{"id":75934,"date":"2020-06-12T16:02:18","date_gmt":"2020-06-12T13:02:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/?p=75934"},"modified":"2020-06-12T16:02:18","modified_gmt":"2020-06-12T13:02:18","slug":"our-empathy-and-gods","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/our-empathy-and-gods\/","title":{"rendered":"Our Empathy &#8211; And God\u2019s\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"entry-content\"><\/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":[],"acf":{"old_id":"75934","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":43030,"related_cahpter":"501","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_create_date":"","old_url":"","post_main_content":{"description":"Empathizing and partnering with us, with unending hope for healing and reconciliation\r\n\r\n","content":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In the first chapter of Hosea, we see a shocking command. God instructs Hosea to marry a harlot and build a life with her. Hosea, the prophet, follows God&#8217;s command without dispute. But this beginning to a prophetic text proves puzzling. Why does God ask such a bizarre and personal commitment of Hosea?\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Our rabbis teach that God wants Hosea to put himself in God&#8217;s shoes&#8211; to know what it is like to be in a relationship with someone who is constantly unfaithful, someone who he knows has a propensity to hurt him, but whom he nevertheless loves and is committed to. God asks Hosea to do this so God has a partner, a person who gets the deep pain God feels about His beloved, Israel. We, like the adulterous spouse, constantly deceive and disappoint God. We turn to idols and false gods instead of to God. And God is left waiting for us with a broken heart.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">And yet&#8230;despite all of the heartache and moments of separation and exile along the way&#8230;He cannot bring Himself to truly leave us.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Getting personal with Hosea is the only means for God to have a partner in His loneliness. This is a heartbreaking and radical way to view our God, King of kings. And it can even be disturbing to imagine God wanting his creation to suffer just as He suffers. What good can there be in adding another member to the list of the brokenhearted?\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">When we suffer, we likely feel the same sense of injustice and ask the same question&#8211; why would God make this personal? Why would God ask me to go through this? It is hard to relate or pray to a God Who wants us to suffer.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I would like to believe that to read our text&#8211; and our personal sufferings&#8211; this way is to miss the point. God does not ask Hosea to marry a harlot because he wants Hosea to suffer. He asks Hosea to empathize and to realize that human sorrow is something God understands and joins us in. When we are lonely, when we are brokenhearted, when we feel lost and abandoned&#8211; God does not cause or want us to feel any of those emotions. Instead <\/span><em><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">God is with us in them<\/span><\/em><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. Joining, empathizing, and partnering with us with unending hope for healing and reconciliation. In this way, Hosea\u2019s interaction with God brings God into our personal relationships in order to help us feel God\u2019s empathy a little more in our personal lives&#8211; and as a result, to empathize more with God Himself.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">If we read our text with this in mind, we cannot help but feel our own hearts break, longing to repair the wrongs we have committed against our Beloved. True, it is shocking to begin a prophetic book with such an intimate command. But perhaps it is with this request that God cracks open not only His heart, but our hearts as well.<\/span><\/p>\n","image":{"ID":75935,"id":75935,"title":"hos1-empathy","filename":"hos1-empathy.jpg","filesize":0,"url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/hos1-empathy.jpg","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/our-empathy-and-gods\/hos1-empathy\/","alt":"","author":"7","description":"","caption":"","name":"hos1-empathy","status":"inherit","uploaded_to":75934,"date":"2020-06-12 13:01:51","modified":"2022-05-15 14:40:49","menu_order":0,"mime_type":"image\/jpeg","type":"image","subtype":"jpeg","icon":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-includes\/images\/media\/default.png","width":1920,"height":1355,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/hos1-empathy-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/hos1-empathy-300x212.jpg","medium-width":300,"medium-height":212,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/hos1-empathy-768x542.jpg","medium_large-width":768,"medium_large-height":542,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/hos1-empathy-1024x723.jpg","large-width":1024,"large-height":723,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/hos1-empathy.jpg","1536x1536-width":1536,"1536x1536-height":1084,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/hos1-empathy.jpg","2048x2048-width":1920,"2048x2048-height":1355,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/hos1-empathy-1200x847.jpg","post_full_size-width":1200,"post_full_size-height":847,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/hos1-empathy-595x420.jpg","home_baner-width":595,"home_baner-height":420}},"embedded_video":"","video_duration":"","show_fb_comments":true,"credit_media":""},"tile":{"top_caption":"","main_caption":"Our Empathy - 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