Prosperity begets idolatry: Hosea says that abundant fruit and more productive land are accompanied by sacred pillars and false altars. Fruitful vines and productive land point to a rural background, but it requires very little imagination or creativity to transfer his criticisms to our more urbanized world. The more banks and shopping malls there are, the more brand names and pop stars there are, the more we are in danger of succumbing to idolatry. We will never be so crude and uneducated as to make carved images as idols to adore, but beyond this outward expression there can be a more pernicious idolatry, of the heart and spirit.

We can imagine Hosea giving a wry smile as he remarked: "since they do not fear the Lord, what can the king do for them?" The further Israel moved away from accepting the lordship of God, the more they became satisfied with themselves to the detriment of their religious beliefs. They might exclaim, as Hosea remarks, "We have no king", but there was always the danger that, in their hearts, this meant "We have no God". Our modern world, even those places more traditionally religious, has gone very far along this road.