Israel and God: a Marriage on the Rocks
In His Word, God actually referred to Israel as a wife,
Himself as a husband and said through a prophet “I am married to you”
-Jer 3:14..
Most people have developed their recent views of modern Israel through the news media, some through
the Bible, and the blurring has been divisive.
Since the Bible is the truthful record of who Israel is and their relationship
to God, we are best served to understand from God’s point of reference.
The Lord has always desired relationship with His creation, and the Hebrew people were called to be a special people for Him, and a light to the world. When He brought them into the Promised land,
vows were exchanged, Deut. 27, and so God entered into a covenant
<marriage> with Israel at Sinai.
He warned Israel (as His wife) that He was a jealous husband (Ex.20:5) and regarded the worship of other gods as the equivalent of adultery in marriage
(Ex.34:15-16).
“I AM A JEALOUS GOD”,
is part of the first commandment.
It did not take Israel long to reject the LORD’s rule and in 1 Samuel 8 they
demanded to have a king to rule over them. God told Samuel “they have
rejected Me, that I should not reign over them”.
The marriage was in trouble. It was a rocky marriage to say the least.
Isaiah 54:5 For thy Maker is thine
husband” the LORD of hosts is His name” …
The LORD warned that unfaithfulness on Israel’s part
would result in a breaking of the covenant between Himself and them
(Deut.31:16).
God was faithful to His Word, Israel was not.
Jeremiah 3:14 ‘Turn, O backsliding children,’ says the Lord, ‘for I am
married to you…;
As Israel went whoring after other gods, (Remphan, Baal, Ashtoroth, etc.)
the LORD chastised them and sent prophets again and again to call the
treacherous wife to repentance (Jer.3:20,22).
When they would not repent, God gave Judah a 70
year separation out of His land into a 70 year captivity in Babylon (Persia).
Ezekiel 23:31 declare to them their abominations, 37 that they have committed
adultery, and blood is on their hands; and with their idols have they
committed adultery..
Even when God divorced Judah (Isa.50:1/Jer.3:8), He still offered a
promise of forgiveness and restoration if she would repent
(Jer.3:1).
Judah in part repented and a remnant restored after the Babylonian
captivity.
But Judah, (Israel), continued to violate the covenant and in the
final indignity, rejected and crucified God’s beloved Son.
For this ultimate offense, God canceled <disannulled> the
legality of first covenant (Old Testament) relationship (Zech.11:10) and exacted a horrific vengeance upon the Christ-rejecting Jews.
Could there be a re-marriage to Israel again?
In Deuteronomy, God told Israel that if she provoked Him to jealousy by going
after other gods (committing spiritual adultery), He would provoke her by
taking another people (wife) for Himself (Deut. 32:21). Hosea also states that
same threat (Hos.2:16-23), and Isaiah repeats. (Isa.65:1, 15).
In their Law of the Old Covenant there were ordinances
regarding marriage and remarriage:
Leviticus 21:7 They shall not take a
wife who is a whore or profane, neither shall they take a woman put away
from her husband; for he is holy to his God.
again,
Deut. 24:1 “When a man has taken a wife and married her, and it
come to pass that she find no favor in his eyes because he has found some
uncleanness in her.
Because Israel was a rebellious wife, God found much uncleanness in Israel, and
as the nation rejected Christ, there was no more sacrifice for sin.
“ then let him write her a bill of divorcement, and give it in her hand,
and send her out of his house.”
God gave Israel a bill of divorcement via the prophets after many warnings to
repent.
2 And when she has departed out of his house,
she may go and be another man’s wife.
(-thus Israel was put out of God’s “house” and became married to the world.)
3 And if the latter husband despise her and write her a bill
of divorcement, and puts it in her hand and sends her out of his house, or if
the latter husband die who took her to be his wife,
4 her former husband who sent
her away may not take her again to be his wife after she is
defiled.
Note:
a dead body defiles, “Anyone who touches a corpse, no matter whose
dead body it is, will be unclean for seven days. Numbers 19:11>; and so the LORD sent "her" away, and slew the nation.
-for that is abomination before the Lord, and you shall not cause the
land to sin which the Lord thy God gives thee for an inheritance.
“IT IS FINISHED!”
-the divorce was finalized, Jesus pronounced judgement upon
Israel, the marriage disannulled.
The “disannulling” of the marriage between God and Israel removed Israel
as the Covenant people and the gospel went to the whole world.
Heb 8:13 In that He says “a new covenant,” He has made the
first old. Now that which decays and becomes OLD is ready to vanish
away.
The First <marriage> Covenant with
Israel was about to vanish when the writer of Hebrews wrote the above.
At
the destruction of the nation of Israel in 70AD, there was not only a
cancellation of the previous covenant with adulterous Israel, and according to
the LAW, “she” was to be PUT TO DEATH.
This was fulfilled.
The Law of adultery:
Leviticus 20:10 “‘And the man that commits adultery with another
man’s wife, even he that committed adultery with his neighbor’s wife, the
adulterer and the adulteress shall surely be put to death.
Jeremiah 3:8 And I saw that for all the
causes for which backsliding Israel committed adultery, I had put her
away and given her a bill of divorce;
yet her treacherous sister Judah feared not, but went and played the
harlot also.
In these two passages regarding the law of adultery, we find
a deeper truth that would come to pass in a greater fulfillment at the time of
Christ. In rejecting Christ, the ultimate indignation against God,
the Old Covenant nation Israel God put to death with the sword of Rome.
Thus, the modern “State of Israel” is a fraud, married to the world, a member
state of the UN, with satan as the spiritual head. It is to this day politically “anti-Christ”.
The bride, the Lamb’s wife
In the New Testament, Jesus is betrothed (pledged) to another bride, a “chaste virgin” with a new (marriage) covenant, with a new people (Matt.21:43; 26:28-29) who have replaced forever the adulterous wife.
Thus God, through Christ, both divorced his unfaithful wife, and through
Christ has another wife through promise.
The bride of Christ is populated by both remnant Jewish believers AND
gentile believers, together, in “one body”.
2 Cor 2:12 for I have espoused you to one Husband, that I may present you
as a chaste virgin to Christ.
again,
Revelation 21:9 And there came to me one of the seven angels,…. and talked with
me, saying, “Come here, I will show you the bride, the Lamb’s wife.”
“and showed me that great city, the Holy Jerusalem, descending out of
Heaven from God.”
Do you see in the law of divorce and remarriage why Christ
is not taking back a separate nation Israel after the flesh bloodline that can
never be “a chaste virgin”?
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