Wednesday, February 9, 2011

Will the real God please stand up?

















I've been thinking about these two passages in the Bible for days now and have begun writing about the contrast.

The Ezekial passage is an "allegory" that God was supposedly relating to Ezekial, comparing the nation of Israel to an adulterous wife. In this allegory God is the husband.

In the John passage Jesus is supposedly relating directly to an adulterous woman. It is told as a literal story, not an allegory.

The fact that the Ezekial passage is an allegory matters when comparing these two passages, but it is also interesting to intentionally juxtapose them with one another in a literal way.

Tell me, what do you make of this?
Ezekial 16: 32-42
"‘You adulterous wife! You prefer strangers to your own husband! All prostitutes receive gifts, but you give gifts to all your lovers, bribing them to come to you from everywhere for your illicit favors. So in your prostitution you are the opposite of others; no one runs after you for your favors. You are the very opposite, for you give payment and none is given to you.

Therefore, you prostitute, hear the word of the LORD! ...I am going to gather all your lovers, with whom you found pleasure, those you loved as well as those you hated. I will gather them against you from all around and will strip you in front of them, and they will see you stark naked. I will sentence you to the punishment of women who commit adultery and who shed blood; I will bring on you the blood vengeance of my wrath and jealous anger. 
Then I will deliver you into the hands of your lovers...and they will strip you of your clothes and take your fine jewelry and leave you stark naked. They will bring a mob against you, who will stone you and hack you to pieces with their swords. They will burn down your houses and inflict punishment on you in the sight of many women. I will put a stop to your prostitution, and you will no longer pay your lovers. Then my wrath against you will subside and my jealous anger will turn away from you; I will be calm and no longer angry.'"
and then....
John 8:2-11:
The teachers of the law and the Pharisees brought in a woman caught in adultery. They made her stand before the group and said to Jesus, “Teacher, this woman was caught in the act of adultery. In the Law Moses commanded us to stone such women. Now what do you say?”
They were using this question as a trap, in order to have a basis for accusing him.

But Jesus bent down and started to write on the ground with his finger. When they kept on questioning him, he straightened up and said to them, “Let any one of you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.”
Again he stooped down and wrote on the ground.
At this, those who heard began to go away one at a time, the older ones first, until only Jesus was left, with the woman still standing there. Jesus straightened up and asked her, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?”
“No one, sir,” she said.
Then neither do I condemn you,” Jesus declared. “Go now and leave your life of sin.”

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