ACADEMY OF INTEGRATED CHRISTIAN STUDIES
Paper Presentation on Prophetic Responses to the Struggles of the People of God
Topic:
Prophetic use of the Sexual and Marital Metaphor
Presented by: Kiheigumle Ndang, R.Lalrochangi,
K.Leader, Lunlal Doungel, Appline M.Sangma, Vanlalsanga Joulay. BD IV (New) on
4th March 2013.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Introduction: The Christian believer and their characteristics
are described in terms of many colourful metaphors in the Bible. There are many
instances in the Bible where figurative language is used often. The prophets in
the Old Testament often use this metaphorical language in quite a number of passages.
However, this paper tries to bring out some passages in the Old Testament which
deals and talks about this metaphorical language in the areas of sexual and
marital status.
1.
What is a Metaphor?
A metaphor is a figure of speech that describes a subject by asserting that
it is the same as another otherwise unrelated object. Metaphor is a type of analogy and is closely related to other rhetorical figures
of speech that achieve their effects via association,
comparison or resemblance including allegory, hyperbole,
and simile.[1] Metaphors convey ideas
that can be stated in no other way. Metaphors are not simply embellished
expressions of what might just as well be said literally; nor are they
significant solely for their emotive impact. The medium is the message, because
the message is conveyed in terms of having an irreducible upon the reader’s
perception of its meaning.[2]
2. Marriage and Sexual as a Metaphor
in the Old Testament
Metaphor is used quite often in the Bible. There are some instances
about the use of metaphor found in the Old Testament. Marriage and sexual is
also used as a metaphor in the Old Testament for the relationship between God
and Israel. In Isaiah 54:5 it says, "For your Maker is your husband, the
LORD of hosts is his name" and later in Jeremiah 3:14, "Return, O
backsliding children," says the LORD, "for I am married to you".[3]
In the book of Hosea, the prophet takes as his wife a woman who is a
prostitute. This becomes a metaphor for the relationship between God and
Israel, meaning that despite Israel's unfaithfulness to God, he continues to
cherish her.[4] Many more marriage and
sexual metaphors are found in the Song of Solomon and other books as well.
3. Prophetic use of
Sexual and Marital Metaphor: In some selected passages of the O.T.
3.1. Hosea 1-3: The book of Hosea was written in the middle of
the eight century B.C. [5] Israel
was a strong and rich country but only few were loyal to God where as many
People in Judah were faithful to God. God loves Israel but they sin against Him
by worshiping idols. So God uses the family of Hosea as a metaphor to portray
the condition of Israel and to warn them that the end time is soon coming. The first chapter opens with an order of God
to Hosea, son of Beeri, and his family account on how Gomer became unfaithful
to her husband and children; and it portrays the nature of a loving husband who
returns to his wife. God called upon Hosea to do an unusual thing in taking an
adulterous woman to wife, but it had a symbolical significance which the last
part of the verse explains (10f).[6] Hosea’s
marriage was not a mistake, it was God’s commandment and the main motive behind
was to exalt the woman to his own moral sphere; so also to let him have deeper understanding of God’s love for Israel,
and to have effective communication to his fellow Israelites.[7] His
family account presents that they had three children each having a symbolic
name given by God in the light of Israel and they are regarded as the
individual member of Israel. The first son was Jezreel "the seed of God", Lo-Ruhamah means “Not Pitied”
or “Not Loved”, Lo-Ammi means “Not My people”.[8] Later
Gomer turns unfaithful to her husband and children, failing
to appreciate her blessings, went after her former lovers, and caught up in her
old life of sin again. The allegory is
not so much on Gomer but the people of Israel, rejected from being God’s wife. It
is a symbolic reference of Jehovah's relationship to Israel. Her
immoral nature was compared with the spiritual life of Israel. The worship of
idols is equivalent to going to a prostitute. Thus, Israel is regarded as an
adulterous nation and its consequences are: her political bewilderment (2: 6);
her disappointments in the expectation of help from the Gentiles (2:7); her
deprivation of the divine blessing and the positive suffering entailed by it
(9-13). All of these came to her in her captivity, which reflect God’s judgment upon His people. However,
when she realizes that she was
better off with her first husband ‘the LORD’, and she returns to him, there
appear bright future again (14-16).
In chapter three, the prophet himself tells of how he bought back his
wife as the Lord commanded, which is an allegory of God and his people Israel.
