11 Promiscuity, wine, and new wine
take away understanding.
12 My people consult their wooden idols,
and their divining rods inform them.
For a spirit of prostitution leads them astray
and they have played the harlot against their God.
13 They sacrifice on the mountaintops
and burn offerings on the hills,
under oak, poplar, and terebinth,
because their shade is pleasant.
And so your daughters turn to prostitution
and your daughters-in-law to adultery.
14 I will not punish your daughters
when they prostitute themselves,
nor your daughters-in-law
when they commit adultery.
For the men themselves go off with prostitutes
and offer sacrifices with shrine prostitutes.
So a people without understanding
will come to ruin.

15 Though you prostitute yourself, O Israel,
may Judah avoid such guilt!
Do not journey to Gilgal,
do not go up to Beth-aven,
and do not swear on oath,
‘As surely as the LORD lives!’
16 For Israel is as obstinate
as a stubborn heifer.
Can the LORD now shepherd them
like lambs in an open meadow?
17 Ephraim is joined to idols;
leave him alone!18 When their liquor is gone,
they turn to prostitution;
their rulers dearly love disgrace.
19 The whirlwind has wrapped them in its wings,
and their sacrifices will bring them shame.

REFLECTIONS

Written by Vincent Chan

The famous American writer David Foster Wallace once said, “There is no such thing as not worshipping. Everybody worships. The only choice we get is what to worship.”

Wallace wasn’t a Christian, but he recognised a profound truth: in our day-to-day lives, every one of us builds our lives on something. We all live for something. We all worship something. But Wallace also made this striking observation: “Most of what you worship will eat you alive.” In other words, the things we worship don’t usually build us up—they slowly consume and degrade us.

That’s exactly the picture we see in today’s passage. Israel is described as worshipping idols—objects as ordinary as a piece of wood or a diviner’s rod (v. 12). Yet these idols are never harmless or trivial. Their worship leads to the degradation of their worshippers. Women are given over to prostitution and adultery (v. 13). Men surrender themselves to lust and selfish desire (v. 14). It’s a tragic picture—people and their bodies handed over to senseless shame.

As I read this passage, I’m reminded how good it is that we are called to worship the one true God. Unlike idols, worshipping God doesn’t diminish us—it renews us. Day by day, as we worship the true Creator, His grace shapes us into who we were always meant to be. We become more—not less—human. We become more and more like Jesus.

And we all, who with unveiled faces contemplate the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his image with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit. (2 Corinthians 3:18)

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Vinno is one of our Assistant Ministers.