What does it mean to sow the wind and reap the whirlwind (Hosea 8:7)?

"To me will they then cry, My God, we [Israel] know thee." It was but lip-confession. "Israel has cast off good; the enemy shall pursue him. They have set up kings, but not by me: they have made princes and I knew it not: of their silver and their gold have they made them idols that they may be cast off. Thy calf, O Samaria, has cast thee off; mine anger is kindled against them: how long will it be ere they attain to purity? For from Israel was it also: the workman made it; therefore it is not God: but the calf of Samaria shall be broken in pieces. For they have sown the wind, and they shall reap the whirlwind: it has no stalk: the bud shall yield no meal: if so be it yield, the strangers shall swallow it up. Israel is swallowed up: now shall they be among the Gentiles as a vessel wherein is no pleasure."

The prophet in spirit sees the people already captives, yet not extinguished, among the Gentiles, yet never coalescing as others, utterly despised as none ever were, yet surviving all cruelty and shame to this day. "For they are gone up to Assyria, a wild ass alone by himself: Ephraim has hired lovers. Yea, because they hire among the nations, now will I gather them, and in a little they shall sorrow for the burden of the king of princes." This was one great offence with God, whom they forsook and forget: else surely He had appeared for their deliverance as He did for Judah. They sought the shelter of Assyria, and there should they be carried in shame. "Because Ephraim has made many altars to sin, many altars shall be to him to sin." This was their other great transgression, the parent of fruitful evil and sorrow. "I have written to him the great things of my law: they were counted as a strange thing. They sacrifice flesh for the sacrifices of mine offerings, and eat it: Jehovah accepts them not; now will he remember their iniquity, and visit their sins: they shall return to Egypt. For Israel has forgotten his Maker, and builds temples; and Judah has multiplied fenced cities; but I will send a fire upon his cities, and it shall devour the palaces thereof." There might be thus a difference in degree of departure. Israel had abandoned the true God, Judah trusted her fortified cities; but judgment would prove that God is not indifferent in either case to His own dishonour. The denunciation here is too plain to call for explanation.

Hosea 9 sets out the joyless doom of Israel for their lewd departure from their God; for they had taken their corn as a harlot's hire from their false gods: all such outward mercies should fail, and they should not dwell in the land of Jehovah, but Ephraim shall return to Egypt, and in Assyria they should eat of unclean things — some fleeing voluntarily to the former, the mass captives in the latter. They should not pour out wine to Jehovah, nor should they be pleasing to Him — their sacrifices to them as the bread of mourners; all that eat thereof should be unclean; for their bread should be for themselves — none should come into the house of Jehovah (verses 1-4). "What will ye do on the day of assembly — on the day of Jehovah's feast?" They should be not only incapable of keeping holiday after the manner prescribed, but alas! without the heart and conscience exercised, seeing man's power, not their own sin nor God's judgment. "For, lo, they are gone because of destruction." To avoid the Assyrian they escaped to the south; but "Egypt shall gather them, Memphis shall bury them [not the land of their fathers]; as for their desired silver, nettles shall inherit it — thorns in their tents." Impatience had long stupefied them. They should awake to suffering if not repentance. "The days of visitation are come, the days of retribution are come; Israel shall know it [not yet themselves, nor Jehovah]. The prophet is foolish, the man of the spirit frantic, for the greatness of thy punishment and the great hatred." Such had been Israel's taunt against the true prophet; and such was meted again to the false. Of these deceivers it was true. "Ephraim [was a] watchman with my God; the prophet is a fowler's snare on all his ways — hatred in the house of his God. They have gone deep, they are corrupted, as in the days of Gibeah: he will remember their iniquity, he will visit their sins" (ver. 5-9).

The prophet is commanded to sound the alarm of the impending judgment. The message is that the enemy will come swift as an eagle upon the house of the Lord, which here does not mean the temple (which was in connection with Judah ), but Israel as the chosen people was the house, the dwelling-place of the Lord. All their spurious profession, their false claim, "My God, we know Thee, we, Israel ", will go for nothing, because they transgressed the covenant and the law. The obnoxious thing they did is stated in verse 4. They had separated themselves from Judah and chosen their own kings and princes in self will, thus putting themselves outside of the theocracy; idolatry speedily followed. In Bethel they had erected the worship of the calf, the great abomination in the sight of the Lord. He rejects their corrupt worship, and ere long the calf of Samaria will be broken to pieces, like the golden calf their fathers made in the wilderness. They sowed the wind and the whirlwind would be the harvest (chapter 10:13, 12:2; Job 4:8; Prov. 22:8). They sowed vanity and evil; the tempest of destruction would be their reaping. What they sowed would not yield fruit at all. The Hebrew contains a play of words, "Tsemach brings no Quernach," which may be rendered, "shoot brings no fruit."

