Thinking Differently

Love: Abandoned baby kicking on the side of the road…(1)

Hosea was a man called by God specifically to love. “Go, marry a woman…” (2) was God’s call to the prophet, and one he performed faithfully. His love story is intertwined with God’s allegorical love story with the nation of Israel, as told by Ezekiel (3):

Once upon a time, in a faraway land, there was a baby. This baby was born to an Amorite father, and a Hittite mother, but they abandoned her along the side of the path. The baby wept and screamed, still covered in blood, and fluid, naked for the world to see. People walked by, and heard the wails of the child, but none cared, none pitied, none even stopped to cast a glance in the direction of the shrieks. Compassion fled, and sympathy turned away. Abhorred, this child was cast away.

But, a man, walking through the field, suddenly stopped. The child, now weakening in the elements and sun’s harsh glare, was barely able to whimper. The blood had crusted to her body, and dust was caked to mud in the fluids. The man rushed with gentle steps to the baby’s side. His eyes welled with tears, and he knelt over the small, fragile form. His lips began to move, and a whisper was heard, “Live!” All the urgency, all the power, all the will of the master of the universe was embodied in that command. “Live!” he commanded again, this time in a strong clear voice, stretching out a hand over the baby’s brow.

Taking the baby home, he cared for her, and gave her everything she needed, everything she wanted. The little baby girl grew into the most beautiful woman in the land. The man passing by one day, saw her anew, and loved her with not just the love of a caretaker, but the love of a husband. He rushed with passionate steps to her side, and spread his cloak over her. He washed her, and anointed her, and dressed her in the most stunning clothes. He covered her with gold, and precious stones, so that her natural beauty was enhanced, and she outshone the stars.

But this rags-to-riches princess betrayed her true love, and went into the markets, brazenly displaying her beautiful body, and selling her affections to anyone who paused. So lusting was she that she took her jewels, her gold, her expensive clothes and bartered them for sex, paying her lovers. She took her sustenance, given by her husband, and used it to feed her partners.

If that were not enough wickedness in the face of undying love, and rescue from certain death, she took the sons and daughters born in the marriage, and sacrificed them to the heathen gods, in the fire of ash of darkest evil. What then were her whorings? She no longer remembered her beginnings, and the babe covered in blood and dust of so long ago.

It was in the height of her flagrant wantonness that her husband had his fill, and stretched out his hand against her. He cut off her support, and gave her up to be raped and robbed. He wept bitter tears, for her longed only to love her, in passion and compassion, but she would not take his selfless offerings. He cried out to her, “My love, I gave you all! You were to stay faithful, not spend your beauty on anyone who chanced by! I was your husband; I loved you!” But he had no choice: he brought lawsuit against her, and judged her as an adulteress and a murderess. He destroyed completely her whore houses and her beds of lust. And then he left, heart shattered.

Many years later, the woman, now ashamed and utterly destitute, sat by the road with nothing at all. Silent tears streamed down her cheeks. A man passed by, but she did not glance at him, she had long since abandoned her licentious ways. But the man had stopped, and was staring at her. When, after many moments, she dared cast her eyes up to him, she saw the face of her husband. He too was crying, and held his arms out to her. He gathered her to himself, and restored her as his wife, and forgave her evil.

Hosea married a prostitute, and had children with her (4). A few years later, his wife returned to prostitution, leaving her devoted husband and children. At God’s request, Hosea went, and found her, and re-married her. Imagine the heartache, the devastation, the worry and the confusion of a husband who does everything to care, support, and love a wife who leaves him, and shares the most sacred physical act of marriage with complete strangers for love. Imagine going and finding her, and trying to love her again. Issues of trust, resentment, heartache would threaten daily civility, and Hosea’s trust in a sovereign God must have been a constant question mark upon his soul.

Gomer, Hosea’s wife was not quite as evil as Ezekiel portrays God’s bride, but her betrayal was real. Not just a work of fiction to stir up the emotions, when she left Hosea she shattered his heart. What devotion to his wife, and to God, Hosea must have had, to endure such personal turmoil as a prophet! His eyes surely wept God’s tears as a grieving husband.

