Book of Hosea Chapter 8 Vs. 14

 Israel Will Reap the Whirlwind

For Israel hath forgotten his Maker, and buildeth temples; and Judah hath multiplied fenced cities: but I will send a fire upon his cities, and it shall devour the palaces thereof. Hos. 8:14

For Israel hath... Israel multiplied temples and Judah increased fortified cities, all of which were to be destroyed because of sin.

and buildeth temples... The word here used for temple is used sixty times for Jehovah’s temple. The building of these temple-palaces was a distinct sin against the unity of the Godhead.

and Judah hath... Referred to by Sennacherib, in the inscription relating to the campaign of (701 B.C.). Forty-six of his (Hezekiah’s), strong cities, fortresses . . . I besieged, I captured.” These were erected by Uzziah and Jotham (2Ch. 26:10; 27:4). With the allusions to Israel’s temples (palaces; compare Amos 3:11; 3:15).

but I will... In the letter, the words relate to Judah; but in substance, the whole relates to both. Both had forgotten God; both had offended Him. In the doom of others, each sinner may read his own. Of the cities of Judah, Isaiah says, your country is desolate, your cities are burned with fire (Isa. 1:7). And in the fourteenth year of Hezekiah, (some twelve years probably after the death of Hosea), Sennacherib came up against all the cities of Judah and took them (2 Kgs. 18:13).

shall devour the... And of Jerusalem it is related, that Nebuchadnezzar "burnt the house of the Lord, and the king's house, and all the houses of Jerusalem, and every great man's house he burnt with fire" (2Kgs. 25:8-9). Man set them on fire; God brought it to pass. And, in order to teach us that He doeth all things, giving all good, overruling all evil, saith that He was the doer of it.

We see now, that the making of these idols to worship was just an outward expression of the rebellion that was in their hearts.

Eph. 2:10 "For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them."

God loved them and wanted them to love Him too. God had not abandoned them; they had abandoned God. God had loved Israel and provided a way for them to be His. They have now walked away from Him to worship false gods. The punishment that comes is of their own making. Reluctantly God sends the fire of punishment to devour them.

With the single courage of conscience Amos had said to the people: You are bad; therefore, you must perish. But Hosea’s is the insight to follow the processes by which sin brings forth death-to trace, for instance, the effects of impurity upon a nation’s powers of reproduction, as well as upon its intellectual vigor.

A final illustration of the nation’s unfaithfulness was her self-sufficiency. Judah is specifically included in the indictment at this point. Having forgotten (cf. Hos. 2:13) that her very existence depended on the Lord alone (cf. his Maker), God’s people proudly sought prominence (palaces) and security (fortified many towns.… fortresses; cf. Hos. 10:14) through her own efforts. But the Lord was about to destroy (by fire) these sources of false security, fulfilling a covenant curse (cf. Deut. 28:52). God’s judgment came through the Assyrians. Sennacherib attacked all the fortified cities of Judah and captured them (2Kgs. 18:13).