Hosea 4:12-15

A god that cannot answer -- Hosea 4:12-15: The children of Israel were asking counsel from their wooden idols and other objects of wood. Their sinful living had lead them to terrible judgment; thinking they could receive good advise from a stick of wood. Their whoredom, both fleshly and spiritual, had led them to lust for sex at pagan shrines. They had become unfaithful to God. The people sacrificed to their idols on mountaintops and hills. They would find a shady tree under which to conduct their pagan worship. The spiritual adultery of the leaders of Israel caused their own daughters and wives to sell themselves for sex. As these leading men proved unfaithful to God spiritually their wives and daughters prove unfaithful to them by committing physical adultery.

God is not condoning or supporting the wrong that was being done. He allowed the wrong in order to teach these leaders of Israel a needed lesson. God said He would not punish the prostitution of the wives and daughters of the leaders of Israel because they themselves "go to prostitutes and offer sacrifices with them at pagan shrines. Your own foolishness will lead to your ruin."

Israel (the Northern Kingdom) had played the harlot and suffered the consequences. God warned Judah (the Southern Kingdom) that the same thing could happen to them. Gilgal and Bethel were once places of respect for the true God, but now they had been polluted by idolaters. Judah was warned to stay away from such places and to avoid the evils of idol worship that went on there.