Notes :
1. Michael Card Lyrics
2. Hosea 1:2
3. Ezekiel 16
4. Hosea 1

This is a look at the prophets of Ancient Israel, as discovered through the Hebrew Old Testament, in six parts…

Part One Introduction:

How do you see an invisible God? How do you interact with a spirit you cannot touch? God has emotions, and a voice, but how can you experience that emotion, and how do you hear the voice of God?

This question plagued the children of Israel. As a fledgling nation, no bigger than a large family, the patriarchs directly interacted with God. After four generations, they found themselves enslaved in Egypt without a God. The deliverer Moses then stepped into the role of proxy to God through the wilderness wanderings on the way back to the promised homeland. After the reconquest of Canaan, the Hebrew people again lost sight of God through a series of semi-king judges and into the establishment of the Israelite Kingdom. To answer this loss of vision, God ordained the prophets, after the tradition of Moses, to be His physical presence, to show His emotion, and to speak His words. The prophets became the being and essence of God in the nation of Israel.

There is an ancient Asian proverb which states: “You cannot love without knowing pleasure; you cannot be happy without knowing sorrow; you need to know all of them to know one”(1) and I think this truth is evident in the great love story told through the ages by the prophets of God. The prophets exhibited the emotions of an intensely personal God to a wayward nation.

Michael Card in his song entitled “The Prophet” references many of the ancient prophets, and portrays their deep emotional frustration, “I am the prophet, and I smolder and burn…won’t you listen to me? I sorrow in His anger; my eyes weep His tears” (2) These man of ancient faith struggled mightily to bear the emotions of an awesome God.

In portraying the interactions of the primary emotions of life (love pleasure sorrow and happiness) I will personify them through the lives of seven prophets, six of whom were contemporaries, and across the backdrop of the fall of Jerusalem and the exile to Babylon, and demonstrate them to be the multi-faceted emotions of God displayed in humanity.

Notes

(1) As referenced by director Jieho Lee according to his film The Air I Breathe

(2) Michael Card Lyrics

The Little Boy Who Grew Up

Once upon a time there was a little boy. This boy was shy, timid, selfish, unexperienced, and lonely. Out of the blue, this little boy decided to take a very big step, and move to Lithuania. He knew very little about Lithuania, only really where it was. He did not know the language, the people, the customs, or anybody over there. Though he did not know it, as he boarded the big airplane with all his luggage, his time spent across the Atlantic would change his life forever.

The little boy took his friend with him, a little girl who was very experienced in cross-cultures and travel, and who would look after him. Without this little girl’s help, he would never have survived all the new things about the trip. Together the little boy and the little girl arrived in Vilnius and had a first big adventure: finding a taxi cab, and finding a hostel. Somehow they did, and made it safe and sound. The next day they met up with a bunch of other little boys and girls who were also going to spend some time in Lithuania, and they were even going to go to school together. Everyone was excited, and got even happier when the kind Ms Natalija showed up with cookies and stipends. All together they spent alot of time, but really only three days, walking around Vilnius and seeing all the cool churches and buildings and amber. After a long bus ride and seeing a castle, the tired boys and girls arrived at LCC International University.

Over the next few months the little boys and girls went to school and studied alot, and then went all over Europe and saw many things. They went to Estonia and ate bear, and they went to Latvia and got rained on, and they went to Russia and saw a creepy dead guy, and a ballet, and a circus, and a plethora of churches and other cool buildings.

But, something started to happen to the little boy: he started to grow up. He was scared, and unsure of himself; timid and shy. After a while, he learned to speak another language, and navigate crowded metros, and barter, and take care of himself. He learned to buy food for himself, and even learned how to cook it! He learned to live with roommates who like to play techno music all the time and very loudly! He even learned to play nice with the other little boys and girls. Eventually, the little boy started to learn to not be selfish, and to respect others. This was the hardest lesson of all, because the little boy thought he was the best already, but soon discovered that he really wasn’t.

Also, the little boy went into so many different churches, that he started to realize that God was bigger than he had ever thought. All his life, which was admittedly pretty short, he thought God was this cool guy you talked to some times and that he lived back in the little boy’s church in Virginia. God was fun, but you had to do certain things, and not do certain things (like praying to pictures, and burning funny smelling stuff) in order to make God as fun as possible. But God wasn’t really that small. God was many things and was everywhere. The little boy learned that God was so much more real and awesome, still fun, but much more helpful and instructive.

