For Israel hath forgotten his Maker, and buildeth temples; and Judah hath multiplied fenced cities.
Neither the religion nor security of a nation to be judged by appearances
The temples are the idolatrous temples built after the models from Syrophoenicia. Fenced cities are fortified places erected against foreign invaders.
1. The multiplicity of temples is no infallible proof of the growth of religion in a country. When we think of the moral causes that often lead to the erection of temples, they rather prove our forgetfulness of God. They are greed, spite, sectism.
2. The increase of national defences is no proof of the increase of national security. The safety of a people is in the moral excellence of their character, and in the guardianship of heaven. (Homilist.)
God forgotten
Prosperous men become dangerously independent, and in their pride they forget God, and exclaim with Nebuchadnezzar, “Is not this great Babylon that I have built?” As Daniel Quorm quaintly says, “The devil is called in the Bible ‘Beelzebub’--that do mean, the ‘god o’ flies’--and you’re sure to find ‘em a-buzzin’ about the honey-pots o’ prosperity.” Nothing so completely blinds a man as gold-dust, for he cannot even see God--he is a practical atheist. Affluence leads first to indifference, then to coldness, then to unbelief, then to cynicism, and then to godlessness! Henry IV. once asked the Duke of Alva if he had observed certain eclipses which had occurred that year. “No,” was the reply, “I have had so much business to attend to upon earth, that I have had no time even to look up to heaven.” This is one of the perils of prosperity--to forget God, and leave heaven out of account. (Helping Words.)
