Hosea 7

A Cake Not Turned

Ephraim is a cake not turned. Hosea 7:3.

What kind of cake is meant here? It is a sort of scone that the people in the East baked on hot stones or ashes. It had to be very carefully watched, and turned at exactly the right moment, otherwise it was burnt on the one side and raw and indigestible on the other. You can imagine such a cake would not be very good to eat.

Now, the prophet says here that “Ephraim is a cake not turned.” Ephraim was a name given to the kingdom of Israel, but what does he mean by saying that Israel is a cake not turned? Well, he means that the people were not thorough some things they overdid, and other things they underdid or neglected altogether. They were very religious in one sense, for they worshipped Jehovah and many heathen gods besides, but they did not carry their religion into their everyday life. It did not help to make them kinder, or truer, or more just. And so they were like a cake that someone had forgotten to turn. Not only did they leave one side raw and unwholesome, but they spoiled the side they did cook.

Now, I wonder if there are any unturned cakes here.

Perhaps there are. People did not give up being one-sided in the days when Hosea lived, and they have not given it up yet, and so there are many good cakes still being spoiled. Shall I tell you some of the things that spoil them?

1. Well, first there are besetting faults. You know what a besetting fault is, don't you? It is our most common fault the one that is always lying in wait ready to trip us up when we are least expecting it. Perhaps there is a besetting fault that is spoiling your cake. Perhaps there is a whole side of you turned black and bitter, and a whole other side that nobody is getting the good of because of some fault.

Here is somebody who is very warm-hearted and generous, but who flies into a passion about small things. He is an unturned cake too much done on the temper side, and too little done on the patience side.

Here is somebody else who is most kind and obliging, but who, if he meets a bad boy or girl, just follows wherever they lead. He is uncooked on the will side.

And here is someone who is very patient and painstaking, but ask him to give up or to give in he won't move an inch. He is overdone on the obstinate side, and underdone on the unselfish and obliging side.

Perhaps you may not find yourself among any of these people; but if you think for a minute, you may find some other fault is it disobedience, or untruthfulness, or laziness? that is spoiling your cake.

2. But there are other things that spoil cakes, and among these are the duties we leave undone and the powers we neglect to develop.

Now, I expect there is some thing that most of you can do better than you do other things. Perhaps you paint well, or you are musical, or a good English scholar, or quick at sums. Perhaps you are clever with your hands you can make wonderful things with a bit of wood and a few nails, or, if you are a girl, with a bit of muslin and a needle and thread. Now, it is right that you should try to make the most of these gifts God means you to do that but don't neglect the things you are not so clever at and that you like less.

A great preacher speaks in one of his sermons about an artist of last century who never painted a picture without putting a brown tree in the foreground. He fancied himself at brown trees, and so he always stuck one in the foreground of his picture. And then the preacher goes on to say that we all have our “brown trees” which we think we can do well, and he shows how they spoil us for other things.

I have known boys and girls whose “brown trees” were math, or composition, or Latin. They excelled in these subjects and they liked them, and so they made a special study of them and neglected the subjects they didn't care for. The subjects we should really take pains with are the ones we can't do and don't like, for these are the ones we most require to study, and if we neglect them we shall become one-sided.

I once knew a girl who went to a Scottish University. There was one subject she disliked, but she had to study it. It was the subject that was of most use to her in later in life.

So don't spoil your cake by overdoing some talents at the expense of others. Make the best of them all, and then you will be wholesome and good all round.

3. We shall always be one-sided until Jesus turns us. There will be one side of our nature not developed the best side. You have read about Jesus in the Bible and you have heard about Him in church and in Sunday school, but have you ever given Him a place in your lives? The Israelites knew a great deal about religion, but they didn't bring it into their daily lives.

“Ephraim is a cake not turned.” What is spoiling your cake?