{"id":76008,"date":"2020-06-14T16:32:42","date_gmt":"2020-06-14T13:32:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/?p=76008"},"modified":"2020-06-14T16:32:42","modified_gmt":"2020-06-14T13:32:42","slug":"the-limits-of-the-marriage-metaphor","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/the-limits-of-the-marriage-metaphor\/","title":{"rendered":"The Limits Of The Marriage Metaphor"},"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":"76008","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":74351,"related_cahpter":"502","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_create_date":"","old_url":"","post_main_content":{"description":"Problematic passion: after the wrath, comes the forgiveness\u00a0\r\n\r\n","content":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">How can you have a \u201cmarriage\u201d with an omnipotent partner?<\/span><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.929.org.il\/lang\/en\/page\/501\/post\/75928\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In my article on Hosea 1<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, I argued that the marriage metaphor between God and Israel strips Israel of their voice and renders them completely powerless. In Hosea 2 the dangers of the divine-human \u201cmarriage\u201d are even more explicit. For half the chapter God threatens Israel, His \u201dwife,\u201d in an abusive manner: \u201cElse will I strip her naked And leave her as on the day she was born: And I will make her like a wilderness, Render her like desert land, And let her die of thirst\u201d (2:5).\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The other half of the chapter is a complete reversal. After verse 16, God offers gifts, covenants, forgiveness, and spousal love to Israel. But this divine grace is also problematic. In this chapter, God is erratic and unpredictable. He threatens violence one minute and promises \u201cgoodness and mercy\u201d (2:21) the next.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A relationship is dysfunctional when one partner holds all the power, when one half of the couple can decide if the relationship is loving or abusive on a whim.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Obviously, the Israelites and God are not a normal couple and they are definitely not contemporaries, but that just makes me wonder why the marriage metaphor is employed at all. Furthermore, there are theological questions raised by this metaphor. Can human beings know<\/span> <span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">God intimately? When bad things happen to the Israelites, would we rather attribute them to a jealous and vindictive God who is hurting His \u201cwife\u201d out of spite or would we rather conceptualize God as a distant, maybe apathetic, figure, or just a clumsy God who dropped the ball?<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Despite the challenges with the metaphor, I understand why the prophets (through the word of God) employ it so often and why the Rabbis cling to it in the midrashim. Envisioning ourselves married to God is appealing. It\u2019s a beautiful image of monogamy and loyalty: God chose <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">us<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> out of all the other nations. And romantic love is the most passionate form of love. Marriage is the easiest way for us to visualize a deep and loving relationship with God.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The abusive language in this chapter is without a doubt disturbing and leaves me seriously questioning the merits of the marriage metaphor. But there is a part of me that loves the intimacy it creates between us and God. Even when God is angry at Israel, God is still a husband reacting to His wife. There is more than cold comfort in knowing that God may yell and threaten Israel, but He will never be indifferent to us and He will never abandon us. After God\u2019s wrath, there is always forgiveness.<\/span><\/p>\n","image":{"ID":76009,"id":76009,"title":"hos2-ring","filename":"hos2-ring.jpg","filesize":0,"url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/hos2-ring.jpg","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/the-limits-of-the-marriage-metaphor\/hos2-ring\/","alt":"","author":"7","description":"","caption":"","name":"hos2-ring","status":"inherit","uploaded_to":76008,"date":"2020-06-14 13:32:26","modified":"2020-06-14 13:32:40","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":1280,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/hos2-ring-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/hos2-ring-300x200.jpg","medium-width":300,"medium-height":200,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/hos2-ring-768x512.jpg","medium_large-width":768,"medium_large-height":512,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/hos2-ring-1024x683.jpg","large-width":1024,"large-height":683,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/hos2-ring.jpg","1536x1536-width":1536,"1536x1536-height":1024,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/hos2-ring.jpg","2048x2048-width":1920,"2048x2048-height":1280,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/hos2-ring-1200x800.jpg","post_full_size-width":1200,"post_full_size-height":800,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/hos2-ring-630x420.jpg","home_baner-width":630,"home_baner-height":420}},"embedded_video":"","video_duration":"","show_fb_comments":true,"credit_media":""},"tile":{"top_caption":"","main_caption":"The 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