John Calvin Commentary Hosea 8:14

"For Israel hath forgotten his Maker, and builded palaces; and Judah hath multiplied fortified cities: but I will send a fire upon his cities, and it shall devour the castles thereof." — Hosea 8:14 (ASV)

Here the Prophet concludes his previous observations. It is indeed probable that he preached them at various times; but, as I have already said, the main points of the sermons which the Prophet delivered are collected in this book, so that we may know what his teaching was. He then discoursed daily on idolatry, on superstitions, and on the other corruptions which then prevailed among the people; he often repeated the same threats, but afterwards collected into certain chapters the things which he had spoken.

The conclusion, then, of his previous teaching was this: that Israel had forgotten his Maker, while for himself he had been building temples. He says that Israel forgot his Maker by building temples because he did not follow the directions of the law. Thus we see that God wills to be known by his word.

Israel might have objected and said that no such thing was intended when he built temples in Dan and Bethel, but that he wished by these temples to retain the remembrance of God. But the Prophet here shows that God is not truly known, and that men do not really remember him, except when they worship him according to what the law prescribes, submit themselves wholly to his word, and undertake and attempt nothing but what he has commanded.

What the superstitious then call remembrance, the Prophet here plainly testifies is forgetfulness. The case is the same today, when we blame the Papists for their idols; their excuse is this: that what they set forth in pictures and statues is the image of God, and that images, as they say, are the books of the illiterate.

But what does the Prophet answer here? That Israel forgot his Maker. There was an altar in Bethel, and there Israel was accustomed to offer sacrifices, and they called this the worship of God. But the Prophet shows that this worship was accursed before God, and that it had no other effect than to wholly obliterate the holy name of God from the minds of men, so that the whole of religion perished.

This passage then is remarkable, for the Prophet says that the people forgot God their Maker, when they built temples for themselves. But what was in the temples so vicious as to take away the remembrance of God from the world?

It was because God would have only one temple and altar. If a reason were asked, a reason might indeed have been given; but the people ought to have acquiesced in the command of God. Though God may not show why he commands this or that, it is enough that we ought to obey his word.

Now, then, it appears that when Israel built various temples for himself, he departed from God, and for this reason: because he did not follow the rule of the law and did not keep himself within the limits of the divine command. Hence it was to forget God. We now understand the Prophet's point.

Though they were then accustomed to glory in their temples, and there to display their pomp and splendor, and proudly to delight in their superstitions, yet the Prophet says that they had forgotten their Creator, and for this reason only: because they had not continued in his law.

He says that they had forgotten God their Maker; by the word Maker, the Prophet does not allude to God as the framer of the world and the creator of men, but he applies it to the condition of the people. For, as we well know, God's favor had been peculiar towards that people; he had not only made them as a part of the human race, but also formed them as a people for himself. Since God had thus intended them to be devoted to him, the Prophet here increases and enhances their sin when he says that they did not obey his word but followed their own devices and depraved imaginations.

Prayer:

Grant, Almighty God, that as we have already so often provoked your wrath against us, and you have in your paternal indulgence borne with us, or at least chastised us so gently as to spare us — O grant, that we may not become hardened in our wickedness, but repent in due time, and that we may not be drawn away by the inventions of our flesh, nor seek ways to flee from you, but come directly into your presence, and make a humble, sincere, and honest confession of our sins, that you may receive us into favor, and that being reconciled to us, you may bestow on us a larger measure of your blessings, through Christ our Lord. Amen.

[Exposition continues from previous day's lecture]

It remains for us to consider the second part of the last verse of the eighth chapter, in which the Prophet blames the tribe of Judah for multiplying fenced cities. This was not in itself condemnable before God; but the Prophet saw that the confidence of the people was transferred to these cities, as usually happens.

Rare indeed is the example of any people, when they are well fortified, not becoming implicated in this charge of misplaced confidence. But as this vice in the tribe of Judah was well known, the Prophet does not complain here without reason that they placed their hope in their fortified cities and thus deprived God of his just praise.

And then he denounces a punishment: I will send fire upon his cities, and it shall devour his palaces. The meaning is that when men turn their minds away from God and rely on perishable things, a fatal destruction will eventually follow, for the Lord will frustrate the hope of those who thus deprive him of his honor.

This then is the meaning. Now follows the ninth chapter.