On Election

On Election
Deuteronomy 7: 7-15

In a newsy e-mail, a former student included the following information (I have disguised the material, of course, as usual): “I have developed an embarrassingly silly crush on the postdoctoral fellow who teaches some of the Semitic languages here. He is gorgeous, shy, and a bit socially awkward. He has a PhD and is turning his dissertation into a book. He is very bright. Students tease me all the time about what a cute couple we would make. I do not know him well, as I do not do Hebrew and we do not have cause for interaction, so I do pathetic things like study in the student union when he has class so that we can ‘spontaneously’ run into each other. It’s not working. Yes, I am pathetic. I know.” What makes people fall for each other? It’s a great mystery. Song of Songs 8:7 comments on how love can overpower a man but leave him unable to force the object of his love to reciprocate it; a man could give or offer all the wealth of his household for love and be laughed to scorn. Money can’t buy me love...