Hosea 8:1-14
“For they sow the wind, and they shall reap the whirlwind” (Hosea 8:7)
The prophets are often good for a sick burn. Today’s selection is no different. I imagine the quoted portion above was a pre-existent proverb or folk wisdom, which Hosea uses to call Israel back to some basic ethics or moral guidance. Maybe he produced this himself, but more likely he’s like a counseling parent who – after their kid gets caught TPing a house with some friends – says to their kid “Choose your friends wisely.”
These sorts of cultural proverbs are a good place to begin our ethical guidance, though our growth in moral goodness should never end there. (True ethics, sadly, can’t really be summarized on a bumper sticker.) Even still, I find myself charmed by this proverb: “For they sow the wind, and they shall reap the whirlwind.” I consider how poignant it is when we consider the “wind” as not the natural event that moves clouds and is part of the jet stream, but rather think of “wind” as all the air we expel while talking nonsense. For I’m quite sure that we all know someone or another who does more than their fair share of sow the “wind” and I’m sure we’ve seen those words become a whirlwind in their lives.
Given that this is a political season in the life of our country – and given that Christians are courted and wooed to participate in this season in a myriad of ways – we’d all do well to pause before we sow any wind. This is not, of course, a call to silence. Silence can very quickly become violence (“Silence is violence” is, after all, its own cultural proverb with more than a kernel of truth to it). Rather, it is a call to make sure any “wind” we sow on these subjects is well-reasoned, well-researched, suppositionally pure, and equal measures of thoughtful and faithful.
Speak wisely, friends. Sow your wind with care.
Amen.
