CRITICAL NOTES.—
Hosea 8:11. Many] Israel should only have one altar (Deuteronomy 12:3; Deuteronomy 12:5). To sin] Altars made by them should be the source of their punishment; they shall go where there is nothing but altars.
Hosea 8:12. Written] Lit. I write. Israel could not plead ignorance; no excuse for men now, with the written word. Great] Deuteronomy 4:6; Deuteronomy 4:8. Wondrous things (Psalms 119:18; Psalms 147:19-20), a great many things, expressing the care and condescension of God and the comprehensiveness of his word. All the greater is that guilt which regards these commands as strange, no concern of theirs, though specially for them.
Hosea 8:13. Sacrifices] multiplied with the altars. Slain-offerings were presented for gifts. Offerings which should be burnt for me they slay and devour. They profaned the sacrifice, and were concerned only about the flesh. Rem-] Sins for which sacrifices were thought to atone. To Eg-] A type of renewed bondage, like that from which they were delivered; abandonment to abject condition (Deuteronomy 28:68).
HOMILETICS
AGGRAVATED GUILT.—Hosea 8:11-13
“The prophet had first shown them their folly in forsaking God for the help of man; now he shows them the folly of attempting to secure themselves by their great show, pretences of religion, and devotion in a false way. God had appointed one altar at Jerusalem. There he willed the sacrifice to be offered, which he would accept. To multiply altars, much more to set up altars against the one altar, was to multiply sin. Hosea charges Israel elsewhere with this multiplying of altars as a grievous sin (Hosea 10:1; Hosea 12:11).”
I. In multiplying altars. “Ephraim hath made many altars.” Opposing the commandment of God (Deuteronomy 12:5), strengthening the habit of sin (1 Kings 12:30), repeating their own folly, and increasing their own punishment. “Altars shall be unto him to sin.”
II. In despising the law. God had given the law, written and expounded it by Moses and the prophets, and continually renewed the knowledge of it, so that they had no excuse for their sin. God has written the law for us by his providence and gospel. His agency is ever fulfilling it; yet men deny it, count it a strange thing, a word with which they have nothing to do. The excuses which men make for rejecting it are not pleas, but sins in the sight of God.
III. In offering lifeless sacrifices. “They sacrifice flesh for the sacrifices of mine offerings.”
1. It was mere external worship. It was mere flesh, not a true sacrifice. External worship without internal ceremony, without sanctity, is like a dead carcase, not a living sacrifice. The Lord accepts it not.
2. It was mere selfish worship,—“and eat it.” Sacrifices which should have been burnt for God they slaughtered and devoured. They were concerned only about temporal affairs. We cannot atone for contempt of God by forms of our own. “Dissembled holiness is double iniquity.” There is only one sacrifice for sin; if that be rejected, sins will be remembered and punished. The devices of selfishness and will-worship can never avert, will only hasten, the penal consequences of sin. “The sacrifice of the wicked is abomination, how much more when he bringeth it with a wicked mind?”
PERVERSION OF WORSHIP.—Hosea 8:11-12
The passage leads us to notice the perversion of worship. This is one of the oldest, the most prevalent and the most hateful sins amongst mankind. Men have perverted worship, not only by making false gods, but by making false altars for the true God. There is only one altar in true worship, and that altar is Christ (Hebrews 13:10). Two remarks in relation to false worship. I. It is a great sin. First, It is a very propagative sin. “Ephraim hath made many altars.” “If men leave the rule,” says an old author, “they know not where to stay, hence the multiplying of things thus amongst the Papists, five hundred altars in some one temple.” How sublimely antagonistic the Jews were to the introduction of any altar but one (Joshua 22:11), but now they had “many.” Once admit a wrong thing in worship, and that one thing will multiply itself; superstition will give it fertility. The Romish Church is a sad illustration of this, and the Anglican Church in some sections is multiplying examples. Secondly, It is a self-punishing sin. “Altars shall be unto him to sin.” The idea probably is, “As you have gone on persisting to multiply altars against my will, I will let you alone, you shall go on, your altars shall be a sin unto you.” “That is, thus seeing they will have them, they shall have them; they shall have enough of them. They refuse to see the light, they are prejudiced against the way of God’s worship; let them have their desires; let them have governors to establish by their authority, and teachers to defend by subtle arguments what they wish for; they multiply altars to sin, and they shall be to sin, even to harden them. This is the judgment of God, to give men their heart’s desire in what is evil. And as it shall be to them for sin, so it shall be to them for misery, the fruit of sin.” II. It is a sin against great light. “I have written to him the great things of my law,” &c. They could not say they sinned in ignorance; God gave them directions most concise and abundant concerning the nature and object of true worship. Some translate the words—“I may prescribe my laws to them by myriads, they will treat it as a strange thing.” First, God has given us laws concerning worship. Secondly, Those laws are oft-repeated. By myriads or by thousands. We have “line upon line,” and “precept upon precept.” Thirdly, These oft-repeated laws leave false worshippers without excuse [The Homilist].
