“For they sow the wind and they reap the whirlwind”.
Anyone who has experienced winds strong enough to be classified as tornado or hurricane strength comes away with story after amazing story of what a profound experience it is.
In our most recent memory as this sermon was being prepared, in fact, so recent that the number of dead was at 10 and they were still searching, was the tornado that devastated Greensburg, Kansas on May 4th of 2007.
The news footage of that area was astounding. The tornado was, at one point, 1.7 miles in width, and the winds are estimated to have been about 205 miles per hour. The entire town was torn to shreds; homes and businesses demolished. One picture from the news was of a sports utility vehicle, crushed and partly wrapped around what was left of a tree.
It only took 20 minutes for that storm to hit a thriving community and virtually wipe it off the map.
When we walk down the street on a breezy day our reaction to it will be according to its strength. We may be enjoying it, if the breeze is gentle and helping to relieve us from a warm, noonday sun. If it is stronger we may be irritated as it blows dust in our face. If it is even stronger, it may drive us to duck inside somewhere just to keep from being blown off balance.
But the gusts that most of us experience on any given spring or autumn day can hardly be compared to that which strips trees of foliage and flattens brick buildings to the ground.
Hosea has made a connection between the two though, here in our text, when he says that the people sow a wind but reap a whirlwind. He is speaking of a spiritual principle of cause and effect. He is saying that it is the ‘little sins’ that come back on our heads in spiritual devastation.
LITTLE SINS?
Let’s talk for a moment about the difference between the way we see sin and the way God sees sin.
First, let’s just jump right past all of the obvious things we can say about sin and its universal effect. If we are born again believers we understand that the Bible says ‘all have sinned and come short of the glory of God’.
Those who are not born again are still dead in their sin and do not have spiritual life to discern these things at all.
So instead of spending our time describing the Biblical view of sin in general, let me go to where the rubber meets the road and point out that the best of us and the most spiritual of us and the most spiritually aware and scripturally knowledgeable of us still does not see sin the way God sees sin. Because of the fallen nature that continues in us until the day we are glorified, even when we view sin as an affront and an abomination to God, we are yet viewing it through the lens of sin itself.
Because of sin our nature is to deny sin altogether until by His grace the Holy Spirit of God reveals it to us and in us. When that happens and He grants us repentance so that we might turn to Him for salvation, we have now acknowledged sin, but the tendency of the sin nature even as spiritually born children of God, is to then see sin in others but not in ourselves apart from deliberate self-examination and responsiveness to the convicting work of the Holy Spirit.
It is due to the fallen nature still alive and well in us that we put degrees on sin and categorize sins and project guilt on others before ourselves. The father of one of our local church family has been quoted among us as saying, ‘Let me say what’s sin and I’ll be sinless’, and that is precisely what we tend to do, which, itself, is sin and evidence of sin.
So while we say that God has saved us from sin and death through the sacrifice of His only Son on Calvary’s cross, and we read His Word and find that He has now reckoned us justified and forever freed from the guilt and eternal consequences of sin, and we are right in believing these things and rejoicing over them, we have to be constantly on guard against the tendency to project sin on others yet excuse and even deny the presence of it in our own lives.
Because the natural drift of the fallen human nature that we inherited from our father in the flesh, that is Adam, is to go our way and make decisions apart from the counsel of God and act on those in the flesh and justify ourselves in our own minds and presume upon God to turn a blind eye and a deaf ear to the ‘little’ things because, after all, we’re not as bad as those who are of the world, indeed, not even as bad as we were when we first believed.
This is not God’s view of sin, and rest assured, Christian, that He is not blind and His ear is not deaf, and even for the born again believer in Christ, there are consequences in this life for sin because God cannot deny His own nature.
