Sin's Dark Harvest — E.A. Johnston

Sin's Dark Harvest in Hosea

In the book of Hosea, we read about the sad spiritual deterioration of the people of Israel and the ramifications of their sins upon Almighty God. Hosea is a story about a broken heart and that heart belongs to God.

Our emphasis today, friends, is not on the specific iniquities of Israel nor their multiplied evils, but upon the fact that all sin has a harvest. Sin's harvest is dark. Our text can be found in Hosea chapter 8 and in verses 7 and 8, which declare, For they have sown the wind, and they shall reap the whirlwind.

It hath no stalk, the bud shall yield no meal. If so be it yield, the stranger shall swallow it up. Israel is swallowed up. Now shall they be among the Gentiles as a vessel wherein is no pleasure. I will stop there, friends.

I propose to bring out three aspects from this striking passage of Scripture regarding sin's harvest as it applies to a nation, as it applies to a denomination, and as it applies to a person. Let's look at the first of these, sin as it applies to a nation.

A Nation's Rebellion and the Harvest of Chaos

A nation can turn its back on God, as seen clearly here in our text, where the nation of Israel turned its back on Almighty God. They spurned His favor. They trampled His mercies. They rebelled against His commands.

And through all their backsliding ways, they were plowing and planting a harvest of iniquity that would have a yield as all harvests do. But the yield is an empty one, where it has no stalk, and the bud shall yield no meal.

Why is the harvest so bleak, we may ask? Because of what was sown. Israel, as a nation, had sown the wind. And now it was harvest time, and their crop was the whirlwind. A whirlwind denotes disaster. A whirlwind strikes terror to the heart and lays destruction in its path.

I used to live in Tornado Alley in the south, and my family grew up accustomed to violent, sudden thunderstorms that produced large hail and damaging winds and fierce tornadoes. They often occurred in the darkness of night, so you couldn't see them coming.

A whirlwind denotes chaos. And Israel, as a nation, was in chaos. Soon, their enemies would ravage and lay waste to their cities. Their religious leaders were mere professionals, out of touch with the heart of God.

The people were self-indulgent and sinful. The only harvest they could expect was the one that they had sown. The great evangelist, D .O. Moody, had a famous sermon that stirred both sides of the Atlantic in powerful revival.

Moody's Sowing and Reaping Principle

The sermon was entitled, Sowing and Reaping, and his text was Galatians 6 -7, which states, Be not deceived, God is not mocked, for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. Moody's sermon went into deep detail to the badness of men's hearts through sin and the paths of ruin and waste that lay in their wake.

A drunkard sowed the seeds of despair into his family, tearing it apart. A womanizer sowed the seed of lust to his own shame and dishonor. Moody painted a black picture of sin and its consequences. The unbeliever sowed the seed of a broken mother's heart.

And here, in our text from Hosea, we find a people who have sown the wind, and they now reap the whirlwind. What a sad, dark picture indeed. Sin's harvest is like a whirlwind. Just go take a look at King David and his sin with Bathsheba, and see the seeds of adultery and murder, which had severe consequences in the family of David.

The cry of a broken-hearted father lamenting the death of his son, O Absalom, my son, my son, echoes down through the centuries. Israel turned their back on God and reaped the consequences as a nation ultimately crucifying the Son of God and losing all that was held dear to them.

Jerusalem's Destruction as a National Harvest

Their temple and city were reduced to rubble. Their families were slaughtered and butchered before them. The heart cry of Christ in the Gospel rings down through the centuries. O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets and stonest them that are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathered her chickens under her wings, and ye would not.

Sadly, the destruction of Jerusalem began with a harvest of sin that the nation sowed the wind and reaped the whirlwind. When the country of France turned its back on God and sowed the seeds of infidelity and philosophy, as Voltaire rose to prominence because his message of a no-God and a no-religion appealed to their godless society, and France has been reaping that harvest ever since.

England and America, once both beacons of the Bible and promoters of missions, now feel the dread of a harvest of sin. They have sown the wind. Now they reap the whirlwind. When nations turn their back on God, then God turns His back to that nation.

Denominational Liberalism and Spiritual Declension

A religious denomination can sow the wind through liberalism and materialism and consequently reap a harvest of a whirlwind of deep spiritual declension within that denomination. One is only to study what has happened to congregationalism and Methodism and sad apostasy among Southern Baptists to see the harvest of a whirlwind transpire before our very eyes.

Personal Sin and Its Devastating Consequences

And the principle of sowing and reaping can be applied to the individual person who foolishly believes he can get away with sin. But be sure, friend, your sin will find you out. It will be seen in the harvest that follows.

I had a good friend who was a leader in his church and he had a loving wife and three small children and a fine home. He fell into moral failure in an affair with his secretary and his marriage ended in divorce.

His fine home was sold and one of his children went to the devil. When it was all said and done, his once happy family looked like a whirlwind hit it. Like I said, this text can be applied to a nation.

It can apply to a denomination. It can apply to a person. God is not mocked. What you sow will be what you will reap. If you sow the wind, surely you will reap the whirlwind for sin has a dark harvest indeed.