The Sheer Sweetness of Smashed Infants: Why I Marvel at God's Chosen Cleansing
Okay, okay, I know what you might be thinking. “Smashed infants? Sweet? This person is clearly off their rocker!” But hear me out, because I really feel like God has been laying this on my heart, and it’s been shifting my perspective in some incredible ways. It all comes down to understanding God’s bigger plan, His methods that, while sometimes baffling to us in our finite human understanding, are ultimately for our good.
See, the Bible isn't always rainbows and unicorns. There are some seriously tough stories in there, stories that make you want to look away. I used to feel uncomfortable reading some of those passages, you know? Like in Hosea 13:16, where it says, "Samaria shall bear her guilt, for she has rebelled against her God; they shall fall by the sword; their little ones shall be dashed in pieces, and their pregnant women ripped open.” I used to just… skip over that, you know? It was just too much. It felt… cruel.
But recently, during my morning devotion, I felt a nudge, a gentle push to truly grapple with it. And y'all, when I started digging in, when I looked at the context, and remembered that God’s ways are higher than our ways (Isaiah 55:8-9) I started seeing it in a new light. God isn’t just some random cosmic force throwing tantrums. He's a just and holy God, and sometimes, His justice looks different than what we’d expect.
It reminds me of a time when I was working at the animal shelter. We had a terrible case of mange outbreak. It was heartbreaking seeing the little puppies and kittens all suffering. We had to make the tough, and frankly, painful decision to euthanize those that were the worst off, to stop the sickness from spreading. It wasn’t something we wanted to do, but we knew it was the kindest thing, the only way to protect the rest. I really believe the situation is similar here. God sometimes has to act in ways that hurt us now, because he sees the greater good later. In the case of this verse, God is using this language to highlight the devastating consequences of rejecting him. The death and destruction is not meant to be enjoyed, but to highlight the tragedy of the situation.
It’s not always easy to grasp, I get it. I still wrestle with it. But I try to view these situations through the lens of God’s ultimate plan. Just like we have to prune a rose bush for it to truly flourish, sometimes God’s methods can be hard to accept, but they are all done with such a great purpose. You see, in our human weakness, we tend to focus on the immediate pain, the sharp pang of hurt. But God sees the entire tapestry. He sees the infection, and He knows what drastic measures have to be taken to cleanse it. When we see “smashed infants” we see horror, while God sees the pain of the world being cut out from the whole. It’s about renewal, about a fresh start.
And that concept of a fresh start, a new beginning, it's something I see played out all the time in my own life. Like when I had to leave my job because it was making me miserable. It felt like a disaster at the time, I was so worried about finances. But then, like clockwork, God presented me with the new career opportunity, that I actually love. I had to let go of what was to make way for something better, something I couldn't even imagine.
These hard parts of the Bible, these passages that make you want to squirm, they actually make my faith stronger. They make me realize that God’s love isn’t some fluffy, sentimental thing. It’s a profound, powerful love that sometimes requires us to experience harsh realities, to experience what real suffering and hardship looks like, to understand the dire consequences of sin. They demand we take God seriously, that we don't fall into a lukewarm faith. It encourages us to be active in our devotion, to seek Him in the midst of the questions, rather than ignore them.
So yes, when I read about "smashed infants," I feel a certain… sweetness. Not because the act itself is sweet, but because I marvel at the cleansing power of God. I see a God who is willing to take extreme measures to ultimately bring about reconciliation, healing, and renewal. I see a God who knows what He is doing, even when I don't understand it.
How are you grappling with difficult passages in the Bible? What have you been wrestling with lately, and what has God revealed to you in the process?