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Commentary on Hosea 8 verses 8–14
It was the honour and happiness of Israel that they had but one God to trust to and he all-sufficient in every strait, and but one God to serve, and he well worthy of all their devotions. But it was their sin, and folly, and shame, that they knew not when they were well off, that they forsook their own mercies for lying vanities; for,
I. They multiplied their alliances (Hos 8:9): They have hired lovers, or (as the margin reads it) they have hired loves. They were at great expense to purchase the friendship of the nations about them, that otherwise had no value nor affection at all for them, nor cared for having any thing to do with them but only upon the Shechemites' principles - Shall not their cattle and their substance be ours? Gen 34:23. Had Israel maintained the honour of their peculiarity, the surrounding nations would have continued to admire them as a wise and understanding people; but, when they profaned their own crown, their neighbours despised them, and they had no interest in them further than they paid dearly for it. But those surely have behaved ill among their neighbours who have no loves, no lovers, but what they hire. See here, 1. The contempt that Israel lay under among the nations (Hos 8:8): Israel is swallowed up, devoured by strangers, their land eaten up (Hos 8:7), and themselves too, and, being impoverished, they have quite lost their credit and reputation, like a merchant that has become a bankrupt, so that they are among the Gentiles as a vessel wherein is no pleasure, a vessel of dishonour (Ti2 2:20), a despised broken vessel, Jer 22:28. None of their neighbours have any value for them, nor care to have any thing to do with them. Note, Those that have professed religion, if they degenerate and grow profane, are of all men the most contemptible. If the salt have lost its savour, it is fit for nothing but to be trodden under foot of men. Or it denotes their dispersion and captivity among the Gentiles; they shall be among them poor and prisoners; and who has pleasure in such? 2. The court that Israel made to the nations notwithstanding (Hos 8:9): They have gone to Assyria, to engage the king of Assyria to help them; and herein they are as a wild ass alone by himself, foolish, headstrong, and unruly; they will have their way, and nothing shall hold them in, no, not the bridle of God's laws, nothing shall turn them back, no, not the sword of God's wrath. They take a course by themselves, and the effect will be that, like a wild ass by himself, they will be the easier and surer prey to the lion. See Job 11:12; Jer 2:24. Note, Man is in nothing more like the wild ass's colt than in seeking for that succour and that satisfaction in the creature which are to be had in God only. 3. The crosses that they were likely to meet with in their alliances with the neighbouring nations (Hos 8:10): Though they have hired among the nations, and hoped thereby to prevent their own ruin, yet now will I gather them, as the sheaves in the floor (Mic 4:12); so that what they provided for their own safety shall but make them the easier prey to their enemies. Note, There is no fence against the judgments of God, when they come with commission; nay, that which men hire for their own preservation often contributes to their own destruction. See Isa 7:20. The king of Assyria, whose friendship they courted, called himself a king of princes, Isa 10:8. Are not my princes altogether kings? He laid burdens upon Israel, levied taxes upon them, Kg2 15:19, Kg2 15:20. And for these they shall sorrow a little; this shall be but a little burden to them in comparison of what they may further expect; or they will be but little sensible of this grievance, will not lay it to heart, and therefore may expect heavier judgments. They have begun to be diminished (so some read it), by the burden of the king of princes; but this is only the beginning of sorrows (Mat 24:8), the beginning of revenges, Deu 32:42. Note, God often comes gradually with his judgments upon a provoking people, that he may show how slow he is to wrath, and may awaken them to repentance; but those that are made to sorrow a little, if they are not thereby brought to sorrow after a godly sort, will, another day, be made to sorrow a great deal, to sorrow everlastingly.
