Verse 1
Following the superlative denunciations recorded in the previous chapter, any further elaborations of Israel's guilt might, to some, have appeared superfluous; but not for the prophet Hosea. The same theme is continued in this chapter with no reduction whatever: in the impact of them. One of the final thoughts of Hosea 9 designated Ephraim as "rotten, root and branch"; and in this chapter, Hosea dug out the roots and shook them! The roots of Israel's ruin lay in two areas. First, there were the institutions of the nation's corporate life, the monarchy and the religious system, both of which were set up contrary to God's will and became the twin poisonous springs feeding the iniquity of the whole nation. Secondly, there was the stubborn unwillingness of the people to be restrained by the strict moral code of the Decalogue covenant. It is regrettable that most of the commentators have overlooked altogether this second and very important root of their national disaster, the same oversight being due to the fact of its being contained in the second reference to Gibeah (Hosea 10:9-10). All of the public symbols of the nation's life were pointed out one by one. As Mays wrote:
"The judgment falls upon every significant institution of Israel's religious and national life, altar, and pillar, king and capital, idol and high place - one by one they are blotted out until the people are left alone to face the wrath of Yahweh, crying out for the sanctuary of death in consternation."[1]
"Israel is a luxuriant vine, that putteth forth his fruit; according to the abundance of his fruit he hath multiplied his altars; according to the goodness of their land they made goodly pillars."
"A luxuriant vine ..." The figure of a vine as the representation of Israel abounds in both the Old Testament and the New Testament. Christ extended it and applied it to the new Israel, his church, and also to himself, with whom the New Testament unequivocally identifies his church. "I am the true vine" (John 15:1). The old Israel was the false vine; Christ and his church are the true vine.
The New English Bible rendered this place "a rank vine"; and some of the translators make it "empty .vine"; but the message of the whole verse is clear enough, "Prosperity led to the proliferation of false religion rather than true worship."[2]
"Multiplied his altars ... made goodly pillars ..." The sinfulness of the multiple altars lay in the fact that God had provided one altar only, that in Jerusalem, and in the further fact that these serf-authorized altars were Staffed and serviced with a bastard, illegitimate priesthood without regard to the tribe of Levi, and in the still more horrible corruption of the worship associated with them by the adoption of the gross rites of the old Canaanite pagans. The "goodly pillars" were Israel's device for getting around the prohibition against idols. They merely set up a pillar which, normally, would have been the pedestal for some idol god; but, in their case, they merely left the idol off, attributed sanctity to the pillar itself, and worshipped it! God commanded the destruction of such things. "In Canaanite religion it was identified with deity (especially male deity), an object of veneration, and therefore forbidden to the Israelites."[3] The pillar became, in practice, a phallic symbol! "The Israelites were told to destroy all they found (Exodus 23:24; Deuteronomy 16:22)."[4]
In this verse, the big thing appears in the false manner that Ephraim used his prosperity. "What people did with their prosperity was indicative of the direction of their heart."[5] This comment is likewise true in the present tense; and there is no greater danger today than that which is inherent in a Christian's false use of his wealth.
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