Adult Sunday School: Marriage - Between God & Israel

Christ and the Church as the Pattern for Marriage

Christ and the Church. And then I was thinking, well, if we're going to talk about the New Testament view of God's marriage with the Church, we should be first looking at the Old Testament view of God's marriage with his people.

And so that's what we're going to do today, is we're going to back way up and just look at an overview of what the Bible says of God's marriage to his people. And once again, this is important because, let me get my Bible, or a Bible, it's important because marriage is given as an illustration of God's relationship with his Church.

And it's not merely the case that it is an arbitrarily chosen thing from nature used to illustrate, like Jesus does when he tells his parables, and he uses farming, he uses all kinds of things to illustrate heavenly truths.

It's more than that. What Ephesians tells us is that it was given to us by God as an illustration of Christ and the Church. So, in other words, its purpose in God giving it to us was in part to communicate to us about his relationship with us.

So, just reading that New Testament passage again, wives submit to your own husbands as to the Lord, for the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is head of the Church, his body, and is himself its Savior.

Now, as the Church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit in everything to their husbands. Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the Church and gave himself up for her, that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of the water of the Word, so that he might present the Church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish.

In the same way, husbands should love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself, for no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ does the Church, because we are members of his body.

Therefore, man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh. This mystery is profound, and I'm saying that it refers to Christ and the Church. You know, Paul is saying that there's a mystery involved in the union between man and woman, and that that mystery refers to the Church.

So, in other words, there's something being revealed, and yet at the same time concealed through this thing that God has given us in marriage and union between man and woman. All right, so with that in view, yeah, let's look back at some of the passages where the Old Testament talks about God's marriage to his people, and these instances give us some instruction.

A lot of times, they're only descriptive. We can't take a lot of things out of it necessarily, as far as, you know, for example, sometimes it describes God as being married to both Judah and Israel, right, and so would you conclude from that, oh, well, polygamy is therefore acceptable, because God describes himself as a polygamist in these passages.

No, actually, the kind of union he's describing to sister wives is explicitly condemned, even in Old Testament law, so that's not a sound conclusion, but there are some conclusions that you would draw looking from the divine marriage to our earthly marriages.

I like that unfaithfulness, you know, can result in divorce, and that is frequently why this marriage is brought up. God has bound himself to his people. He has saved his people, and as they turn against him, he either threatens divorce or actually divorces himself from them in the Old Testament.

All right, I'm going to, let's see, this is just going to be a big, broad overview, so we're going to just look at several passages. I wanted to read several from Judges, just to give you a flavor of what these often look like.

Judges 2 .17 says, and yet they did not listen to their judges, their judges being like the lesser kings that existed back then, for they played the whore after other gods and bowed themselves down to them.

They turned aside quickly out of the way in which their fathers walked, obeying the commandments of Jehovah, but they did not, but they did not so. All right, so frequently the Bible will speak of idolatry as adultery, right?

It'll speak of it as prostitution. Why? Because they are supposed to be married to the Lord, and for the sake of some benefit, they go after other gods, and so carrying out that analogy, it describes, yeah, it describes idolatry as prostitution very frequently.

Judges 8 .27, and Gideon made an ephod thereof and put it in his city. Ophrah and all Israel played the whore after it there, and it became a snare to Gideon and to his house. So an ephod being that breastpiece that the priests would wear, Gideon makes himself one, and then they treat it idolatrously, where they're worshiping it as as one would worship God, and it's described once again as them playing the whore after it.

So, you know, doing, making pilgrimages to this thing and worshiping as opposed to that relationship being dedicated to the Lord. Judges 8 .33, and as soon as, and it came to pass as soon as Gideon was dead that the children of Israel turned again and played the whore after the Balaam and made Baal-barith their god, Balaam being the Baals.

Im in Hebrew is plural, so that's why I like a seraphim, you know, that's fiery ones, or cherubim, right? Those are, we might say cherubs in English, but a lot of times if you see things more transliterated, more faithfully to Hebrew, it will end in im for plural, so Balaam is the Baals, the various false gods of the root of Canaan.

