{"id":69091,"date":"2020-01-25T16:17:48","date_gmt":"2020-01-25T14:17:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/?p=69091"},"modified":"2023-08-21T16:21:27","modified_gmt":"2023-08-21T13:21:27","slug":"dont-do-me-any-favors","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/dont-do-me-any-favors\/","title":{"rendered":"Don\u2019t Do Me Any Favors"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[281],"tags":[910,391,387],"acf":{"old_id":"69091","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":34243,"related_cahpter":"402","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_create_date":"","old_url":"","post_main_content":{"description":"Human devotion, like God\u2019s favor - is not a favor","content":"

God then instructed Jeremiah to proclaim to the inhabitants of Jerusalem in His name: <\/span><\/p>\n

I have accounted to your favor (<\/span>chesed<\/span><\/em>) the devotion of your youth, your love as a bride, how you followed Me in the wilderness, in a land not sown (2). <\/span><\/p>\n

The classic exegetes agreed that the reference is to Israel\u2019s earliest time as a nation and that the import of the recollection is that their devotion to God would be a favorable mitigating factor when God comes to mete out their deserved punishment.<\/span><\/p>\n

Shadal* explained why God chose to speak of His relationship with youthful Israel in terms of favor (<\/span>chesed<\/span><\/em>).<\/span><\/p>\n

Favor is [granted] on the part of the lover while the beloved exhibits grace (<\/span>chen<\/span><\/em>). The intention here is that God recalled the favor and attachment that He bestowed [on Israel] in its youth and His love [for Israel] as a bride. Therefore, even if He must now punish them, He will remain devoted to them, for \u201cIsrael is sacred to Him\u201d (3). Nevertheless, He is obliged to rebuke them frontally and to say, \u201cWhat wrong did your fathers find in Me that they abandoned Me?\u201d (4).<\/span><\/p>\n

Shadal also drew a contemporary religious moral from this distinction.<\/span><\/p>\n

It appears to me that [man\u2019s] devotion to God is not \u201ca favor\u201d (<\/span>chesed<\/span><\/em>). Even though those who love Him are called \u201cfavored\u201d (Ps. 50:5, 52:11, etc.), <\/span>chesed<\/span><\/em> really applies only in matters between people, or between God and people\u2026<\/span><\/p>\n

The prophets taught the people that God preferred favor to sacrifice (Hosea 6:6) and that \u201cknowing\u201d God was to know that He acts with favor, justice, and righteousness and that is what He desires, since His \u201cway\u201d is \u201cto act righteously and justly\u201d (Gen. 18:19). After prophecy ceased, the Israelite masses fell into great error and considered matters between man and God to be \u201cfavors\u201d [which man, then, could terminate at will].<\/span><\/p>\n

It appears that Shadal was taking a veiled swipe at the Reform movement, which had proclaimed the precedence of social justice over ritual. He pointed out that we do not \u201cfavor\u201d God with our devotion to Him, but by adhering to His ways, which happen to include\u2014but are not limited to\u2014acting \u201cjustly.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

*For an explanation of our objectives in studying Shadal\u2019s commentary, see our introduction<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n","image":{"ID":69092,"id":69092,"title":"jer2-devotion","filename":"jer2-devotion.png","filesize":0,"url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/jer2-devotion.png","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/dont-do-me-any-favors\/jer2-devotion\/","alt":"","author":"7","description":"","caption":"","name":"jer2-devotion","status":"inherit","uploaded_to":69091,"date":"2020-01-25 14:17:28","modified":"2020-01-25 14:17:44","menu_order":0,"mime_type":"image\/png","type":"image","subtype":"png","icon":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-includes\/images\/media\/default.png","width":950,"height":1280,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/jer2-devotion-150x150.png","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/jer2-devotion-223x300.png","medium-width":223,"medium-height":300,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/jer2-devotion-760x1024.png","medium_large-width":760,"medium_large-height":1024,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/jer2-devotion-760x1024.png","large-width":760,"large-height":1024,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/jer2-devotion.png","1536x1536-width":950,"1536x1536-height":1280,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/jer2-devotion.png","2048x2048-width":950,"2048x2048-height":1280,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/jer2-devotion-891x1200.png","post_full_size-width":891,"post_full_size-height":1200,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/jer2-devotion-312x420.png","home_baner-width":312,"home_baner-height":420}},"embedded_video":"","video_duration":"","show_fb_comments":true,"credit_media":""},"tile":{"top_caption":"","main_caption":"Don\u2019t Do Me Any Favors","main_caption_size":"1","sub_caption":"Human devotion, like God\u2019s favor - is not a favor","preview_embedded":"","preview_image":{"ID":69092,"id":69092,"title":"jer2-devotion","filename":"jer2-devotion.png","filesize":0,"url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/jer2-devotion.png","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/dont-do-me-any-favors\/jer2-devotion\/","alt":"","author":"7","description":"","caption":"","name":"jer2-devotion","status":"inherit","uploaded_to":69091,"date":"2020-01-25 14:17:28","modified":"2020-01-25 14:17:44","menu_order":0,"mime_type":"image\/png","type":"image","subtype":"png","icon":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-includes\/images\/media\/default.png","width":950,"height":1280,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/jer2-devotion-150x150.png","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/jer2-devotion-223x300.png","medium-width":223,"medium-height":300,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/jer2-devotion-760x1024.png","medium_large-width":760,"medium_large-height":1024,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/jer2-devotion-760x1024.png","large-width":760,"large-height":1024,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/jer2-devotion.png","1536x1536-width":950,"1536x1536-height":1280,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/jer2-devotion.png","2048x2048-width":950,"2048x2048-height":1280,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/jer2-devotion-891x1200.png","post_full_size-width":891,"post_full_size-height":1200,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/jer2-devotion-312x420.png","home_baner-width":312,"home_baner-height":420}},"preview_video":"","external_link":"","link_for_pay":false,"tile_gallery_items":false,"credits":""},"alternate_tile":{"top_caption":"","main_caption":"","main_caption_size":"1","sub_caption":"","hide_media":false},"tile_group":{"preview_image_url":false,"main_caption":"","sub_caption":"","":null,"popup_package_extra_content":"","read_time":""},"home_color":"","home_gallery_top":"","home_gallery_middle":"","home_gallery_book":"","home_gallery_bottom":"","seo":{"seo_title":"","seo_description":"","seo_default_title":"","seo_default_description":""},"links":false,"send_noty":false},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69091"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=69091"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69091\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":117248,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69091\/revisions\/117248"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=69091"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=69091"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=69091"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}