The situation of a person’s life can make us more attentive to what they say. When we hear a holocaust survivor speak of the death camps we fall silent. God made us to listen to a man’s words and to empathize with his situation. This is one reason that the Lord Jesus—God incarnate—communicates to us who God is in such a powerful way.

Hosea’s life is unique and his message communicates to us in a unique way. In chapter one we read that God called him to take a prostitute for a wife because the land was guilty of the vilest adultery in departing from the Lord. In chapter three we read how he had to go and buy her back from the slavery of prostitution. His children’s names reflected her unfaithfulness as well as the unfaithfulness of the people of Israel towards the Lord.

Hosea’s message was amplified by his situation. If you were his friend, how would you advise him? How long would you put up with that sort of spouse? If your spouse was running around on you and even getting busted by the police, how long before you would quit answering the phone calls requesting bail money? Were not Hosea’s friends asking similar questions as they pitied the prophet and despised his wife?

Then the Lord’s message hit home. Hosea’s wife Gomer acted toward him the same way the Israelites acted toward the Lord. They continually worshipped the Lord and idols. Serving these idols brought them poverty and oppression from which the Lord would have to buy them back. They repented of their idolatrous ways for a while, but the old patterns emerged and they would return to the idols the way Gomer chased after her other lovers.

Why is idolatry wrong? It is a lie. Idols made with human hands cannot bless us or curse us. Isaiah notes the foolishness of idolatry when he describes the idol making process. A man takes a piece of wood and carves an image from it. The image he worships and the scraps he throws in the fire. How does he know that he kept the right part and burned the wrong part? It is all just a piece of wood. What sense does it make to worship the works of our hands?

Idols distract us from the Lord who can help us. If we cry out to something other than the Lord when we are in trouble, we are being deceived. If we look to our golden image, or our gold to save us, then we are distracted from calling out to the Lord who can save us.

To worship an idol is to not believe God. The Israelites hedged their bets. If God would not give them a good crop, then maybe Baal would. If the Lord would not increase their children and their herds, then maybe Asherah would. Idolatry at its core is unbelief. It is a lack of trust in the love and power of the Almighty.

Idolatry legitimizes other sin. If God was angry with the people for their sin, they went to an idol for help rather than repenting of their sin. Many cults actually involve sin in worship. The Israelites were involved in Asherah worship, which included shrine prostitutes. Wouldn’t you like to clothe your sin in religious sounding language? Instead of saying, "I’m going out carousing," you say, "I’m going over to the shrine." Yet they are in reality the same thing.

The idolatry of the Israelites is hard to understand until we realize that we are tempted to sin in the same way. We are tempted to hedge our bets, to trust in God and our money (or God and our ability, or God and our connections). Our heart is easily divided where we put God in a box that contains Sunday morning, maybe Wednesday night or a time of prayer, and all other times we live by different rules with no thought of the presence of the Lord. Our temptation to idolatry takes a different form, but it is just as real.

God calls you to return, and not just a quick, "I’m sorry—I will go to church more often or give more money to the Lord." You can do those good things and miss the root of the problem. If you do all that and still treasure your pet sins, you are still serving your idols, and your heart is still divided. The Lord calls you to return by repenting your sin.

Repentance is something that unbelievers need to do. Until you know the Lord Jesus as your Savior, the gospel calls you to repent of the sin of living your life without the Lord and receive the mercy, grace and joy Christ offers. Repentance is something believers still need to do. The gospel is for the lost and the found. Don’t be fooled into thinking that your call to battle sin and idolatry is over. You are still in the thick of the fight. The big cannon is faith and repentance. Don’t rest in your past experience or heritage. Rest in the Lord himself who calls you to return to him with your whole heart.

Who is wise? He will realize these things. Who is discerning? He will understand them. The ways of the Lord are right; the righteous walk in them, but the rebellious stumble in them. Are you willing to know God’s word and follow it? Other voices tempt you to walk in other ways, to reject the Lord and stumble. This is no time to stumble. It is time to repent and return to the Lord.