“Ephraim is like a dove, silly and without sense, calling to Egypt, going to a Syria.”
– Hosea 7:11
What a description of sin, silliness. It’s what Hosea 7:11 calls sin, without sense. The whole picture here is God’s people looking to Egypt to help and save them, or a Syria to help and save them when God alone can help and save them, when God alone has what his people need. They run after other things and people in this world. And God says it’s silliness. It’s without sense. Get the picture. To run after the things and people, possessions, pleasures of this world for satisfaction in our lives, to run after sin, that which is not pleasing to God, to not trust in Him, it’s all silliness. It’s ludicrous. It’s ridiculous. It’s not smart. It is without sense. And yet you and I are prone to it every day, aren’t we? Prone to silliness.
We’re prone to think that our ways are better than God’s ways. We’re prone to think that we know better than God, what is good or best for our lives, or prone to think we can’t trust God in this way or that way, with this in our life or that in our life. In Hosea 7:11 is reminding us, that’s total silliness. To trust yourself more than you trust God, to trust this world more than you trust God. That’s without sense. Trust in God. Call out to God. Seek God. That’s smart. That’s wisdom.
So God, we pray that you would keep us today from the silliness of sin. God, keep us, we pray, from trusting in anyone or anything more than we trust in you. That is without sense. God, forgive us for our senselessness. We think about Adam and Eve in the garden thinking that they knew better than you what was best for their lives, that eating this piece of fruit would be good.
And God, we’re tempted to do the same thing today, to think thoughts, to have desires, to say words, to make decisions, to look at things to love, things to desire things, to do things that are not pleasing to you.
God, help us to see every temptation as a temptation to silliness. That’s what sin is. It is senseless. God, open our eyes to see this and help us to flee sin all day long. Help us to flee temptation all day long, to trust in you, to obey your word, to follow the leadership of your spirit so that we might live wise lives today, enjoying your goodness, enjoying your provision, trusting in you, following you, and in the process, experiencing the good that you have designed for us. God, help us, we pray, to resist the silliness of sin in our lives according to your word in Hosea 7:11. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.
David Platt serves as a pastor in metro Washington, D.C. He is the founder of Radical.
David received his Ph.D. from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary and is the author of Don’t Hold Back, Radical, Follow Me, Counter Culture, Something Needs to Change, Before You Vote, as well as the multiple volumes of the Christ-Centered Exposition Commentary series.
Along with his wife and children, he lives in the Washington, D.C. metro area.
