sow the wind, reap the whirlwind - 14th week Tuesday 2014

Let us begin with a little background on our first reading, the prophesy of Hosea.  At the outset there was only one kingdom of Israel, the chosen people.  But because of the sin of its third king, King Solomon, the kingdom was divided into two after his death.  The ten tribes of Israel formed an alliance and separated themselves from the other two tribes.  The ten tribes came to be called the Kingdom of Israel, the northern kingdom, sometimes it is called Samaria, other times it is called Ephraim.  This is composed of the ten tribes.  The other two remaining tribes consolidated themselves and it came to be called the kingdom of Judah with Jerusalem as its center where the temple is located.

These two kingdoms became at odds with each other and we have seen vestiges of this conflict even in the time of Jesus when the two kingdoms were already long gone.  But going back to the time of Hosea the northern Kingdom, the kingdom of Israel, or Ephraim or Samaria separated themselves not just politically but even in their religion.  The kings of Israel, or more specifically Jeroboam I, thought that if the people continue to go to Jerusalem for worship the people would one day want to join back the kingdom of Judah.  So he made altars and high places or temples in Samaria to rival Jerusalem, erecting idols and Baals so that the people of the Northern kingdom can worship them and need not go to Jerusalem anymore.  So what was once a political rivalry now became even a rivalry in religion.  What was once a disagreement between rulers became a disagreement on the true religion and true worship.  Still later during the time of Elijah it will become a rivalry between the priests of Baal and the priests of the true God, and still later rivalry between Baal the idol and the one true God.

This is the point of Hosea when he said when they sow the wind they shall reap the whirlwind.  Kon magpanggas ka sang hangin maga-ani ka sing buhawi.  What started as a rivalry between two rulers became a rivalry between two groups of tribes and between two groups of people, this rivalry between two people turned out to become a rivalry between worship, then it became a rivalry between two religion, and later a rivalry between two gods – albeit the an idol and the one true God.

Last week the prophet Amos spoke of sin as a violation of the spiritual order, the consequence of which we see as divine punishment.  This time Hosea speaks not just of the consequences of sin but also the growth of sin in our lives.  Sin when tolerated grows, it does not stagnate, it grows, it levels up.  You sow the wind and you will reap a whirlwind.  Tamnan mo hangin panggason mo buhawi.  Tolerate mo piso-piso nga pangawat and it will become ginatos nga pangawat; tolerate ginatos  and it becomes linibo, tolerate linibo it will grow to millions of pesos, and then it will no longer be difficult to understand why one could not steal billions of pesos.  Evil does not grow stagnant, it has the tendency to grow and level up when it is not stopped immediately on its tracks.  The same is true with drug addiction, the same is true with pornography, the same is true with infidelity in marriage, the same is true with bad attitudes become bad habits.  Evil grows it does not stagnate.