Entry Thirty-Two: Isaiah 49:1-6
Is there a sin that cannot be forgiven? If there is, it is surely the sin of self-absolution…a stubborn and wilful refusal to see yourself as you are before a holy God…a defiantly blind unwillingness to see yourself as a sinner in need of grace and mercy from one who has no sin.
If I am to love as Aaron wants me to love, then I must love him and hate Benjamin. How can I do that? How can he want me to do that? What if the tables were turned and he was Benjamin and Benjamin was him? But this is what the rabbi teaches him…to love those who are like us and to hate those who are not like us…to love your neighbour, but only as long as your neighbour is a mirror image of yourself…everyone else is considered an enemy to be hated. But does Moses not teach us differently? That if our enemy is in need, we must love him enough to help him? God is a God of love…and love covers a multitude of iniquities.
Or am I the one who is blind? Am I blinded by my love for my son…so much so that I would dare to go against the teaching of the holy Scriptures? Is that what I am doing? I search my mind…I search my soul…I search my heart. I bring to memory that which I learned in Hebrew School…that which I learned in the Torah. I cannot recall a single place where God commanded us to hate our enemies. Isn’t the very reason we exist as a nation, to display His love for the whole world? Is the law not there to attract those who live differently from us? Is our moral and ritual distinctiveness not meant to reveal the heart of God…to make the nations jealous of His goodness and righteousness and mercy and grace and forgiveness? What will they think of a God who chooses some and rejects others for no other reason but His own capriciousness? Would such a God not be unreliable? Untrustworthy? What He chooses today, He may reject tomorrow.
God is love…and God is consistent. If He loves one, He loves all. God loves all in His world.
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