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Half-Baked
Hosea 7:8-10
“Ephraim is a cake not turned.” — Hosea 7:8
Hosea, a prophet to the house of Israel during the reign of Jeroboam II, used several
colorful admonitions to bring to Israel’s attention the state of their relationship with
God. In his comparison he refers to Israel as being “a cake not turned” or “half-baked”
Similar to the charges against Israel, in Revelation 3:2, Christ charges the church of
Sardis with works that are “not complete” or “partially performed”. Half-heartedness
is never condoned by God. God demands consecration of one’s entire being. The Lord
Jesus Christ calls for complete submission to His will, complete obedience to His
commands, complete devotion to His work, and complete allegiance to His Lordship.
Like Israel, many of today’s professed believers have followed the same pattern of
incomplete discipleship. Three of Israel failures were the failing to maintain their
separation, failing to be vigilant, and failing to seek God. If we fail to learn from Israel’s
failure we are in danger of missing the fullness of God’s blessings.
I. Their failure to maintain their separation
A. Verse 8 – “Ephraim has mixed himself among the peoples”.
B. God commanded His people Israel not to intermingle with the Gentiles nations.
His concern was that association with idolatrous nations would turn their
hearts away from Him and become corrupted like the heathen.
C. Deuteronomy 18:9 “When thou art come into the land which the LORD thy God
gives thee, thou shalt not learn to do after the abominations of those
nations.”
D. Leviticus 20:23 “And ye shall not walk in the manners of the nation, which I
cast out before you: for they committed all these things, and therefore I
abhorred them.”
E. Time and time again Israel was commanded to maintain their separation as a
special people belonging to God.
F. Israel’s separation from the other nations was to be a type or picture of the
separation to which God has called those of us who have been redeemed by
His grace: a separation from persons, places, and activities of sinful and
worldly principles.
G. 2 Corinthians 6:14, 17, “Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers:
for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? And what
communion hath light with darkness?... Wherefore come out from among
them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing;
and I will receive you”
H. Israel failed to remain separated. They yielded to the culture around them. They
were not forced into intermingling but voluntarily “mixed himself”. As a
result the nation was in decline. Likewise if we fail to maintain our
separation spiritual we begin to travel a downhill slope.
I. In his book “The Next Christians”, Gabe Lyons describes what he calls cultural
Christians. He states that cultural Christians fail to differentiate between
their faith and the mainstream, preferring to blend in.
J. Living a life of separation from sin is not arbitrary for the believer. It is not a matter in which God has given us a choice. When the Lord says, we "should" walk in the newness of life, He is not saying the issue is subjective. If our faith is genuine God, expects us to maintain our separation.
K. The genuineness of a person's profession of faith is seen in how they live their lives. Genuine faith is a faith that works a change in a person’s life and produces Godly living in a person’s life. – Abrams
II. Their failure to maintain vigilance
A. Verse 8 – “Ephraim is a cake not turned”
B. In the Middle East, bread is baked in an interesting fashion. Having heated the hearth, the bakers sweep one corner, put the cake upon it, and cover it with embers or ashes; in a short time they turn it, cover it again, and continue this every 10 to 15 minutes until they find it sufficiently baked. If it is not turned, the bottom will be burnt, and the top unbaked, and so be good for nothing; not fit to be eaten, being nothing indeed, neither bread nor dough.
C. The people were like a pancake burned on one side but raw on the other. Ephraim boasted themselves to be a people sacred to God and yet did not fully commit to Him. Although they took advantage of the Lord's goodness, they did not seek Him with their whole heart.
D. Israel was guilty of what is described in 2 Kings 17:33 “They feared the Lord, and SERVED THEIR OWN GODS, after the manner of the nations whom they carried away from thence.”
E. In thinking they could serve both the Lord and the idols of the pagan nations around them, Israel was like an unturned pancake - burned on one side, uncooked on the other AND FIT FOR NEITHER.
F. They were half-hearted, hot in forms and rituals but dead in spirit. They had an outward performance but an internal lukewarmness.
G. Revelation 3:1-2 “And unto the angel of the church in Sardis write; These things saith he that hath the seven Spirits of God, and the seven stars; I know thy works, that thou hast a name that thou livest, and art dead. Be watchful, and strengthen the things which remain, that are ready to die: for I have not found thy works perfect before God.”
H. As stated before God demands consecration of man’s entire being.
I. Many of us today believe on Jesus but are reluctant to commit every area of our lives to Him. We go to church but don't want to live out our faith each day if it deprives us of worldly success or pleasure. As a result we become half-baked Christians. We neither please God nor attract unsaved to Christ. We live unfulfilled Christian lives often oblivious to our spiritual decline. – adapted
J. Half-heartedness never is acceptable to God.
K. But sin often comes into our lives subtly and unnoticed if we are not vigilant.
L. Colossians 4:2 “Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour.”
M. Israel was lulled into a spiritual slumber by failing to be vigilant.
N. Verse 9 - Aliens have devoured his strength, but he does not know it; yes, gray hairs are here and there on him, yet he does not know it.”
