Today, I am reading and commenting on  Hosea 8-14.

My lovely wife married me 22 years ago on the 23rd of this month.  So I am going to wish her Happy Anniversary every day from now until then.

Happy Anniversary, Darling!

Hosea continues with his condemnation of Israel in today’s passage using metaphors and images which apply today.  He uses here one of my favorite metaphors:

They sow the wind and reap the whirlwind.

As best I can understand, Hosea means that they create some disorder in order to further their goals, then are surprised when complete chaos results and all order is disrupted.  Those who do this consider a prophet of God to be a fool and those inspired by Him to be maniacs.  As the prophet goes on he says something else I believe to have great relevance today:

They make many promises,
take false oaths
and make agreements;
therefore lawsuits spring up
like poisonous weeds in a plowed field.

The context leads me to believe that the prophet means that their promises and agreements are as false as their oaths, or perhaps that they make promises and agreements intending to keep them, but break them when they become inconvenient.  In any case, this reminds me of today where lawsuits have become an impediment to many types of activity.  However, Hosea tells us how to deal with such times.  Instead of sowing the wind, sow righteousness so that we can reap the fruit of love rather than reaping the whirlwind. Seek the Lord so that He will shower us with righteousness.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.