God As The Jilted Groom?

During the reign of King Josiah, the LORD said to me, “Have you seen what faithless Israel has done? She has gone up on every high hill and under every spreading tree and has committed adultery there. I thought that after she had done all this she would return to me but she did not, and her unfaithful sister Judah saw it. I gave faithless Israel her certificate of divorce and sent her away because of all her adulteries. Yet I saw that her unfaithful sister Judah had no fear; she also went out and committed adultery. Because Israel’s immorality mattered so little to her, she defiled the land and committed adultery with stone and wood. Jeremiah 3:6-9

Today’s Reading: Jeremiah 3-5; 1 Timothy 4

Whoa whoa whoa!

God is none too pleased obviously.

We know from back when we read Kings and Chronicles that both Israel and Judah went back and forth between righteousness and doing foul stuff like making false idols and worshiping other gods.

But is it just me or is the adultery language kinda creepy. It’s enough of a stretch to think about God having human emotions at all but now we hear that God thinks of the people of Israel as his bride!? And at that her idol worship likened her to a bride that has been dipping out on her marital responsibilities?

What are we supposed to do with such language?

Well I don’t think it is possible for our finite minds to understand infinite purpose so God gives us messages in ways that we can understand. We may not be able to take on the position of omnipotence, omniscience, or omnipresence but must of us know what it is like to be cheated on.

That really sucks man.

And this is why I think the Bible is so powerful. The more you read it, the clearer it is that this is a book of spiritual truth above all else of course MANY of the things that are in the Bible are historical fact. That’s not what I am talking about here. What I am talking about is understanding God. The Bible is written in such a way that makes it possible to us to connect with and identify with the infinite on our level.

And anyone who decides to take the time can get start to scratch at the surface of that understanding.

Understanding God through metaphors of the human experience does not bring God down to our level. On the contrary, these metaphors help us to approach Him in ways that we can understand.

No wonder this book has been around for thousands of years.