However, through all this time, the little boy still had his loving and supportive friend, the little girl. She would hold his hand, and help him understand things, and would not be mean to him if he was selfish. In fact, this little girl was so incredible, and so beautiful, and so helpful, that the little boy decided to ask her to marry him. He planned it all special, and took her to the beach (even though they got lost) and drew a message in the sand (even though the wave washed it almost away) and she even said yes! (even though it was very very cold).

And after all these things, the little boy looked in the mirror and realized that he was taller, more mature, and not really a boy any more. The little boy had grown up into a man. This little boy’s name was Philip.

And that is how I feel, like a little boy that has grown up. I came thinking I had it all together, that I knew how things worked, and was very comfortable being me. I had a steady girlfriend, I had a school career, and I had self-confidence. But I had nothing that was lasting. Through all the travels here, through all the experiences, and through all the day to day, I have seen my puffed up me being deflated and reshaped.

I realized what true self-reliance was getting myself around in Russia, and even more so, getting myself and three girls around Milan and Italy, with no interns or pre-planned events. I learned how things worked when I was responsible for getting myself to IkI to buy food, when I had to somehow cook it, and then when I had to wash the dishes afterwards. No longer was I going to have someone, not even a college, do things for me. I had to do them myself, or go without.

In classes I was faced with making a choice to actually learn, to open myself up to new challenges and new ideas that might, just possible, be more correct than what I believed. I was used to fighting against new ideas, and defending with vigorous arguments my own beliefs. But through Theology class with Steve Dintaman I have had my ideas about God, church, creation, authority of Scripture, and even the way I relate to others radically transformed and rebuilt, not so much as different beliefs, but as restructured beliefs. I am a completely renovated Christian, and not the same spiritual being I was when I first stepped off the plane in Vilnius. Similarly, in Hebrew Prophets class with John Campbell, I have realized what living as a Christian truly entails: hard, disciplined work. Not a single one of the prophets had an easy time performing their duties and they had an ever harder task living with their God-given identities. Often their role as a prophet shattered their personal lives and they were not even allowed to slow down. That is nowhere near what I am willing to do to serve God today, but I realize now what it will mean and ask of me, though I may not face beatings, incarcerations, hatred, and death, living as a Christian is rougher than I imagined.

My roommates have annoyed and frustrated me since I arrived, but I have since learned that the source of my annoyance and frustration was within me all along. It was my attitudes, my assumptions, my self-righteousness, and my arrogance that I projected onto them, and became annoyed by. It has taken several direct encounters of having my real self being displayed for me to realize what I jerk I really was. I have been humbled in ways I did not ever want to be, but I desperately needed to be. I am ashamed for who I have been, but as a reed in a strong breeze, I wilt in shame and rise again stronger for the buffeting. I trust that God will keep me moving forward and growing as an individual.

Now I know why a school career is important: not to reinforce my puny body of knowledge, but to make that knowledge run, and build muscles, and eliminate built up insulation against true learning, to reshape that knowledge into a lean, healthy ability to adapt and add understanding. Discipline is paramount in this training, and openness to new techniques and exercises. I am now going forward to see what new ideas I can encounter and assimilate into myself, and be constantly looking for chances to change.

Lastly, I know what a real relationship, and what sacrifice within that relationship truly entails. I have learned to give of my time, energy, and attention when I would rather be left alone to watch a movie or sleep. I have learned to listen and heed another’s views rather than listen enough to try to refute and re-assert my ideas. I have learned to love, and to support in real living situations, more than ever before. I thought I knew these things before, and I think I know them now, but soon what I know now will be as inadequate as what I knew, and will know more fully. But I have a start, and a true foundation, and a new fiancee who constantly challenges me to evolve.

I am not a little boy, and yet, I will always be a little boy. What makes the difference is that I am aware now, more than ever, of my faults, and am willing now, for the first time, to acknowledge them and more forward towards changing bad habits into good lifestyles, towards learning and growing as an individual, not maintaining who I am now. What makes the difference is that I am no longer Peter Pan, clawing desperately at the shores of Neverland in vain effort to remain a Lost Boy, but that I am freely flying past the second star on the left, straight on to evening, and a future as a man.