Half-Baked -- Half-Believing

"Ephraim, he hath mixed himself among the people; Ephraim is a cake not turned." (Hosea 7: 8)

During his prophetic ministry, Hosea (whose name means "Savior") married a prostitute named Gomer, and even purchased her from slavery when she continued to sell herself.

God asked Hosea to do this as a type of what He experienced in trying to love His people Israel:

"2The beginning of the word of the LORD by Hosea. And the LORD said to Hosea, Go, take unto thee a wife of whoredoms and children of whoredoms: for the land hath committed great whoredom, departing from the LORD." (Hosea 1: 2)

It would not end in such tragedy, however:

"10Yet the number of the children of Israel shall be as the sand of the sea, which cannot be measured nor numbered; and it shall come to pass, that in the place where it was said unto them, Ye are not my people, there it shall be said unto them, Ye are the sons of the living God.

 

"11Then shall the children of Judah and the children of Israel be gathered together, and appoint themselves one head, and they shall come up out of the land: for great shall be the day of Jezreel." (Hosea 1: 10-11)

 

Now, in the above verse, we read about Ephraim, the chief tribe for the now-divided northern part of Israel.

 

They had forsaken God's law, no longer sacrificing to the LORD, but following after idols and other demonic rites:

 

"5Therefore shalt thou fall in the day, and the prophet also shall fall with thee in the night, and I will destroy thy mother.

 

"6My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge: because thou hast rejected knowledge, I will also reject thee, that thou shalt be no priest to me: seeing thou hast forgotten the law of thy God, I will also forget thy children." (Hosea 4:5-6)

 

Today, we have greater knowledge of Him through His Son Jesus:

 

"If ye had known me, ye should have known my Father also: and from henceforth ye know him, and have seen him." (John 14: 7)

 

and

 

"But grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. To him be glory both now and for ever. Amen." (2 Peter 3: 18)

 

What do we make of this "not turned" cake? Here we have a picture of men and women engaging in mixture. Let us not just rest on the bankrupt watering down of God's standards, the law, but also the attempts of Christians to live under law, after being saved by grace:

 

"8For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: 9Not of works, lest any man should boast." (Ephesians 2: 8-9)

 

Paul warned the Galatians about going back to law after receiving the Gospel of Grace (Galatians 1: 6):

 

"7Ye did run well; who did hinder you that ye should not obey the truth? 8This persuasion cometh not of him that calleth you. 9A little leaven leaveneth the whole lump." (Galatians 5: 7-9)

 

Today, let us not be half-baked, believe that Jesus saved us from death, but that we have to save ourselves from that point onward.

 

We are called to live by faith, not by works:

 

"For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith: as it is written, The just shall live by faith." (Romans 1:17)

 

Let us not be like Gomer then, married to Christ, but running back the law (Romans 7: 1-4). Let us be "fully baked" and rest fully in Christ.