In legal sense Gomer is no longer capable to be his wife, so do the Israelites
do not deserve God’s love. Gomer married to Hosea but had sexual intercourse
with another, which symbolise that though Israel belong to God they turn away
and worship other Baal.
Thus, the whole idea is about
the relationship between God and Israel, to bring back Israel from the worship
of other gods “Baals” (idols) to Yahweh, and to reunite the two kingdoms.
3.2. Ezekiel 16 and 23: Ezekiel adopts and adapts the female city
imagery of his ancient Near Eastern world in order, not only to cast
Jerusalem’s history in the most scandalous of terms, but also to underscore
Yahweh’s mercy, to justify “His” murderous wrath and to set out a “solution” to
the problem posed by a persistently faithless.[9] In chapter 16 God's dealings with the Jewish
nation are described, and their punishment through the surrounding nations,
even those they most trusted in. This is done under the metaphor of an exposed
infant rescued from death, educated, espoused, and richly provided for, yet at
last received into favour, and ashamed of her base conduct. We are not to judge
of these expressions by modern ideas, but by those of the times and places in
which they were used, where many of them would not sound as they do to us. The
design was to raise hatred to idolatry, and such a metaphor was well suited for
that purpose. After a full warning of judgments, mercy is remembered, mercy is
reserved. These closing verses are a precious promise. The Divine mercy should
be powerful to melt our hearts into godly sorrow for sin.[10] Nor will God ever leave
the sinner to perish, who is humbled for his/her sins, and comes to trust in
His mercy and grace through Jesus Christ; but will keep him by his power.
In Ch.23 metaphor, Samaria and
Israel bear the name Aholah, "her
own tabernacle;" because the places of worship those kingdoms had,
were of their own devising. Jerusalem and Judah bear the name of Aholibah, "my tabernacle is in her,"
because their temple was the place which God himself had chosen, to put his
name there. [11]The
language and figures are according to those times. Here the prophet takes up,
sustains and elaborate upon a literary convention: the personification of
cities as women. This chapter emphasizes the faithless and fickle international
alliances pursued by both Samaria and Jerusalem. For Ezekiel such alliances
constituted flagrant disloyalty to Yahweh, who alone should be the object of
their trust.[12]
3.3. Nahum 3:5-6: In this verse we see that the Prophet
Nahum pronounced that Nineveh will be punished by God and his prediction
foresaw the final downfall of the capital of the empire itself. The city
appears as a charming madam but behind all those charm she is a mistress of
witchcrafts, casting an evil spell over each of her successive victims.[13] The
inhabitants of Nineveh deny the sovereignty of God over the affairs of men.
What prophet Nahum prophesies is that because of Nineveh’s Whoredoms God will
punish her most ignominiously, as a harlot.[14] God
says that He is against them and He will come to bring judgment against them
through the prophet. The prophet foretells that Nineveh would suffer the
ignominy and ill-treatment that such a woman might receive from the rabble.[15] God
will uncover Nineveh’s skirt before her own faces. God will expose the harlot
for what she really is before the public eye but also before her own eye which
is the punishment of prostitutes and adulteresses and He will let nations and
kingdoms stare at Nineveh’s nakedness and shame. Nineveh’s true character will
be visible before all. God will also pelt Nineveh with detestable things and
will also mock Nineveh like a fool. The Lord declared that just as Nineveh has
abused its captives, exposing them to public ridicule, so he shall make Nineveh
a spectacle of shame that the nations will never forget.[16] By his
own immediate involvement, the Lord shall humble Nineveh before all the nations
of the earth and before all the ages of time.
3.4. Isaiah 54:1-6: In this prophecy and metaphor, Zion is depicted
as a barren mother, who is then blessed with fertility and many children (vv.1-3)
and as a disgrace wife taken back by Yahweh (vv.4-6). The first imagery that
the prophet uses for Zion is that of a barren woman becoming fertile and then
having plenty of children as a mark of God’s blessing on her. Picturing Yahweh
as the spouse of Israel is not new to second Isaiah. Prophet Hosea had already
made such a depiction in his prophecies. Biblical instances of barren wives
becoming fertile with the gifts of children are numerous. He also pictured her
as a repudiated wife taken back by her husband.[17] Zion is
represented as an offended woman, while Yahweh is seen as a penitent husband.
One thing important also is the concept of the marriage as an eternal covenant
between God and Israel.
