Comfort foods for the soul (4): “Who Knows?”

When the novelist Kam Yung (金庸) was asked if he had felt bad about his English when he first learned it while in San Francisco, his answer was brutal:
WHO CARES!

How liberating.
How comforting.

Underneath these two words lies a mindset that’s freed from the “others”.

Any mentally self-imprisoned person can feel its comforting force.
Anybody whose self image has all along been dependent on others’ opinions will feel the freedom and comfort.

Two other words that perhaps have a stronger force are found in the Old Testament:
WHO KNOWS.

Of course, WHO CARES has a liberating humanistic mindset that doesn’t depend on others.
Only “I” counts.

But WHO KNOWS is superior because WHO KNOWS banks its hope on a much greater someone than the “I”.

A clear example is found in the Book of Joel 2:13-14,
Rend your heart and not your garments. Return to the Lord your God, for he is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in love, and he relents from sending calamity.
Who knows? He may turn and relent and leave behind a blessing—grain offerings and drink offerings for the Lord your God. (NIV)

Yes He’s said there’d be disasters.
Who knows?
Maybe He will soften!

A similar though clearly a lot more comical occurrence is found in Jonah 3:7-9,
This is the proclamation he issued in Nineveh: “By the decree of the king and his nobles: Do not let people or animals, herds or flocks, taste anything; do not let them eat or drink. But let people and animals be covered with sackcloth. Let everyone call urgently on God. Let them give up their evil ways and their violence. Who knows? God may yet relent and with compassion turn from his fierce anger so that we will not perish.” (NIV)

Essentially the King of Nineveh believed so extravagantly that perhaps, just perhaps, this God might be so full of compassion that even animals could escape unscathed!

Let’s not debate if Joel stole from Jonah the idea or vice versa.
That’s the job for biblical exegetes.

For now the focus would be to sense the hope, albeit couched in comical or ironic literary devices, reaches far beyond the boundary of an impersonal god.
Perhaps dogs and sheep are also objects of His compassion.

Perhaps.

At the stage of the King Nineveh in the story, there’s nothing to lose.

Like someone with a few weeks to live.
Facing a dead end.

Why not just take the gamble that this God is good and compassionate, happy to relent if someone repents.

In the end King Nineveh took the plunge and it paid off.
Even the cattle.

WHO CARES expects no one.
It sure is carefree.

WHO KNOWS hopes in God doing compassionate things.
It is hopeful.