Psalm 106 .39 speaks the same way. It says, thus they were defiled with the works and played the whore in their deeds. So why, why are all these things described as adultery? Because the people are supposed to be committed to the Lord.

They're supposed to be committed in a relationship that very much resembles earthly marriage. All right, so the next passage I want to look at is Jeremiah. Could we have someone read Jeremiah 3, 1 -10, and I will read Jeremiah 2, 1 -3 because that's also relevant.

And the, by the way, the trajectory for this lesson, we're going to go through a lot of these passages that talk about spiritual adultery, and then the other half of what we'll be looking at will be the Song of Solomon.

How should you understand the Song of Solomon? Okay, uh, Jeremiah 2, 1 -3 says, the word of the Lord came to me saying, go and proclaim in the hearing of Jerusalem. Thus says the Lord, I remember the devotion of your youth, your love as a bride, how you followed me in the wilderness, in a land not sown.

Israel was holy to the Lord, the firstfruits of his harvest, all who ate of it incurred guilt, disaster came upon them, declares the Lord. So he talks about their early days of faithfulness as a bride.

And then in chapter 3, he speaks about marriage. Who would like to read that? Albert? 1 -10. Yeah.

Refuse to be ashamed. Have you not just now called to me, my father, you are the friend of my people. Will you be angry forever? Have you done all the evil that the Lord said to me in the days of the kingdom of God?

Have you seen what she did, that faithless one, Israel? How she went up on every high throne, under every retreat, and there prayed the Lord. And I thought after she had done all this, she would return to me.

But she did not return. And her treacherous sister, Judah, saw it. She saw that for all the adulteries of that faithless one, Israel, I had sent her away with a decree of divorce. Yet her treacherous sister, Judah, did not fear, for she too went and played the whole thing.

Because she took her hoard of blight, she polluted the land committing adultery with stone and tree. Yet for all this, her treacherous sister, Judah, did not return to me.

With her whole heart, but in pretense, declares the Lord. All right, thanks. I think it even continues on from there for some time, but that is the brunt of it. You know, it talks about faithless Israel, return to me faithless Israel, etc.

So a few things there. First of all, who wants to explain why it talks about Israel and Judah separately? What's the difference between Israel and Judah? Gemma. Yeah, that's right. At this point in their history, Judah has broken off and is its own country.

That's right. And so Israel refers to the northern kingdom, the northern ten tribes, I think. And yeah, the southern kingdom is Judah. And yeah, depending, you know, the way you count the tribes is kind of different each time, because, like, does Levi count as a tribe, that kind of thing.

But anyway, yeah, so this is talking about the nation that's been civilly broken apart. So it's spoken of as two different wives. It's spoken of as, yeah, Israel and Judah. And then why does it talk about every hill, every green tree?

Why does it talk about hills and trees? What are the significance of hills in the Bible? You know, David says, I look to the hills. Where does my help come from? Why does he, why does he look to the hills?

Okay. Where you see the sun rise. I think that might have something to do with it. Yeah. Okay. Up to, toward the heavens, right? Yeah. The idea is that the gods, whether they be the true God or the false God, that the closest you could get to them was on the hills.

And so this is where people would build their shrines or build their shrines to these different gods on the hills. And that's where they'd be worshipped. So you read these Old Testament prophecies and it talks about the hills and the mountains and things.

This is usually what it's alluding to. It's usually alluding to false worship. And so where does David's help come from when he looks at the hills? It comes from Zion, right? It comes from the one hill that the true God lives on.

In the Old Testament where you have him physically represented by a temple. Now that the temple's been destroyed, as Jesus said, those who worship him, worship him in spirit and truth, neither on this mountain nor that mountain.

Remember when he spoke to the, when he spoke to the woman at the well, she asked him about that. She said, your people worship him on this mountain. We worship him on that mountain. What do you say about that?

And then he responds that there's coming a time very soon where he will not be worshipped on any particular mountain. Let's read a few passages in Ezekiel. So Ezekiel is pretty well known for this. It has two very long chapters on this topic.

Ezekiel 16 and Ezekiel 23. I just want to read a few verses from each of these. If this is a topic you want to study, you can definitely check those out later. They are very, they're fairly graphic too.

