Hosea 3:1 – Cakes of Raisins

And the LORD said to me, “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 ESV

Hosea allows us a glimpse of God’s unwavering love for his people… His bride.

An astounding facet of this love is not simply that his people are undeserving of it though, but that they are ill-deserving!

The human heart seeks constant gratification, but many of us, rather than finding eternal satisfaction in our endless God find short lived fulfillment in idols.

In Hosea’s day this behavior took the form of Baal worship and eating “cakes of raisins” as aphrodisiacs (Song of Solomon 2:5). In ours, it’s the endless pursuit of money, things, status, comfort, you name it.

The trickery of idolatry is the turning of a good thing into a god thing. Money is not bad, we need it to provide for our families (1 Timothy 5:8).

Things are not bad, we need clothing, lawn-mowers, vehicles, etc. Status is not bad, as we should live above reproach (1 Timothy 3:2).

We are worshipers, and as such, we will worship. God redeems people through the perfect atonement of Jesus from the fruitless worship of idols to the glorious worship of his fathomless self.

Let’s put down our “cakes of raisins” and worship our faithful Redeemer with clean hands empty of our idols.