Hosea 7:8,9 + Integrity

Hosea 7:8 ... Ephraim is a cake not turned. 9 Foreigners devour his strength, but he does not know it ...

There are two kinds of cooks -- artists and scientists. Scientists are precise and measure. Artists are creative -- a little of this, a little of that. Can you guess which I am? Well, let's just say that the creative side of me doesn't bake well. Baking requires, of course, a little precision. So maybe I'm not the best person to talk about today's repeated baking images; nevertheless, that's how God speaks to his people today. Their "4 adulter[y] [is] like a heated oven." So is their "6 anger [which] smolders." These two characteristics -- "7 hot as an oven" -- ultimately "devour[s] their [own] rulers."

But there's also a deeper warning here. Today's verse tells us that overheated infidelity and the flames of anger are ultimately cannibalistic. "8 Ephraim" -- one of Israel's twelve provinces / tribes -- has become in this oven "8 a cake not turned." The result "9 foreigners devour his strength." In a sense that's not cannibalism -- a foreigner is devouring him. But here's the point for today, when our anger and unfaithfulness burn, aren't we devouring our integrity from the inside out? We're destroying our structural integrity, and it's not hard, then, for the world to finish the job.

Dear Lord, General Electric, KitchenAid, Maytag, and Jenn-Air are some of the best known brands of ovens. Don't add my name -- Ed -- to the list of toasters. Help my heart burn only for you.

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