Feigned Worship

Hosea 7:14,16; 8:2,4-5,11-12: "They (the Israelites) do not cry out to me from their hearts but wail upon their beds . . . . They do not turn to the Most High; they are like a faulty bow . . . . Israel cries out to me, 'O our God, we acknowledge you!' But Israel has rejected what is good . . . . With their silver and gold they make idols for themselves to their own destruction . . . . My anger burns against them (says the Lord). How long will they be incapable of purity? . . . . Though Ephraim built many altars for sin offerings, these have become altars for sinning. I wrote for them the many things of my law, but they regarded them as something alien."



These two chapters from the Old Testament book of Hosea illustrate everything that is wrong with worship. The Israelites to whom this book was written were great at pomp and ceremony in their ritual religious practices, but their hearts were devoid of any desire to worship the One True Lord.

Although God desired to redeem His people (7:13), He began to enact His judgment upon the people for their wickedness. Their worship observances were to no avail in appeasing the judgment of the Lord. What is interesting is the Israelites' response to God's enactment of His wrath. In Hosea 7:14, the people wailed upon their beds, but they were more grieved at their present circumstances rather than their rebellion against the Lord. Whereas they showed an emotive response to their accumulating losses, they did not show genuine contrition of the heart. God compared them to a faulty bow; namely they looked good in their outward composition, but they failed in their performance . . . . these sinful people were more upset that life was miserable and less concerned with the reasons WHY they found themselves in their deplorable position.

God then critiqued the people's perfunctory worship:

1. The Israelites cried out to the Lord, using verbiage like "O our God, we acknowledge you!" But these words in fact were hollow, for they were not backed up with hearts of surrender.

2. The people chose to use their silver and gold to make idols for themselves, not to honor the Lord. The use of their wealth revealed a heart that sought what was best for self over glorification of God.

3. Though they built great altars for sin offerings of repentance to the Lord, they instead used these altars to sin against the Lord. They were using these sacred places to engage in sacrilegious, lewd acts against the laws of God.

4. They refused to recognize God's Word (i.e. Scripture) as the source of direction for their lives; instead, they considered everything that the Lord had communicated to them as something "alien" or inapplicable to them.

Because the Israelites had forsaken their Maker, the Lord in turn was not pleased with their worship. He determined to punish their sins . . . thus, their worship was illegitimate and ineffective at glorifying God.

What a great word for us today is this book of the Bible. If we believe that we can honor the Lord with hollow worship practices, we are deceiving ourselves. God tells us in Hosea 6:6 that He desires acknowledgment of Him (i.e. surrender to Him as Lord) over burnt offerings (i.e. ritual worship). Routine religious acts without a heart of contrition and submission are worthless; they do not please the Lord.

Hundreds of years later, John the Baptist reinforced this fact in his words to the crowds around Jordan: "Prove by the way you live that you have really turned from your sins and turned to God. Don't say 'We're safe.' That proves nothing" (Luke 3:8). Routine, ritual worship is not worship at all . . . it is ill effective in pleasing the One Sovereign Lord who expects genuine worship from the heart.