HOMILETIC HINTS AND OUTLINES
Hosea 8:13. Many altars. Altars to God, altars to man, altars to pleasure, &c. Sin its own punishment. It has fruit, and the fruit shall not only be gathered, but eaten. Men constantly live in the fruit of their own doings (Proverbs 1:31). Many altars, many sins, and many punishments. “As men are most fearfully plagued when they go on in sin and perish, so when they do not stand in awe of the sin of their course, it is righteous of God to make them feel how ill sin is and how displeased he is with it; for the words import that they shall be given up to that sin; and as they sinned and cared not, so the Lord would make it to be seen to be sin indeed, and make them feel how sad that is” [Hutcheson].
Hosea 8:12. Scripture slighted. I. Divine in their origin. God the author—“I have written.” “Given by inspiration of God”—the grandest and sublimest origin from whence anything can come Then regard its authority, love its truthfulness, and obey its precepts. II. Excellent in its nature—“the great things of my law.” The word gives the idea of things heaped together, then greatness and increase from the overflow. Hence the contents of Scripture—
1. Are great, containing the great things of God (Acts 2:11).
2. Wonderful (Psalms 119:18; Deuteronomy 4:6; Deuteronomy 4:8).
3. Varied, or manifold (Ephesians 3:10). III. Specific in its form. “I have written.” Nature and philosophy teach us to record our laws and hand them down to future generations in a permanent form. A written revelation is necessary for all ages, and has manifold advantages above an oral one. God uttered his word at first, writes it afresh in the wonders of his providence, the work of his Spirit, and the preaching of the gospel. The Bible is a revelation of God’s will, full and free, adapted to our wants and circumstances, and worthy of all acceptation. IV. Despised in its mission. Accounted, reckoned as or like a strange thing; as if an alien, or something with which men have no concern.
1. Some reject it as a revelation from God.
2. Others disregard it as a standard of duty.
3. By all it is neglected and unread. It is a book unknown, misunderstood, and despised. Men excuse themselves; consider the Scripture unreasonable in its demands, an enemy to liberty, progress, and science. But given by inspiration of God, profitable for doctrine and correction (2 Timothy 3:16), the Bible can never be set aside as useless and effete. God writes to warn us of this danger and deprive us of excuse.
Hosea 8:13. Many engage only in the external duties of religion. Disregarding God’s rule, they fix up their own, and obey that no further than personal ends uphold them. All is not given to God; they must eat part and share with him. God will have all or none. The sacrifice must be burnt, and self devoted entirely to him.
God does not connive at sin—will remember and visit it with judgments here and punishment hereafter. “God seems to man to forget his sins, when he forbears to punish them; to remember them, when he punishes.”
ILLUSTRATIONS TO CHAPTER 8
Hosea 8:10-11. Sin increased. Sin is like a stone which is cast into water, and multiplies itself by infinite circles [Basil]. All sin and wickedness in man’s spirit hath the central force and energy of hell in it, and is perpetually pressing down towards it as towards its own place. The devilish nature is always within the central attractions of hell, and its own weight instigates and accelerates its motion thither [John Smith].
Hosea 8:12. Scripture. I am of opinion that the Holy Scriptures contain more sublimity and beauty, more pure morality, more important history, and finer strains of poetry and eloquence, than can be collected from all other books in any age or language [Sir W. Jones]. There are many books which are good and sound, but, like half-pence, there goes a great quantity to a little amount. There are a few silver books, and a very few golden books; but I have one book worth more than all, called the Bible, and that is a book of bank-notes [J. Newton].
There is not a more evident testimony of a corrupt and depraved disposition than an irreverent treatment of sacred things, a contempt of anything that carries on it a Divine impression, or an obstinate neglect of any of those ordinances which the wisdom of God has appointed to support and preserve his religion in the world [Bp Gibson].
Hosea 8:13. Sacrifice. He was a man who stole the livery of heaven to serve the devil in [Pollock].
Where the fear of God is, there is the keeping of his commands; and where the keeping of the commandments, there is the cleansing of the flesh; which flesh is a cloud before the soul’s eye, and suffers it not purely to see the beam of heavenly light, and worship God upon such sacrifices.
The gods themselves throw incense. [Shakespeare.]