Charles Spurgeon Commentary Hosea 13

When Ephraim spoke trembling, he exalted himself in Israel; but when he offended in Baal, he died.

A modest, humble, trembling heart is often by far the sounder heart, but when we begin to sin, and to sin boastfully, and to wrap ourselves in the robe of self-complacency, then death is very near to us: When Ephraim spoke trembling, he exalted himself in Israel; but when he offended in Baal, he died.

And now they sin more and more, and have made them molten images of their silver, and idols according to their own understanding, all of it the work of the craftsmen: they say of them, Let the men that sacrifice kiss the calves.

When Jeroboam became king of the new kingdom of Israel—in order to prevent his subjects from going to Jerusalem to worship God in Solomon's temple—he started two shrines at Dan and Bethel, and there he set up what Holy Scripture derisively calls "calves." I suppose that his idea was to make images of a bull, the emblem of power, intending them to be the symbol of the Divine Being, and that the people still intended to worship God, but to worship Him under the image of a bull. It is the same in Roman Catholicism to this day—the worship of God, the worship of Christ, by means of crucifixes, and emblems and symbols of various kinds.

But when people once begin that kind of idolatry, there is no knowing where they will stop. For the worship of God through the medium of symbol soon grows into the worship of other gods. Saints, female saints, "blessed virgins," and I know not what besides, are very likely to be set up once people begin to use outward and visible emblems of the Deity. So it was with these ancient Israelites.

From worshipping the bull, which was meant to be a type of the omnipotent God, they went on to worshipping molten images of their silver, and idols according to their own understanding. Brothers and sisters, let us take warning from these idolaters and always keep to the simplicity of worship ordained by God in His Word. However pleasing and beautiful, or grand and imposing, and, consequently, fascinating, any form of idolatry may be to some minds, let us utterly despise it if it is not according to the mind of God, and the teaching of His Spirit, as revealed in His Word.

Therefore they shall be as the morning cloud, and as the early dew that passeth away, as the chaff that is driven with the whirlwind out of the floor, and as the smoke out of the chimney.

Those who will have gods of their own making shall have but a brief enjoyment of them. He who truly worships the everlasting God shall have an everlasting blessing; but he who worships gods that he has himself made—mere objects of this mortal day—shall have but a short day of it. He shall be as the early dew, which glistens brightly, but is soon gone; or as the morning cloud, which is banished by the rising of the sun.

When Ephraim spake trembling, he exalted himself in Israel; (Hosea 13:1).

When we are little in our own esteem, when we are full of fears concerning ourselves, when we dare not think of boasting, then it is that we grow: When Ephraim spake trembling, he exalted himself in Israel.

But when he offended in Baal, he died.

It is when, like Ephraim, we turn aside to other gods, when our heart goes astray from the Lord, that there is death—death to our joys, death to our confidence, death to our usefulness. No one knows what destruction there is, even in the least sin, to the most joyful believer.

It is like the hot breath of the Sirocco, which scorches up every green thing. If, before this terrible blast, everything is like Eden, behind it all is as a desert.

Let us read the whole verse again that we may lay to heart the lesson it teaches us: When Ephraim spake trembling, he exalted himself in Israel; but when he offended in Baal, he died.

And now they sin more and more,

That is the usual way of sin; it is a growing evil; its course is downhill.

And have made there molten images of their silver, and idols according to their own understanding, all of it the work of the craftsmen: they say of them, Let the men that sacrifice kiss the calves.

Their idolatry was such that they were not satisfied with the bulls that were set on high as images, but they had little imitations of these, which they wore on their persons, just as Romanists wear small crucifixes or crosses. These they carried about with them for their own private worship.

Oh, what a tendency there is in sin to multiply itself! The idolaters were not satisfied with bowing the knee to false gods, but they said, Let the men that sacrifice kiss the calves. Superstition goes from one evil to another; there is no end to it. You may begin with what you call moderate Ritualism, but where you will end, I cannot tell. Some go beyond the superstitions of popery itself.

The only safe way is to worship the Lord our God, and serve him alone, and purge out the idols from among us.