II. They multiplied their altars and temples. Observe,
1.How they denied the power of godliness, and wholly cast that off (Hos 8:12): I have written to him the great things of my law; this intimates the privilege they enjoyed, as having God's statutes and judgments made known to them, and being entrusted with the lively oracles. Note, (1.) The things of God's law are magnalia Dei - the great things of God. They are things that proclaim the greatness of the Law-maker, and things of great use and great importance to us; they are our life, and our eternal welfare depends upon our observance of them and obedience to them; they will make us great if we make a right use of them; and they are things which God will magnify and make honourable. (2.) It is a great privilege to have the things of God's law written; thus they are reduced to a greater certainty, spread the further, and last the longer, with much less danger of being embezzled and corrupted than if they were transmitted by word of mouth only. (3.) The things of God's law are of his own writing; for Moses and the prophets were his amanuenses, and holy men wrote as they were moved by the Holy Ghost. (4.) It is the advantage of those that are members of the visible church that these great things are written to them, are intended for their direction, and so they must receive them; what things were written in former ages were written for our learning, and are profitable for us. And, if those were happy who had the great things of God's law written to them, how much happier are we who have the gospel written to us! But see how this privilege was slighted; these great things of the law were counted as a strange thing, as unintelligible and unreasonable (which might therefore be slighted, because not to be fathomed, not to be accounted for), or as foreign, and things of no concernment to them, things that they had nothing to do with nor were to be governed by; they used those things as strangers, which they were shy of, and knew not how to bid welcome. We desire not the knowledge of thy ways. Note, [1.] God having written to us the great things of his law, we ought to make them familiar to us, as our nearest relations (Pro 7:3, Pro 7:4); for therefore we have them written, that they may talk with us, Pro 6:22. [2.] We make nothing of the things of God's law if we make strange of them, as if they did not affect us and therefore we need not be affected with them.
2.How they kept up the form of godliness notwithstanding, and to what little purpose they did so.
(1.)They multiplied their altars (Hos 8:11): Ephraim made many altars to sin. God appointed that there should be but one altar for sacrifice (Deu 12:3, Deu 12:5); but the ten tribes, having forsaken that, would still be thought very devout, and zealous for the honour of God, and, as if they would make amends for the affront they put on God's altar, they made many altars, dedicated to the God of Israel, whom hereby they intended, or at least pretended, to give glory to; but that would not justify their violation of God's express command, nor would the example of the patriarchs, who before the law of Moses had many altars. No, they made many altars to sin (that is, they did that which turned into sin to them), and therefore these altars shall be unto them to sin, that is, God will charge it upon them as a heinous sin, and put that upon the score of their crimes which they designed to be for the expiation of their crimes. Or they shall be to them an occasion of further sin. Their multiplying of altars dedicated to the God of Israel would introduce altars dedicated to other gods. Note, It is a great sin to corrupt the worship of God, and it will be charged as sin upon those that do it, how plausible soever their pretensions may be. And the way of this, as other sins, is down-hill; those that once deviate from the fixed rule of God's commands will wander endlessly.
(2.)They multiplied their sacrifices, Hos 8:13. Their altars were smoking altars: They sacrificed flesh for the sacrifices of God's offerings, and they celebrated their feasts upon their sacrifices; they were at a great expense upon their devotions, and (as those commonly are who set up their own inventions in the room of divine institutions) were very zealous in their way; as if they hoped by their impositions on themselves to atone for the contempt of the great atonement, and by their observing a ceremonial law of their own to excuse themselves from the obligation of all God's moral precepts. But how did they speed? [1.] God makes no reckoning of their services: The Lord accepts them not. How should he, when they did not offer their sacrifice upon that altar which alone sanctified the gift, and when they only sacrificed flesh, but not the spiritual sacrifice of a penitent believing heart? Note, Those services only are acceptable to God which are performed according to the rule of his word, and through Jesus Christ, Pe1 2:5. [2.] He takes that occasion to reckon with them for their sins; now will he, instead of pardoning their iniquity and blotting out their sins, as they expected, remember their iniquity and visit their sins. Such an abomination to the Lord are the sacrifices of the wicked that they provoke him to call them to an account for all their other abominations. When they think by their sacrifices to bribe the Judge of heaven and earth into a connivance at their wickedness he will resent that as the highest affront they can put upon him, and it shall be the measure-filling sin. Note, A petition for leave to sin amounts to an imprecation of the curse for sin, and so it shall be answered, according to the multitude of the idols. "I will punish their sins, for they shall return to Egypt;" they shall be carried captive into Assyria, which shall be to them a house of bondage, as Egypt was to their fathers. Or it refers to Deu 28:68, where returning to Egypt is made to close and complete the miseries of that sinful nation.
