A Divine Romance — Part I
Note: This is Part I of II of a two part column. See the conclusion in print next Wednesday.
“I said, ‘After she has done all these things, she will return to Me’; but she did not return, and her treacherous sister Judah saw it. And I saw that for all the adulteries of faithless Israel, I had sent her away and given her a certificate of divorce, yet her treacherous sister Judah did not fear; but she went and was a harlot also. So it was, because of the lightness of her harlotry, that she polluted the land and committed adultery with stones and trees.” (Jeremiah 3:7-9 LSB)
It was quite common in the Old Testament era for God Almighty to depict himself as a husband to Israel and to also refer to Israel as His bride.
In Jeremiah chapter three, verses seven through nine, that’s exactly what God is doing — referencing the nation of Israel as His bride.
It is immediately apparent upon the launch of ancient manuscript of the Prophet Jeremiah that something gone horribly wrong in the romance of the nation of Israel and her God.
For the sake of using language that you and I can comprehend, we will just say God was madly in love with Israel.
Humanly speaking, many love affairs happen out of loneliness. God’s love affair with Israel also started that way.
Think for a moment ... that God almighty, creator of the universe was lonely! How is it even possible for God to be lonely, Pastor?
I know this sounds like a difficult question to ask, but upon further evaluation, if you really think about it, it must have been quite hard for God to have a relationship with a tree. It would be impossible to caress a mountain.
God in heaven had created cherubim, serpahims, and many other types of angels, however angels were created to worship God, not have a personal relationship with Him.
So in a Britney Spears moment, God decided his loneliness wouldn’t be killing him anymore, and He formed an image into his own image and breathed into Adam the breath of life to express His need for companionship.
After this, God preformed history’s first ever anesthesia surgery and pulled out a Thatcher’s BBQ Rib and made that spicy thing into a woman. Pastor, you may ask, how do you know it was a BBQ rib? Because you ladies are spicy!
Next God tells Adam and Eve to replenish the earth. God’s goal was to create on the earth a people that would love him. In return, He would love them.
Picture in Heaven, God excited because he’s going courting. God was going on a date, looking for a bride. He began to look on E-Harmony.com searching all over the world for a people … finally after a comprehensive search, God found an old man named Abraham and chose him to produce a nation that would become God’s bride. God saw faith in Abraham … that’s one requirement that God has, if you are going to be part of the bride, he requires faith in you.
“He will rejoice over you with joyful singing.” ( Zephaniah 3:17 LSB)
Can you picture this in your mind God singing over us, His bride? The Most profound thought that you could ever have is how much God loves you.
“For I am convinced that neither death, life nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Romans 8:38-39 LSB)