It's very surprising. You know, if you're not used to reading Bible and you come across this for the first time, you'd be surprised at some of the things it says in there describing the unfaithfulness of Israel.

I'm not skipping any of that just to avoid it. I'm skipping it just in the interest of time. But Ezekiel 16, 8 says, when I passed by you again and saw you, behold, you were at the age for love, and I spread the corner of my garment over you and covered your nakedness.

I made my vow to you and entered into a covenant with you, declares the Lord, and you became mine. Okay, so it's describing, it's between God and his people. And then later on in verse 59, it says, for thus says the Lord, God, I will deal with you as you have done, you who have despised the oath and breaking the covenant.

Yet I will remember my covenant with you in the days of your youth, and I will establish for you an everlasting covenant. So it's interesting, God is saying he's going to treat them according to what they've done.

Basically, he's going to break the covenant, but he's also going to remember it, and then he's going to establish an everlasting covenant. Then you will remember your ways and be ashamed when you take your sisters, both your elder and your younger, and I give them to you as daughters, but not on account of the covenant with you.

I will establish my covenant with you, and you shall know that I am the Lord, that you may remember and be confounded, and neither open your mouth again because of your shame when I atone for you for all that you have done, declares the Lord.

So the sisters becoming daughters, basically, you know, the halves of the kingdom becoming united under Zion, God marrying himself to his people. So what is the covenant that is broken? What's the eternal covenant that ends up being made?

Does anybody know from a New Testament perspective what this is talking about? Christ? Yeah, what would you call these covenants, though? This covenant that's going to be broken, the covenant that's going to be established?

Yeah, the Old Covenant and the New Covenant, right? And so Jeremiah 31 prophesies this, too. Talks about the New Covenant that is coming because the Old Covenant wasn't sufficient, and so he's going to divorce his people, but he's going to, in a sense, remarry them.

That's what it's saying. So what we see in the New Testament is when Jesus comes to the people of God, who are obligated to him, you know, to worship him rightly, and they reject Jesus, what happens is God removes himself from them, and allowing the temple to be destroyed in 70 AD, and the gospel goes out to all the nations.

And so there's a larger people, and yet those of Israel are welcome into it because those who have the faith of Abraham are the true children of Abraham, not those who simply are of his physical descendants, right?

The true sons of Abraham are those of faith, as it says in Galatians 3 .7. Sure.

The difference is that in the Old Covenant, people followed the law, and in the New Covenant,.

God changed hearts. Right. Yeah, I don't, so the Old Covenant definitely had sacrifices and things like that, so it's not just a law, law, law covenant. I mean, there's grace, there's forgiveness, but these things are all happening on a temporal plane, right?

The blessings and curses of it had to do with living in the land, you know? It had to do with the land of Canaan. If you disobeyed, you would not live long in the land of Canaan. You would be removed.

If the people obeyed God, they would be allowed to continue in the land, and the reason why they get kicked out of the land is because they did not follow after him. So, but yes, you're right that the New Covenant, what Hebrews 8 describes, is it actually changes hearts so that people are willing to follow God's law, whereas the Old Covenant, you have all these laws but not the capacity to obey it.

So Hebrews 8 says, for if the first covenant, this is Hebrews 8, 7, for if the first covenant had been faultless, there would have been no occasion to look for a second. For he finds fault with them when he says, so that's interesting, he mentions that the first covenant was not faultless, but then he describes the fault, and the fault was with the people, not actually the covenant, but the people.

Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will establish a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah. There you see those nations being talked about distinctly again.

Not like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, for they did not continue in my covenant, and so I showed no concern for them, declares the Lord.

For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord. I'll put my laws into their minds and write them on their hearts, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.

So this is the difference, the difference with the new covenant, is he puts his laws onto their minds and their hearts, so that they are truly his people, and he's truly their God. And they shall not teach each one his neighbor and each one his brother, saying, know the Lord.

For they shall all know me from the least of them to the greatest, for I will be merciful toward their iniquities, and I will remember their sins no more. So yeah, there's a perfect forgiveness in the new covenant, and not only is it, yeah, does this come with a perfect forgiveness, but this is a full forgiveness of all sins.

