Hos 7:4 | KingComments | STEP | deal with kings, rulers, how one sees them and deals with them, and ends with their assassination. It seems that these verses describe how the king and his royals are treacherously overthrown. In order to sketch what is happening here, metaphors are used. The people who want to kill the king are compared to a heated oven. They are full of evil and vengefulness and their entire inside glows with zeal to kill the king. The dough represents the king who must be put to death in the oven of their lust for murder. Outwardly they are kind to the king, but in their hearts they hate him. Here the treacherous nature of sin manifests itself clearly. It begins underground, unnoticed. The fire is stirred up, the dough is kneaded, and the baker sleeps. Then the appropriate moment arrives and the flames flare up high. Unscrupulous people take their chance, kill the king and another sits on the throne. What the baker and the assassin have in common in this imagery is that – after having made the necessary preparations – they both wait until the moment of action has arrived. In all this, there is no thought of God present. There is no one calling to the LORD. “Make the king glad” ( ) means that they make him happy by giving him wine in order to be able to kill him all the more easily. They use lies to get the rulers at the feast they organize. To celebrate a feast, the rulers always can appreciate that. Whether there is a valid reason for it, does not matter. Even less does it matter if it is a feast where also the LORD can be. If only something can be celebrated. After all, life is one big celebration. But the rulers do not realize how hatred burns in the hearts of those they are invited by. The metaphor of is not so easy to understand. What is clear, however, is that the adulterous behavior of the people is compared to an oven that continues to burn, without new food being given to it. It indicates the attitude, the mind of their hearts, which is aimed at giving in to every lust that arises. We can take their adulterous behavior literally. One can also think of a behavior that is equal to that of the nations around them. They think only of their own advantage. If the rulers do not provide this, they must be eliminated. The preparation for that can possibly be seen in the kneading of the dough. People’s thinking must be made ripe. The baker, which is he who has prepared his plan, tries to convince the people. He deludes them about how much benefit it will bring if the king is put aside. This is in line with the hatred the people have for their king. When their thoughts have been influenced in this way, “until it is leavened”, the time is ripe to strike. Perhaps some people even think they are doing God a favor by killing their king. The mixing of idolatry with a service to God is, however, aptly expressed in the mixing of the leaven – in the Bible always a picture of something sinful – with the dough made from the fruit of the land given by God. The Lord Jesus shows with the picture of the leaven that false doctrine will permeate the whole Christianity ( ).

‏ Hosea 7:4

Deeds That Bring Joy and Death

Hos 7:3-7 deal with kings, rulers, how one sees them and deals with them, and ends with their assassination. It seems that these verses describe how the king and his royals are treacherously overthrown. In order to sketch what is happening here, metaphors are used. The people who want to kill the king are compared to a heated oven. They are full of evil and vengefulness and their entire inside glows with zeal to kill the king. The dough represents the king who must be put to death in the oven of their lust for murder. Outwardly they are kind to the king, but in their hearts they hate him.

Here the treacherous nature of sin manifests itself clearly. It begins underground, unnoticed. The fire is stirred up, the dough is kneaded, and the baker sleeps. Then the appropriate moment arrives and the flames flare up high. Unscrupulous people take their chance, kill the king and another sits on the throne. What the baker and the assassin have in common in this imagery is that – after having made the necessary preparations – they both wait until the moment of action has arrived. In all this, there is no thought of God present. There is no one calling to the LORD.

“Make the king glad” (Hos 7:3) means that they make him happy by giving him wine in order to be able to kill him all the more easily. They use lies to get the rulers at the feast they organize. To celebrate a feast, the rulers always can appreciate that. Whether there is a valid reason for it, does not matter. Even less does it matter if it is a feast where also the LORD can be. If only something can be celebrated. After all, life is one big celebration. But the rulers do not realize how hatred burns in the hearts of those they are invited by.

The metaphor of Hos 7:4 is not so easy to understand. What is clear, however, is that the adulterous behavior of the people is compared to an oven that continues to burn, without new food being given to it. It indicates the attitude, the mind of their hearts, which is aimed at giving in to every lust that arises. We can take their adulterous behavior literally. One can also think of a behavior that is equal to that of the nations around them. They think only of their own advantage.

If the rulers do not provide this, they must be eliminated. The preparation for that can possibly be seen in the kneading of the dough. People’s thinking must be made ripe. The baker, which is he who has prepared his plan, tries to convince the people. He deludes them about how much benefit it will bring if the king is put aside. This is in line with the hatred the people have for their king. When their thoughts have been influenced in this way, “until it is leavened”, the time is ripe to strike.

Perhaps some people even think they are doing God a favor by killing their king. The mixing of idolatry with a service to God is, however, aptly expressed in the mixing of the leaven – in the Bible always a picture of something sinful – with the dough made from the fruit of the land given by God. The Lord Jesus shows with the picture of the leaven that false doctrine will permeate the whole Christianity (Mt 13:33).