"They have sown the wind, and they shall reap the whirlwind; it has no stalk; the bud shall yield no meal: if so be it yield, the strangers shall swallow it up. … They shall be … as a vessel wherein is no pleasure."

The book of Joel illustrates the solemn warning that they who sow the wind will reap the whirlwind.

Again, his death was retribution from the Lord for his own sin in walking in the way of Jereboam who caused Israel to sin against God. But the judgment in his case was more swift and abrupt than that of those who preceded him. Yet, whether the time is short or long, those who sow the wind will reap the whirlwind. This history of the kings declares that God is not mocked. Whatever one sows he will also reap (Gal.6:7).

This will illustrate, in a feeble way, the difference between grace and government. The passage just quoted from the sixth of Galatians is a brief but most comprehensive statement of the great governmental principle — principle of the gravest and most practical nature — a principle of the widest application. "Whatsoever a man sows." It matters not who he is: as is your sowing, so will be your reaping. Grace pardons; nay, more, it may make you higher and happier than ever; but if you sow weeds in spring, you will not reap wheat in harvest. This is as plain as it is practical. It is illustrated and enforced both by Scripture and experience.

Every attentive reader of history must be frequently reminded of that weighty word of warning, given by the apostle: "Be not deceived; God is not mocked, for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap." The most solemn and practical illustrations of this divine law in the affairs of men may be seen on every page of history. He who sows tares in spring cannot expect to reap wheat in autumn; and he who sows wheat in spring shall not be required to reap tares in autumn. We may see the truth of this principle of the divine government around us daily. How often the habits of youth determine the condition of old age! Even the riches of divine grace arrests not the course of this law. The King of Israel had to hear from the mouth of the prophet the solemn sentence, "The sword shall never depart from thine house;" but this did not hinder the flow of God's tender mercy to the royal penitent: "And Nathan said unto David, The Lord also hath put away thy sin; thou shalt not die." (2 Sam. 12) Such is the boundless, measureless grace of God to the truly penitent; but such too the immutable law of His government.

One thing more we must notice before we leave "the harvest," is that we may always expect to reap more than we sow. We read in the gospels of those who reaped some "a hundredfold, some sixtyfold, some thirtyfold" (Matt. 13:8). This is true whether the seed be good or bad, and whether the ground be good or bad. Jacob deceived his old father and stole his brother's birthright. That was bad sowing, but he did not expect the harvest he received. Laban deceived him about his wife, and he had to work another seven years in order to win her. Nor was this all the harvest. Laban changed his wages ten times in his efforts to cheat him. That was only part of the harvest. He had twenty years of bitter labor in Syria. Then his own sons deceived him about Joseph, and he spent twenty-two years in bitter sorrow, mourning him as dead. This was part of the harvest of his own sowing. David committed adultery with Bathsheba, but he never expected the harvest would come as it did; his own son defiled his sister. David murdered Bathsheba's husband, but he never expected the harvest this brought; his son Ammon was murdered by his brother, his baby died, and his son Absalom was killed in battle, without the hope of ever seeing him again in the world to come. And finally Solomon the king puts his older brother to death for what was really conspiracy. Yes, reader, we reap more than we sow, and we reap that very thing we sow. These are most solemn thoughts, and should make us every one "consider" our "ways" (Hag. 1:5, 7). Even by a thought we may sow to the flesh. How many books, pictures and magazines in these days sow to the flesh, and will bring forth a harvest unto corruption. "Consider your ways!"

Read this second chapter carefully. Follow it out for yourself, and note how God seeks to get at the conscience as well as the heart. "Hast thou not procured this to thyself, in that thou hast forsaken the Lord thy God, when he led thee by the way?" (ver. 17). All that came upon them was the fruit of their own doing. "Be not deceived: God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man sows, that shall he also reap. For he that sows to his flesh, shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that sows to the Spirit, shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting" (Gal. 6:7-8). We cannot sow a handful of seed without the necessary crop which that seed produces coming up. If sorrow and trial come, what is it? it is the fruit of some seed that we have sown, years and. years ago, when we were away from the Lord. If I have returned to Him now, I may be wondering what harvest I am reaping, but I must not forget that I have sown the seed.

Jehovah is not mocked with impunity. "Therefore shall they eat of the fruit of their way and be filled with their own devices." Sowing to the flesh must be reaping destruction. He does not execute judgment as yet; but it will come assuredly and soon — tribulation and anguish for man — indignation and wrath on His part who judges. It is easy to turn away from grace and truth, from righteousness at any time; but the backsliding of the simple will slay them, and the prosperity of the foolish shall lure them to perdition.