Hos 2:5 For their mother hath played the harlot: she that conceived them hath done shamefully: for she said, I will go after my lovers, that give me my bread and my water, my wool and my flax, mine oil and my drink.
Bread and Water, Wool and Flax, Oil and Wine became the idols of the Israelites as their prosperity increased and life became more comfortable. They forgot the power of GOD that had transformed their lives and made them who they are.
Bread and Water relate to food, Wool and Flax relate to clothing and Oil and wine to the pleasures of life. These may seem basic necessities but when they become the core reason for our existence, they become our idols.
Man's forgetfulness of GOD's mercy and the dependence on his strengths can be one of our many silent sins that take us away from GOD. As we prosper because GOD has blessed us, we tend to forget the spiritual blessings but focus on the material blessings, which are then converted into the idols of our life.
These idols then dominate our lifestyle, our thinking and our relationship with GOD; they become our lovers where GOD should have been our first love. They take control of our lives and if anyone of them is not attainable it raises fear, depression and anger since our dependence is not on GOD but on our Idols. These idols cannot talk back to us, cannot give us peace and cannot save us; all they are able to do is take us away from GOD, if we keep them as our first love in life.
In this chapter of Hosea, the prophet, goes on to write that GOD would like to show mercy and forgiveness but HE cannot not do it unless we move away from our idols. In order to help us see the power of these idols, he would strip us and make us naked as the day we were born. GOD forbid it happens to us , when our lives are dependent on our idols and we have lost touch with GOD , in order to remind us that He is our first love , He may strip us of our dependence on these idols so that we may turn back to HIM.
GOD wants us to keep Him as our first love and He will provide us our bare necessities, blessings in spiritual and material form will flow provided we never forget that GOD is our first love and nothing can replace HIM.
To Ponder - :
Are there idols in my life?
Is GOD my first love?