A Half Baked Cake

​Hmm…a half-baked cake doesn’t sound good to me. We often use the term as half-baked, sometimes in reference to food, as in this text, other times to idea’s. Either way, it’s not good.

The spiritual condition of Ephraim was not good!!

Hosea 7:1-16 I want to heal Israel, but its sins are too great.
Samaria is filled with liars. Thieves are on the inside and bandits on the outside!

Its people don't realize that I am watching them. Their sinful deeds are all around them, and I see them all.
The people entertain the king with their wickedness, and the princes laugh at their lies.

They are all adulterers, always aflame with lust. They are like an oven that is kept hot while the baker is kneading the dough.

On royal holidays, the princes get drunk with wine, carousing with those who mock them.

Their hearts are like an oven blazing with intrigue. Their plot smolders through the night, and in the morning it breaks out like a raging fire.

Burning like an oven, they consume their leaders. They kill their kings one after another, and no one cries to me for help.

The people of Israel mingle with godless foreigners, making themselves as worthless as a half-baked cake!

 Worshiping foreign gods has sapped their strength, but they don't even know it. Their hair is gray, but they don't realize they're old and weak.

Their arrogance testifies against them, yet they don't return to the Lord their God or even try to find him.
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The people of Israel have become like silly, witless doves, first calling to Egypt, then flying to Assyria for help.

But as they fly about, I will throw my net over them and bring them down like a bird from the sky. I will punish them for all the evil they do.

What sorrow awaits those who have deserted me! Let them die, for they have rebelled against me.  I wanted to redeem them, but they have told lies about me.

They do not cry out to me with sincere hearts. Instead, they sit on their couches and wail. They cut themselves, begging foreign gods for grain and new wine, and they turn away from me.

I trained them and made them strong, yet now they plot evil against me.

They look everywhere except to the Most High. They are as useless as a crooked bow. Their leaders will be killed by their enemies because of their insolence toward me. Then the people of Egypt will laugh at them.

Hos 4:1-2 There is no faithfulness, no love, no acknowledgment of God in the land. There is only cursing, lying and murder, stealing and adultery; they break all bounds, and bloodshed follows bloodshed.

Sadly, this reminds me of our nation today. The book of Hosea exemplifies God’s love and graciousness to turn them back to him. From the text it appears they have turned their back on God, but God has not given up on Israel.

Isa 5:20 Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter.

I am still saddened, angry and amazed that our country has passed laws making certain sinful actions “legal”.

Saying something is right doesn’t make it right!!

Josh 24:15 But if you refuse to serve the Lord, then choose today whom you will serve. Would you prefer the gods your ancestors served beyond the Euphrates? Or will it be the gods of the Amorites in whose land you now live? But as for me and my family, we will serve the Lord."