Israel was a luxuriant vine, yielding fruit for himself. The more his fruit increased, the more he increased the altars. The better his land produced, the better he made the sacred pillars. Israel was a luxuriant vineThe imagery of Israel as a "luxuriant vine" draws from the agricultural context of ancient Israel, where vineyards were a symbol of prosperity and blessing. The Hebrew word for "luxuriant" suggests abundance and thriving growth. This metaphor reflects Israel's initial blessings and potential under God's covenant. However, it also implies a responsibility to bear fruit for God's glory, not merely for self-indulgence. yielding fruit for itself
The phrase "yielding fruit for itself" indicates a shift from divine purpose to self-centeredness. The Hebrew root here suggests productivity, but the focus is on self-benefit rather than fulfilling God's mission. This self-serving attitude led to spiritual decline, as Israel's prosperity became an end in itself rather than a means to honor God. As his fruit increased
The increase in fruit symbolizes material prosperity and success. Historically, during times of economic growth, Israel often turned away from God, relying on their wealth and achievements. This phrase serves as a caution against the dangers of prosperity leading to spiritual complacency and idolatry. he built more altars
Building "more altars" signifies the proliferation of idolatrous practices. In ancient Israel, altars were places of worship, and the multiplication of altars indicates a departure from exclusive worship of Yahweh. The Hebrew context suggests a deliberate choice to embrace pagan rituals, reflecting a heart divided between God and false gods. as his land prospered
The prosperity of the land is a testament to God's blessings, yet it became a snare for Israel. The Hebrew word for "prospered" conveys flourishing and success. This prosperity should have led to gratitude and faithfulness, but instead, it fueled pride and spiritual infidelity, highlighting the danger of allowing material wealth to overshadow spiritual devotion. he adorned his sacred stones
Adorning "sacred stones" refers to the beautification of objects associated with idol worship. The Hebrew term for "sacred stones" often denotes pillars or monuments dedicated to foreign deities. This act of adorning suggests a deepening commitment to idolatry, as Israel invested in the external trappings of false religion rather than nurturing a genuine relationship with God. Persons / Places / Events 1. IsraelThe northern kingdom, often depicted as God's chosen people who have turned away from Him. In this verse, Israel is metaphorically described as a luxuriant vine. 2. Luxuriant VineA metaphor for Israel's prosperity and abundance, which should have been used for God's glory but was instead used for idolatry. 3. AltarsStructures built for worship, in this context, they are associated with idolatrous practices rather than the worship of Yahweh. 4. Sacred StonesObjects used in pagan worship, indicating Israel's turn to idolatry and away from God. 5. HoseaA prophet called by God to deliver messages of judgment and hope to Israel, emphasizing their unfaithfulness and God's enduring love. Teaching Points Prosperity and ResponsibilityProsperity is a blessing from God, but it comes with the responsibility to use it for His glory, not for self-indulgence or idolatry. Idolatry's SubtletyIdolatry can subtly infiltrate our lives when we prioritize material wealth or success over our relationship with God. True WorshipGenuine worship involves using our resources and blessings to honor God, not to build altars to our own desires or achievements. Spiritual FruitfulnessTrue fruitfulness is measured by our faithfulness to God and the impact of our lives for His kingdom, not merely by material success. Repentance and RestorationLike Israel, we are called to recognize our unfaithfulness, repent, and return to God, who is always ready to restore us. Bible Study Questions 1. How does the metaphor of Israel as a "luxuriant vine" challenge us to reflect on how we use our own prosperity and blessings? 2. In what ways can material success lead to spiritual complacency or idolatry in our lives today? 3. How does Jesus' teaching in John 15 about being the true vine provide a solution to the problem of unfaithfulness depicted in Hosea 10:1? 4. What practical steps can we take to ensure that our worship remains focused on God and not on the "altars" of modern-day idols? 5. How can we apply the lessons from Hosea 10:1 to cultivate a life that bears fruit for God's kingdom, especially in times of abundance? Connections to Other Scriptures John 15:1-8Jesus describes Himself as the true vine, contrasting with Israel's failure as a vine. This passage emphasizes the importance of abiding in Christ to bear fruit for God's glory. Isaiah 5:1-7The Song of the Vineyard, where God laments over Israel's failure to produce good fruit despite His care, paralleling Hosea's message of Israel's misuse of prosperity. Deuteronomy 8:11-14A warning to Israel not to forget God when they become prosperous, highlighting the danger of prosperity leading to pride and idolatry. People Hosea, Jacob, Jareb, ShalmanPlaces Assyria, Aven, Beth-arbel, Beth-aven, Bethel, Gibeah, Gilgal, SamariaTopics Abundance, Adorned, Altars, Better, Branching, Bringeth, Built, Empty, Fair, Forth, Freely, Fruit, Full, Goodly, Goodness, Images, Improved, Increased, Luxuriant, Maketh, Multiplied, Multitude, Pillars, Produces, Prospered, Puts, Putteth, Richer, Sacred, Standing-pillars, Statues, Stones, Unpruned, Vine, YieldsDictionary of Bible Themes Hosea 10:1 4534 vine
