Hosea 6, Similes and their Application Today (1)

Hosea 6-8 is filled with similes and metaphors.  The similes have always caught my attention.  Recently, as I read them, I also could see them with very clear application today.  As it turns out, these similes should have easy application for any age because they describe something that is always part of the evil world in which we live.  Let’s briefly review these similes.

·       Hos. 6:4: The faithfulness of Ephraim and Judah is “like a morning cloud” and “like the early dew.”  These are repeated in Hosea’s conclusion section in Hos. 13:3 along with two others: “like chaff blown off from a threshing floor and like smoke from a chimney.”  They all describe a reality that is fleeting, and when it is faithfulness that is fleeting that is a real problem.  The wisdom of man is always like this.  Great philosophies and philosophers make great pronouncements that, at best, fit for a generation.  Then they disappear and there comes to be an opening for some other wise person to sell his wares.  The one I think of is, from my youth, Benjamin Spock’s philosophy of raising children, which essentially eliminated discipline, and resulted in generations of rebellious and selfish people. 

·       Hos. 7:4-7: They were adulterers, “like an oven heated by a baker.”  The picture here is of the baker who lights his fire, and then keeps the coals warm all night until he is ready to use it.  So the passions or lusts of these people are warm, waiting the opportunity to be enflamed.  So live by their own selfish desires.  So with the wisdom of the world.  It teaches us to follow our passions and desires.

·       Hos. 7:8-10: Ephraim is “a cake unturned.”  It’s the pancake, cooked on one side, but still doughy on the other.  It is inedible, useless.  In the context, some sought to obey the LORD, but without repentance.  So with the wisdom of men.  It always makes us feel good, but fails because it is, at best, half baked.  There is no humility, to recognition of sin, no call to repentance.

·       Hos. 7:11-12: Ephraim is also “like a silly dove.”  Here the idea is that they flit from one idea to another.  There is no settling on the truth and staying in that place.  In the context, both Ephraim and Judah flittered about, sometimes seeming to trust God, but then putting their trust in others.  Specifically, Judah trusted the Egyptians to deliver them from the Babylonians, and Ephraim allied with the Syrians, but could not stand up against the Assyrians.  So, the wisdom of the world is seen in one fad after another.  It is clearly seen in the health area where one diet after another becomes the rage before giving way to something else. 

We will seek to complete this in the next post.