Paul Mercer
Thursday, 19 March 2026
In 1989 the term ‘shock jock’ was inducted in the Radio Hall of Fame. It’s a term built around radio and television personalities who use offensive, controversial or vulgar language and opinions to provoke listeners often on taboo or politically sensitive subjects. My memory goes to one such personality who repeatedly suggested a certain Australian female prime minister should be stuffed into a hessian bag and dumped out to sea. These ‘personalities’ delight in raucously overturning any type of sensitivity or political correctness. Sometimes lines of respect are crossed too easily. When Jimmy Carter was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize almost everyone bar the world’s shock jocks deemed this to be a good thing.
On the premise that there is ‘nothing new under the sun’, it seems to me that Israel’s prophets all had a fair dose of ‘shock jock’ training. Indeed Isaiah (20:2-3) and Micah (1:8) go the full monty to get their shocking message of judgement across. Jeremiah uses his underwear as a prophetic metaphor, while Hosea is instructed to marry a prostitute (Hos 1:2). It was a rocky marriage indeed.
Let’s lift the standard here and stick to words and word pictures. Hosea’s warm up vocals are ‘shock jock 101’ when he says it straight “My people take advice from a piece of wood” (Hos 4:12). Not only is there plenty of ‘tell it as it is’ language, but some days, God seems to feed his inspired truthtellers angry beans. With the image of a ‘roaring lion’ as God’s judgement on injustice and idolatry, this prophet cries out “Just as the shepherd rescued two legs or the piece of an ear from the mouth of the lion, so will the people of Israel be rescued” (Amos 7:12). The prophet continues “I will tear down the winter house as well as the summer house, the house of ivory will perish; the great houses will be swept away, says the Lord. Phew, what a spray!
Sometimes sarcastic putdowns are handed out. Hosea describes the priests of Bethel and Dan ‘feeding on the sins of my people’. He is referring to the image of priests eating the sin offering animals sacrificed at the temple. The reality is the priests are up to their necks in no good also and so Hosea nails them with ‘they set their hearts on evil things’ (Hos 4:8). Woah!
After howling like a jackal, while fully naked, Micah tears strips off the leaders and priests in Jerusalem. He starts with a burning question ‘Isn’t it your job to know justice?’ (3:1) Micah is a prophet who has the full respect of his community from the hills of Moreshesh. His complaint is about unjust land theft which is forcing locals to seek work in the city, in Jerusalem. Only here things get worse – they are shamefully exploited so Micah thinks of a country butcher when he tells the political/religious hierarchy, ‘you who hate good and love evil, who tear the skin off them, and then flesh off the bones, who devour the flesh of my people, tear off their skin, break their bones in pieces and spread them out as if in a pot like meat in a kettle’ (3:2-3).
Micah’s images could silence even a shock jock!
I think we all get the picture by now. Prophets have capacity to send a shiver down any spine. There is something prophets do which shock jocks can’t or won’t. They can use ‘shock’ to open our field of vision to justice which embraces peace, to mercy, to God’s compassion and grace.
This is where God as a maggot comes in. Trust me, I have only given you a snippet of the evil in the communities these prophet jocks spoke into. Their job included calling out monster evils. So, you would think it was done and dusted when it came to voicing God’s distress and judgement. Indeed, Micah puns on his own name. His parents had called him ‘who is like Yahweh?’, as they had high hopes for Micah and wanted to honour God. So the question is put back this way: ‘who is a God like you, pardoning iniquity?… He doesn’t hold onto his anger forever; he delights in faithful love’ (7:18).
Faithful love! Hosea wins the shock jock award at this point. Hosea 5:12 is very difficult to translate. The two basic shocks are to describe Ephraim as ‘pus’ and Judah as rotting flesh. The image of God as a maggot emerges as a powerful statement of grace. As a doctor, this prophet’s ‘shock jock speak’ catches my attention. Even in our amazing world of technology and evidenced based medicine, the humble and disgusting maggot is making a comeback. With the pressures of time in modern life and consumer demand, antibiotic miracle drugs are under threat by multidrug resistant organisms. There is a suggestion to return to the distant past and reestablish ‘maggot-debridement therapy’ or MDT.
Maggots love pus and necrotic, infected but dead body tissues. Not only do they revel on such a diet, but also secrete antibacterial compounds and stimulate healthy healing or granulation. If you haven’t deserted me for the vomit bowl yet, this is truly a shock jock contemplation moment. Grace is always about God getting down and dirty. God sucking up our pus and rottenness which he calls sin, injustice, evil and idolatry. A ‘maggot’ is an image of God’s comprehensive mercy. Somehow we all need to sign on for this life changing healing, research trial or should I also mention Jesus Christ? He was bashed, whipped and strung up naked on a cross and died. Although he skipped the maggot phase, keep reading. God has a relentless capacity to shock us with love, grace and peace. Buzz buzz buzz. The fly swat isn’t necessary.
P.S. It would be fair to add that the prophets are much more well-rounded than a ‘shock jock’ pigeon hole. They can speak in majestic metaphors. Malachi described God as the ‘the refiners fire’ or ‘the cleaners soap’ (Mal 3:2b). Likewise, God is a warrior who will create calm with his love and will rejoice over us with singing (Zeph 3:17). Amos is ‘simply the best’ when he reminds Israel that sin and injustice are the true yuck factor; ‘I made the stink of your camp go up into your nostrils’ (Amos 4:10b) and then urges genuine honour and worship by ‘letting justice roll down like waters and good governance practices righteousness like an ever flowing stream’ (Amos 5:24).
This sweet spot for living is almost dead heated by Micah, whose call also flows on when we hear, ‘He has told you, human one, what is good and what the Lord requires of you, to do justice, embrace faithful love, and walk humbly with your God (6:8). Hosea is pipped at the post with his submission ‘I desire faithful love, not sacrifice, the knowledge of God instead of entirely burned offerings’ (Hos 6:6). Hosea’s words seem to be a favourite of Jesus who quotes them twice in Matthew’s gospel. Perhaps Jesus, too, is a shock jock of sorts.
Paul Mercer is a Brisbane GP who is an occasional contributor to Ethos, He is part of the Holy Scribblers writing group and Chairs Health Serve Global.
Image Credit: iStock
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