Having read chapter three of Weems’ book, we will discuss the metaphor of God as the the husband of Israel. We shift our focus away from what the marriage metaphor and sexualized language say about Israel to the insight these devices give us into the author’s view of God. The metaphor of the promiscuous wife conveyed something to the prophets’ audience about God that marital and sexual imagery was — they thought — particularly well suited to portray. Things like the love of God, God’s honor, and the grace of God. But in the end this metaphor associated with romance and love, in a patriarchal context, came to represent more about God’s power. God loves. God rescues. But God also destroys and abandons.
What kinds of metaphors do we need to be using to describe our experience of God in today’s world. What artistic representation can we provide to speak of God?