What does it feel like to be god?
Hosea 2:9-13(9)"Therefore, I will take back My grain at harvest time
And My new wine in its season.
I will also take away My wool and My flax
Given to cover her nakedness.
(10) "And then I will uncover her lewdness
In the sight of her lovers,
And no one will rescue her out of My hand.
(11)"I will also put an end to all her gaiety,
Her feasts, her new moons, her sabbaths
And all her festal assemblies.
(12) "I will destroy her vines and fig trees,
Of which she said, 'These are my wages
Which my lovers have given me.'
And I will make them a forest,
And the beasts of the field will devour them.
(13) "I will punish her for the days of the Baals
When she used to offer sacrifices to them
And adorn herself with her earrings and jewelry,
And follow her lovers, so that she forgot Me," declares the LORD.
From Hosea 2:2-8 we see an angry God with perhaps a glimmer of hope in the punishment winning back the wayward wife in 2:6-8. Now, we see the anger and frustration again here in Hosea 2:9-13 in full force. The charges of her/our sin and the punishment of her/us are explicit.
One may wonder: what does it feel like to be God?
We have no point of reference because we aren't God! However, the two most intense relationships we as human beings can experience is the husband-wife relationship and parent-child relationship. That has to be why God uses this kind of language to communicate feelings. This is the only point of reference we can understand. This is one of God's many dilemmas: an infinite being of power and goodness trying to communicate to us finite beings of mixed motivations. How does it feel like to be a physics professor trying to communicate with a five year old. She must adjust her language to succeed. Likewise, God must use language we can grasp or there is no communication and no relationship.
And the picture is not a pretty one: God being made fool of by the adulterous wife.
For today's ears, where feminism is a strong voice, would God have chosen a Holly to marry a gigalo named Geno? Would God have chosen to illustrate this reality of betrayal with the metaphor of a faithful wife being cheated upon by a serial philanderer?
Change the her to him in this poem and spruce up the language to the modern day:
And then I will make public his sexual indiscretions
And parade his lovers and his foolishness for all the media to show
And no one will stop the bad publicity as my hand of judgment falls on him ...
I will punish him for his worship at the idol of pleasure
When he gave his dollars to pay for it
And adorned himself with his cars and clothes
And followed his lovers, so that he forgot Me, declares the LORD.
The message is still just as powerful???
No comments:
Post a Comment