Ephraim herds and feeds on the wind… – Hosea 12:1, Amplified Bible (AMP)

I have a cat named Toby. Toby is a lot of fun to be around, but there is one thing he does that is absolutely hilarious. Every now and then, he likes to roughhouse. Unfortunately, he’s an only cat, so when he wants to roughhouse, he comes looking for me. Sometimes I’m in the mood to oblige, and sometimes I’m not. When I’m not game to play along, Toby will often do something quite entertaining; he’ll start beating himself up! Toby will lay on his side and start punching himself in the face with one of his back paws. Then, in response to his own antics, he’ll start biting his paw as if he was fending off some maniacal attacker. The scene is just downright insane, and no matter how many times I see Toby fight himself, I can’t help but smile.

What makes Toby’s antics so funny is that the act of fighting oneself is pointless. Fighting oneself is kind of like tickling oneself; it’s worthless because it accomplishes nothing. Likewise, herding and eating the wind is pretty pointless because it does absolutely nothing to satisfy one’s hunger. Yet, this foolish exercise of herding and eating the wind is exactly what God (through Hosea) accuses Ephraim of doing in Hosea 12.

According to commentator John Gill, the phrase “herding and feeding on the wind” has a metaphorical meaning, which:

…is expressive of labour in vain, and of a man’s getting nothing by all the pains he takes; the same with sowing the wind, and reaping the whirlwind, (Hosea 8:7)…and this refers either to the worship of idols, and the calves in particular, and the vain hope of good things promised to themselves from thence; or to their vain confidence in the alliances and confederacies they entered into with neighbouring nations; from which they expected much, but found little…so that this clause exposes their folly… *

It is indeed folly to trust in any being other than the Supreme Being when it comes to the trials of life. When enemies of any sort fall upon us, we labor in vain to combat them with any strength other than the strength of Christ. As we try to herd and to feast upon the wind that is man’s strength, we will find that our “main course” is not only unable to satisfy our hunger, trusting in it leads to our ultimate destruction through spiritual starvation.

If we wish to conquer the troubles of life, there is only way to prepare for battle – harness the power of God by abandoning all trust in human power, whether that power is our own or someone else’s. Yes, we are to wield the sword and to raise the shield during our daily battles. But we must acknowledge that The Lord alone is able to make both the sword and the shield effective. If we think we are the cause of our successes, pretty soon God will deliver us a feast of failure to remind us Who is indeed in charge.

* John Gill’s Exposition of the Bible

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