I have asked before but I have only recieved insane rationalizations, which pushes me further away from Christianity. How can these three verses come from a loving God. No rationalizations, just a straight forward answer. hosea 13:16, psalms 137:9, 2 kings 2:23,24
i really wish you could get an answer...i think the most strait forward answer you could get is simply "No, they cant" but then again, i dont belive so, as i dont truly believe [at this point] in the litera-lness of the old testament...so for me, the bok still has meaning, just not as much as the gospels...
oh yeah...and i just kinda realized...if you cannot rationalize what God is doning in these verses, then you have set up a question to which there is no possible way to answer "Yeas, a loving God can do that" without sounding like a complete lunatic at least thats how i see your question...i may be wrong, if i am, could you please clarify, although i dont think id stil be able to answer
Hosea was a messiah. He was an anointed priest and prophet of God. This meant his job was to go into the inner sanctum and receive the will of God. Of course, back then, the world was a much rougher place. The worshippers of the god Baal, for instance, were said to sacrifice children in fire and all sorts of nasty business. Israel was supposed to be above all that sort of thing, but they were still a sword-weilding wandering nation of conquerors at heart who stoned the dissidents and a lot more, besides. So the Most High would pour his vision all over Hosea, and Hosea the poet and prophet, the shaman of his people, would stand before them reading his angry statements, which were later included into the bible. Hosea was really just crying for the way Israel had turned away from the true way and begun following false idols. Sometimes I say to my kids, if you break my computer I'll Kill you! It doesn't mean I will actually kill them, but if they have a habit of pouring yoghurt over everything no matter what you say, you have to instill a bit of fear into them. They know I won't even hit them for anything, but they know my computer is a yoghurt-free zone. All the prophets were humans. Each one had something to add, right up to Jesus. The religion was refined and modernised at each step, sometimes the prophet would be rich, and wise, ruling the prosperous, like Solomon, and sometimes, like Hosea, the prophet would be straddling a divided nation, full of poverty and delusion. I could go into Isaiah's agenda with Babylon, or Jeremiah's anecdote about Elisha, but it all amounts to the same thing.