This is not just in terms of that temporal covenant to make sure that people can continue living in the land. This is so that they can live eternally forever in the promised land God has for all, for all his people.

All right, yeah, I will also add there, Presbyterians tend to interpret this as referring to something that hasn't yet been fulfilled, because they see all, even their children as new covenant members, but they understand that their children may not actually be saved, right?

And so they would say, well, this will happen eventually with the covenant, and I would say if I ever held a debate on baptism, it would be on this passage, because I think this is really where it comes down to, between Presbyterians and Reformed Baptists anyway, is what, yeah, does new covenant membership guarantee forgiveness, you know?

Is that what this passage is saying or not? And if it does, well then, yeah, a child who may not be saved, who may, you know, who may reveal that they're not truly the Lord's child, is not, cannot be regarded as a new covenant member.

Yes? Yeah, he says, I will remember your sins no more. Is that an essential part of the new covenant, or is that just something that will happen in the new covenant later? Right, can someone be a member of the new covenant and then not have their sins forgiven?

Yeah, so they would, they would have different categories, a way of distinguishing different kinds of members of the new covenant, but they would consider the children members of the new covenant. Very few of them.

That's, that's a pretty rare position, because they would, they would look at First Corinthians 11 and say, well, you're supposed to examine yourself when you take communion, a child can't examine himself.

So they have, they have a later stage where they have like a commune, where you become a communed member, and you know, it's like confirmation. I think they even call it that, but yeah, he does. He's a, but he's kind of a bizarre Presbyterian.

Yeah, well, he's, he's just not a, not a typical one. Yeah. Right. Yeah. So paedo communion is not a, yeah, that's, that's a minority position among Presbyterians. Right. Right. I see what you're saying.

Yeah. Made it there. Right. Right. Yeah. So, yeah, and that's, but honestly, like, that's part of the problem is if you don't see it as a, as a salvation thing, then it's just, you know, because he would also call Roman Catholics brothers and sisters in Christ, right?

Because not, not that he thinks that they're saved, but that he's got this whole category for, well, if you do all the steps, right, if you do all the, then you're part of this covenant. And that's, yeah, we don't, we don't see the covenant that way.

Of course, what he's trying to establish is what he calls covenant objectivity. Like the fact that you can look at someone and know that they're in the covenant. Someone's a member, they're in the covenant.

It's that simple, right? We wouldn't say that we'd say they're church members who aren't actually truly in the new covenant. And because, you know, maybe we have discerned their salvation, right? And there are those who are in the new covenant who haven't yet entered church membership.

Right, right. Yeah. And they use those terms too, but they have something slightly different in mind when they say that stuff. Yeah. Yeah. And so we, our church membership approximates new covenant membership.

It does not actually, yeah, we don't claim to for it to actually establish or, or, or truly in a one-to-one way represent new covenant membership. Let us continue on to that next passage in Ezekiel, Ezekiel 23.

Sister Wives as an Analogy for Israel and Judah

Okay. So this is, so these, both of those chapters, Ezekiel 16, very long Ezekiel 23 long are, are talking about this marriage relationship between God and his people and the obligation of Israel and Judah to obey him and not go after idols.

Okay. So I'm just going to read the first four verses of this one. Actually, would somebody else like to read.

The first four verses? Thanks. Yes.

All right. Oh, what's, what's the significance of Samaria and Jerusalem? You'll know something else. So what's, what's Jerusalem? Jerusalem is the capital of Judah. Yeah. Judah. So at this point, if the nations are split, Jerusalem is the capital of Judah.

Samaria is the capital of, of Israel, the Northern kingdom. Right. So once again, he's talking about these two, he's talking about these two nations and yeah, and he describes them as, as sister wives.

Now, like I said, a moment ago, this is actually, so while there was a lot of okay, we'll have a whole session on polygamy. Eventually polygamy was never okay, but it was permitted by the law in the old Testament.

However, this particular form of polygamy was not Leviticus 18, 18 says, and you shall not take a wife as a rival to her sister to uncover her nakedness besides the other in her lifetime, in her lifetime.

