The East Wind

An arid eastern breeze tickled the dusty passions of Achor.  There lay the superstitious at every threshing floor.  Was Gomer one of them?Shrine prostitution was the most common activity used to secure fertility.  It was believed that this practice aided the ba’al powers in fertilizing the soil and the womb.  Was Gomer one of them?  And who was the biological father of Lo-Ammi?

Yahweh spurned the eastern wind with blows of conscience.  “Ephraim has surrounded me with lies,” Yahweh accused, “and the house of Israel with deceit… .Ephraim feeds on the wind and pursues the east wind all day long, they multiply falsehood and violence; they make a covenant with Assyria and oil is carried to Egypt!!” Hosea 11:12-12:1.  Gomer and Jacob had tip-toed together beyond the reach of accountable eyes.  There were more influential men, powerful gods and wealthier nations to pursue.  Who needs Yahweh… .all the time?  He is useful for some things, at some times.  We will sacrifice and eat at His table but why can we not eat with Egypt and Assyria too?  Jacob grasped the heel in a manipulative strategy and Gomer woed another man to fill her empty purse.  The two were victims to their own games… .their own wind chasing…

Yahweh supplied Israel with whatever they needed but it wasn’t enough.  “…it was I who gave her the grain, the winde, and the oil, and who lavished n her silver and gold…” Hosea 1:8.  It was I!  …but it was not enough… .Jacob and Gomer wanted to attain equality in the known world with their lusty neighbors.  They wanted pomp and the wealth of kings, influence and authority over the hearts of cosmic powers.  So they mixed and mingled, bought and sold, bartered and beckoned and broke all of the commands of Yahweh… .an old, faithful covenant.  Too simple perhaps.  Too nomadic.  Too much like the homestead of Hosea.

 Yahweh, faithful, but not enough.  Hosea, honest, real, but not enough.  The superficial enterprises of the known world - a constant chasing after wind, an empty mouthful that rushes in and leaves again - yet deemed a worthy desire.  “What has a man for all the toil and striving of heart with which he toils under the sun? ….This also is vanity and a striving after the wind,” Ecclesiastes 2:22, 26.  Vanity.  

And their vanity will catch them in the presence of the vain… Isreal, Gomer, “Exult not like the peoples; for you have played the whore, forsaking your God,  You have loved a prostitutes wages on all threshing floors.  Threshing floor and wine vat shall not feed them, and the new wine shall fail them.  They shall not remain in the land of the Lord, but Ephraim shall return to Egypt, and they shall eat unclean food in Assyria,” Hosea 9:1-3.  Their vain ba’als and lords would require their presence at the filthy feasts and dying battles… .they would go down with them.  Don’t be heady Gomer…. .lament… .chasing vain winds will only wear you out and make you servile…