I have obeyed the voice of the LORD. I have gone on the mission on which the LORD sent me. I have brought Agag the king of Amalek, and I have devoted the Amalekites to destruction. But the people took of the spoil, sheep and oxen, the best of the things devoted to destruction, to sacrifice to the LORD your God in Gilgal.
That was Saul’s justification for carrying off the best that the Amalekites had rather than destroying it all, as God has commanded him.
Samuel responds:
Has the LORD as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the LORD? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to listen than the fat of rams. For rebellion is as the sin of divination, and presumption is iniquity and idolatry.
Saul thought that he would be accepted for his offerings. He presumed that Yahweh was transactional like the pagan deities. His disobedience proved that he did not know or understand God’s character. His worship, therefore, was pointless because he did not actually know the LORD.
In Hosea 8, all of Israel is like Saul. Chapters 4-5 gave us Yahweh’s case against Israel, and chapters 6-7 addressed their semblance of repentance, which proved to be ultimately false. That theme continues in chapters 8-10, where the LORD is denouncing their false worship, false joy, and false security. The oracle of chapter 8 focuses upon Israel’s false worship, and it contains four stanzas, which give us a fourfold division for the chapter:
1. Verses 1-3 are the announcement of judgment and introduce Israel’s ignorance of their own ignorance.
2. Verses 4-6 describe Israel’s self-made religion.
3. Verses 7-10 warn that false worship cannot save.
4. Verses 11-14 ends with Israel only multiplying their idolatrous ways.
SOUND THE TRUMPET // VERSES 1-3
Verse 1 begins with another blast of the trumpet. Remember that the silver trumpets were used for worship and for war, and both apply here. Israel’s problem is with their worship, and it will bring war upon them. Thus, it is heralding the judgment of Yahweh.
But what is the warning? A vulture was circling over Israel, waiting for their imminent death. The vulture is likely Assyria, with whom they have negotiated for help. In reality, Assyria was not their ally and much less their savior. Assyria was a vulture that would consume their corpse, picking the very flesh from their bones.
Even so, note that they are still called the house of the LORD. All of this is discipline rather than damnation. God will ultimately bring His people back to Himself. Indeed, God’s very warning to them is an act of grace toward them. Nevertheless, God will surely discipline them, for they have transgressed the covenant and rebelled against His law. God will, therefore, hand them to their enemies for a time to correct them.
Verse 2 sounds promising at first. To me they cry, “My God, we–Israel–know you.” Notice that they were still praying to the LORD. They did still cry out to Him, at least occasionally. But in so doing, they were arguing against Him, “But we do know you!” They deny the ignorance that Yahweh has accused them of. And because they claim to see, their guilt still remains (John 9:41). Few things are as dangerous as a denial of one’s own ignorance. How can a person truly repent, if he will not acknowledge his sin? How can anyone press on to know the LORD, if they will not confess their ignorance? A person must acknowledge their sickness before they will seek a doctor. We also must realize that we are fools if we would ever hope to be wise. We must honestly face our sin before any true repentance is possible.
But like Saul, Israel claimed that they had been obedient to Yahweh, that they did know Him. Yet they did not know that He had left them.
They spurned what is good, mocking and rebelling against what the LORD had commanded. That, after all, is the proper definition of ‘good.’ Goodness is not an abstract quality that God just so happens to perfectly meet. “You are good and do good,” as Psalm 119:68 says. God is good. He defines goodness, and we cannot properly know what is good without first knowing God. Of course, Romans 2 shows that God gives each of us God’s law within our hearts; otherwise, we would not intuitively understand morality. Yet the point still stands. They rejected God and, therefore, goodness. They chose the path of foolishness and of death. It should come as no surprise that their enemies circle them like vultures. That is always the end of sin. It hunts down a precious life, just like the adulteress.
SELF-MADE WORSHIP // VERSES 4-6
Verses 1-3 introduced us to the warning of this chapter, but verses 4-6 present us with the great problem being addressed: self-made worship. They made kings, but not through me. They set up princes, but I knew it not. With their silver and gold they made idols for their own destruction.
Leaders and gods.
Kings and idols.
Both self-appointed.
The LORD was supposed to anoint their kings, but why would they care about that if they already worshiped idols and worshiped Yahweh in whatever manner they wanted? Their corrupt political leaders were a result of their corrupt religion. Politics may indeed be downstream of culture, but culture is the product of worship. Cultus cultivates culture.
