What is the context?
The account moves into the land the Lord had promised. The people used its hills and leafy trees as places for offerings that provoked Him. Receiving the land had not ended the earlier pattern.
The Lord then addresses the present generation directly. Their gifts and the sacrifice of their sons show that the same defilement continues to this day.
That is why the question of consulting Him returns. They approach His prophet while continuing to dishonor His name through their idols.
He also exposes their desire to become like surrounding nations, serving wood and stone. That plan will not succeed. The next passage explains how He will assert His rule over them.
How is this passage commonly understood?
Henry and Wesley understand the passage as exposing continued rebellion after settlement in Canaan. The current generation cannot treat the problem as something belonging only to its ancestors.
Wesley reads the wish to resemble the nations as a hoped-for security through adopting their ways. The answer is that Israel cannot erase its responsibility before the Lord by choosing another religious identity.
What is our position?
We don't have a position on this passage yet. When our study reaches a conclusion the text supports, it will appear here.