Hosea 8:6 The workman made it; therefore it is not God.
There is not a four-year-old alive who does not know how to run the house. Many times a grandpa or grandma thinks that he or she is running things when actually a two or three-year-old is running things. Children are born with an innate desire to and a knowledge of how to work people, how to make authority think that they are in charge when it is actually the child. In some people this ability grows even better with age. But, the one Person you will never “work” is God.
Israel tried. Israel thought that she could give God token attention but could build idols, seek Egypt or Assyria for help, return to them instead of God, and everything would be okay. But, in Hosea 8:5 it says, “Thy calf, O Samaria, hath cast thee off.” What he is talking about is the idol that God’s people had made. Verse 6 says, “For from Israel was it also: the workman made it; therefore it is not God.” In other words, it is not God because you made it. God is the Creator. God made you. You make gods. That is just a basic Bible principle.
Any god that you can make isn’t worthy of the name. God is the Creator. In verse 14 God says through Hosea, “For Israel hath forgotten his Maker.” God is the Creator; we are the creation. That is why a god who would never disagree with you is not God. Sometimes we think we are talking about God when we are just putting a cape on ourselves and making a super version of self and calling that God. A god who would never disagree with me cannot be God.
There are going to be times when God’s ethic, God’s mandate, God’s command, and God’s way is different, higher, and better than mine. I need to be sure that I am following God and not expecting God to follow me. In short, you have to decide who you will treat as God.
Notice I didn’t say, “Who will be God.” If you are talking in a literal sense, there is only one God. He is the One Who made us. You have a choice today of who you will treat as God. Let me give you four alternatives to the true God.
Culture of the Day: Verse 4 says, “They have set up kings, but not by me: they have made princes, and I knew it not.” God is not saying that He was oblivious to the fact that they had set up kings. What He is saying is that they never asked His advice. In the previous chapter Israel had gone to Assyria and Egypt for help. They had returned, but not to God. Consequently, they had adopted the culture, the way and why people were doing things then and there, from Egypt and Assyria.
All of us are informed by the way and why we do things here and now. So many times we don’t even realize it is the culture and not God that is mandating our thoughts. In our church, political party, or work, are we what we are because of what God has said?
What about idols? Aren’t idols ridiculous? They are to you and me, but they weren’t then. There is not a thing that anyone alive could not and would not do if everyone around him thinks it is okay. That is why you have to decide who you will treat as God today.
Money: The love of money is the root of all evil. It is not as if money itself is evil, but the love of money is certainly the root of evil. Are your decisions today dictated by God? Or have you made a god of money?
Peers: I sometimes think that we as preachers are some of the most insecure people around. We think that teenagers have peer pressure and that adults do not. That is not true. It only grows with adulthood, and if you happen to be a preacher or someone who is a leader or influencer in some way, peer pressure is often the greatest on such people. We have a need to be affirmed and in the right crowd. I don’t think it is wrong to be encouraged and in the right crowd, but our peers can become gods instead of God.
Plans: There is nothing wrong with having a one-week, three-year, or five-year plan, but recognize that if God is going to be God in your life, you are going to have to submit your plans to what God has said.
To Israel God said, “The workman made it; therefore it is not God.” It was not God because they made it. God made you. He is the Creator. Let Him be God in the decisions you make and the way that you think this very moment.