Charles Spurgeon Commentary Hosea 13:2

"And now they sin more and more, and have made them molten images of their silver, even idols according to their own understanding, all of them the work of the craftsmen: they say of them, Let the men that sacrifice kiss the calves." — Hosea 13:2 (ASV)

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.

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.