If I Knew You Were Coming...Would I Bake A Cake?

If I knew you were comin' I'd've baked a cake
baked a cake, baked a cake

If I knew you were comin' I'd've baked a cake
Howd-ya do, howd-ya do, howd-ya do

~Lyrics to a 1950’s Song

My father used to sing this silly song to me when I was a small child.  I’ve since had the privilege of watching him sing it to my children also.  I never really gave the words much thought…just presupposing it was some nonsensical adolescent song meant to entertain the little urchins.  However, lately, it got me thinking.

This week in the news another Christian business owner was told, that in order to stay in business, he must violate his religious conscience and print gay pride T-shirts.  He was also ordered to undergo “diversity training” or, in other words, a government re-education program.  I guess this is deemed necessary in order to wipe his mind “clean” of those nasty thoughts of religious freedom of expression.  These are the same religious freedoms that our forefathers fought for and came to these very shores for. 

My…how far we’ve fallen.    

Unless you’ve been living in a cave, you may have also heard about “Sweet Cakes by Melissa” a Christian bakery that has been forced to shut down because of their unwillingness to celebrate perversion in the form of their artistic cake-making abilities.

As “Pastor” Andy Stanley of North Point Community Church and liberal “Christian” Kirsten Powers of Fox News have suggested:

”Maybe they should just ask themselves, 'What would Jesus do?' I think he'd bake the cake." 

Really?  John the Baptist, the forerunner of Christ’s ministry was BEHEADED rather than reverse his position on Herod’s scandalous “marriage.”

 Now Herod had arrested John and bound him and put him in prison because of Herodias, his brother Philip’s wife, for John had been saying to him: “It is not lawful for you to have her.”

~Matthew 14:3

To suggest that Christ Himself would take a position LESS than His Repentance preaching predecessor is patently absurd and unscriptural. 

John answered their questions by saying, "I baptize you with water; but someone is coming soon who is greater than I am--so much greater that I'm not even worthy to be his slave and untie the straps of his sandals.

~Luke 3:16

Interestingly, in scripture, the Baker was ultimately executed by Pharaoh, the King of Egypt, while the Cupbearer was spared (Genesis 40).

So the chief cupbearer told Joseph his dream. He said to him, “In my dream I saw a vine in front of me, and on the vine were three branches. As soon as it budded, it blossomed, and its clusters ripened into grapes. Pharaoh’s cup was in my hand, and I took the grapes, squeezed them into Pharaoh’s cup and put the cup in his hand.”

~Genesis 40: 9-11

“This is what it means,” Joseph said to him. “The three branches are three days. Within three days Pharaoh will lift up your head and restore you to your position, and you will put Pharaoh’s cup in his hand, just as you used to do when you were his cupbearer.

~Genesis 40: 12-13

This Bible story is extremely symbolic.  If our religious convictions don’t withstand the squeezing pressure of crushing persecution, we will “Bake the Cake.”  Those that comply with this mandate will ultimately be “executed” by the Pharaoh of their Egypt land.  They may get a temporary reprieve (3 days indicates a temporary waiting period just like the Resurrection), but ultimately the evil of the culture will eat them up:

When the chief baker saw that Joseph had given a favorable interpretation, he said to Joseph, “I too had a dream: On my head were three baskets of bread.  In the top basket were all kinds of baked goods for Pharaoh, but the birds were eating them out of the basket on my head.”

“This is what it means,” Joseph said. “The three baskets are three days. Within three days Pharaoh will lift off your head and impale your body on a pole. And the birds will eat away your flesh.”

~Genesis 40: 16-18

If we are like the Cup-bearer…we will bring forth the sweet sacrament of suffering and sacrifice like the owners of “Sweet Cakes by Melissa” who chose to go out of business instead of compromise their beliefs.  We look towards the Promised Land for our reward and not at our Egyptian surroundings.  

  

So take your pick…

Eat the cake first and ruin your appetite for the meal?

And the angel said to me, “Write this: Blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb.”

~Revelation 19:9

Or grow up and eat the meat of God’s Word and get rewarded afterwards with sweetness…God’s eternal promises of goodness and mercy. 

But solid food is for the mature, who by constant use have trained themselves to distinguish good from evil.

~Hebrew 5:14

Either way, we will eventually get our…

“Just Desserts.”

___________________________________________________

And you shall eat it as a barley cake, baking it in their sight on human dung.
~Ezekiel 4:12

Is life so dear or peace so sweet as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what course others may take, but as for me, give me liberty, or give me death!

~Patrick Henry

PRAYER:  
Heavenly Father, in Jesus' Holy Name, open our eyes to see Your line in the sand, Your dividing line between good and evil, Your plumbline, not the ways of the world.  May we have the boldness to fear You more than offending people.  May standing up for Your righteousness in public become a hallmark of Christians. May we in humility correct those in opposition so that they may  repent and know His Truth, escaping the snare of the enemy of our souls.  ~Amen

~Posted by permission of Pastor Jeffrey N. Daly

Pastor Jeffrey N. Daly is the author of Repentance—God’s Strategy to Bless a Nation and Zeal to Repent!—A Key to Personal and National Restoration 

–Both are available for FREE at The National Day of Repentance website: www.dayofrepentance.org

or by emailing him at

jdalylaw@aol.com