Ripe for Idol-Making, a devotional thought

There's this place in Hosea 10 that makes me wonder about the strange connection between prosperity and idolatry. In Hosea 10:1 God brings this indictment against his people: "You're like a spreading vine," he says, "and as your fruit increased, you increased your (idolatrous) altars; as your land prospered, you adorned your (idolatrous) sacred stones."

There is something counter-intuitive in all this. One would think that the more fruitful the land and the more prosperous the people, the more they would worship the God who prospered them; and yet, as far as Hosea is concerned, the exact opposite actually happens.

Idol-making, it seems, flourishes in direct proportion to the flourishing of the people, and the more "fruitful" they are, the more likely they are to fall into idolatry.

There is something very sobering in this for North American Christians. Could it really be that the more cushy our circumstances, the more likely we are to worship (give our time, money, attention, energy and heart-focus to...) things other than God? There's a warning in there, too, I think for "successful churches" (i.e. churches flourishing by human measurements). Could it be that as a church's material prosperity increases, so too does its potential for idol-making?

I'm not sure if these are rhetorical questions or not, but they are certainly the questions Hosea 10 leaves me with.