Hosea 8:7, commentary and pictures

Sowing empty rebellion returns as an overwhelming storm of judgment far larger than what was planted. Having no stalk and yielding no meal means human schemes provide no lasting nourishment, and whatever little appears is devoured by strangers through invasion and loss. Israel had cast off covenant and law as foreign, and its rulers sowed this wind for more than two centuries until the kingdom collapsed in assassination and bloodshed worse than under the house of Ahab. The same law holds when harsh and self-important words return enlarged upon the speaker, when light rejected like Pharaoh's hardens into darkness, when health laws despised invite disease, and when dishonest ambition and empty speculation end in loss. It holds for ministers who trade truth for favor and reap lost souls, for sensational tales that seed crime, for a pleasure-loving world left without refuge in the final distress, and for enlightened children who scorn grace and are lost in the judgment.

Meaning and Israel's Judgment

Defiant planting of emptiness returns as an overwhelming storm of judgment far larger than the original wrongdoing. Crooked ambition and pulling others down bring back a fitting harvest, and a person's abilities and inner powers are revealed by the deeds produced. Human schemes grow without stalk and give no flour for bread, yielding no lasting supply, and even if anything comes forth it is swallowed by outsiders through hostile invasion and loss. This warning belongs to a setting in which Israel had cast off the covenant and law and counted divine instruction as something alien.

For more than two centuries the rulers of the ten tribes kept planting such emptiness. In the closing years of the kingdom of Israel they gathered the storm in violence and bloodshed. That bloodletting was worse than even the worst strife under the house of Ahab, as king after king was murdered to clear the throne for other men hungry to rule.

Warnings and Present Applications

Sowing careless, unkind, harsh, overbearing, or self-important words brings back an enlarged and harmful harvest, for others hear and interpret those words and their effects return upon the speaker. Rejecting God's light and evidence brings a sure destructive harvest, as seen when Pharaoh repeatedly disregarded the evidence given him and withdrew from light into deeper moral darkness and hardened resistance until unable to distinguish truth from error, though the Lord did not force him into impenitence. Disease never comes without a cause, for the way is first prepared and disease is invited by disregarding the laws of health. Dishonest ambition and tearing others down bring a fitting harvest far greater than the evil sown, and a person's capacities and powers are shown by the works done.

Repeated business investments built on flattering prospects sow to the wind and reap the whirlwind, as with Edson whose expectations were not realized, bringing no lasting gain but loss instead and leaving an empty treasure. Publishing and reading sensational stories of crime and lawlessness broadcasts seeds of lawlessness, educates youth in wickedness and leads toward perdition, stirs active minds of children and youth to imagine evil deeds until incited to commit crime and even worse crimes, breaks down law and self-restraint, demoralizes society, and makes a harvest of crime certain so that none need marvel at it. Ministers who sacrifice truth to gain favor sow the wind through every feeling of the soul, every line written, every word spoken, and every act that leads people to rest in a refuge of falsehood, under God's watching eye in the pulpit, in the streets, and in daily life, and they reap the whirlwind when they at last discern the character and influence of their teachings and behold their harvest in wretched, lost souls.

The unbelieving world sows to the wind by despising and trampling the truths of God's word, caring only for dress and appearance, indulging in extravagant dress, spending life in hilarity and glee, and living for worldly display and pleasure. In the coming time of distress and perplexity of nations those who so sowed will reap the whirlwind when minds are torn from dress and appearance, hearts fail for repining and fear, there is something else to think of and nothing to turn to, and God is not refuge and consolation because they did not make Him their refuge and did not turn as prisoners of hope to the Stronghold, but He laughs at their calamity and mocks when their fear comes. Children of Sabbath-keeping parents who have had great light and tender solicitude and care can leave a heritage of shame by sowing a worthless, unbelieving life, sinning against great light through skepticism and scorning the grace of Christ. They will reap the whirlwind by being lost in the judgment with names written among those condemned to be separated from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of His power, numbered with scorners of the grace of Christ, fighting against the God of heaven, swelling the ranks of apostates in the last days, and marching under the black banner of Satan on the path that leads to death.