Hosea 10:1 - Meaning and Application

Notice, first, the sins charged against Israel, the national sins that brought national judgment. The prophet speaks plainly, because flattery would help them nothing. Israel was an empty vine, meaning a people with no true fruit for God’s glory (Hosea 10:1). God’s people are often pictured as a vine because they should spread and bear fruit, but Israel had no real life in them.

An empty vine is useless if it does not bear fruit. It is fit for nothing except judgment (Ezekiel 15:3, 5). People who do not bear good fruit often end up doing harm instead. Israel was an empty vine because whatever good they had, they used for themselves. They wanted the praise, but not the glory of God. Christians do not live for themselves (Romans 14:6), but hypocrites make self their center. They even eat and drink for themselves (Zechariah 7:5, 6). Or, because they used God’s gifts for sinful pleasure, God stripped them of their wealth.

They also multiplied their altars and images. The more God blessed their land, the more they turned to idols. As their crops increased, they built more altars. As their land grew better, they made more beautiful images (Hosea 10:1). This was a great insult to God. His kindness should have led them to gratitude and obedience, but instead it fed their sin. We should do the opposite, as God gives us more, we should grow more in worship, generosity, and good works.

Their hearts were divided (Hosea 10:2). In one sense, they were divided among themselves. They fought over idols, over kings, and over party interests, so their hearts were turned away from one another. That kind of division breeds sin and points toward ruin. In another sense, they were divided between God and their idols. They still had some affection for God, but a stronger love for false gods. God will not share the heart with a rival. A heart divided between God and wealth, or God and idols, will be found false in the end.

They also did not care about what they said or did in solemn matters (Hosea 10:4). Their words in swearing were empty words, because they did not mean what they said. They made false vows and broke their promises, even their promises to God. People who are false to God will not be trustworthy with others. They grew so used to treachery that they broke sacred bonds without concern. They violated oaths, broke treaties, and treated private agreements lightly.

Nor did they care about justice. Judgment, which should have been healing and good, became like poisonous hemlock growing in the field. God is deeply offended not only by false worship, but also by corruption in courts and public justice. Dishonesty in public life is as much a reason for his case against a people as idolatry is. His laws are for the good of society as well as for his honor.

Second, here are the judgments by which Israel would be punished for these sins. They sinned in both civil life and worship, and they would suffer in both. They would have no joy in their kings or their government (Hosea 10:3). Because justice had turned into oppression, the rulers who should have been a blessing to the nation became a burden. The people would say, “We have no king,” meaning, “It is as if we had none.” Their rulers could not protect them, preserve peace, or defend them from enemies. Their loss was just, because they had misused the power and care God had given them.

Because they did not fear the Lord, even while they felt safe under their kings, God has rejected them. So what can a king do for them now? What good can they expect from a king when they have lost God’s favor? Those who throw off the fear of God are unlikely to enjoy any of their earthly comforts. Loyalty to a ruler will not help them if they live without faith, because even if the ruler is for them, what can that do if God is against them?

Those who stay in God’s fear and favor can say with confidence, “What can the strongest person do against us?” But those who remove themselves from God’s protection must say in despair, “What can the strongest person do for us?” God can give help that kings cannot give. There was a king who said, “If the Lord does not help you, where can I help you from?” Yet it is foolish to think that if a king cannot help, all is lost. God can do for his people what kings never can.

There was a time when Israel clung to having a king. Now they ask what a king can do for them. God can make people weary of the very things they trusted most. Their complaint shows that their king cannot help them, but that is not the worst. Their civil rule will not only grow weak, it will be destroyed entirely (Hosea 10:7). Samaria, the royal city and almost all that remains, will lose its king like foam disappearing from water. Foam floats on top and looks important, but it is only bubbles stirred up by the water’s movement. So it was with the kings of Israel after they broke away from David’s family, they were only a scum of rule, with no solid foundation. The greatest kings are no better when they stand against God. When he comes against them in judgment, he can scatter them and bring them to nothing as quickly as foam vanishes.

They will also have no joy left in their idols or in the worship they gave them. It is a sad case when a people’s gods fail them just when their kings do. The idols they made, and the altars they built for them, will be broken down, stripped, and carried off as ordinary loot by the enemy. God will do this through the Assyrians, and the Assyrians will do it by God’s command. He will destroy their images (Hosea 10:2). What people turn into idols, God may rightly break and spoil.

The calf at Bethel was their main idol. The people of Samaria loved it most. Now the prophecy says it will be destroyed, and its glory will depart from it (Hosea 10:5), when it is torn down and no longer fit for worship. But more than that, it will be carried to Assyria, as some think the calf at Dan had been earlier, as a gift to King Jareb. It would be taken there as valuable plunder, since it was a gold calf and likely decorated with the gifts of its worshipers. It would also serve as a trophy of victory over them. What greater trophy could the conquerors carry away, or what clearer proof of their defeat could there be?

So the sin of Israel will be destroyed (Hosea 10:8), meaning the idols that were the cause and support of their sin. Scripture had already said of such idols that they became a sin to all Israel (1 Kings 12:30). If God’s grace does not destroy our love of sin, it is right for God’s providence to destroy the things that feed sin around us. With the idols, the high places will also be destroyed, the high places of Aven, that is, of Bethaven (Hosea 10:5), or Bethel. It had been called the house of God, which is what Bethel means, but now it is called the house of evil, indeed evil itself.

The kings should have removed those high places with justice, but they did not. So God will remove them with war. Their altars will be overgrown with thorns and thistles, because they will lie in ruins. While those altars stood, they were like thorns and thistles already, offensive to God and good people, and marked by sin and curse. So it is fitting that they should end buried in thorns and thistles.

The destruction of their idols, altars, and high places will bring them sorrow, shame, and fear. It will bring sorrow because when the calf at Bethel is broken, the people who belonged to it will mourn over it. They thought the calf protected their nation, and when it was gone, they thought everything was ruined. So the poor, deceived people who loved it would weep bitterly, like Micah did when he said, “You have taken away my gods, and what do I have left?” (Judges 18:24). Even the priests who once rejoiced in it will mourn with the people. Whatever people make into a god, they will grieve over when it is lost. Deep sorrow over the loss of any worldly good can show that we made it an idol.

It will also bring shame. Ephraim will receive shame when he sees the gods he trusted being carried away, and Israel will be ashamed of his own decision to trust them and worship them (Hosea 10:6). God’s ark and altars were never torn down until the people rejected them. But the idolatrous altars were broken down while the people were still attached to them. That shows the sins that brought God’s judgment were their contempt for his true worship and their devotion to false worship.

It will bring fear as well. The people of Samaria will be afraid (Hosea 10:5). They will be in distress over their gods, and afraid of losing them. More than that, they will be in distress for themselves, their children, and their families, when they see God’s judgments breaking in and beginning with their idols, just as he judged the gods of Egypt (Exodus 12:12). Idolaters are shown trembling when God rises to shake the earth terribly (Isaiah 2:21). And in Hosea 10:8, they are described as saying to the mountains, “Cover us,” and to the hills, “Fall on us.” Those who support idolatry are pictured in the same way, calling in vain to rocks and mountains for shelter from God’s wrath (Revelation 6:15-16).