reaping the whirlwind

For they sow the wind,

and they shall reap the whirlwind.

Hosea 8:7a

The prophet Hosea rebuked Israel who as a nation had abandoned trust in God for their protection, and instead made flimsy, faithless alliances with Assyria and Egypt hoping to hedge their bets with two competing superpowers seeking political solutions to their spiritual problems. Trusting in power politics is sowing the wind. And God promises that it will yield His displeasure and judgment. They sowed the wind. They reaped the whirlwind. Both Assyrian and Egypt eventually decimated the Jews.

Faith trusts God in every aspect of life. And the gospel calls Christians to that kind of faith. Will we trust Christ, or self? Will we believe Jesus, or some competing philosophy like materialism, naturalism, self-reliance, capitalism, socialism, or humanism? Trusting the competition will sow the wind. And it will always reap the tornado of moral and spiritual chaos.

Christians should be so very cautious of any human system of power or provision. We do not trust the work of sinful humanity, be it commercial, institutional, educational, or political. We can only trust God. No social program devised by any politician, philanthropist, or educational leader can outperform the gospel that brings the peace of God that surpasses all understanding in Jesus! All that other stuff is the vacuum of wind... empty, cold, and destructive. God in Christ is strength and power! We can only escape the coming F5 twister in the shelter of Jesus.