5778 adorning
6701 peace, search for
7021 church, OT anticipations
7302 altar Hosea 10:1-2 1330 God, the provider
4366 stones
6174 guilt, human aspects
8705 apostasy, in OT
8720 double-mindedness Library 'Fruit which is Death'
'Israel is an empty vine, he bringeth forth fruit unto himself: according to the multitude of his fruit he hath increased the altars; according to the goodness of his land they have made goodly images. 2. Their heart is divided; now shall they be found faulty: He shall break down their altars, He shall spoil their images. 3. For now they shall say, We have no king, because we feared not the Lord; what then should a king do to us? 4. They have spoken words, swearing falsely in making a covenant: thus …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy ScriptureA Divided Heart
I intend, however, to take the text this morning specially with reference to our individual condition. We shall look at the separate individual heart of each man. If divisions in the great main body--if separation among the distinct classes of that body should each promote disasters, how much more disastrous must be a division in that better kingdom--the heart of man. If there be civil tumult in the town of Mansoul, even when no enemy attacks its walls, it will be in a sufficiently dangerous position. …
Charles Haddon Spurgeon—Spurgeon's Sermons Volume 5: 1859 How to Promote a Revival.
Text.--Break up your fallow ground; for it is time to seek the Lord, till he come and rain righteousness upon you.--Hosea x. 12. THE Jews were a nation of farmers, and it is therefore a common thing in the Scriptures to refer for illustrations to their occupation, and to the scenes with which farmers and shepherds are familiar. The prophet Hosea addresses them as a nation of backsliders, and reproves them for their idolatry, and threatens them with the judgments of God. I have showed you in my first …
Charles Grandison Finney—Lectures on Revivals of Religion The Books of the Old Testament as a Whole. 1 the Province of Particular Introduction is to Consider the Books of the Bible Separately...
CHAPTER XVIII. THE BOOKS OF THE OLD TESTAMENT AS A WHOLE. 1. The province of Particular Introduction is to consider the books of the Bible separately, in respect to their authorship, date, contents, and the place which each of them holds in the system of divine truth. Here it is above all things important that we begin with the idea of the unity of divine revelation--that all the parts of the Bible constitute a gloriously perfect whole, of which God and not man is the author. No amount of study devoted …
E. P. Barrows—Companion to the Bible Arbel. Shezor. Tarnegola the Upper.
"Arbel a city of Galilee."--There is mention of it in Hosea 10:14. But there are authors which do very differently interpret that place, viz. the Chaldee paraphrast, R. Solomon, Kimchi: consult them. It was between Zippor and Tiberias. Hence Nittai the Arbelite, who was president with Josua Ben Perahiah. The valley of Arbel is mentioned by the Talmudists. So also "The Arbelite Bushel." "Near Zephath in Upper Galilee was a town named Shezor, whence was R. Simeon Shezori: there he was buried. There …
John Lightfoot—From the Talmud and Hebraica Letter Xli to Thomas of St. Omer, after He had Broken his Promise of Adopting a Change of Life.
To Thomas of St. Omer, After He Had Broken His Promise of Adopting a Change of Life. He urges him to leave his studies and enter religion, and sets before him the miserable end of Thomas of Beverley. To his dearly beloved son, Thomas, Brother Bernard, called Abbot of Clairvaux, that he may walk in the fear of the Lord. 1. You do well in acknowledging the debt of your promise, and in not denying your guilt in deferring its performance. But I beg you not to think simply of what you promised, but to …
Saint Bernard of Clairvaux—Some Letters of Saint Bernard, Abbot of Clairvaux Of Love to God
I proceed to the second general branch of the text. The persons interested in this privilege. They are lovers of God. "All things work together for good, to them that love God." Despisers and haters of God have no lot or part in this privilege. It is children's bread, it belongs only to them that love God. Because love is the very heart and spirit of religion, I shall the more fully treat upon this; and for the further discussion of it, let us notice these five things concerning love to God. 1. The …
Thomas Watson—A Divine Cordial The Prophet Hosea.
