Theological Commentary: Click Here
Discipleship Focus: Competency
- Competency: Being able to accomplish what one is called to do.
I love
the saying, “Sow the wind, reap the whirlwind.”
It is a really creative way of saying more than “you reap the
consequences of your actions.” What it
is really saying is that not only do we reap consequences, but those
consequences are usually more drastic than our original sowing. Just so we’re clear, this doesn’t have to
only be true in a negative context.
Often times when we sow good things, we reap consequences that are far
better than what we originally sowed.
However,
in the context of Hosea 8 this expression is absolutely a bad thing. The Hebrew people are living into their
sinfulness. They are pursuing their own
desires. When enemies come upon them,
rather than turning to God for help they are turning to the foreign nations
around them. They are looking for support
and strength in the world around them, not in their God. The consequence of all of this – the whirlwind,
if you will – is that there is an incredible dwindling of spirituality in the northern
kingdom. They are no longer able to live
the moral and ethical lives necessary for good society. Even their reliance upon foreign powers puts
them in a foreign domestic policy that they cannot manage once the threat is
removed.
Given all
of this, why am I focusing on competency?
Competency is being able to do what God has intended you to do. The people were intended to be in
relationship with God. God makes it
possible for any of us to be in relationship with Him. But the reality is that in this regard the
people are not competent. They could
have pursued God’s ways, but they didn’t.
They could have turned to God and relied upon His provision, but they
didn’t. They could have relied upon God
to protect them from their enemies, but they didn’t.
The
Hebrew people, much like the rest of us, struggled at being spiritually
competent. They reaped the whirlwind of
their spiritual incompetence.
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