Parental love as metaphor for divine-human love

Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society, Jun 2003 by Patterson, Richard D

"Is not Ephraim my dear son,

the child in whom I delight?

Though I often speak against him,

I still remember him.

Therefore my heart yearns for him;

I have great compassion for him,"

declares the LORD (Jer 31:10).

In a striking change of imagery Israel is implored to repent; it is now addressed as God's daughter:

Return, O Virgin Israel,

return to your towns.

How long will you wander,

O unfaithful daughter (Jer 31:21b-22a).

Variation in the use of parental imagery may be noted elsewhere in the occasional portrayal of God's love and concern for Israel. Although God is never referred to specifically as a mother, yet as a mother bears a child, so it was God who gave birth to Israel (Deut 32:18), nourished him, and saw to his early training (Deut 32:11-14). Indeed, God's love for Israel is like that of a mother's love for her child. Therefore, Israel may take comfort in knowing that, much as a mother's long wait for a child is capped by the travail of childbirth, so God's long seeming silence toward exiled Israel will one day be climaxed by his giving birth anew to Israel and inflicting defeat on its enemies (Isa 42:14). When Israel then returns to the land and delights in the abundance of God's blessing to Jerusalem, "As a mother comforts her child, so will I comfort you; and you will be comforted over Jerusalem" (Isa 66:13).34

All of this leads to Jeremiah's presentation of the new covenant (Jer 31:31-37). Here he once again changes the metaphor to a somewhat unusual figure, that of the husband and the wife (Jer 31:32).35 Normal ancient Near Eastern practice employed the father and son metaphor in drafting covenant literature. Thus D. J. McCarthy aptly remarks, "The father-son relationship . . . is essentially that of the covenant. And there is no doubt that covenants, even treaties, were thought of as establishing a kind of quasi-familial unity."36 Here the background imagery of family relations becomes the source for the father-son metaphor to express covenant relationship. The presence of the father-child metaphor in Deuteronomy (noted above) in a document composed in accordance with ancient Near Eastern suzerainty treaties suggests that McCarthy's observation is correct. Its appearance in prophetic passages, especially those employing exodus imagery, further reinforces McCarthy's thesis. Israel (the child) stands in covenant relation with Yahweh (the father) who gave birth to his child at the time of the exodus.37 Though constantly disobedient, God nevertheless loves his own and will once again restore him in a new and greater exodus.

Such a message was doubtless of distinct encouragement to those Jews who were carried away into exile. Cut off from their land, God's children cried out,

You, O LORD, are our Father,

our Redeemer from of old is your name (Isa 63:16b).

They implored God for his mercy:

Yet, O LORD, you are our Father.

We are the clay, you are the potter;

we are all the work of your hand.

Do not be angry beyond measure, O LORD;

do not remember our sins forever.