Rejection Hurts
Everyone Says Love Hurts by Flickr User Live Life Happy, CC License = Attribution, Noncommercial, Share Alike
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I watched her from the bus stop, and I cried. A young girl, probably about 15 years old, approached car after car offering her “services,” and driver after driver rejected her. A part of me wanted to run up to her and bring her the message that God would not reject her, but I was scared. I was in an unfamiliar area of downtown Los Angeles, it was getting dark, and I wouldn’t have known what to do with her if she said she wanted to talk more since we were miles from where I went to church. I prayed for her; and whoever and wherever she is, I still pray for her and others like her.
In today’s reading from Deuteronomy 21:10 through Deuteronomy 21:21, we begin a new week and a new portion in the Torah. Parashah 49 is Ki Tetze in Hebrew and means “When You Go Out” in English. Moses brings more of God’s words to Israel, and begins this section telling them how to deal with prisoners of war. If a man sees a female prisoner and decides he would like her for a wife, he is to bring her home for a month. While there, she will shave her head, cut her fingernails, and remove her prison clothing, and then she can mourn her parents for a month. After that, the man may consummate a marriage with her.
The next instruction is to the man should he lose interest in his POW bride. If that happens, he must let her go where she wishes, and he must not sell her or treat her like a slave because he has humiliated her. I’m not certain if the humiliation is from taking away her purity, shaving her head, or simply rejecting her, but I’m glad that God makes a way for even enemies to not have rejection heaped upon rejection.
We humans sure can be an unloving bunch of folks, though. The next part of the reading instructs a man who marries two women and loves one but not the other. If they both bear his children, the man is not allowed to show favor to the child of the loved wife if his firstborn seed actually belongs to the unloved wife. All rights that go to a firstborn (and remember that God said all firstborn are His and are blessed by Him) are still due him, and the father must give him a double portion of everything he owns.
While God makes a way for those rejected by others, He also makes a way for those parents rejected by their children, but it’s not quite as rewarding as freedom or double portions. If a parent complains that his child is stubborn, rebellious, lives drunk & wild, and refuses to listen, they are tasked with taking the child before the town leaders. All the men of the town are told to stone the boy to death in order to put an end to anymore such bad behavior. I know a few young men that would no longer be with us if we still did things according to this order.
I can see from reading all of this that God is not a big fan of rejection anymore than I am. Maybe He even suggested marriage for the enemy prisoner because He knew the pain would be less than rotting in prison, or maybe God hoped the community would draw the woman into His love. It appears God is using every opportunity, whether it’s making a father keep his priorities with his first-born son or having the townsmen deliver parents from a troublesome child, to relieve people of their rejection.
I believe God still wants us set free from rejection and other hurts. I think He was watching that girl I saw from the bus stop, and He put that compassion and prayer for her in my heart. I hope God sent someone to rescue her, that she accepted the help, and that God will be able to introduce her to me when we get to Heaven. Rejection hurts. That’s why God took the greatest rejection in existence upon Himself. I mean, what could be worse than offering the greatest love one can give and having it rejected by so many? But, for those of us who accept it, all of Heaven rejoices. So, even though rejection hurts, when God walks onto the scene, His love heals.
I’ll close with this great Gaither video (with lyrics) of one my old favorite Larry Bryant tunes called That’s When the Angels Rejoice…
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Talk to The Hand
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Hands can mean all sorts of things in this life. If you give someone a hand, you help them. If a bunch of people gives someone a hand, they’re usually praising them for some entertaining act or talk. If someone glad hands us, they may be offering a seemingly warm greeting, but they may also be totally insincere. Most hand gestures mean the same in all cultures, like thumbs up being yes or okay and thumbs down being no good. And a hand gesture that has a person putting the palm of their hand toward someone who is talking to them, especially if the hand is between their faces and the person holding up the hand is turning his or her face away, the unspoken statement is usually, “Talk to the hand.” It’s a way of telling people we’re not interested in what they have to say.
In today’s reading from Deuteronomy 31:14 through Deuteronomy 31:19, we might imagine God giving the palms-out sign to Israel as He prophesies to Moses about their future. In this passage, God calls Moses to the Tent of Meeting and tells him to summon Joshua as well. The cloud descends over the entrance, and God meets there with both Moses and Joshua. He tells Moses that it is about time for him to die and be gathered to his ancestors, and then He prophesies to Moses about what’s going to happen after he passes.
God tells Moses that after he goes to sleep, the people will begin to prostitute themselves to the foreign gods in the land of the inheritance. He says they will abandon Him and break the covenants He has made with them. Their behavior will cause God’s anger to flare up against them, and many calamities will come upon them. When they suddenly realize they have brought their troubles onto themselves, they will blame God and say it’s happening because God is not there with them. Instead, God says He will be hiding from them because of all their evil in worshiping other gods.
This is where I can imagine God saying, “Talk to the hand.” He will turn away and hide His face because of the many times He has warned them to serve and worship only Him. But, because He will never leave or abandon them, His hand is still there with them–even if it is turned palm out. Even in His righteous anger, and in His frustration over their abandonment of Him, I can still see God as being a part of their lives in spite of their repeated rejections. He is longsuffering and merciful beyond anything we can imagine.
If you ever feel you have rejected God one too many times, just remember that you have never left The Potter’s hands, and He can always remake you into a better vessel than before. Don’t run away or give up. Keep returning to Your Creator, The God who loves you forever. Don’t run away; just talk to The Hand.
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September 17, 2014 Posted by Crystal A Murray (aka CrystalWriter) | Bible Study, Nonfiction, Torah Commentary | abandonment, Bible Commentary, Bible study, Complete Jewish Bible, Deuteronomy, false gods, Israel, Joshua, Moses, prophesy, rejection, Scripture, talk to the hand, Torah commentary, Torah Portions | Leave a comment