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In Jeremiah and
Ezekiel, in vivid word pictures, God is described as having divorced His
"wife". Because the
prophets use both "adulteress" and "harlot" in these
cases, referring to God's ground for divorcing His "wife", it is
has been claimed that they are using these two words interchangeably. The claim is
then transferred to the New Testament, to stretch the teaching of Jesus and
grant licence for divorce and REMARRIAGE on the ground of adultery. However, the
prophets are not speaking about a real woman, or about real divorce, and they
are certainly NOT speaking about REMARRIAGE. They are using
the words to convey a spiritual lesson about the consequences of the NATIONAL
sin of IDOLATRY. That spiritual
lesson is not teaching us that the Hebrew words for harlotry, adultery and
idolatry, mean the same thing, or are interchangeable in every place where
they appear. (That is another subject in its own right). The prophets
are using those words to emphasise the magnitude of the sin. Israel's
"adultery" is no ordinary adultery. It needs a bigger word than
adultery to describe God's view of the spiritual condition of the nation. God likens
Israel to a woman who has deserted her husband to become a harlot. The woman
used to describe Israel's condition, knows no shame. She is insatiable. She
is a harlot who has given herself to many lovers, without payment. Rather
than seeking payment, she has actually paid some of the many lovers she has
taken. The SPIRITUAL
LESSON behind the graphic word pictures of harlotry, is that Israel is
DEFILED AND SEPARATED FROM GOD by idolatry, in exactly the same way that a
woman who wilfully plays the harlot, without repentance , is
defiled and separated from an angry husband. The prophets
have described a "worst possible case". The situation between God
and Israel is so bad that, in Jeremiah and Ezekiel, GOD HAS DIVORCED HIS
HARLOT WIFE! The NATION has
been sent into exile for its persistent unrepentant IDOLATRY. It is certainly
true that, even for Christians, unrepented harlotry of this magnitude would
lead to estrangement and separation. However, as we shall see below, even in
this worst possible case, the prophets are not uniform about whether God has
issued an actual bill of divorce. And it would be
HARDNESS OF HEART, in the extreme, to use this spiritual lesson to grant a
LICENCE FOR REMARRIAGE on the grounds of either idolatry or adultery. It is quite
obvious from the context of Jeremiah and Ezekiel, that God still regards
Himself as bound by His "marriage covenant" with Israel. God is not
using His "divorce" as an occasion to seek a new wife. Rather, He
is inviting the harlot to repent and return to Him. The door is open for that
and will never close while life extends opportunity. In Isaiah 50:1, it is not even certain that the
bill of divorce exists. However it is not important that we resolve the
question of whether or not there has been a formal "divorce".
Either way the lesson is the same. The "wife" who has been sent away
for her iniquities is neither forgotten nor forsaken. Zion will be restored
to favour. Hosea goes even
further with the lesson of God's faithfulness. When faced with his own
decision about what to do with a wife who has become a harlot, Hosea DOES NOT
DIVORCE HER. Rather, at considerable personal cost, he actually buys her back
from the brothel where she has become a slave. This, Hosea says, is how God
also will deal with His faithless "wife". With one united
voice, the prophets are saying what the Apostle Paul also said, centuries
later. GOD WILL REMAIN UNMARRIED OR ELSE BE RECONCILED! How is it
possible that men would dare to distort or misuse these beautiful lessons to
encourage or condone a lesser standard for human marriage? Let those whose
hearts have been hard about this, turn towards God, listen and learn! If there is any
lesson at all to be learned from the prophets about divorce and remarriage,
it is that, even for the worst sort of hurt, even in the worst possible case
of ADULTERY, God expects US also to keep covenant with the same unchangeable
and sacrificial love which He extends to His "wife". That is the
nature of the Covenant keeping which is one of the qualifications for life
with God on the holy mountain. (Psalm 15:4 ..... "he who
swears to his own hurt and does not change".) When we say our
marriage vows BEFORE GOD, we make a sacred promise, "for better, for
worse, ..... until death do us part". Those words
contain no exceptions and leave no room for change. |