“How can I give you up, Ephraim? How can I surrender you, Israel?…I have had a change of heart; My compassion is stirred!” ~ Hosea 11:8
After some time, a king who was out hunting happened upon the palace. Upon entering, he found the sleeping Talia in a chair and “called to her, but no matter what he did and how loud he yelled she did not wake up, and since her beauty had enflamed him, he carried her in his arms to a bed and picked the fruits of love. Then he left her in the bed and returned to his kingdom, where he did not remember what had happened for a long time. After nine months Talia unloaded a pair of babies, one a boy and the other a girl, who looked like two bejeweled necklaces. They were cared for by two fairies that had appeared in the palace,” but one day the fairies didn’t come, and the babes “grabbed [Talia’s] finger and sucked so long that the piece of flax came out. Talia felt like she was awakening from a long sleep, and when she saw those jewels beside her she…held them as dear as her own life.”[1]
Another king has taken control of Talia’s territory (a residual memory of the shifting political situation in Naples from the 1400s-1500s[2]). We could certainly discuss the survivor motif once more (see my previous posts here and here), but I don’t think that’s the lesson we’re meant to learn from our Talia.
Throughout much of history, high-born women were given in marriage to secure political alliances. These women were marrying strangers, a frightening concept in any era. They had no guarantee of respect from their future husbands, let alone love. Now, people are people, and I’m sure love blossomed in some situations…but there was no guarantee of it.
It’s my belief that Talia speaks for these women. The reality of a cold, loveless marriage is enough to put even the strongest of hearts into a death-like sleep.
It is a sleep that not even the rigors of child-bearing can alter. Why? Because her children have no need of her. They are cared for by fairies, just as wet nurses cared for the children of high-born ladies. And so Talia continues to sleep…until one day, her children need her desperately.
How could she give them over to another? How could she ignore and refuse them? She couldn’t, and so she awakes.
God asks similar questions in Hosea. Hosea overflows with both God’s love for us and His frustration over our wayward hearts. He makes it clear that He cannot tolerate our sin…and yet He loves us so desperately that He can never forsake us. How can He give us up? How can He surrender us to our enemies? Yes, there are consequences for our sin, but God has heard our desperation. His compassion stirs, and He awakes on our behalf.
The question, as always, is will your heart respond to His compassion?
Sources
[1] Basile, The Tale of Tales, p. 414
[2] http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/402903/Kingdom-of-Naples
