Yesterday's text concluded with the Lord reminding the people that He is the only deity who ever spoke to them. He is the only one who called them out of Egypt, performed many signs and wonders and miracles for them, brought them into the promised land and made them into a great nation, and gave them His laws and commandments. Yet they forsook Him for the false gods of the heathen nations. Their cities are now filled with idols and with a multitude of sins.
"Is Gilead wicked? Its people are worthless! Do they sacrifice bulls in Gilgal? Their altars will be like piles of stones in a plowed field." (Hosea 12:11) By Hosea's day the region of Gilead had already been subjugated by Assyria. Gilgal will soon share the same fate because its people are just as sinful as the people of Gilead. The altars where they've spent so much time making useless sacrifices to non-existent gods will become as useless as the stones a farmer removes from land he intends to cultivate. The stones will end up in a heap, out of the way like a pile of garbage.
The people have forgotten how far the Lord has brought them. Their forefather Jacob (later renamed "Israel" by the Lord) was a man of little means when he fled his home in fear that his brother Esau would kill him. He had to submit to his future father-in-law for seven years, tending the man's sheep and obeying his every instruction, in order to obtain the hand of Rachel in marriage. Even then he was tricked, because Rachel's father substituted Leah instead and forced Jacob to work seven more years, during which time he was dishonest with him in various ways. Yet the Lord blessed Jacob and made a great nation out of Jacob's descendants---the Lord, not some other god!---and in the text below He reminds them that He alone is responsible for bringing them out of slavery in Egypt and for settling them in a bountiful land.
"Jacob fled to the country of Aram; Israel served to get a wife, and to pay for her he tended sheep. The Lord used a prophet to bring Israel up from Egypt, by a prophet He cared for him. But Ephraim has aroused His bitter anger; his Lord will leave on him the guilt of his bloodshed and will repay him for his contempt." (Hosea 12:12-14)
It behooves us to take time on a regular basis to reflect on everything the Lord has done for us and to be thankful. The people of Hosea's day had become ungrateful. They had stopped giving the Lord the glory for their nation and for its prosperity and had begun to serve idols that had never lifted a finger to help them. The gods of the nations couldn't lift a finger to help them because they weren't real. Only the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob had ever done anything for them because He is the one and only God. The apostasy of the people of Hosea's day could be compared to you and I becoming ungrateful for the Lord saving us from our sins, for providing our needs in this world, and for coming through for us time and time again when we have a problem. Their apostasy as bad as if you and I decided to renounce the Lord to serve something or someone else. The idols of our day may not be graven images but instead usually take the form of putting someone or something else ahead of God.
I'm not saying that the Lord doesn't intend for us to enjoy wholesome pursuits in this life. The Lord, like any good father, enjoys seeing His children enjoying their blessings. Many things aren't sinful in themselves but human beings have a tendency to find some way to make an idol out of almost anything. We can idolize our careers, our romantic partner, our children, our hobbies, our financial dealings, our bad habits, or something else to the point that those things are given the place of preeminence in our hearts that is intended only for God. I truly believe that thinking on the Lord every day, and maintaining a grateful spirit and giving thanks to Him, will go a long way toward helping us not to give anything or anyone precedence over our God.
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