But there, there is a reason why this is a fairly appropriate way of making the analogy. Can anybody think of why? So there's a, there's actually pretty famous set of sister wives in the old Testament in the history of Israel.

Yes. Yeah. So right. Leah and Rachel, right. Jacob's wives are sisters. And so Jacob, whose name is Israel, right. He is the one who, who starts the nation. He has two wives. And so in picturing the two halves of the nation of Israel this way, it makes perfect sense because Jacob is Israel.

Right. And so that's, that's the appropriateness of the analogy. And that, that gives you a reason why, well, how come this isn't just fine? I actually, I actually know a polygamist who uses this as justification for his uses.

Look, look, even God has multiple wives. And this is, this is something that is denounced in, in Leviticus. The reason why this analogy is being made is not because this is an appropriate form of marriage.

It's because it's the marriage that Jacob had with Leah and Rachel, and he is Israel. So that's what makes it an appropriate analogy. All right. Hosea. Let's, let's move on to Hosea. I know Hosea is a little hard to find in your Pew Bible.

This is going to be on page 753. Who wants to read Hosea 4, 12 through 14? Thanks. Yeah. And then several more passages from Hosea. Hosea 5, 3, I know Ephraim and Israel is not hidden from me for now, Ephraim, you have played the whore.

Israel is defiled. Their deeds will not permit them to turn to their God for the spirit of prostitution is within them and they do not know Jehovah. Hosea 9, 1, do not rejoice Israel for joy like the peoples for you have played the whore departing from your God.

You have loved a prostitute's wages on every grain floor. All right. So, and then there is the whole analogy that's made in Hosea, and I realize I didn't end up writing notes on this like I planned to, but yeah, what does anybody know what happens in Hosea?

What is Hosea commanded to do? Yeah, he's commanded to marry a prostitute, and what does this represent? Right, yeah, it represents God's love for his people that, that, yeah, that he's, yeah, that he is kind to them in this way that despite their adultery he is, he is kind and forgiving.

Now a few passages from Isaiah before we get into the Song of Solomon. Isaiah 51, 50 verse 1 says, thus says Jehovah, where is your mother's certificate of divorce with which I have put her away, or which of my creditors is it to whom I have sold you?

Behold, for your iniquities you were sold, and for your transgressions was your mother put away. All right. So, once again, speaking of, speaking of a divorce between him and his people, all right, who would like to read Isaiah 54, 1 through 6?

Thanks.

The New Covenant as Remarriage and Full Forgiveness

So, yeah, these, these pictures of divorce and remarriage. This,.

This particular passage is quoted in the New Testament. Does anyone know where? In Galatians 4, Galatians 4. Let me go ahead and read this. Galatians 4, 22 says,. For it is written that Abraham had two sons, one by a slave woman and one by a free woman.

But the son of the slave was born according to the flesh, while the son of the free woman was born through the, through promise. This is talking about Isaac and Ishmael, of course. Now this may be interpreted allegorically.

These women are two covenants. One is from Mount Sinai, bearing children for slavery. That's, that's the old covenant that we've been talking about. She is Hagar. Now, Hagar is Mount Sinai in Arabia. She corresponds to the present Jerusalem.

For she, that's the, that's, right, same thing. For she is in slavery with her children. But the Jerusalem above is free. She is our mother. So, yeah, this other, so this one represents this one mountain, Sinai, where the law is given, where, where condemnation happens, right, on the basis of the old covenant.

But the other is heavenly Jerusalem. There is an eternal forgiveness. But for the, for it is written, Rejoice, O barren one, who does not bear, break forth and cry aloud, you who are not in labor. For the children of the desolate one will be more than those of the one who has a husband.

Now you brothers, like Isaac, are children of the promise, right? Just before this, in the previous chapter, he had said the true sons of Abraham are those of faith. And this is, this book is a book written to Gentiles.

So what is the, so what is the saying? What is the saying about this, this prophecy of God's, you know, reestablishing a marriage with his people? It happens in this new covenant. It happens in essentially what is the marriage between Christ and the church, right?