And the point is that both were self-governed and self-determined. Politics was a ‘choose-your-own-king’ adventure because worship was conducted however they wanted. In neither did they consider the will of the LORD.
“My God, we know you.” They spoke that with their lips, but their actions say, “We do what we want.”
We are each more than capable of doing the same. How easy is it to give lip-service to our love of the LORD?
And how often do we actually seek His will? By this, I mean more than a simple prayer before making a decision. We must also be rooted in God’s Word. Of course, the Scriptures do not give us an answer for each decision that we will make; rather, we are to be so thoroughly saturated in God’s Word that our powers of discernment are “trained by constant practice to distinguish good from evil” (Hebrews 5:14). We should know the Scriptures well enough that they fundamentally shape every decision that we make.
Yet notice the end to which they establish their own kings and create their own idols: for their own destruction. That is always the end of sin and of false worship. I7t is like unjust gain: “It takes away the life of its possessors” (Proverbs 1:19). Or as Psalm 115 says, “Those who make them become like them, so do all who trust in them.” Deaf, dumb, blind, and mute idols shape a people into becoming spiritually deaf, dumb, blind, and mute. A people heading for destruction.
Yet remember that Israel’s idolatry was subtle as well as blatant. There was certainly the worship false gods like Baal and Ashtaroth, but many Israelites thought that they were still worshiping Yahweh. They pilgrimaged to Bethel and Dan to dutifully bring their offerings and sacrifices to the LORD. But that worship was not as God had commanded. Their priests were not Levites, they scorned the use of the temple in Jerusalem, and most grievously, they had golden calves erected in the houses of worship.
Thus, in verse 5, God spurns their calf, just like they spurned the good. Verse 6 again mocks the man-made nature of their worship. They were worshiping a statue that some of their own craftsmen had made rather than God Almighty who made them. Indeed, notice that the chapter ends in verse 14 with Yahweh being called their Maker.
The idea of worshiping something made by fellow humans would be laughable if it were not damnable. Creation is always of less worth than its creator. Always. Even great works of art cannot compare to the worth of a single human soul.
How great then is the folly of idolatry!
And yet how easily we are ensnared by it?
Our hearts too are perpetual factories of idols, as Calvin rightly noted.
Finally, we cannot pass by the LORD’s lament at the end of verse 5 before we move into the next section: “How long will you be incapable of innocence?”
That is precisely the effect of our sin. 6:7 was right to compare us to Adam. We rebel against God, and we forfeit our innocence. Our sin makes us rebellious and wayward. And, as we see in places like Genesis, it is always a slippery slope that leads to further sin.
FALSE WORSHIP CANNOT SAVE // VERSES 7-10
With the alarm sounded (vv. 1-3) and the problem of self-made worship revealed (vv. 4-6), verses 7-10 now address the inability of Israel’s false religion to save them.
For they sow the wind, and they shall reap the whirlwind. Sowing the wind means that they are placing their trust and their future in vanities. The image is simple but still worth a moment of lingering. A farmer who only sows the wind has no hope of a fruitful harvest. That is the poetic picture. So it is with their trust in their false gods, their false worship of Yahweh, and their political alliances. All of it is like sowing the wind and hoping to harvest wheat. It is idiotic and stupid.
Yet notice the irony of the second line. We would expect them simply to reap nothing after sowing the wind. Not so. They shall reap the whirlwind. A great storm will come upon them. A mighty tempest would break them. Indeed, history now confirms that the very alliances that Israel looked to for salvation were the source of their annihilation.
So it always is with sin. It never merely leaves us empty-handed but destroys even what we once had. Did not Jesus tell us this? “I tell you that to everyone who has, more will be given, but from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away” (Luke 19:26).
The rest of verse 7 gives the same message with another agricultural metaphor. They are like grain with no head to grind into flour, which is useless. But even if they were somehow to bear fruit, strangers would still devour it. Though who worship falsely are the same. Even if they do bear fruit, it is ultimately wasted.
Indeed, Israel is swallowed up; already they are among the nations as a useless vessel. How can this be when they have not yet gone into exile? During Hosea’s day, they were already so spiritually mixed with the nations that their exile, in a sense, had already begun. We can compare it to a spouse who has committed adultery within the heart long before the physical act itself. Israel was physically still in the land, but they were already spiritually in exile.
Although God will send them off to Assyria, they have already gone up to it on their own. They thought that they were signing a treaty, but it was actually their death warrant. They were like the foolish young woman who goes in to the forbidden woman in Proverbs 7: “he does not know that it will cost him his life.” They will writhe because of the tribute that they will be forced to pay, but that will be the very least of their problems.
