Sometimes the Bible is pretty gross.
🌿 The narratives, the allegories, the parallels, and even the prose can be jarring. And yet, isn’t that the point? When we are faced with something that is so irregular, so outside of the unexpected, it draws us in and creates in us an inescapable luring to peer closer.
🌿Take Isaiah 64:6, for example.:
“We have all become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous deeds are like a polluted garment. We all fade like a leaf, and our iniquities, like the wind, take us away.”
🌿At first glance it looks like simple poetry, remarking on the destitute nature of our fallen state. And yet the original Hebrew for “polluted garment“ is actually depicting a soiled menstrual rag. GROSS!🤮
🌿But you see, when we understand the contrast of the holiness, purity, and life-giving nature of our God juxtaposed with our attempts to mop up the mess of our failed attempt at creating life for ourselves, that horrific analogy is perfectly placed.
🌿 I encourage you, next time you get to a “gross“ passage of scripture, look deeper. Jesus is not click-baiting you. The language is purposeful, and serves to draw us into a deeper realization of who God is, who we are not, and all that He has invited us to be when we abide in him.