I will put an end to all her mirth, her festivals, her new moons, her sabbaths, and all her appointed festivals. I will lay waste her vines and her fig trees, of which she said, ‘These are my pay, which my lovers have given me.’ I will make them a forest, and the wild animals shall devour them. I will punish her for the festival days of the Baals, when she offered incense to them and decked herself with her ring and jewellery, and went after her lovers, and forgot me, says the Lord. (Hosea 2: 11-13)

The passage highlights two forms of idolotry. The first is the worship of Ba'al. Several ancient Semitic gods could be referred to as Ba'al. Gomer was probably a cult prostitute attached to the worship of the Sidonian Ba'al introduced to Israel by King Ahab's marriage to Jezebel, a princess of Sidon.

This Ba'al was a god of sun, rain and fertility. He was engaged in an ongoing struggle with a god of darkness, drought, and death. Cult prostitutes were understood as receiving from their sexual partners donations of life giving energy which strengthened Ba'al in his struggle for good.

But this is not the only form of idolotry. Gomer perceives that she has earned and owns her vines and fig trees. She has earned and owns her ring and jewellry. She pursues her lovers, not her God. Gomer has mistaken her freedom of choice as an autonomy of existance.

Idolatry is easily understood as the worship of "graven images." It is sometimes suggested that God was offended by the competition. More accurately, God attempts to dissuade us from valuing what has no value. God is trying to coach us away from shadows to substance, from the non-existant to what is fundamentally real.

We seldom bow to Ba'al. But we often pursue illusions. We often act as if we have earned what we have received as a gift. We often extend great value to what is ephemeral and essentially worthless. We often seek jewellry instead of seeking an authentic relationship with God.