Hear this, from a preacher of two centuries ago…
“…sin…is manifestly the enemy of public order and happiness, and therefore infinitely offensive to the God of love, and contrary to all that he has prescribed for the happiness of his kingdom, and to all the wishes and designs of his benevolence. As the Friend and Guardian of the universe, he must of course abhor and proscribe and punish sin. He must pursue it with infinite indignation as the disturber of the peace of his kingdom, the traitor and conspirator against his government, the implacable foe of every thing dear to his heart. The benevolent Father of the universe cannot but hate such an enemy with infinite detestation. It is love that abominates it, and infinite love must hold it in infinite abhorrence.” “The Abominable nature of Sin!” Edward D. Griffin, (1770 – 1835)
SIN’S BOTTOM LINE
Sticking to the plan of jumping past the minutia and getting to the point, we now come to talk about what, bottom line, sin is. And we are helped here because God Himself has said it in our text in His indictment of His people.
“Put the trumpet to your lips! Like an eagle the enemy comes against the house of the LORD, because they have transgressed My covenant And rebelled against My law.
Now there are two things going on here. The first is that they transgressed His covenant. The word ‘covenant’ means ‘agreement’. It denotes a contract. In the case of that which exists between men and God, God is the originator of the contract.
In other words, man did not come to God and say, “Hey, let’s make a deal to get along with one another”. Man did not come and offer peace. Man had nothing to offer; indeed man had no desire to have peace with God because he was altogether ruined in sin.
We are given the picture of what happened with the Children of Israel in Egypt and in bitter slavery there.
God delivered His people out of bondage. He redeemed them. They weren’t looking for it. They weren’t expecting it. They were busy staying alive and making building blocks out of mud and grass, until God sent His man to lead them out. His was the plan, His was the man, His was the promise of a new land and a new life; so radically new that He even gave them a new calendar.
This is the picture of redemption. It is a covenant from God to those He has called, to make them His chosen ones and keep them for Himself.
Then as they began their journey to the land He had promised them, they came to Sinai where He gave them His Law.
First the redemption, then the giving of the Law. Someone has put it this way; first He came to them with the law of grace, then He came to them with the grace of Law.
The Psalmist put it in this same order when he wrote, “Redeem me from the oppression of man, that I may obey your precepts” Ps 119:13
First the deliverance, then the precepts. You’ve probably heard someone say at some point, “I’m no longer under the law, but under grace”. It is usually said in reference to neglecting some act of obedience to God’s Word and as a justification to walk in a worldly manner, presuming upon God’s grace.
Paul addressed this issue in Romans 6:1 when he asked the rhetorical question, “What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace might increase?” And he answers immediately with an emphatic, “May it never be!” After all, hadn’t he just said in the final verse of chapter 5 that sin reigns in death?
So the idea that the grace of God and the law of God are mutually exclusive, and that once we became a Christian there was no longer any need for the law is error and very dangerous error.
Now I’m not talking here of continuing to keep the feasts and celebratory ordinances of the Jewish tradition. I’m also not talking of maintaining our salvation through the exercise of those things and our good works.
I’m talking about a God who is gracious not only in delivering us from slavery to sin and the power and penalty of it, but who is gracious then in giving us His Word so that we do not wander and flounder aimlessly with no Godly leading and ignorant of what pleases Him and what offends Him.
Think of it in terms of every day life in our modern society. The free man is the one who walks within the parameters of the laws that govern that society. It is when he transgresses that he loses that freedom.
He is free, but he is not free to do whatever he wants whenever he wants with no governing force in his life. If he is a wise man, it is his appreciation of his freedom that makes him want to live within the parameters of the law, but the law does not make him free, it actually blesses his freedom, which came first.
And if we as Christ-followers are appreciative of the freedom that is ours in Christ as a result of our redemption and regeneration, that appreciation will manifest in a life governed by the whole Word of God.
Sin is not an estrangement. It is not the breaking of a relationship. That is to say, that is not a thorough definition nor an accurate view of sin. Sin is spiritual adultery and the deliberate rebellion against the nature and character of God through violation of His precepts.
The people offered lip service to God. “My God, we of Israel know Thee!” This may take you back to chapter 5 verse 4 which we looked at previously, where God declared that they did not know Him, meaning they did not acknowledge Him or seek His face.
So here in our text He says of them that they act deceitfully toward Him, declaring a false piety, when in fact, He says, they transgress the covenant and break the law, and these acts, this behavior, is the ‘smoking gun’ evidence that they do not acknowledge either His goodness or His authority as Lord over them.
