Loyal - Week 5 Day 3
Hosea 7:3–7
[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. (ESV)
Look up the meaning of treachery.
The verses continue from yesterday. Who is referenced that makes the king and princes glad by their evil and treachery?
They make the king and princes glad. Wait a minute! So the king is glad that his people are adulterers, love something more than the LORD? The king is glad that his people are like a heated oven, hot with emotions? Why would the king be glad that bitterness overflows his people that all night their anger smolders and in the morning that they are like a flaming fire? Did the kings see and exploit some gain to this? Maybe the kings and princes were able to use this to their benefit for a time, but in the end the people are so heated they devour their rulers and all the kings fall.
You will noticed in the following verses that the king of Judah is sometimes spelled Azariah and other times Uzzaih. It is the same person.
2 Kings 15:8–29
Zechariah Reigns in Israel
[8] In the thirty-eighth year of Azariah king of Judah, Zechariah the son of Jeroboam reigned over Israel in Samaria six months. [9] And he did what was evil in the sight of the LORD, as his fathers had done. He did not depart from the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, which he made Israel to sin. [10] Shallum the son of Jabesh conspired against him and struck him down at Ibleam and put him to death and reigned in his place. [11] Now the rest of the deeds of Zechariah, behold, they are written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Israel. [12] (This was the promise of the LORD that he gave to Jehu, “Your sons shall sit on the throne of Israel to the fourth generation.” And so it came to pass.)
Shallum Reigns in Israel
[13] Shallum the son of Jabesh began to reign in the thirty-ninth year of Uzziah king of Judah, and he reigned one month in Samaria. [14] Then Menahem the son of Gadi came up from Tirzah and came to Samaria, and he struck down Shallum the son of Jabesh in Samaria and put him to death and reigned in his place. [15] Now the rest of the deeds of Shallum, and the conspiracy that he made, behold, they are written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Israel. [16] At that time Menahem sacked Tiphsah and all who were in it and its territory from Tirzah on, because they did not open it to him. Therefore he sacked it, and he ripped open all the women in it who were pregnant.
Menahem Reigns in Israel
[17] In the thirty-ninth year of Azariah king of Judah, Menahem the son of Gadi began to reign over Israel, and he reigned ten years in Samaria. [18] And he did what was evil in the sight of the LORD. He did not depart all his days from all the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, which he made Israel to sin. [19] Pul the king of Assyria came against the land, and Menahem gave Pul a thousand talents of silver, that he might help him to confirm his hold on the royal power. [20] Menahem exacted the money from Israel, that is, from all the wealthy men, fifty shekels of silver from every man, to give to the king of Assyria. So the king of Assyria turned back and did not stay there in the land. [21] Now the rest of the deeds of Menahem and all that he did, are they not written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Israel? [22] And Menahem slept with his fathers, and Pekahiah his son reigned in his place.
Pekahiah Reigns in Israel
[23] In the fiftieth year of Azariah king of Judah, Pekahiah the son of Menahem began to reign over Israel in Samaria, and he reigned two years. [24] And he did what was evil in the sight of the LORD. He did not turn away from the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, which he made Israel to sin. [25] And Pekah the son of Remaliah, his captain, conspired against him with fifty men of the people of Gilead, and struck him down in Samaria, in the citadel of the king’s house with Argob and Arieh; he put him to death and reigned in his place. [26] Now the rest of the deeds of Pekahiah and all that he did, behold, they are written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Israel.
Pekah Reigns in Israel
[27] In the fifty-second year of Azariah king of Judah, Pekah the son of Remaliah began to reign over Israel in Samaria, and he reigned twenty years. [28] And he did what was evil in the sight of the LORD. He did not depart from the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, which he made Israel to sin.
[29] In the days of Pekah king of Israel, Tiglath-pileser king of Assyria came and captured Ijon, Abel-beth-maacah, Janoah, Kedesh, Hazor, Gilead, and Galilee, all the land of Naphtali, and he carried the people captive to Assyria. (ESV)
Within the time of fourteen years, Israel was ruled by five different kings. These were not gracious transfers of power, but rather by deceit and murder to grab the power of the throne. The security of each rule was shaky at best, with forces from within and outside trying to overthrow the throne until Assyria finally succeeded in doing so. It looked as if these kings would do almost anything to hold on to their power, except surrender to GOD. In the end, the throne of Ephraim is devoured, the people are captured, and the king’s power is no more.
Are we praying for our leaders, that they will not want to hold to power for themselves above all costs? Are we praying that corruption will have no place in our leadership at all levels; including government and churches? Please join me in praying that our leaders and ourselves will love and honor the LORD the most.
Works Cited
Scripture quotations are from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), Copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved. May not copy or download more than 500 consecutive verses of the ESV Bible or more than one half of any book of the ESV Bible.
“Dictionary by Merriam-Webster: America's Most-Trusted Online Dictionary.” Merriam-Webster, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/.
Green, Jay P. “Hosea.” The Interlinear Hebrew-Aramaic Old Testament: With Strong's Concordance Numbers above Each Word, Hendrickson Publishers, Peabody, MA, MA, 1985, pp. 2075–2092.
Publishing, Rose. Rose Book of Bible Charts, Maps, and Time Lines. Rose Publishing, 2015.
Strong, James. The Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible: Showing Every Word of the Text of the Common English Version of the Canonical Books, and Every Occurrence of Each Word in Regular Order, Together with Dictionaries of the Hebrew and Greek Words of Th. Hendrickson Publishers, 1990.