GOD BECOMES AS A MAN

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And the word of the Lord came unto Jonah the second time, saying, Arise, go unto Nineveh, that great city, and preach unto it the preaching that I bid thee. So Jonah arose, and went unto Nineveh, according to the word of the Lord . Now Nineveh was an exceeding great city of three days' journey. And Jonah began to enter into the city a day's journey, and he cried, and said, Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown. So the people of Nineveh believed God, and proclaimed a fast, and put on sackcloth, from the greatest of them even to the least of them. Who can tell if God will turn and repent, and turn away from his fierce anger, that we perish not? And God saw their works, that they turned from their evil way; and God repented of the evil, that he had said that he would do unto them; and he did it not.
Jonah 3:1‭-‬5‭, ‬9‭-‬10 KJV

¶The people of Nineveh approach God according to the way of the world, as "Elohim", one of "the gods". To Jonah, though, God speaks as Jehovah, YHWH. The Covenant God of the Jews speaks not as one of many, not to be compared in rank with other gods, but as the ground of being before all beings. Not as a player in the game, but as the game itself. For Him to relent with Nineveh, then, speaks of a Creator who not only knows His creation, but hears and understands our condition, empties himself of all His transcendence, and becomes as a man. It bespeaks a whole new level of rules, where love, not law, prevails.

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