God does not love or hate anyone.
When I say that God likes or dislikes a person, I am really describing the way this person relates to things of the world.
The anthropomorphic image, however, has its own necessity, its own emotional logic.
When God is described as being furious with someone and binding the heavens with His wrath, the same forceful expressiveness cannot be achieved by an abstract statement to the effect that a Jew who falls into idolatry is opposing the inner, spiritual system of the universe and inviting disaster.
Therefore, because of the limitations of the human soul and the human imagination, the writings of Scripture have to use anthropomorphic imagery.
The distortion arises when modern man fails to respond even to this emotionally direct expression.
–Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz
From The Sustaining Utterance, "The Paradox of the World and God," by Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz