#DailyDevotion Are We Worshiping In Spirit & Truth?
Hosea 4 13They sacrifice on top of the mountains and and burn offerings on the hills, under oaks, poplars, and terebinths because they provide good shade. So your daughters become prostitutes and your sons’ wives commit adultery. 14I will not punish your daughters for their sexual sin or your sons’ wives for their adultery, because the men themselves go to prostitutes and sacrifice with temple prostitutes; so the people who don’t understand are ruined.” 15Israel, if you go on as a prostitute, Judah mustn’t become guilty too. Don’t come to Gilgal, and don’t go up to Beth-aven [house of wickedness]. Don’t swear, ‘As the LORD lives.’ 16Israel is stubborn like a stubborn heifer. Will the LORD then feed them like a lamb in a wide pasture? 17Ephraim worships idols; let him alone. 18When they’re done drinking, they indulge in sexual orgies. Their rulers love dishonorable things. 19The wind will carry them away in its wings, and they will be ashamed because their sacrifices have failed.
Israel by this time has really abandoned the LORD who took them out of Egypt. It’s bad enough they ceased worship where the LORD put His name and worshiped at Dan and Bethel, where Jeroboam I cast metal calves to be worshiped at the LORD, but now they are worshiping on the mountains, the hills, and under trees like their neighbors. I wonder sometimes if the LORD is pleased how Christians worship today in a fashion that you cannot tell the difference between their worship and a rock concert. We’ll let the LORD decide that.
Going into idolatry and false worship, there is the fall into sexual sin. We have men’s daughters becoming temple prostitutes and daughters in law committing adultery. However, the LORD says He won’t punish them for that because the men go to them and use them for such. This is what the LORD tells us in Romans 1, “24And so God, letting them follow the lusts of their hearts, gave them up to live immorally and dishonor their bodies 25because they traded the true God for a lie, worshiped and served what was created instead of the Creator, Who is blessed forever. Amen!”
Israel being the bigger and better off kingdom is warned here not to influence Judah. The prophet calls upon Israel to not go to these two worship spots which have become centers of idol worship. The worst is probably Beth-aven, because what Jacob dedicated to the LORD as Beth-el, is no longer the house of God (el) but idols (aven). Even worse, what was once commanded by the LORD (taking up His name to swear an oath Dt. 6:10), the LORD forbids them to do, because it is being taken up in false worship. The LORD will not honor their hypocritical worship. He will not honor our worship either if our hearts are not tied to Him in faith. The LORD then warns them He is not going to take care of them any longer, since they do not turn to Him for help. Instead they credit the false gods they worship for all of the LORD’s blessings. The LORD has had enough of them. They lack true knowledge of the LORD as demonstrated by their false worship. The greatest curse by God is given, let them alone. They’ll see eventually their false worship will not help them in the day of the LORD.
Woe to us if we do not heed the warning of the LORD given here. Our hearts must not be divided between desiring the things of the world and the One who provides all those things, our LORD Jesus Christ. May we worship Him with sincere and unfeigned hearts, desiring Him above all things and trusting in Him to provide for our daily needs.
Gracious God and Father, circumcise our hearts so we may worship You in Spirit and in Truth all the days of our lives. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.