GENERAL PRELIMINARY REMARKS. That the kingdom of Israel was the object of the prophet's ministry is so evident, that upon this point all are, and cannot but be, agreed. But there is a difference of opinion as to whether the prophet was a fellow-countryman of those to whom he preached, or was called by God out of the kingdom of Judah. The latter has been asserted with great confidence by Maurer, among others, in his Observ. in Hos., in the Commentat. Theol. ii. i. p. 293. But the arguments …
Ernst Wilhelm Hengstenberg—Christology of the Old Testament The Worst Things Work for Good to the Godly
DO not mistake me, I do not say that of their own nature the worst things are good, for they are a fruit of the curse; but though they are naturally evil, yet the wise overruling hand of God disposing and sanctifying them, they are morally good. As the elements, though of contrary qualities, yet God has so tempered them, that they all work in a harmonious manner for the good of the universe. Or as in a watch, the wheels seem to move contrary one to another, but all carry on the motions of the watch: …
Thomas Watson—A Divine Cordial How Christ is the Way in General, "I am the Way. "
We come now to speak more particularly to the words; and, first, Of his being a way. Our design being to point at the way of use-making of Christ in all our necessities, straits, and difficulties which are in our way to heaven; and particularly to point out the way how believers should make use of Christ in all their particular exigencies; and so live by faith in him, walk in him, grow up in him, advance and march forward toward glory in him. It will not be amiss to speak of this fulness of Christ …
John Brown (of Wamphray)—Christ The Way, The Truth, and The Life The Barren Fig-Tree;
OR, THE DOOM AND DOWNFALL OF THE FRUITLESS PROFESSOR: SHOWING, THAT THE DAY OF GRACE MAY BE PAST WITH HIM LONG BEFORE HIS LIFE IS ENDED; THE SIGNS ALSO BY WHICH SUCH MISERABLE MORTALS MAY BE KNOWN. BY JOHN BUNYAN 'Who being dead, yet speaketh.'--Hebrews 11:4 London: Printed for J. Robinson, at the Golden Lion, in St. Paul's Churchyard, 1688. This Title has a broad Black Border. ADVERTISEMENT BY THE EDITOR. This solemn, searching, awful treatise, was published by Bunyan in 1682; but does not appear …
John Bunyan—The Works of John Bunyan Volumes 1-3 Directions to Awakened Sinners.
Acts ix. 6. Acts ix. 6. And he, trembling and astonished, said, Lord, what wilt thou have me to do. THESE are the words of Saul, who also is called Paul, (Acts xiii. 9,) when he was stricken to the ground as he was going to Damascus; and any one who had looked upon him in his present circumstances and knew nothing more of him than that view, in comparison with his past life, could have given, would have imagined him one of the most miserable creatures that ever lived upon earth, and would have expected …
Philip Doddridge—Practical Discourses on Regeneration "There is Therefore Now no Condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who Walk not after the Flesh, but after the Spirit. "
Rom. viii. 1.--"There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit." There are three things which concur to make man miserable,--sin, condemnation, and affliction. Every one may observe that "man is born unto trouble as the sparks fly upward," that his days here are few and evil. He possesses "months of vanity, and wearisome nights are appointed" for him. Job v. 6, 7, vii. 3. He "is of few days and full of trouble," Job xiv. …
Hugh Binning—The Works of the Rev. Hugh Binning Hosea
The book of Hosea divides naturally into two parts: i.-iii. and iv.-xiv., the former relatively clear and connected, the latter unusually disjointed and obscure. The difference is so unmistakable that i.-iii. have usually been assigned to the period before the death of Jeroboam II, and iv.-xiv. to the anarchic period which succeeded. Certainly Hosea's prophetic career began before the end of Jeroboam's reign, as he predicts the fall of the reigning dynasty, i. 4, which practically ended with Jeroboam's …
John Edgar McFadyen—Introduction to the Old Testament Links Hosea 10:1 NIVHosea 10:1 NLTHosea 10:1 ESVHosea 10:1 NASBHosea 10:1 KJV
Hosea 10:1 Commentaries
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