Sowing to the Empty Wind of Apostasy

 Hosea 8:1-17 

1 "Set the trumpet to your mouth!
He shall come like an eagle against the house of the LORD,
Because they have transgressed My covenant
And rebelled against My law.

2 Israel will cry to Me,
'My God, we know You!'
3 Israel has rejected the good;
The enemy will pursue him.

4 "They set up kings, but not by Me;
They made princes, but I did not acknowledge them.
From their silver and gold
They made idols for themselves—
That they might be cut off.

5 Your calf is rejected, O Samaria!
My anger is aroused against them—
How long until they attain to innocence?
6 For from Israel is even this:
A workman made it, and it is not God;
But the calf of Samaria shall be broken to pieces.

7 "They sow the wind,
And reap the whirlwind.
The stalk has no bud;
It shall never produce meal.
If it should produce,
Aliens would swallow it up.

8 Israel is swallowed up;
Now they are among the Gentiles
Like a vessel in which is no pleasure.

9 For they have gone up to Assyria,
Like a wild donkey alone by itself;
Ephraim has hired lovers.
10 Yes, though they have hired among the nations,
Now I will gather them;
And they shall sorrow a little,
Because of the burden of the king of princes.

11 "Because Ephraim has made many altars for sin,
They have become for him altars for sinning.
12 I have written for him the great things of My law,
But they were considered a strange thing.

13 For the sacrifices of My offerings they sacrifice flesh and eat it,
But the LORD does not accept them.
Now He will remember their iniquity and punish their sins.
They shall return to Egypt.

14 "For Israel has forgotten his Maker,
And has built temples;
Judah also has multiplied fortified cities;
But I will send fire upon his cities,
And it shall devour his palaces."

The apostasy of Israel led them back into the bondage of sin as in Egypt.  They showed sin by ignoring Him and reaped the empty wind of idolatry and immorality which blew hot and unsatisfying over them.  Because God’s people had forgotten the covenant agreement with the LORD and His word to be followed, He had given them what they deserved instead of the grace offered for trust and obedience to Him according to the scriptures delivered by Moses and the prophets (Acts 28:23) which anticipated the Messiah who would end their futile works by His work (John 6:29) in a new covenant of grace.  Israel loved to rely on their standing as a chosen nation and imagined that they knew Him even though they disregarded and disobeyed His word in direct denial of their words.  Even now many identify as Christians but their hearts are far from Him (Matthew 15:8, Mark 7:6).  Crying, ‘Lord, Lord’ is no proof of conversion, but a changed life lived in pursuit of God in Christ and according to the scriptures is true evidence.  Though nobody is saved by their works in obedience to the word of God, those who have God living in them run after and hunger for that word to live out in pleasing thanksgiving for the grace and mercy poured out on them (Titus 3:5-7).  Israel as a nation was still blind to this as they heard the message from Hosea, though there was a small remnant according to grace (Romans 11:5) who still sought the Lord and awaited the Messiah to come.  Israel for the most part relied falsely on their standing as a nation being chosen while as individuals rejecting His word and running after idols of gold and silver crafted by those own philosophies of imagined deities of the godless around them.   Those who worshipped other gods were therefore held to account under God’s wrath and their false innocence rejected as it was uncovered for the lie it was based on.  They sowed seeds of godless ideas in idolatry and immorality and reaped out of that sin the whirlwind of wrath and judgment that wiped them away from the earth because of their continuing and willful disobedience and rejection.  They had no fruit to show from sowing bad seed and the consequences were disastrous and completely unsatisfying to body and soul.  They ended up with the other nations who gave no pleasure to honor God.  May those who read this passage hear and consider their ways, turning to live according to His word and pleasing God in Christ alone by faith in Him and His grace alone.  Israel went to worship other gods on altars of sinning and found that idolatry and immortality had a profound price.  God does not accept the sacrifices of those willingly sinning while refusing to repent.  Their acts of sin and thoughts of iniquities were punished accordingly as they were given back into the bondage of sin which they had been delivered out of as in Egypt.  Those who continually forget and dishonor their Maker face the consequences for the idols of self in place of the Most High God.  We who are in Christ have been called to better things and therefore pursue Christ through His word in thankful and willing obedience.  We do not sow to the empty winds of apostasy in adding to or taking away from the scriptures by ignoring or blending the philosophies of men with the word which is all we need for life and godliness (2 Timothy 3:16-17, 2 Peter 1:3).  Amen.