Sow The Wind…Reap The Whirlwind

A study to understand the warning contained in Hosea's prophesy: "…they have sown the wind and they shall reap the whirlwind", as it may apply to us as well as those Israelites.

Under the covenant God made with the Israelites through Moses, they were promised great things and a really wonderful life. Under His watch care they were to devote themselves to living for Him and observing His commandments. His choosing them for His people to furnish the lineage to Jesus the messiah included those things. People often fail to recognize the fact that much of that written law was physical. Literal rules for them to obey and physical rewards for them to enjoy a wonderful life. A few of the things He promised them were, the entire land of Canaan west of the Jordan river…a land "flowing with milk and honey". He promised that their enemies would be subdued by them. Their lands would furnish them with bountiful harvests. He would even send hornets onto the Hivites, Hittites and Canaanites, to drive them from the land little by little. All of this if, they would obey Him.

These rewards were for observance of His laws. Those laws could not remit sins. Only Jesus death on the cross could do that. But their faith and obedience would enable them to be cleaned from their sins at the time of Jesus death. Much of the writings of the prophets in the Old Testaments are God's efforts to keep them on the right path and warning them of the consequences of failing to follow Him exclusively. But usually they failed to do so. God's warning through Hosea comes following a full explanation of the things they had done.

It is this author's opinion that the United States, is a land truly flowing with milk and honey. Our enemies (in the past) have been defeated before us. Our land has been exceedingly prosperous and we have lived sumptuously for well over 200 years under His watchful eye. In the last half century we have worshipped a golden calf. We have essentially deserted God and His Son. We have allowed false claims by pseudo scientists to lead us into accepting their unsubstantiated ideas which remove the entire concept of God from our minds. Giving glory to these falsehoods rather than God Almighty and His Son.

It is true that we are under the perfect Law of Christ at this time, without the warnings of what may come literally and physically in this life. However we have the same obligation to serve God in detail as did the Israelites under the Old Testament law. Only our reward is not lands, good harvests and physical protections or wealth. Our reward, if we faint not, is eternal life in glory with the Father and Jesus plus the cream of all societies, those who faithfully served him. Our punishment is not that we will be overrun by our enemies and killed by the sword, but our eternal punishment for disobedience will be a second death, a separation from God. Cast into outer darkness to live forever in overwhelming mental stress. It has been proven time and again by subjecting a prisoner to solitary confinement for even a short period may bring on enough stress to do permanent mental damage. And such prisoners have their moments of seeing or speaking to security personnel for meals, other needs, etc., which gives at least a little break from the monotony.

This prophecy was God's word given through Hosea to a fallen nation who had been apostatized for several generations Things were a mess. Morality was at rock bottom. Murder, stealing, adultery, deceit, drunkenness and dishonesty in business, little or no faith in God still existed. And the political situation was just as rotten. Almost no king ascended the throne through inheritance or legal means but rather by force or murdering the sitting king. And God had given Hosea the chore of disclosing His displeasure to them and to tell them of their destiny. This is what the meaning of, "They have sown the wind and they shall reap the whirlwind."

God has gone to the extreme to grant His children opportunity to obey Him of their own free will, but he has always given up on them when they went too far. His description of what was coming to the Israelites above was irreversible. They had deserted Him and there was no longer a turning back opportunity. The entire Bible is replete with the examples of His people straying from Him, usually within quite short periods of time. I personally believe that the founding of this new land in America was by God's divine providence and that He was offering His children a final opportunity to spread the borders of His kingdom, the church. And rather than faithfully doing that, I believe that we have "sown the wind", and have again sunken into apostasy. Nothing shows our faithfulness, or lack of, to God more than a presidential election. Again, I agree that we are no longer under that Old law that punished it's subjects with physical earthly disasters. However, it is something to consider when you read a scripture such as Hebrews 2:1-3: