devotional post # 2121

Hosea 8:11-14

Hos 8:11 Since Ephraim has made more altars because of sinning, they have become to him altars to promote sinning.
Hos 8:12 If I had written my law for him ten thousand times, they would be regarded as a foreign thing.
Hos 8:13 As for my sacrificial offerings, they sacrifice meat and eat it, but Yahveh does not accept them. Now he will remember their iniquity and punish their sins; they will return to Egypt.
Hos 8:14 Because Israel has forgotten his Maker and built palaces, and Judah has made more fortified cities; so I will send a fire upon his cities, and it will consume her fortresses.

sin, sacrifice, repeat

The sacrificial system had been designed as a demonstration of God’s grace, and a promise of his forgiveness of a repentant people. But in Hosea’s time, it had become an empty religious practice that promoted sinning. The Israelites did not trust God; they trusted in their own power to defend themselves. God’s law was a foreign thing to them. As a result, God will not consume the sacrifices. He will consume their fortress cities instead, and send them back to captivity in Egypt.

LORD, destroy our empty altars and deceptive fortresses and teach us to trust you again.