A cake would not be very useful to you if it were burned on the bottom and raw and the top. Actually, a cake like that would be totally useless. Israel was a half-consecrated people. They were useless to God. They were burning with lust and cold toward God. Israel is a cake half baked.
Often God uses an analogy when He is speaking through His prophets. For instance, the prophet Hosea’s domestic life with Gomer and her adultery and harlotry is an analogy of the spiritual condition of Israel. Analogies in Hosea most often point to the spiritual corruption of the nation. It does not speak well of Israel’s condition, but it is not supposed too.
Reading the analogies should cause to reflect and ask questions. Are we half committed to our Lord? What is the moral condition of the church? Is there a half-baked condition?
Look at Sodom and Gomorrah. If ten righteous ones could be found in the city of corruption, then judgment would have been averted. In a sense the cities were destroyed because of the rampant corruption. In another sense they were destroyed because there was a lack of righteous leaders ready to hold fast to God’s moral values.
We need to live a life where others see light and truth of Christ. This is our primary responsibility. What we really need is the spiritual power to live righteously.
Other than Hosea’s marriage to Gomer not much is known about the prophet Hosea. Some people speculate that he may have been a baker because Hosea 7:4-8 are analogies of Israel to a baker’s oven fire and to a cake in the oven.
His contemporary Amos was a shepherd, a fig tender and not a professional prophet or son of a prophet. It does seem like Hosea did not come through the school of the prophets founded by Samuel and in full swing though Elijah and Elisha. (1 Samuel 10:5 &10).
God’s Desire to Restore (Hosea 7 verses 1-2)
Whenever you find a person held by the destructive grip of sin you find a person God wants to restore. Thank God! You can hear the testimonies over and over of people who were restored from a destructive life.
What keeps a person from restoration? The bottom line is a deceitful heart. That is why Hosea 7:1 says every time God would restore his people corruption would return. The tragedy of a deceitful heart is that people deal falsely with one another. Even worse is that people deal falsely with God.
Their deceitful heart manifested itself in crime, burglary and robbery. It engulfed them (vs. 2b) and enslaved them.
Moral Corruption Hosea 7:3-7
How would a political leader feel if the people practiced deceit? That depends on the leader. King Jeroboam II was delighted. He liked the system of deceit. A system of bribes and payoffs suited the king just fine. Their corruption was producing wealth for the king so he took pleasure in it.
Here we have the bakers analogy (verse 4) of the heated oven. The intensity of sin produced passions burning high for sensuality, adultery and lust burned in their hearts. They engage in drunkenness and join forces with the mockers. (vs. 5) None of them call to God (vs. 7) If they only knew God is not mocked.
Insensitive to their own corruption
Concern for your spiritual condition is healthy progress. Here the backslidden seem unconcerned for their condition.
Here is a word from the baker again. Israel is a cake half baked, not turned over. If something is half-baked then nobody wants to eat it. That makes it useless. An idea or a plan, is half-baked then it is a waste of time. Israel was in a useless condition because of unfaithfulness to God
Israel was to be a Holy nation separated and consecrated because of the covenant (Exodus 19:6). They were set apart as a Holy Nation to God. But now they have mixed with the nations (vs. 8) God’s call to be set apart meant nothing to them.
In verse 9 there is the analogy of old age. It creeps up. Old age saps the strength and energy. They don’t see the gray hair. Israel had become insensitive to their own corruption. None of them calls on God (vs. 7). Contrast this to Isaiah 40:31, “Those that wait upon the Lord will renew their strength, mount with wings like eagles.
Reasons for the coming destruction. (vs. 13-16)
There are six reasons for the coming destruction. You can relate these same problems to individuals who are not receptive to Christ as savior or to a backslidden believer.
1. They have strayed from God and rebelled against God (vs. 13) they are like a lost sheep.
2. They speak lies (vs. 13b) Their deceptive heart manifests itself.
3. Insensitivity to God (vs. 14)
4. They seek their security outside of God (vs. 14) in their case the worship of fertility gods.
5. They devise evil against the Lord (vs. 15)
6. They do not seek God (vs. 16).
The result is that they will be ridiculed when Assyrian army destroys them.
Like Israel in the days of Hosea Christians today are called to be distinct. Your life should be a testimony. God calls the church to be distinct. (1 Peter 3:16). When I came to Christ my friend said to me, I don’t know what it is but something is different about you.
God has high standards. He had high standards for Israel and he has high standards for you as a believer. Of course, the world is depraved. They don’t know Jesus. You ought to have a clear distinction as a believer in Christ.
We do not need to be a worthless half-baked cake, burning with passions for the world and cold spiritually. We become like the cake burned on one side and raw on the other. Of no use. The good news God wants to restore you. Put your faith in Christ. Live fully committed to Jesus Christ.