(3.)They multiplied their temples, and these also in honour of the true God, as they pretended, but really in contempt of the choice he had made of Jerusalem to put his name there. Israel has forgotten his Maker, Hos 8:14. They pretended to know him, and yet forgot him, for they liked not to retain God in their knowledge, when the remembrance of him would give check to their lusts. It was an aggravation of their sin in forgetting God that he was their Maker (Deu 32:15, Deu 32:18; Job 35:10), as nothing obliges us more to remember him than that he is our Creator, Ecc 12:1. "He has forgotten his Maker, and builds temples; he seems by the temples he builds to me mindful of his Maker, and to be desirous still to keep him in mind, and yet really he has forgotten him, because he has cast off the fear of him." Some by temples here understand palaces, for so the word sometimes signifies. "He has forgotten his Maker, and yet is so secure and haughty that he sets his judgments at defiance, as Nebuchadnezzar did when he said, Is not this great Babylon that I have built?" Judah is likewise charged with multiplying fenced cities, and trusting in them for safety, when the judgments of God were abroad. To fortify their cities in subjection and subordination to God was well enough; but to fortify them in opposition to God, and without any regard to him or his providence (Isa 22:11), shows their hearts to be desperately hardened through the deceitfulness of sin. But none ever hardened his heart against God and prospered, nor shall they. God will send a fire upon his cities, upon the cities both of Judah and Israel, not only the head-cities of Jerusalem and Samaria, but all the other cities of those two kingdoms, and it shall devour not only the cottages, but the palaces thereof; though ever so strong, the fire shall master them; though ever so stately and sumptuous, the fire shall not spare them. This was fulfilled when all the cities of Israel were laid in ashes by the king of Assyria, and all the cities of Judah by the king of Babylon. The fires they both kindled were of his sending; and when he judges he will overcome.
I will write to him many of my laws, which are regarded as alien: they will offer sacrifices, they will slaughter meats and eat, and the Lord will not receive them." LXX: "I will write to them a multitude: their rightful altars have been regarded as foreign. Because if they sacrifice and eat meat, the Lord will not accept them:" which I had previously given through Moses. But what profit is there in writing further, since he has despised those which he previously received? Is it not contempt of God when, at my command that there be one altar in Jerusalem, idols were made on all the mountains and hills to provoke the Lord? They also made altars for the same reason, not to please me, but so they could eat the meat of the many sacrifices offered, according to what the Lord says in the gospel, "Amen, amen I say unto you, you seek me, not because you saw miracles, but because you did eat of the loaves, and were filled." (John VI, 26). For every pursuit of sacrifices, they have it, to devour the offerings, not to please God through them; and the Lord will not receive those which they have immolated not to Him, but to their own stomachs and throats. But the apostle teaches that there is one altar in the Church, and one faith, and one baptism (Ephesians 4), which heretics, deserting them, have fabricated many altars for themselves, not to placate God, but to multiply transgressions. Therefore they do not deserve to receive God's laws, since they have previously despised the ones they received. And if they say anything about the Scriptures, it must be understood, not as divine words, but as expressing the ideas of the heathen. These men offer many sacrifices and eat the meat of these animals, abandoning the one sacrifice of Christ; and they do not partake of his flesh, the flesh which is the food of believers. Whatever they do, pretending to follow the order and rites of sacrifices, whether they give alms, make promises of chastity, or feign humility, and deceive the simple with false flattery, God will accept nothing of such sacrifices.
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SUMMARY
Hosea 8:12 captures God's profound lament over the Northern Kingdom of Israel (Ephraim), who, despite receiving the abundant and weighty revelation of His divine law, deliberately chose to regard it as foreign and irrelevant. This verse highlights the tragic spiritual rebellion of a people who, having been given clear guidance for life and relationship with their Creator, actively dismissed it, setting the stage for the inevitable consequences of their covenant unfaithfulness.
CONTEXT
EXPOSITION AND ANALYSIS
Key Word Analysis
Verse Breakdown
Literary Devices
Hosea 8:12 employs several potent Literary Devices to convey its message. The primary device is Contrast, starkly juxtaposing God's abundant and clear revelation ("I have written to him the great things of my law") with Israel's dismissive and alienating response ("but they were counted as a strange thing"). This contrast highlights the severity of Israel's sin and the depth of their spiritual blindness. There is also an element of Irony, as God's law, which was given to define Israel's unique identity and relationship with Him, is paradoxically perceived by them as foreign. Furthermore, the phrase "great things" functions as a form of Hyperbole or Emphasis, underscoring the immense value and comprehensive nature of the divine instruction, making Israel's rejection even more egregious. The verse also implicitly uses Anthropomorphism by attributing the act of "writing" to God, making His divine communication relatable to human experience.
