Hosea 10:1–2: “Israel empties his vine; / He brings forth fruit for himself. / According to the multitude of his fruit / He has increased the altars; / According to the bounty of his land / They have embellished his sacred pillars. / Their heart is divided; / Now they are held guilty. / He will break down their altars; / He will ruin their sacred pillars.”

November 2nd, 2021 by Pastor Ed in devotional

At this time in Israel’s history, they were acknowledging God, but worshipping Baal, which is why God accused them of having a divided heart, a deadly heart disease. If a poll had been taken, it probably would have returned results like one taken not too long ago in America:

95% believed in the existence of God
87% attended worship service sometime during the year
92% felt religion was important in a person’s life
90% believed that there should be prayer in public schools

However then, like today, people had one foot in the church and one foot in the world—a divided heart. Even though there was a general belief in God and perhaps even a reverence for God, their affections, their desires, were spread out or divided. Also like America, Israel had been blessed by God and had become a very prosperous nation. However in their prosperity, perhaps because of their prosperity, they used their wealth to make more ornate altars to other gods.

Gifted Russian author Alexander Solzhenitsyn wrote of the problem of eradicating the conflict of our hearts in The Gulag Archipelago. He wrote:

If only there were evil people somewhere insidiously committing evil deeds, and it were necessary only to separate them from the rest of us and destroy them. But the line dividing good and evil cuts through the heart of every human being. And who is willing to destroy a piece of his own heart?

In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus spoke of serving only one master: “No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon” (Matt. 6:24).

“LORD, help us to maintain an undivided heart before You today.”