Musing - Does God Exercise Tough Love? …with us?

Hebraic Musing - Does God Exercise Tough Love?  …with us?

Imagine for a moment that you are the parent of a college student who is not behaving as you would like. Your child spends his or her time at parties instead of studying.  He or she spends the money you have contributed for food and lodging on drugs or luxuries instead.  No matter how much you speak with your child and try to get him or her to change, the child continues on an irresponsible and self-destructive path. You are left with no choice but to withdraw your support and let your child figure out that there are negative consequences to such behavior.

This helps us understand the Jewish concept of how God runs the world with hester panim, literally “hiding of face.”  In Deuteronomy 31 God told Moses that the Israelites would eventually abandon Him, and as a result, “I will hide my face from them” (v.17), and tragedies would befall them.  Yes!  God actually said that as a warning to His people – “They will forsake me and break the covenant I made with them. 17 On that day I will become angry with them and forsake them; I will hide my face from them, and they will be destroyed. Many disasters and difficulties will come upon them, and on that day they will ask, 'Have not these disasters come upon us because our God is not with us? 18 And I will certainly hide my face on that day because of all their wickedness in turning to other gods.’” Deut. 31:16-18   NIV

After that chastisement in Deut.31, God commanded Moses to teach His children to sing a 47 verse song in Deut.32 starting with…  “Listen, O heavens, and I will speak; hear, O earth, the words of my mouth….”

God is like a loving parent who, when He sees His children acting reprehensibly, has no choice but to step away.  It doesn’t mean that He doesn’t care about His children.  It doesn’t mean that He is unaware of the difficulties the children might have to go through.  However, sometimes, the only way for a child to learn and grow up is for the parent to step away.

In Psalm 80, the psalmist cried out three times, “make your face shine on us, that we may be saved.”  The psalmist is referring to times in Jewish history when God was hiding His face, so to speak.  He had distanced Himself from the people because of their sins.  Yet, the psalmist prayed and pleaded that God would turn around and shine His face upon the people when they were in danger anyway.  

And you know what?  It worked!   Jewish sages see at least three of the instances in this psalm.  While God could have kept Himself hidden and uninvolved, He stepped in and saved the people anyway.

I think that this is a powerful prayer for us to pray on behalf of ourselves and the entire world.  According to Jewish tradition, since the destruction of the Second Temple, God has been taking the “hidden face” approach to the world.  He is there, but He is letting us figure things out on our own.  But sometimes we need Him to show us His face, to shine down His love, and to step into our lives.  We may not be perfect, and the world may sometimes abandon God, but we ask that He save us anyway.

May our prayers be heard and may God’s face turn toward us with love, radiance, and light.

Points to ponder

Do we long for our wayward children to call us for advice?

Might Father God feel the same way about us?

Stay tuned.  This is a preface to next week…
“Would God dare to destroy America?” 

♫  Show me Your face, Lord, Your power and grace. I could make it to the end if I can just see Your face; ♫

Yosef   a.k.a.  Joe Brusherd                                      September 11, 2018

Author: “Hebraic Insights – Messages exploring the Hebrew roots of our faith” 
“Biblical Marriage (by Yosef)”   Weekly “Hebraic Musings”

Note - Inspired by and excerpted from Holy Land Moments – “Show Us Your Face” from IFCJ - Aug.17, 2018