“Biblical Literacy: Reap the Whirlwind”
November 16, 2014
Grove Presbyterian Church
Scripture Lesson
Hosea 8: 1-7
8Set the trumpet to your lips! One like a vulture is over the house of the LORD,
because they have broken my covenant, and transgressed my law. 2Israel cries to
me, “My God, we—Israel—know you!”
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Israel has spurned the good; the enemy shall pursue him.
4
They made kings, but not through me; they set up princes, but without my
knowledge. With their silver and gold they made idols for their own destruction.
5
Your calf is rejected, O Samaria. My anger burns against them. How long will they
be incapable of innocence? 6For it is from Israel, an artisan made it; it is not God.
The calf of Samaria shall be broken to pieces.
7
For they sow the wind, and they shall reap the whirlwind.
The standing grain has no heads, it shall yield no meal; if it were to yield, foreigners
would devour it.
Scripture Lesson and Reflection
Galatians 6: 7-10
Israel was a very foolish nation. Foolish enough to make God really, really angry at
them, like a loving parent ticked off when their son or daughter does something really
stupid and disappointing.
Really, really fed up. Really, really frustrated.
Israel thought of themselves as God’s favorite. They thought of themselves as
exceptional. They thought of themselves as superior, deserving. They thought of
themselves as better than all other nations.
In reality, they were worse. They were worse because God expected more of them. God
had trusted them more than the other nations but they betrayed that trust again and again.
They spurned and soiled the good God had given them.
They worshipped idols of all sorts.
They acted little different than the other nations: conniving, politicking, bribing, trusting
in their military, doing what they wanted rather than living for God.
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No wonder God was so fed up.
Reap the whirlwind. It is more than unintended consequences, it is predictably bad
consequences resulting from bad beginnings. Actions have a way of coming back on us.
Whether individuals, families, churches, or nations.
Not that God was going to punish Israel. Doesn’t have to. Their own corruption, their
own immorality, their own pride and lack of repentance would lead to their ruin. Which
it did, with a vengeance.
The sowed the wind, they reaped the whirlwind. In this case, they angered a nation far
more ruthless, far more militarily superior. Assyria came down upon them like a wolf
upon the fold.
The Assyrian came down like the wolf on the fold,
And his cohorts were gleaming in purple and gold;
And the sheen of their spears was like stars on the sea,
When the blue wave rolls nightly on deep Galilee.
Like the leaves of the forest when Summer is green,
That host with their banners at sunset were seen:
Like the leaves of the forest when Autumn hath blown,
That host on the morrow lay withered and strown.
For the Angel of Death spread his wings on the blast,
And breathed in the face of the foe as he passed;
And the eyes of the sleepers waxed deadly and chill,
And their hearts but once heaved, and for ever grew still!
And there lay the steed with his nostril all wide,
But through it there rolled not the breath of his pride;
And the foam of his gasping lay white on the turf,
And cold as the spray of the rock-beating surf.
And there lay the rider distorted and pale,
With the dew on his brow, and the rust on his mail:
And the tents were all silent, the banners alone,
The lances unlifted, the trumpet unblown.
And the widows of Ashur are loud in their wail,
And the idols are broke in the temple of Baal;
And the might of the Gentile, unsmote by the sword,
Hath melted like snow in the glance of the Lord
---Lord Byron
2
This tough quote about a permissive society from a British politician might well have
applied to Israel. Might still apply. How on earth can people still refer to that region of
the world as the Holy Land? Nothing holy about it.
Quote also might well apply to us. Coming home to roost.
Bad art was as good as good art. Grammar and spelling were no longer important. To be
clean was no better than to be filthy. Good manners were no better than bad. Family life
was derided as an outdated bourgeois concept. Criminals deserved as much sympathy as
their victims. Many homes and classrooms became disorderly - if there was neither right
nor wrong there could be no basis for punishment or reward. Violence and soft
pornography became accepted in the media. Thus was sown the wind; and we are now
reaping the whirlwind.
So we got a choice about this whirlwind, and as leaders we must take responsibility for it.
We can be like Pecos Bill and lasso the cyclone, ride it for a while, till we slow it down
and break it down into a harmless dust devil.
Or better, much better, we can help our individuals, our families, our church, our society
avoid reaping the whirlwinds in the first place by us getting out act together, in the first
place.
Even better is for leaders to sow good things, beautiful things, things of faith, hope, love
that we may reap a whirlwind of good.
7
Do not be deceived; God is not mocked, for you reap whatever you sow. 8If you sow
to your own flesh, you will reap corruption from the flesh; but if you sow to the
Spirit, you will reap eternal life from the Spirit. 9So let us not grow weary in doing
what is right, for we will reap at harvest-time, if we do not give up.
10
So then, whenever we have an opportunity, let us work for the good of all, and
especially for those of the family of faith.
3