4. Reflection and Concluding
Remarks: To know what metaphor is all about and its usage from the passages
discussed above, here are some observations and reflections brought out for
better understanding.
4.1. It is human being who is always rebellious and tries to break the
relationship with God through our
conduct, behaviour etc. We always act against the will of God. But God always
loved us and tries to bring that broken relationship and reunite that relation.
4.2. We tend to forget what God
had done for us and act according to our choice and wish. Even though we commit
so many sins, God always favour us. He is ever ready to forgive all of our
inequities if only we repent, humbled ourselves and turn from our wicked ways.
For God never leave the sinners go perish.
Hence, Metaphorical or figurative
use of language is very significant for the prophets in the Old Testament. It
may be clearly depicted by now the true sense of metaphor and the usage of it.
Mentioned may be made that the prophets in the Old Testament used metaphor in
trying to point something indirectly by using a figurative language. As seen
from the examples given from the selected passages, it is clearly indicated
that the prophets uses and compared things with that of the other to bring some
message through it.
Bibliography:
Buttrick,
George Arthur. The Interpreter’s Bible, Vol.VI. Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1995.
Carson, D.
A. New Bible Commentary 21st Century
Edition .U. K: Oxford.
Darr,
Katheryn Pfisterer. The New Interpreter’s Bible, Vol.VI. Nashville:
Abingdon Press, 2001.
Gray, James. Concise
Bible Commentary. USA: ADLC, 1999.
Kirkpatrick,
Mark. The Man Who Never Stopped Loving, An
Easy English Commentary on the Book of Hosea. UK: Wycliffe Associates. 2002.
Kizhakkeyil,
Dr.Sebastian. Isaiah: An Exegetical Commentary. Bangalore: Asian Trading
Corporation, 2006.
Nichol,
Francis D. et al. Seventh-Day Adventist Bible Commentary,
Isaiah to Malachi, vol. 4. USA: Review & Herald Publishing Association,
1976.
Patterson,
Richard D. ”Metaphors of
Marriage as Expressions of Divine- Human Relations” in Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society, 2008.
Robertson,
O Palmer. The New International Commentary on the Old
Testament: The books of Nahum, Habakkuk and Zephaniah.
Internet Source:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metaphor (28th
Feb.2013).
[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metaphor (28th Feb.2013).
[2] Katheryn Pfisterer Darr, The New Interpreter’s Bible, Vol.VI
(Nashville: Abingdon Press, 2001), 1220.
[3] Richard D.Patterson,”Metaphors
of Marriage as Expressions of Divine- Human Relations” in Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society, 2008.
[4] Richard D.Patterson,”Metaphors
of Marriage as Expressions of Divine- Human Relations”….
[5] Mark Kirkpatrick, The Man Who Never Stopped Loving, An
Easy English Commentary on the Book of Hosea(UK: Wycliffe Associates. 2002),
[6] James Gray, Concise
Bible Commentary (USA: ADLC, 1999), 615.
[7] D. A. Carson, New
Bible Commentary 21st Century Edition (U. K: Oxford,)
[8] James Gray, Concise Bible
Commentary…, 615.
[9] Katheryn Pfisterer Darr, The New
Interpreter’s Bible, Vol.VI….
[10] Katheryn
Pfisterer Darr, The New Interpreter’s Bible, Vol.VI….
[11] George Arthur Buttrick, The Interpreter’s Bible, Vol.VI
(Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1995), 187.
[12] George
Arthur Buttrick, The Interpreter’s Bible,
Vol.VI….
[13] O Palmer Robertson, The New International Commentary on the Old
Testament: The books of Nahum, Habakkuk and Zephaniah, 104.
[14] Francis D. Nichol, et al. Seventh-Day Adventist Bible Commentary,
Isaiah to Malachi, vol. 4 (USA: Review & Herald Publishing Association,
1976), 1036.
[15] Francis D. Nichol and F.
Cottrell, et al. Seventh-Day Adventist
Bible Commentary: Isaiah to Malachi, vol. 4 (USA: Review & Herald
Publishing Association, 1976), 1036.
[16]O Palmer Robertson, The New International Commentary on the Old
Testament: The books of Nahum, Habakkuk and Zephaniah, 108.
[17] Dr.Sebastian Kizhakkeyil, Isaiah: An Exegetical Commentary
(Bangalore: Asian Trading Corporation, 2006), 329.
No comments:
Post a Comment