Remember we said that two-thirds of the book is comprised of the evidence which Hosea presents, as if a prosecuting attorney, to prove that Israel has betrayed the Lord and his covenant. But, with reference to man it especially refers to that love, that devotion, that loyalty which is our part of the covenant which God has made with us. Adam and dirt being quite similar. Worship is the true test of where a church or where any churchgoer really stands before God. Worship will tell in the end whether that man or woman loves the Lord or does not, whether he or she really believes or does not.
Worship is the test.
The Sunday service is the barometer. It is today and it was in Hosea's day. Israel's worship had clearly gone far wrong. It had been corrupted wholesale by the pagan worship round about Israel. No, underneath that outward corruption and defiance of God's law was a still deeper and more menacing problem, which was the true cause of Israel's corrupt practices of worship.