For from Israel was it
Scripture referenced in this chapter 1
For from Israel was it.
That is,
Their Idolatry was from themselves: it was hard to get them off from their idolatrous worship, for it was from themselves. Other people worshiped idolatrous images, as being deceived, either made to believe that they came from their gods; as that wise town-clerk of Ephesus, in his grave, sage speech (Acts 19:35), says, their image came down from Jupiter, or else they were such as were brought from the temples of other people, whose original they knew not. But says God, My People are more sottish than any, for from Israel themselves does come these their images that they do worship, they have set them up themselves, they know that the other day they were but pieces of wood, overlaid with gold and silver; for their calves they were such kind of idols as Israel invented themselves, they were not the same as some think with the Egyptian Apis, that idol, for that was bigger, it was rather a bullock, and it was a live one, and with several spots and divers things wherein it differed from the calves that Israel worshiped, so that the calves of Israel's worship, it was their own invention. Hence there is these notes:
First, that none are so sottish in wicked ways as apostates. Israel was more sottish than any people.
And secondly, to be devisers and inventors of evil, and especially of any thing in the worship of God, of false worship, it is a great aggravation of one's sin; those that are the first inventors and devisers of wickedness, and especially of any false worship, they are most wicked and abominable before God. It was from themselves.
Thirdly, what comes from ourselves we will stick much to in the worship of God. For this is given as a reason why they could not be brought off from that false worship; it was from themselves: and hereby men show that they honor their own fancies and own wills above the will of God, and the mind of God: we will a great deal more easily part with the worship of God, that comes from God, than with worship that comes from ourselves.