The oven and the baker.
High and low united in the wickedness which has been described, and is to be described. The example of the king and court gave the key-note to the subjects, and they in turn pleased the king and his princes by a hearty imitation of their vices. "They made the king glad with their wickedness"—themselves living lives of debauchery and ungodliness; "and the princes with their lies"—offering them flattery, and siding with them in ridicule of the prophet's teachings A new image is here employed to set forth the enormity of the wickedness which prevailed—that, viz; of the heated oven and the baker. The elements of the figure may be thus analyzed. The oven is the heart; the fire, unholy lust, appetite, or passion; the dough, the evil intent or plan. This is prepared beforehand, while the fire smolders beneath; when it is matured for execution, the fire—lust or passion—is stirred up to a flame, and the act of wickedness is consummated. The general thought is the systematic character of the sin, its deliberateness in being previously conceived, planned, prepared for—the soul, thereafter, being held as it were in readiness for its execution. Three illustrations, though the figure applies strictly only to the first and last.
I. THE HEAT OF LUST. (Hosea 7:4) "They are all adulterers, as an oven heated by the baker," etc. Their debaucheries, i.e; were not the fruit of mere impulse. They were gone into as the result of forethought and preparation. Libidinous thoughts were encouraged. New gratifications were planned; the matter was reflected on and matured; the act of indulgence was anticipated in imagination. Time was thus given for the lustful desire to permeate the whole nature, when, like dough fully leavened, the evil intent was ready to be converted into deed. Lust, to use the figure of James, conceives, and brings forth sin (James 1:15). Learn:
1. The importance of guarding against the inception of lust. It is in its beginnings that lust is most dangerous. The wrong thought, the lustful look, the dallying with desire,—it is there the evil lurks. From this there is but a step to evil intent. The fire burns, the dough is prepared; it will be a wonder if actual sin is not some day the outcome.
2. The importance of regulating thought as a means to the control of the passions. Thought can be so directed as to feed and inflame passion; it can also be so ruled as to check and control it. The wicked use this power of thought for a bad purpose; nor less earnestly should we attempt to use it for a holy one. It is only through care of the thoughts, and through strict control exercised over them, that inward and outward purity can be preserved.
II. THE HEAT OF WINE. (Verse 5) "In the day of our king the princes have made him sick [or, 'are sick '] with heat of wine," etc. Royal feast days were days of recognized and premeditated debauch. Wine maddens and inflames the nature.
1. Drunkenness stands in close relation to lust, with which it is here brought into connection. It is lust's most powerful auxiliary. "Whoredom and wine" (Hosea 4:11). Sensuality, in turn, predisposes to excess in drinking. It loosens restraint. It destroys self-control. It inclines to animal indulgence generally.
2. Drunkenness is degrading in its own effects.
3. Drunkenness prepares the way for strife and plotting. The drunkenness is the nexus between the adulteries and the conspiracies. Pot-companions are rarely stable friends. They do not really trust each other. Carousals lead to quarrelling. The strong and unscrupulous see with contempt the weaknesses of the rulers, and plot against them.
III. THE HEAT OF ANGER, (Verses 6, 7) "They have made ready their heart like an oven, while they lie in wait," etc. We have here the result of the carousals and the scorning in plots and conspiracies. These are:
1. Secretly prepared; like the oven got ready beforehand, the dough also being kneaded and leavened.
2. Silently waited upon. It takes time for a plot to mature, as it takes time for the leaven to permeate the dough. A good example is furnished in the case of Absalom, who first, by fair speeches and complaisances, stole the hearts of the people of Israel; then, after the leaven had had time to work, got leave of absence, and, with two hundred men accompanying, had himself proclaimed king (2 Samuel 15:1-14).
3. Hotly executed. There is no mercy in the fierceness which at length breaks out in bloody deeds. The pent-up heat burns like an oven. The anger of the wicked is ruthless, cruel, unsparing. It had proved to be so in Israel's history. Dynasty after dynasty had been swept away by assassination. Pekah, probably the then reigning king, was himself afterwards murdered by Hoshea. Yet Israel refused to take the lesson. "There is none of them that calleth upon me" (verse 7).—J.O.