For she said, 'I will go after my lovers, who give me my bread and my water, my wool and my linen, my oil and my drink... And I will destroy her vines and her fig trees, of which she has said, 'These are my wages that my lovers have given me. Hosea 2:5, 12
The idolatrous person is deceived into believing that he has gains from the idols he serves, but the truth is that idols are nothing, and can result nothing, but pain and misery. In the thinking of idolatrous Israel, her vines and fig trees were her wages earned from the idols that she served. But God was going to destroy them to show her that all that she had came from Him. God vowed: "Therefore I will return and take away My grain in its time, and My new wine in its season, and will take back My wool and My linen, given to cover her nakedness." Hosea 2:9
When we fail to recognize that all that we have come from God, there is the tendency for us to ascribe them to the idol of self-actualization. This idol locks in the heart of man, making it the god that many worship in the place of God. It's no wonder that Jesus commanded all who will come after Him to deny self. To trust in self is a deception that best can be called an an illusion; to trust in the self is to bestow confidence in the arm of the flesh.
Toni
