Analysis of How Do I Love Thee?

There was a man who had a wife, a house, property, children and animals, yet in the place where he lived many did not consider him to be a rich man. In the land in which he lived wealth was measured by the number of a man’s possessions and how much money he had, not how he used these things.

So, this man decided to set up an idol in his living room and he worshiped it every day. Almost as soon as he set it up, it began to speak to him and even showed him visions which were pleasing to his eyes. Sometimes it even gave him dreams and he saw that it was very powerful and believed all the things he heard and saw even though they were lies.

Now his wife and his children worshiped the idol too, just as he had taught them to do. But they all worshiped at different times and saw and heard different things; all were lies, because the idol was created by the hands of a man and was not capable of telling the truth.

No, instead it told each one what they wanted to hear and showed each one what they wanted to see. Now after a long time had passed his wife talked him into building a family room onto the house and setting up an idol in that room too, so that she could worship it any time she pleased and not just when he was working.

But soon the man found that he liked the new idol more than the old one. So, he told his wife, while I’m home you can worship the old idol because I want to worship the new one. His wife agreed immediately and in fact never worshiped the new one at all, because this was her plan all along.

She now had the old idol all to herself to worship it whenever she pleased, because the old idol had taught her how to deceive her husband. Now as the children got older they said to their father; we want our own idols too.

So, he set up an idol for each of them in their bedrooms. As the family grew, they grew further and further apart, because they were all consumed by their own idols. Now as it came to pass, each of the children grew up and left the house taking their idols with them. It was only a few years after the youngest child left the house that the man and his wife got divorced.

You see although the man had never really talked to God or listened to Him, God had given him all that his heart desired. But because of his unfaithfulness, God then also took it away. The man lived for several years after his divorce, but finally died all alone and without hope.

He was angry with God because of all that had happened to him in his lifetime and lived for all eternity separated from God, who would have saved him, if only he had repented and asked for God’s forgiveness.