DISTRUST AND REJECTION
Now He has two accusations to make of the people, the nature of which exemplify the condition of their hearts that lead them to sin by the transgression of His covenant and the breaking of His law.
The first is distrust, and the second is rejection. Let’s sharpen the focus.
Hear 1 Samuel 8:4-8
“Then all the elders of Israel gathered together and came to Samuel at Ramah; 5 and they said to him, “Behold, you have grown old, and your sons do not walk in your ways. Now appoint a king for us to judge us like all the nations.” 6 But the thing was displeasing in the sight of Samuel when they said, “Give us a king to judge us.” And Samuel prayed to the LORD. 7 The LORD said to Samuel, “Listen to the voice of the people in regard to all that they say to you, for they have not rejected you, but they have rejected Me from being king over them. 8 “Like all the deeds which they have done since the day that I brought them up from Egypt even to this day—in that they have forsaken Me and served other gods—so they are doing to you also.”
Do you see it there? Distrust, and then rejection. The people ceased to trust the God who brought them up out of Egypt and sought a king from among themselves, and then, having ceased to trust Him, they turned to idols and worshiped that which was not God but gods of their own imaginations; gods they could control instead of having it the other way around.
Now at least in the beginning they sought God’s help through the prophet in choosing a king.
By the time of Hosea they weren’t even willing to do that. See verse 4.
“They have set up kings, but not by Me; They have appointed princes, but I did not know it. With their silver and gold they have made idols for themselves,”
And church, let’s not miss the significance that what was going on among God’s people in Hosea’s day, almost 3000 years ago, is a pattern repeated now in the 21st century, on an individual level, on a national level and within the scope of the church itself.
When people cease to trust in God and hold to Him as Lord and King and ultimate authority over them, when they reject Him as the one to whom faithfulness and allegiance are due, the next step is to trust in that which is not godly, and eventually to worship it in some form or another.
Is this what has happened to the United States of America, between 1776 and the present? You have to be blind not to see it.
Having made that observation, we must not fail to understand that what God decreed over them He must also decree over us.
Verse 5-6
“He has rejected your calf, O Samaria, saying, “My anger burns against them!” How long will they be incapable of innocence? 6 For from Israel is even this! A craftsman made it, so it is not God; surely the calf of Samaria will be broken to pieces.”
And whether it be the pursuit of scientific advancement in the denial of God’s existence, or the over-emphasis put on higher learning, or the favored philosophical positions that exult man and his hedonistic endeavors, or material wealth and gain, or political clout, or any of the many things that men use to try and fill the place of God in life and in society, beloved, He will crush them to bits, because He is a jealous God and will share His throne with no other!
Men pay lip service to God if they deem to pay anything at all, but they do not trust Him, they reject Him, they justify their sin with the excuse that after all, they are only human, and they validate the little gods in their lives as necessary or innocent comforts or as harmful to no one and therefore ok. They sow constantly to wind and think they will continue on calling their own shots and doing it their own way. But God cannot deny Himself, and He cannot violate His own nature and character.
And despite what men in their arrogance tell themselves about a god who only blesses and would not bring calamity or disaster, and despite their claims that they could never believe in a god who would allow evil to come into people’s lives, He is who He is, and there is a point at which He will wait no longer for repentance, but will bring a whirlwind that will crush their idols and scatter them across a wasteland. Verses 8-9
“Israel is swallowed up; they are now among the nations like a vessel in which no one delights. 9 For they have gone up to Assyria, like a wild donkey all alone;”
Once more, let’s bring this to the present so that we do not miss the message for ourselves. In fact, James Montgomery Boice brings it to the church.
“A similar situation prevails today in many ‘Christian’ circles. It is not that God is denied. On the contrary, he is acknowledged, sometimes with great ceremony and by the most beautiful of services. The problem is that worshipers forget that God must be obeyed and that they must therefore live their lives differently.
