I'd like to share with you from Hosea chapter 12, verse 1: "Ephraim feedeth on wind."

Just that little phrase there: Ephraim, or Israel, feeds on wind.

What an interesting picture, isn't it? How many of you would feed on wind? Suppose you are hungry today and you are ravenous, you need to eat something and you open your mouth and you feed on wind. That's ridiculous, yet that is exactly what Israel was doing. They were looking to things that will not satisfy. They were looking to false gods, to idols to satisfy them and that is just a picture of mankind, isn't it? We love to seek for satisfaction in everything but God. That's the human heart. We seek satisfaction in everything but God.

And these things are not necessarily bad things in and of themselves. It can be wealth (there is nothing wrong with wealth), it can be status, it can be good school results, it may be our promotions at work, it may be our looks, our possessions - all these things, they are not necessarily evil in and of themselves but the human heart is so wicked that we run away from God and we seek satisfaction in these things, but not God.

It is well said that the heart of man is an idol factory. We produce idols, we worship idols within our hearts. Ephraim had that problem. Israel sought satisfaction from false gods but God says it is empty, it is vain, it is like the wind. Again the picture is ludicrous: suppose you are hungry and you open your mouth and you swallow as much wind and air as you can and you say: "I am so satisfied!"

It doesn't work that way. Wind or air will never fill your tummy. It will never satisfy you. You know, Solomon, the wisest man apart from the Lord Jesus Christ - he learned it the hard way, isn't it? In the Book of Ecclesiastes, he warns us, he reminds us, he exhorts us to fear God and keep His commandments and not chase after the things of the world because all these are vanity. They are like vapour, they are like smoke - they do not matter. They do not satisfy.

Wisdom is to stop feeding on wind. Are you feeding on wind today? Are you looking to things to satisfy you? Maybe even your ministry in church, maybe even in your significance in the work that you do. Wisdom is to stop feeding on things and to come to Jesus who alone satisfies. He is the Way, the Truth and the Life. At His right hand, there are pleasures forevermore. Come to Jesus.

Do you know why God says: "Love not the world"? Because He loves you. He tells you the world passes away and the lusts thereof but only he who does the will of the Lord abides forever (1 John 2:17). So come to Jesus. Align yourself with Him, develop that wonderful, deep relationship with Jesus Christ by faith because He will satisfy. So stop feeding on wind and come to the Bread of Life. God bless!

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