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Hosea 6:10 "In the house of Israel I have seen a horrible thing; Ephraim's harlotry is there, Israel is defiled."

 

God so often compares his people to a wanton woman, or an unfaithful spouse. It's a good indication of how He loves us, and how He feels when we stray from Him. God's chosen people have a special place in His heart, very much like a spouse; in the New Testament we learn that the Church is Christ's bride; and the Song of Songs is an evocative love poem. These examples, and many more, show that God's love for us includes a marital type of devotion on His part, one He longs to see returned by us. 

 

Earlier in this chapter, God says "For I desire steadfast love and not sacrifice, the knowledge of God, rather than burnt offerings" (Hosea 6:6). I think the comparison to a cheating spouse helps us understand this statement. God did give the Jews rules about sacrificial offerings, after all, so why does He here say He doesn't desire them? The rules of sacrifice were to allow the people to offer something to God out of love for Him. God knows that when we love intensely, we want to give the best gifts to our beloved. In the idolatrous nations of the Old Testament, this was sometimes playing out as human sacrifice, so God gave His people rules to allow them to give back to Him while not going off the rails. But when the Jews are just offering the sacrifices out of habit and without love, the sacrifices become distasteful to God. Think of a cheating husband who comes home with expensive jewelry for his wife, not because he's sorry or intends to stop, but to try and placate her. She would not want it, it would be worse than nothing, an attempt to buy her off.

 

Seeing us as unfaithful when we are wedded to sin rather than Him is how God feels when we are really worshiping other things. When we go through the motions of our faith practices without love, they become meaningless, or even hurtful. God desires our love, not our sacrifices. He loves us, He wants us to get to know and love Him. When we are pursuing other things to love, we defile ourselves and our sacrifices with them.