O. Gray hairs are referred to here as a sign or token of weakening and decay which begins almost imperceptibly here and there.
P. Sin in its worst forms was prevalent among the people, and secretly deteriorated their strength. Of this, however, they were unconscious; but imagined that they were as strong as at other times, anticipating long years of national prosperity. – F.B. Meyer
Q. “First, they were unaware that foreigners devoured their strength. The strength of Israel was never in themselves, or their military. Instead, it was in God, first and always. Many, many of the Psalms testify to this very thing. By intermingling with strangers, and adopting their idolatrous ways, the people of Israel sapped their strength, which was the infinite strength of God. Second, they were grossly unaware that their days were numbered. Their national hair was turning gray, and not too many years remained before they would go into captivity.” – adapted from Perkins
R. It was said of Samson after Delilah cut his hair: “…he did not know that the LORD had departed from him” (Judges 16:20). This is where the people of Israel - and some followers of God today - were. They are far from God and already suffering the effects, but they can’t see it.
S. Revelation 3:14-17 “And unto the angel of the church of the Laodiceans write; These things saith the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of the creation of God; I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot: I would thou wert cold or hot. So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spew thee out of my mouth. Because thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked.”
T. Illustration - Some Irishmen had caught a large turtle and cut off his head. Then they waited for him to die, but the turtle scrambled about for some hours. Desiring an explanation of such a phenomenon, they accosted an Irishman who was passing by. After watching the turtle for a moment, he remarked, “He is dead, but does not know it.” - copied
U. To be A lukewarm state is to live in a dangerous state. One thing that is very dangerous thing about it is that usually when a person is lukewarm he or she is unaware that he is lukewarm. Like Israel, most half-hearted Christians are unmindful of their spiritual state and unaware that their spiritual strength is sapping away.
III. Their failure to seek God
A. Verse 10 – “And the pride of Israel testifies to his face: and they do not return to the Lord their God, nor seek him for all this.”
B. In spite of all the calamities that were happening to Israel, in their pride they refused to commit themselves whole-heartedly to the Lord. Rather, they were insolent towards God, and failed to humble themselves before God for their sins. Carelessly, they would not seek either the face or the favor of the Lord even though they were in a degenerative, weakening state being,
C. In 2 Chronicles 7:14 God told Solomon upon the dedication of the Temple, “if my people who are called by my name humble themselves, and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land.”
D. The people pridefully refused to humble themselves and seek God feeling that their half-baked condition was no problem.
E. In his book I Surrender, Patrick Morley writes that the church’s integrity problem is in the misconception “that we can add Christ to our lives, but not subtract sin. It is a change in belief without a change in behavior.” He goes on to say, “It is revival without reformation, without repentance.” (Quoted in John The Baptizer, Bible Study Guide by C. Swindoll, p. 16).
F. If we are not fully committed to Christ, if we have not surrendered absolutely to Him, if we have tried to keep one foot in heaven and one foot in the world, if we have mixed the secular and the sacred failing to maintain our separation, if we have not continued toward completion of our work for Christ, we need to realize our spiritually half-baked, lukewarm condition and follow the admonition of 2 Chronicles 7:14 to:
1. Humble ourselves - acknowledge our condition
• James 4:6 “God resists the proud, But gives grace to the humble
2. Pray – go to our only source for help and victory
• Jeremiah 29:11-13 “For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope. Then you will call upon Me and go and pray to Me, and I will listen to you. And you will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart.”
3. Seek God’s face – set our affections on the things of God
• Matthew 6:33 “But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.”
• Colossians 3:2 “Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth.”
4. Turn – change the direction of our lives away from that which hinders us from being what God wants, calls, and expects us to be.
• To the half-baked church of Sardis and the lukewarm church of Laodicea, the Spirit said – “Repent”
• Proverbs 28:13 “He who covers his sins will not prosper, but whoever confesses and forsakes them will have mercy.
• To understand what repentance is, think of a husband and wife riding in a car. The wife tells her husband to turn right at the next junction and by mistake, he turns left. When he realizes what he has done, he says to his wife “I’m sorry love, I went the wrong way.” But if that is all he does, it isn’t enough! His saying sorry isn’t getting them any closer to where they want to be; it isn’t even stopping them getting further away. In order to get where they want to be, he needs to stop the car, turn it around and go back on to the correct road that his wife told him to take in the first place. That is repentance. (Steve Gladwell, Sermon Central)
