Raisin Cakes

"Go again, love a woman who is loved by another man and is an adulteress, even as the LORD loves the children of Israel, though they turn to other gods and love cakes of raisins." Hosea 3:1

Raisin cakes.

It seems like a strange detail to put in a verse about spiritual adultery, and the first time it catches you it almost sounds funny. Is God suddenly against baked goods?

No. In that culture raisin cakes were a status symbol. They were the imported thing, the expensive thing, the thing you set out on the table when you wanted the neighbors to know you were doing well. They were the Mercedes in the driveway. They were the newest phone on the table at lunch, screen up, so it can be seen.

And God says, they turn to other gods, and they love the cakes of raisins.

He puts those two things in the same sentence on purpose.

We want the idol to be dramatic. We want it to be a carved thing on a shelf, something obviously wicked, something we would never do. And God says no. Sometimes the thing that pulls a heart away from me is not evil at all. It is nice. It is a small luxury. It is a signal. It is the raisin cake.

That is what makes it dangerous. Nobody repents of dessert.

The idol is almost never the thing itself. It is what the thing tells you about yourself. It is the story the raisin cake tells about the person who can afford it, and that story is very quiet, and it does not feel like worship, and it is worship.

And here is the terrible mercy in the verse. God does not stop loving her over it. He says go again. Love a woman who is loved by another man.

He knows exactly what she left him for.

He knows it was raisin cakes.

He sends the prophet anyway.