That is how the people are restored. Not through, not through maintaining that previous marriage, but through this remarriage. Isaiah 62, one through five. For Zion's sake, I will not hold my peace. And for Jerusalem's sake, I will not rest until her righteousness go forth as brightness and her salvation as a lamp that burns.

And the nations will see your righteousness and all kings your glory. And you shall be called by a new name, which the mouth of Jehovah will name. You shall also be a crown of beauty in the hand of Jehovah, a royal diadem in the hand of your God.

You shall no longer be termed forsaken, nor will your land anymore be termed desolate, but you shall be called Hephzibah, which means my delight is in her, in your land, meaning married. Sorry, I should have read this from the ESV.

They probably say these things. For Jehovah delights in you and your land will be married. For as a young man marries a virgin, so will your sons marry you. As the bridegroom rejoices over the bride, so will your God rejoice over you.

Yeah, now a lot of mixed metaphors, you know, your son's marrying you. The idea is Zion is this barren woman, right? The city is this barren woman, and God is saying that you, even though you're barren, even though you have no husband, you will have thousands of children, and then, you know, that will be your, your consolation.

Let's move on to the Song of Solomon. All right, so how should you, how should you view the Song of Solomon? What is the Song of Solomon? There's a, there's a lot of ways that people read this. The, it's really common for people to see this as as merely literal, right, as being just about this couple that is getting married, and they don't know what to do with that except for maybe, you know, we'll, we'll find some applications for our marriage.

Oh, you should, you should love your wife this way. You should be excited about her like this. She should submit like this, etc. You know, you'll, they come up with these different applications for earthly marriages.

Another common way is a typical way. They say, okay, that's what it's immediately about, but then it also has applications to Christ and the Church that it points forward to Christ and the Church. Another view is that it's historical and prophetical, and so other, in other words, it's speaking of the relationship of Israel to God before and or after that time when Solomon's writing it, and it's, it's just an allegory of that, and one is that it's purely allegorical Christologically of, of Christ and the Church.

So, for example, what that would mean, so like when Jesus tells a parable, all right, and he says, all right, there's a man who throws a wedding party or whatever, right, he's not, yes, there is a literal meaning to those words, but you're not supposed to take it as, as a historic narrative, right, and so the question is, are we even supposed to take Solomon's, this love song that does refer to Solomon, you know, it speaks of Solomon, are we even supposed to take it in a literal sense?

Is this even about one of his brides, or is he referring to himself messianically, prophesying about Christ and the Church, speaking in allegory about Christ and the Church, and the position of the Reform for many years, you know, until more recently, was that it is, this is just allegory, this is not even a picture of Solomon and his bride that we then, at a second layer, you know, interpret as referring to Christ and the Church, but this is actually primarily and immediately the purpose of this is to speak of Christ and the Church, and so he speaks of himself in this messianic way as the son of David, you know, as the one who sits on the throne forever, that kind of thing.

Okay, so let me give you several reasons why we should see this as allegorical, and if we see this as allegorical, it has a lot of implications for, you know, how you would read it, how you would, how you would preach it.

John Gill preached, guess how many sermons he preached, sequentially through this book? Does anybody know? Anybody want to guess? John Gill. John Gill, yeah, he's, okay, so if you're familiar with Keech, he's a pastor at the same church like 100 years after Keech, and then if you're familiar with Spurgeon, he's a pastor at the same church 100 years before Spurgeon, so he's the guy like in between those two.

All right, and he has a, if you're ever trying to read the Bible and you want to understand it, he has a commentary on all the scripture. It's one of the first places I go, so yeah, if you look up John Gill in any verse, you can find what he said about that verse.

Yeah, just a guess. How many? 16? Okay, more, more. Another guess. 50? More. Another guess. What? 100? More. 200? No, it's just, it's 122. So 122 messages on these, what, eight chapters of the Song of Solomon?

Yeah, it's, so if you understand this as being immediately about Christ in the church, this is what it was supposed to be, you know, and that's not just a secondary meaning intended by the Holy Spirit or something, then really, you know, we should be deriving a lot of truth from this about our relationship to him.