For the ancient Israelites, Yahweh was just one of many gods, and it was difficult for them to understand why they should worship him and no other gods. And even for us today, it  may even seem a little narcissistic on Yahweh's part to jealously demand such loyalty and to punish infidelity so brutally as he threatens to do in the prophets.

However, as we begin the book of Hosea, we will see that Yahweh actually has very good reason for acting this way, and if we just dig a little below the surface, we'll see that he is far more than just a jealous, narcissistic god. It turns out that worshiping other gods leads to far more and far worse than just "not worshiping Yahweh."