THE FALSE SOLUTION // VERSES 11-14
What is Israel’s response to the accusations that God has laid before them through Hosea?
They increased their spiritual activity. They multiplied their altars. They continued bringing their offerings and making their sacrifices. They built fortified cities. They were checking all the boxes. They thought that they were doing everything they needed to do. But, again, they believed that Yahweh owed them His pleasure for their efforts. He ought to have been grateful that they made offerings to Him at all.
But their multitudes of altars were only altars of sinning. Yahweh did not accept their sacrifices. Recall from the opening chapters of Leviticus that only the peace offering was properly called a sacrifice because it was the only one where the worshiper also ate of the offering. It was meant to signify a covenant meal in the presence of the LORD. It was a declaration that communion had been reestablished and that the worshiper had been accepted. Now the LORD says that they sacrifice and eat, but “the LORD does not accept them.” They were not fellowshipping with Yahweh.
Of course, we shouldn’t be surprised that they didn’t notice. They didn’t actually know Him anyway.
Sadly, it is still all too easy to fall into the same pattern, replacing the knowledge of God with more and more religious activity. Both individuals and whole churches can be guilty of being so busy with ministries that they don’t actually know the LORD or His Word. And it is any easy trap to be trapped by because we tend to associate activity with life. If a person or a church is busy, then they must be healthy, right?
But ministry can itself become an idol.
Do you doubt that statement?
Listen to Jesus’ own warning:
Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’
A successful ministry is not enough to secure one’s place in the kingdom. Busyness for Christ is not enough. We must actually know Him and be known by Him. This is one of the reasons that we purposely keep official Western Meadows activities rather small. As the pastor, I do not want us to be so busy doing ministry that we do not have time to actually grow in the Lord as well as to prioritize our families. Knowledge of the Lord must be of first importance.
And it must be rooted in the Scriptures.
Verse 12 is perhaps the most devastating verse in the chapter. It is very likely referring to Sinai, where God gave His people His law upon stone tablets, written with His own finger. Even if the LORD gave them tens of thousands of such copies of His law, it would still be strange to them. Again, notice the unspoken irony. They welcome the religion of the nations that ought to be strange to them, but they treat God’s Word as strange instead.
Sadly, this verse is also a rebuke upon our own ignorance of the Scriptures. While we do not have tablets of stone, written by God’s own hand, we do nonetheless have access to tens of thousands of copies of His law. And how frequently is it a strange thing to us through our own neglect? There are, of course, parts of Scripture that will forever be difficult for us. That is not what I mean. Instead, is opening your Bible a familiar and well-worn comfort to your soul, or is it virtually a stranger to you?
THE ONLY TRUE SOLUTION
If multiplying altars will not save. If multiplying strongholds will not save? If even multiplying God’s law will not save? What will save?
In Christ, our iniquities are remembered no more, even though our sins are very much still punished. Because God is good and just, all sin must be punished. Thanks be to God, Christ has taken our punishment upon Himself.
Christ alone. He Himself is our true worship. He is the perfect sacrifice. He is the better burnt offering, making full and permanent atonement for our sins. He is the better peace offering, uniting us back to the Father. He alone is the only sacrifice we need, taking our sin upon Himself and becoming the curse in our place.
We each had sown the wind, investing our time, our energy, and our affections into vanities that cannot satisfy or save. We deserve the whirlwind of God’s righteous wrath against our idolatrous hearts. Yet Christ stood in our place, “shielding sinners with His blood.” He faced the storm of divine justice and calmed it for us and spoke peace to us instead.
Indeed, as the Word made flesh, Christ gave us far more than tens of thousands of God-written copies of the law. Jesus Himself is the fulfillment of the law, perfectly obeying as we were always meant to do. And through the new covenant in His blood, He has written His law, not upon tablets of stone, but upon our very hearts. Through the Spirit, His law is no longer a strange thing; rather, the Spirit illuminates its treasures, giving us eyes to see the glorious things within.
Therefore, as we come to the Table before us, let us indeed take this bread and cup in remembrance of Christ. Let us not forget our Maker nor our Savior. Let us come in true worship, trusting only in the finished work of Christ. As you come, lay aside all that competes with Him for your heart, even ministry worked in His name. Lay aside your will and your desires. Come to Christ. Trust in Christ. Through this bread and cup, we share in Christ’s final sacrifice, knowing that we are fully accepted before God in Him.
