Hos 4:12 | KingComments | STEP | The consequences that arise when the heart is no longer focused on God become visible here. The people, whom God still painfully calls “My people”, resort to divination, the general practice of the pagan, idolatrous peoples. They ask for guidance from a piece of wood! God is exchanged for a wooden idol and a magic wand. The less account is taken of God, the more room there is for superstition. Jeremiah sharply denounces this foolish superstition ( ). The foolishness of this action is sarcastically painted by Isaiah ( ). He makes their nonsense clear by saying that man uses half of a piece of wood as firewood, to heat himself or to bake bread on it, but of the other half he makes a god to whom he bows down. Anyone with a bit of sense, sees the ridiculousness of it. But what do you want when your heart has been seized by harlotry, wine and new wine ( ). Then you fall into such follies. Man cannot do without an object of worship. If he does not worship God ( ), he falls into idolatry and superstition. Idolatry and superstition do not stand on their own. They are nourished by “the spirit of harlotry”, which permeates the whole atmosphere. All those who do not submit to God’s authority, who in fact withdraw from it, come under the seizure of that spirit of harlotry and are influenced by it. This leads to spiritual adultery. In the realm of sin there is always a satanic spirit active, to whom someone who is in that realm surrenders himself. For this, however, one is responsible oneself. Those who ignore the statements of God in His Word and consult the world and the flesh, in fact consult their wood and ask for information on their wand. Here too the parallel between the days of Hosea and ours is clear. It has become possible for a spirit of harlotry to be active in Christianity. More and more the contact with the world is sought. The motives put forward, as if it were to bring the world under the influence of Christianity on the basis of that contact, are no good. The Lord Jesus says of His disciples: “They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world” ( ). Whoever forgets that and imitates the world in order to be successful, even with the most beautiful motives, for example, to gain entrance for the gospel, falls under the influence of the spirit of harlotry. This leads them to playing the harlot and departing from their God. We must not want to be wiser than what God tells us in His Word.

‏ Hosea 4:12

Idolatry and Harlotry

The consequences that arise when the heart is no longer focused on God become visible here. The people, whom God still painfully calls “My people”, resort to divination, the general practice of the pagan, idolatrous peoples. They ask for guidance from a piece of wood! God is exchanged for a wooden idol and a magic wand. The less account is taken of God, the more room there is for superstition. Jeremiah sharply denounces this foolish superstition (Jer 2:27a).

The foolishness of this action is sarcastically painted by Isaiah (Isa 44:14-17). He makes their nonsense clear by saying that man uses half of a piece of wood as firewood, to heat himself or to bake bread on it, but of the other half he makes a god to whom he bows down. Anyone with a bit of sense, sees the ridiculousness of it. But what do you want when your heart has been seized by harlotry, wine and new wine (Hos 4:11). Then you fall into such follies. Man cannot do without an object of worship. If he does not worship God (Hos 4:10b), he falls into idolatry and superstition.

Idolatry and superstition do not stand on their own. They are nourished by “the spirit of harlotry”, which permeates the whole atmosphere. All those who do not submit to God’s authority, who in fact withdraw from it, come under the seizure of that spirit of harlotry and are influenced by it. This leads to spiritual adultery. In the realm of sin there is always a satanic spirit active, to whom someone who is in that realm surrenders himself. For this, however, one is responsible oneself.

Those who ignore the statements of God in His Word and consult the world and the flesh, in fact consult their wood and ask for information on their wand. Here too the parallel between the days of Hosea and ours is clear. It has become possible for a spirit of harlotry to be active in Christianity. More and more the contact with the world is sought.

The motives put forward, as if it were to bring the world under the influence of Christianity on the basis of that contact, are no good. The Lord Jesus says of His disciples: “They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world” (Jn 17:16). Whoever forgets that and imitates the world in order to be successful, even with the most beautiful motives, for example, to gain entrance for the gospel, falls under the influence of the spirit of harlotry. This leads them to playing the harlot and departing from their God. We must not want to be wiser than what God tells us in His Word.