Is God Altruistic? Is God Happy?

[Acrobat]

Something being a metaphor doesn’t mean it can mean anything we want it to mean.

Example
The classroom was a zoo.
Jamal was a pig at dinner.

We understand the meaning of such metaphors quite clearly, even though we recognize the expressions aren’t literal.

Jamal was a pig at dinner, can’t mean Jamal didn’t eat dinner, or barely ate his dinner, or just picked at his food.

Which has precious little to do with Bible-speak. I've found that Bibliophiles resort to the metaphor argument to explain away uncomfortable verses. 'God is love, but God said he hated Esau, so clearly he didn't mean "hate".'

Come on.

Boru

I don't  know want Bible-speak means. The bible is a book, containing a variety of stories, that rely heavily on parables, and metaphors allegories, etc......

Orthodox believers, hold to variety of fundamental beliefs about the nature of God, such as omniscience, omnibenovelent, , immutability, etc.. So if a biblical passage appears to contradict any of these fundamental aspects, it implies either that passage is false, relies on an early but false conception of God, that the writer of such passages didn't hold to an immutable view of God's nature, or they did, and is expressing it non-literally.

It should also be said that Malachi also contains passage indicating God's immutability: "Malachi 3:6 ESV

“For I the Lord do not change; therefore you, O children of Jacob, are not consumed."