In the days that Hosea prophesied, Israel had grown economically prosperous, Israel was in chaos through failures in international diplomacy and political in-fighting and intrigue and its apostasy--the worship of God had turned into religious idolatry. Hosea tried to remind Israel how God had freed them from slavery in Egypt:
"But I am the LORD your God from the land of Egypt; you know no God but me, and besides me there is no savior" (vs. 4). One of the factors that Hosea identified as having turned Israel away from God was its prosperity: "
It was I who knew you in the wilderness, in the land of drought; but when they had grazed, they became full, they were filled, and their heart was lifted up; therefore they forgot me" (vs. 5-6). If there is anything that has proven to turn people's attentions from God in the days in which we live it is surely our prosperity. Prosperity creates false hope--hope in the economies of this world, hope in our own abilities to accumulate wealth, and hope that it will give us a better or happier life. But anything that creates false hope is idolatry. Our hope is for eternal life with God and anything that replaces hope in God is idolatry. So we must not let our wealth turn our attention from God by being occupied with its accumulation, but let us be occupied with how better to use our wealth to express and proclaim the gospel of salvation through Jesus Christ.
