Hosea 8 SOUND THE ALARM Hosea could see what was happening in the nation and knew the enemy was coming like an eagle that waits until a precise moment and then quickly attacks and takes its prey. Assyria who the leadership of Israel had asked for help, was now coming to take the people captive. Israel had taken God for granted and broke their covenant with Him and revolted against His laws. To trample on a covenant as if it was unimportant was to reject God Himself. Israel's cry, "We know Thee...help us," was too late. They had turned away with disdain from the One who truly loved them and had cared for them so long, and so they were now rejected by God and chased by their enemies.
People often call on God when they are in trouble and are hurting in some way. But without repentance, that call really means nothing and does nothing because the consequences of sin not repented of are already here. Ethical conduct is scriptural, so to reject that which is good and to have a form of worship without morality is to reject God. God is not behind the spiritual idolatry or attempts to ally the false religions of men with the worship of God "in spirit and in truth."
Israel had appointed their own leaders without even asking God. They had cut themselves off from God by making and worshipping idols. The golden calves they made to keep the people from going to the house of the Lord in Jerusalem did nothing for them, "cast thee off," and God had rejected them and the idols and left them on their own. To the Israelites those calves represented God. What an abomination is was to demean their Maker into nothing more than the form of a beast. The only way to deal with such a perversion of religious hypocrisy was to smash it to bits. There is no way to reconcile the rites and religions made by men with the worship of God.
Good seed, good soil, good sunlight, good moisture and fertilizer produces good crops. But when seed is sown to the wind, no matter how good the seed is, it will not produce that for which it intended. There may come a flimsy stalk but without being sown as it should be, there will be no bountiful harvest. Israel sowed wind by seeking alliances with the ungodly and they would reap the whirlwind of war and captivity from the same people they had hoped to befriend. idolatry, alliances with sinful people and practices, seeking security without God, exposes people to the wild force of a whirlwind of evil that is bound to come. The whirlwind ruins everything that is needed to produce a good harvest for their survival.
Hosea warned that everything they have will be taken by foreigners and the nation would be "swallowed up" by the Gentiles like a useless broken pot of bits and pieces. Israel was the embodiment of a "wild ass's colt in being obstinate, unruly and determined to be independent from God. As a useless donkey used by the "lovers" (friends) Israel thought it had, it would happen that the nation soon would not be burdened by their evil king.
Mere rituals with sacrifices to gain the approval of the people around and to avoid the risk of being thought strange because we are not like others people nor do the things they do, are valueless rituals. Rituals make the process of thinking about what we do and why we do things, unnecessary. They may even become a substitute for a personal relationship with God and meaningful relationship with His people. Rituals are sometimes engaged in to make up for bad behavior and to seek God's favor and relief from a guilty conscience.
To focus on God by gathering together with His people unto His name and Person as an assembly; by giving thanks for our food before we eat; by reading the Bible and praying are all good rituals. They help keep us stable and safe in a changeable world and society.
False altars are really altars to sin. Such altars of sin that Israel had made were not to worship God, but were for their own pleasure. Even the laws of God which had been given to Israel to keep order and give guidance were rejected as if they applied only to others. Altars become places of sin when there is activity in the name of God without repentance for sin and true faith in our Lord Jesus Christ. God remembered their hypocrisy and left them in bondage to the world. To forget our God our Maker is the essence of sin. When a nation forgets our Maker, all its military strength and economic stability does not take the place of the inner moral strength of the people when their faith is in God. Outward strengths are useless when there is no inner strength.
Even Judah was warned of coming judgment. Their great buildings and walled up cities would not save them because they too were forgetting God who made them. Their time was farther in the future than that of Israel, but it was coming because even though they hadn't done as wickedly as the northern tribes, justice will be served. Because of their half-heartedness and lack of faithfulness to God, their cities and buildings will be burned and nothing will remain. When we see signs of evil departure and religious hypocrisy, then there will be coming judgment, and it is well to sound the alarm.