Chapter 8 begins with a warning: ″Put the trumpet to your lips!″ (Hosea 8:1). For ″an eagle″ (the Hebrew word can also mean ″a vulture″) is about to swoop down and destroy Israel. Why? God explains: ″because the people have broken my covenant and rebelled against my law″ (v. 1). Israel was throwing away the covenant that bound God to His people, and Hosea knew from his own broken marriage how God felt about that kind of abandonment. In previous chapters, he described the pain, disappointment, and frustration God has borne.

Now, we begin to feel God's anger: ″My anger burns against them. How long will they be incapable of purity? They are from Israel!″ (vv. 5-6). It beggars belief that God's people­-so loved, so blessed-could have treated their relationship with Him with such contempt.

Israel's contempt for God showed in her self-reliance (vv. 4-10). She appointed kings without asking God what He thought (v. 4). The people were happy to let might be right; they never considered that God's support was necessary for any government to prosper. They also created their own state religion (vv. 5-6). Hosea has spoken much about their worship of Baal, but here he highlights how they were worshipping the two golden calves that were first set up by King Jeroboam I (see 1 Kings 12:27-30) instead of God.

Israel even sold herself like a prostitute to the nation that could offer her the best pact (Hosea 8:8-9). So God was going to give her over to the ″mighty king″ of Assyria (v.10), and her fortified cities would be ruined (v. 14). She would reap what she had sown (v. 7).

Self-reliance makes God angry. If you see any trace of this in you, it would be good to turn from it now and to put your total trust in Him.

Heavenly Father, help me to love you so much that I refuse to rely on myself. May I actively trust you in all things. In Jesus' name, amen.