Two Trees
Two Deaths
Two Results
Hosea 12:1
"Ephraim feeds on the wind..."
For many the wind cannot be tamed, just like their spirit. The wind for them is a map, guiding them to new horizons. The wind stirs their soul, igniting passions within them. Where the wind goes, the adventurer follows. For them when the wind blows, the world comes alive.
Like Scarlet said in Gone With The Wind,
"As God is my witness, as God is my witness they're not going to lick me. I'm going to live through this and when it's all over, I'll never be hungry again. No, nor any of my folk. If I have to lie, steal, cheat or kill. As God is my witness, I'll never be hungry again."
Truth is...
Wind cannot sustain you, chasing after the world will leave you empty and hungry for more. Those who eat the wind are them who chase after idols who never tell them “no” or give them any admonitions. Once again we see this theme about the apostate church that has mingled their worship with pagan gods. They've blended their worship with created fertility altars and their faith had become a lie. Their spirituality is poisoned by their sexual immorality. And every word of prayer to their false gods was like swallowing the wind.
Hosea 8:7 – "For they sow the wind, and they shall reap the whirlwind."
When you take a closer look at this community of sowers you might notice that there's no mention of a seed being sown. They come with no seed. They sow the wind, nothingness. And from that cultivation they gain nothing but trouble, they eat the whirlwind. The cultivate trouble, no seeds are landing on the soil. There's sweating and toiling, working and keeping busy, but there's going to be no harvest. It is a complete waste of time.
It's really just a commentary on the whole world and all its vanities. And we've seen this before...
Ecclesiastes 1:14
"I have seen everything that is done under the sun, and behold, all is vanity and striving after the wind."
...And the reason we've seen this before is because it gets to the heart of the human condition. It means we're all experiencing this same problem that all people have with the futility of chasing after the world.
God created the people, and included in that creation is the desire for Him, a hunger, a need, an inward spiritual longing that only He can satisfy. And God also created the things of the world. And then somehow along the way mankind mistook the created world as their god, as their desire, as their source of satisfaction.
The atheist would excuse this chasing after the wind as a consequence of the seemingly absent God. It's God's fault that people can't hold on to faith. Of course this is at best an adolescent point of view. An adolescent child will often tell a lie to avoid doing something or to deny responsibility for their actions. Sometimes adolescents don't tell the whole truth in certain situations, they play the old CYA games. And then there are the consummate liars. Children who can tell the difference between a truth and a lie, who tell elaborate stories which appear believable. All they say is of the wind. They chase the wind, eat the wind, and speak the wind. Nothing good about any of it. And if they never hear a word of truth and wisdom to guide them into righteousness, they'll fall into a pattern of repetitive lying. It'll become who they are. It'll become their god.
Enter into that created world...Jesus, who declared, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never go hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.”
The world Jesus enters is one in which "Ephraim feeds on the wind". Israel develops trust in its deals and alliances it has made with the surrounding pagan nations. Its people keep altars to these pagan gods. Its spiritual leaders have been sowing the wind and no truth is in them. Their worship is not only empty, but it's dangerous and destructive.
But one thing prevented these wind eaters from returning to their love of God. Prosperity. Truth be told, they were doing great. Times were good for some. The market was thriving. The rich were getting richer. All their alliances with the nearby pagan superpowers has yielded great wealth. All their schemes were working out. Israel was situated for success, as long as they went along to get along. Ephraim is as corrupt as the heathens. He makes covenants with Assyria and Egypt.
Ephraim had fallen into the trap of following the winds of society, which leds to destructive ends. How foolish to think that the pagan superpowers wouldn't eventually fall upon them and enslave them. And they did, and the people of Israel took it...they'll beg to be spared, they'll try to hold out, but in the end the evil pagans will butcher their children and enslave the rest. They've sold their souls and abandoned their inheritance. And ultimately they lose everything. No more wealth, no more kingdom, no more God. Completely lost, homeless again, living out of tents blowing in the desert wind.
They reaped the wind.
Today we're asked by this study to check ourselves. Are we those who faithfully follow and stand firm on the facts of God’s character and commands? Or are we Ephraim who is feeding off the ever changing winds of the world regarding morality, character, and spirituality?
It's a binary choice...a choice about two trees...
Comfort, popularity and prosperity in the wind that ultimately leads to destruction?
Or...
Patience, contentment, and long suffering in Christ that is our eternal hope, He who has the last word.
“In the Garden, Adam was told, ‘Obey me about the tree – do not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, or you will die’… God said to Jesus, ‘Obey me about the tree’ – only this time the tree was a cross – ‘and you will die.’ And Jesus did.”
-Timothy Keller (King’s Cross pp. 11-13)
Which tree are you cultivating?