Once Upon a Time
So He remembered that they were only flesh, a wind that passes and does not return. Psalm 78:39 NASB
Only flesh – Human life is a fairy tale. Oh, I don’t mean it isn’t real. I mean it’s a “once upon a time” story. Every human life is a wind that passes and does not return. It’s a one-time crossroads of hope and heartache, purpose and passion, success and sorrow. It comes. It goes. Ashes to ashes. Dust to dust.
What is the most important thing about this brief fairytale story? God knows. He knows we’re just passing in the night. He knows we try, and try, and try, and die. He knows the candle flickers, the fire fades, the echo recedes. We are all rinsed beneath the earth, waiting for something else, hoping there’s more. And God knows this too.
Divine compassion is a function of pity. It wasn’t supposed to be like this, but it is. And God cares that it has come to this. He knows what He intended and He knows what happened—to each of us. Spirals of trauma passed from one generation to the next. Baggage left unpacked because the weight was too much to bear. Nessun Dorma. The Road Less Traveled.
The woods are lovely, dark and deep,
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep.[1]
“Only flesh.” כִּי-בָשָׂר Actually, כִּי-בָשָׂר הֵמָּה You see the pronoun at the end (הֵמָּה)? It’s the same pronoun that appears in Joshua 1:15. There is an extra הֵ.
“הֵמָּה (hēmmâ), הֵם (hēm), הֵןַּ (hēnna) they, these, the same, who”[2] The typical construction is הֵם
Literally, we might read this as “all flesh they.” There is no verb. God remembers “all flesh they.” “Only” is added by the translator to capture the emotional sense, I suppose, but it seems sufficient for God to recognize that we are ontologically not like Him. Oh, we have the potential to act like Him, at least analogically, but when it comes to our essential existence, the gap is as wide as the universe. And that makes a difference. It’s not an excuse. There really aren’t any excuses. But it is a consideration. We are caught between Nessun Dorma and Robert Frost. Between M. Scott Peck and Victor Hugo (Les Misérables). Carrying the weight until the promises have been kept. Don’t you suppose God knows that it isn’t all our fault? Does that help, at least a bit?
Topical Index: flesh, ki basar, care, pity, compassion, Psalm 78:39
[1] Robert Frost, Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening
[2] Weber, C. P. (1999). 504 הֵמָּה. R. L. Harris, G. L. Archer Jr., & B. K. Waltke (Eds.), Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament (electronic ed., p. 219). Chicago: Moody Press.
PUBLICATION NOTE: The study of Avivah Zornberg’s book on Numbers is finished. You can purchase the entire series HERE if you weren’t a weekly participant. It was a great study of amazing depth into a book most of us don’t really know very well.