THEOLOGICAL AND THEMATIC CONNECTIONS
Hosea 8:12 speaks profoundly to the enduring theological tension between God's consistent self-revelation and humanity's persistent tendency to reject or suppress that truth. God, in His boundless grace, has always sought to make Himself known and to guide His people through His Word, whether written on stone, spoken by prophets, or ultimately embodied in Christ. However, this verse serves as a sobering reminder that divine revelation, no matter how clear or abundant, is often met with indifference, dismissal, or outright hostility by those who prefer their own ways. The "strange thing" is not God's law, but the human heart that finds God's wisdom alien to its desires. This spiritual apathy leads to a profound estrangement from the very source of life and truth, illustrating the dangerous consequences of devaluing God's authoritative Word.
REFLECTION AND APPLICATION
Hosea 8:12 serves as a powerful mirror for believers today, challenging us to honestly examine our relationship with God's Word. Do we truly treasure the "great things" of His law—now fully revealed in the comprehensive narrative of Scripture and centered in Christ—or do we, like ancient Israel, treat it as something "strange" or irrelevant to our modern lives? In an age of abundant information and competing philosophies, it is easy to relegate the Bible to a secondary status, viewing its ancient wisdom as outdated or burdensome. Yet, God's Word remains the timeless, life-giving truth, meant to guide, correct, and nourish our souls. Our spiritual vitality and flourishing depend on our willingness to embrace, study, and obey His precepts. To count His Word as strange is to invite spiritual famine and estrangement from the very heart of God. We are called to actively engage with Scripture, allowing it to transform our minds and direct our paths, lest we repeat the tragic mistake of Ephraim.
Questions for Reflection
FAQ
What does "the great things of my law" refer to in this context?
Answer: "The great things of my law" (Hebrew: ribbôw tôwrâh) refers to the comprehensive body of divine instruction, teaching, and guidance that God had given to Israel, primarily through Moses. This includes the Ten Commandments, the statutes and ordinances found in the Pentateuch (Torah), and the covenant stipulations that defined Israel's unique relationship with Yahweh. The phrase "great things" emphasizes the vastness, significance, and abundance of this divine revelation, highlighting that God's provision of guidance was not meager but rich and extensive. It was meant to be the foundation of their national and individual life, guiding them in righteousness, justice, and worship, and setting them apart as God's chosen people.
Why did Israel "count" God's law "as a strange thing"?
Answer: Israel counted God's law as a "strange thing" (Hebrew: zûwr) due to a combination of spiritual apathy, moral decay, and a deliberate choice to assimilate with surrounding pagan cultures. Instead of cherishing God's unique covenant and its accompanying laws as their heritage and guide, they viewed them as foreign, irrelevant, or burdensome. This stemmed from a heart that had turned away from God, preferring idolatry, self-reliance, and political alliances over faithfulness to their divine King. They actively disregarded the very instructions that were meant for their blessing and life, effectively treating God's truth as something alien to their desires and practices, leading to profound spiritual blindness and moral corruption, as detailed throughout the book of Hosea.
CHRIST-CENTERED FULFILLMENT
Hosea 8:12, with its lament over Israel's rejection of God's law as "strange," finds its ultimate Christ-centered fulfillment in the person and work of Jesus Christ. Jesus is the living embodiment of God's law, the very Word made flesh (as profoundly declared in John 1:1-14), who came not to abolish the Law but to fulfill it (as stated in Matthew 5:17). The "great things of my law" that Israel counted as strange were ultimately pointing to Him, the perfect expression of God's will and character. Just as Israel rejected the written law, humanity, in its fallen state, often rejects the living Law, Jesus Christ. However, in the New Covenant, prophesied in Jeremiah 31:33 and inaugurated by Christ, God promises to write His law not on tablets of stone, but on the hearts of His people (reiterated in Hebrews 8:10). Through faith in Christ, what was once "strange" becomes intimate and transformative, as the Holy Spirit enables believers to understand, love, and obey God's will, no longer viewing His commands as external burdens but as the very essence of life in Him.