Charles Spurgeon Commentary Hosea 14:8

"Ephraim [shall say], What have I to do any more with idols? I have answered, and will regard him: I am like a green fir-tree; from me is thy fruit found." — Hosea 14:8 (ASV)

Ephraim shall say, What have I to do any more with idols? (Hosea 14:8)

He will spontaneously purge himself from the evil things which he once loved. I shall not need to send the hammer to break his idols, but he shall say, out of the fullness of his own heart, 'What have I to do any more with idols?'.

Ephraim shall say, What have I to do any more with idols?

Let that question also go round our ranks: "What have I to do any more with idols: I, who am bought with the precious blood of Jesus; I, who am named by the name of Jesus; I, who have been baptized into the Sacred Trinity—what have I to do any more with idols?"

You may make an idol of that boy or girl of yours; you may make an idol of that house or garden of yours; you may make an idol of that business or profession of yours.

Do not do so, I entreat you, but rather say, "What have I to do any more with idols?"

I have heard him, and observed him: I am like a green fir tree;

That is what Ephraim says, and this is what God says:

From me is thy fruit found.

We are never so fruitful as when we get all our fruit from God.

We always shine in borrowed light, and we are always fruitful in borrowed fruitfulness.

Ephraim shall say, What have I to do any more with idols?

"I have had enough of them. They have cost me sorrow enough; they have plagued me enough. I will put them away, for I must have my God, and I cannot have him and idols too."

I have heard him and observed him:

God hears the cry of the penitent, and observes what is going on in his heart.