Do you think this does not happen? I tell you it does happen even in the most evangelical churches. There are people who could be very useful in the Lord’s work but who are useless simply because they are taken up with their jobs, families, cars, or houses. They have no time for service. Others are made useless by sin. They have forgotten God by the way they are living, wrongly thinking that they can profess Christ as Savior while ignoring him as Lord. I know church members who are committing adultery or are engaging in premarital sex, who do not want to change but who nevertheless come to church and make a profession of godliness. They are unhappy, yet they will not stop. Is it not true that in such churches (even evangelical churches) we are sowing the seed of the neglect of God and will reap the whirlwind?” The Minor Prophets – Vol 1 James Montgomery Boice, Baker Books 1983
Going back to the topic of the evil twins of Distrust and Rejection, if we look again at the second half of chapter 8 we see it repeated.
First, distrust. In chapter 10 they have sought strength through aligning themselves with ungodly nations. They have gone to Egypt and Assyria for help, but God would use Assyria instead to take His people away into captivity.
Then follows rejection. See verses 11-14
“Since Ephraim has multiplied altars for sin, they have become altars of sinning for him. 12 Though I wrote for him ten thousand precepts of My law, they are regarded as a strange thing. 13 As for My sacrificial gifts, they sacrifice the flesh and eat it, but the LORD has taken no delight in them. Now He will remember their iniquity, and punish them for their sins; They will return to Egypt. 14 For Israel has forgotten his Maker and built palaces; and Judah has multiplied fortified cities, But I will send a fire on its cities that it may consume its palatial dwellings.”
Let me remind you that in saying “Ephraim”, God is talking about the Northern Kingdom of Israel. So following their demonstrated distrust of Him, they put up ‘multiplied altars for sin’. They turned to idol worship, and they have forgotten and ignored His precepts, as we see in verse 12.
God has an accusation to make against His people, Christians, when He can say “I wrote ten thousand precepts of My law” and yet they are regarded as a strange thing because His people don’t want to know them, don’t want to obey them, do not want to walk according to them. And He will bring the whirlwind!
And I know that when we gather to hear preaching from God’s Word even when we are willing to hear the hard parts we want at least to end on a positive note; something to give us hope and make us feel uplifted. But there is no note of that here, and I cannot add to it.
Forget the condition of the American nation for a moment. Forget the condition of the church in our country. Because fellow believers in Christ, what it really comes down to in the end is each and every individual and his or her heart, your heart and mine, and how we stand before God right now, today.
Can you and I say in Godly sincerity that He will recognize as true, “My God, I know Thee”? “My God, I acknowledge Thee”, meaning that we worship and adore Him for who He really is and that we love His Word and desire to walk in obedience to it?
Or do you, Christian, and do I, trivialize God in our thinking, supposing to make Him a god formed in our own image who will not deal justly with the little sins, with our manifest distrust of Him, with our quiet worship of the ‘palaces’ and the ‘fortified cities’ in our life; the things on which we place our trust and our devotion?
I have to ask, and you have to be absolutely honest with yourself, beloved, because as Moses warned the people, ‘be sure, your sin will find you out… BE SURE, YOUR SIN WILL FIND YOU OUT’, and you and I have to come to a stark realization that when we continue to sow to the wind with our disobedience and our neglect of the whole counsel of God and letting the things of this life and this world rule in our heart, He will come with a WHIRLWIND and shatter our world to pieces! We are bought with a precious price, believer, He owns us, and He is jealous and zealous to have a bride who is pure and spotless and faithful and devoted only to Him.
What about you today? Are you enjoying the ‘gentle breezes’, as it were, of the influence of the Holy Spirit of God in and through your life as you walk in faith and obedience? Or do you have to face the prospect that He may soon have to devastate your life with a whirlwind in order to purge you and refine you and win you back to Himself?
He will do what ever He has to do, my friend, because He is faithful even if we are not. He will send fire on that which you trust in place of Him, and He will consume your personal palaces in order to make you lift your eyes once more to the God who redeemed you.
And better to be a captive in Assyria, than a harlot in Jerusalem.
You search your own heart before Him, brother or sister in Christ, and return to the lover of your soul while it is still a gentle breeze by which He woos you back.
