John Calvin Commentary Hosea 7:6

"For they have made ready their heart like an oven, while they lie in wait: their baker sleepeth all the night; in the morning it burneth as a flaming fire." — Hosea 7:6 (ASV)

Here the Prophet says that the Israelites secretly, and by hidden means, prepared their hearts for evil deeds. He uses nearly the same analogy as he did a short time before, though for a different purpose. For he says that they had prepared their hearts secretly, just as a baker puts fire in his oven at night and then rests; in the morning, the oven is well heated, having reached sufficient heat to bake the bread.

The oven becomes hot in the morning, even though the baker sleeps. How so? Because an abundance of fuel had been gathered, so that it is heated by morning. Therefore, the night's rest does not prevent the fire from heating the oven when it has a sufficient quantity of fuel, and when the baker has filled his oven so much that the fire cannot be extinguished or gradually smothered.

When the baker has thus arranged a heap of wood, he then rests securely, for the fire can continue until morning. We now, then, see the Prophet's design.

They have prepared, he says, their hearts insidiously; that is, though they did not at first make their wickedness evident, they had yet previously prepared their hearts, as the oven is lit, or as the furnace is heated before the bread is prepared.

Indeed, there is no need for much bustle—no need for much noise when the baker lights his oven, for he prepares the wood and then goes to rest. In the meantime, while he sleeps all night, the fire is burning.

So also they, though not everyone perceives their wickedness, have, in the meantime, heated their hearts like an oven. That is, evil deeds had, by degrees and over a long period, been conceived by them before they broke out into open acts of wickedness.

We therefore see that the analogy of an oven is presented here by the Prophet in a different sense than before. This should be noted, because interpreters carelessly overlook this entirely, as if the Prophet meant the same thing in both places.

But the meaning, as is evident, is far different. For he intended only, in the first instance, to reprove the mad lust with which they were burning; but he now speaks of their plots and concealed frauds. That is, the Israelites previously showed themselves openly to be ungodly and wicked, but now they were wicked before God.

How so? Because they were now like an oven lit up in the night. For just as the baker, having closed the door of his house, puts fire in, while no one perceives that the furnace or the oven is being heated, so also the people fed and nourished their wickedness before God. Afterwards, in the course of time, it broke out openly whenever an opportunity was offered.

Prayer:

Grant, Almighty God, that since you have once shone upon us by your gospel—O grant, that we may always be guided by this light, and so guided, that all our lusts may be restrained. May the power of your Spirit extinguish in us every sinful fervor, that we may not grow hot with our own perverse desires. But, all these being subdued, may we gather new fervor daily, that we may yearn for you more and more. Nor let the coldness of our flesh ever take possession of us; rather, may we continually advance in the way of piety, until at last we come to that blessed rest to which you invite us, and which has been obtained for us by the blood of your only-begotten Son, our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.