Did God Divorce His Wife?

A dramatic headline, I know.

God = Elohim.

God is El, I think. Bethel, house of God. Israel, God strives. Daniel, God is my judge.

El was the supreme god in the land that became Israel, the father of Baal and the husband of Ashera, against whom the Old Testament prophets constantly railed. Why such strong reactions against both Ashera and Baal? We hate the ones closest to us. Case in point: the ones the New Testament Jews despised the most were the Samaritans, I believe. (Samaritans [and there are still some today] believe the only scripture is the Pentateuch, the first five books of the Bible, so they're like "almost-Jews".)

If we take the "parental figure" view of God, Israel (and us, as spiritual/figurative descendants of Israel) was God's children.

My 8-yr-old son was lolling around on the carpet at home a few days ago. I asked him to pack his knapsack for school the next day. He did, reluctantly. Then I asked him to zip his knapsack up, so the stuff wouldn't fall out. He looked directly at me, said "No." and then looked over at his mom. She is encouraging this sort of behavior on his part. She gives him emotional support at moments like this, or at least, doesn't discourage him. (It's complicated, but she's conveyed to him that she likes it when he shows her favor over me, and shows evidence of alienation from me. She actively worked to punish him in the past for showing me favor, now she doesn't have to; all she has to do is not discourage it, so it's essentially passive encouragement.)

The emotional pain I felt was piercing.

My young son, the innocent child, is showing me he doesn't respect me. I see him growing away from me, day by day, under the subtle encouragement of his mom. (I couldn't discipline him because then she would have "rescued" him from me, or she and I would have had a big fight and Conrad would later feel it was his fault, and I am absolutely not going to do anything to make him think our divorce is his fault in any way.)

And it occurred to me: this must be how God felt when Israel (his children) displayed (display) a preference for Ashera (i.e., Astartes) and Baal (or other modern-day distractions, like possessions and status).

Ouch. I can definitely feel his pain.