but not toward God.

Wiersbe comments,

“Israel made desperate efforts to save themselves while ignoring the only One who could rescue them.”

Illustration

I once heard of hikers who got lost in the mountains. They tried path after path, walking for hours, turning over and over, yet each turn took them further from their starting point.

They turned plenty. But they never turned in the right direction.

That’s Israel. And that’s many believers. Turning—but not upward.

You can change jobs, change habits, change relationships, even change churches—but if you don’t change direction toward God, nothing changes at all.

CONCLUSION — “WHEN DRIFT BECOMES DISASTER”

A pastor once visited a man who had drifted from God.

His family was strained, his finances in ruins, his joy gone.

When asked, “How did you get here?” the man said, “It wasn’t one big decision. It was a thousand small ones. I didn’t run from God—I drifted.”

That was Israel. Not running. Drifting. Not rejecting God. Forgetting God.

And the heat revealed their heart.

But here is the hope:

God exposes the heart not to condemn us, but to call us back.

His warnings are invitations. His discipline is mercy in disguise. His exposure is an act of love.

THREE LIFE APPLICATIONS

1. Let God examine the oven of your heart.

Ask Him to search you. Invite Him to reveal the hidden embers, the unattended attitudes, the simmering sins. Revival begins with honesty.

2. Don’t settle for half-baked Christianity.

Let God flip you where you need flipping. Yield the areas you’ve kept to yourself. Let Him finish what He began.

3. Turn upward before you turn anywhere else.

Stop fluttering to Egypt and Assyria— to self-help, to coping mechanisms, to worldly strategies. Turn upward. Return to the One who still says, “I would redeem them.”

-Pray

-Invitation