If you want someone to listen to you, it doesn’t seem like the best strategy to start off insulting them. Yet that is what God does in getting the Chosen People’s attention: Fear not, O worm Jacob, O maggot Israel; I will help you, says the LORD. Israel had been brought very low, crawling in the dirt, from the experience of exile. Because they are no longer comfortable they can learn anew of their dependence on God. I’m reminded of a quote from a story of Alexander Solzhenitsyn: “How can you expect a man who’s warm to understand a man who’s cold?” When we are comfortable we are not included to change. Discomfort prods us to think and act in new ways.
