Betrothed to God
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Introduction
Introduction
Betrothed Forever
Betrothed Forever
With intensity God thrice says that He will betroth us to Himself; and not for a limited time, but forever!
In Israelite marriages betroth would involve negotiations with parents or their representatives, including settlement of proper bride-price which the suitor would pay to the bride’s family.
Hosea: An Introduction and Commentary i. Salvation Speech II: Renewal with Cosmic Consequences (2:14–23 [Heb. 2:16–25])
An interval of time would pass between the betrothal and the consummation of the relationship (Deut. 20:7; 28:30), but in that interval she is considered to belong officially to her intended (Deut. 22:23–27) and to belong to him for life (as the for ever of Hos. 2:19 should be interpreted; cf. Exod. 21:6). The intensity of Yahweh’s betrothal to Israel is conveyed by Hosea’s three-fold use of the term.
I think the consummation of modern Israel’s relationship with God will happen when they “meet their Lord in the air.”
But until then, we are betrothed to Him. In during this betrothal period He acknowledges us as His bride, and we acknowledge Him as our Husband.
God has paid a grand price for a harlot such as Israel (which includes us)!
23 Ye are bought with a price; be not ye the servants of men.
What was the price that Christ has paid for us?
18 Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers;
19 But with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot:
We are His and He is ours by contract and agreement.
8 Now when I passed by thee, and looked upon thee, behold, thy time was the time of love; and I spread my skirt over thee, and covered thy nakedness: yea, I sware unto thee, and entered into a covenant with thee, saith the Lord God, and thou becamest mine.
8
16 My beloved is mine, and I am his:
He feedeth among the lilies.
But although He has paid this price for us, though we are betrothed to Him, just like Hosea’s wife, we have played the harlot.
13 Thus wast thou decked with gold and silver; and thy raiment was of fine linen, and silk, and broidered work; thou didst eat fine flour, and honey, and oil: and thou wast exceeding beautiful, and thou didst prosper into a kingdom.
14 And thy renown went forth among the heathen for thy beauty: for it was perfect through my comeliness, which I had put upon thee, saith the Lord God.
15 But thou didst trust in thine own beauty, and playedst the harlot because of thy renown, and pouredst out thy fornications on every one that passed by; his it was.
32 But as a wife that committeth adultery, which taketh strangers instead of her husband!
eze 16
20 Surely as a wife treacherously departeth from her husband, so have ye dealt treacherously with me, O house of Israel, saith the Lord.
Even in the New Testament we are described as being in an adulterous relationship when we become a friend of the world.
4 Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God.
With this in mind, although Christ has legally betrothed us to Himself with His own precious blood we have played the harlot and have taken strangers rather than Christ. Therefore in Christ goes further to bring us back to Him, to make us fall in love with Him as our Redeemer.
God gives five nouns which describe the price He has paid for us. We will go through each one and understand each’s significance. He betroth’s us with righteousness, judgment, loving-kindness, mercies, and faithfulness.
Righteousness & Judgment
Righteousness & Judgment
Judgment
Judgment
These two terms go hand in hand throughout the Bible.
Righteousness and judgment (justice) describe God’s commitment to the covenant He makes with us.
It describes that how He will relate to us with loyalty, and uprightness in all His dealings with us.
The word for righteousness points to the straightness of God’s own character.
His administration of justice.
His vindication in, or rescue from, enemy attack. , .
The word for judgment or justice centers in God’s fairness in all His relationships to His people.
He honours their obedience and corrects their waywardness, without caprice (sudden, impulsive, and seemingly unmotivated notion or action) or arbitrariness.
The word justice implies the quality of being honest and morally correct in decision-making.
It implies that God has compassionate concern to remove or remedy the things that cause us to grieve or complain.
It also implies that our God desires to seek the best for His creatures wherever possible.
This entails more than what we think God had to uphold the standard of His righteous law, and through that deal with us justly.
But we broke His law! His character demanded that we perish as rebels. But God so loved the world that He gave us His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him, should not perish, but have everlasting life.”
23 For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God;
24 Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus:
25 Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God;
26 To declare, I say, at this time his righteousness: that he might be just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus.
Romans 3
27 Zion shall be redeemed with judgment, And her converts with righteousness.
Isaiah
Loving-kindness & Mercies
Loving-kindness & Mercies
Loving-kindness & Mercies
Loving-kindness & Mercies
These attributes of God really draw us to Him, and rightly so when we understand what these characteristics imply.
Merci
Merci
Loving-kindness implies various tones.
It implies guidance and protection. ; ;
It creates trust in the one who beholds it.
We depend in it to save us from our calamities and for forgiveness.
While the words loving-kindness and mercy are used interchangeably, mercy still has its own unique meaning.
While loving-kindness will guide and protect, and create trust and forgive, mercy is highlighted more as it reveals itself in tenderness and compassion when we are weak, needy, or feeling oppressed.
The word for mercy is akin to the word for womb and it conveys deep, mother-like feelings for us. A mother especially reveals this kind of attribute when the child of her womb becomes wayward, the heart of loving mother will not so easily forget to have mercy on her wayward son or daughter, but will treat them with love and respect.
14 And David said unto Gad, I am in a great strait: let us fall now into the hand of the Lord; for his mercies are great: and let me not fall into the hand of man.
2 Samuel
7 I will mention the lovingkindnesses of the Lord, and the praises of the Lord, According to all that the Lord hath bestowed on us, And the great goodness toward the house of Israel, Which he hath bestowed on them according to his mercies, And according to the multitude of his lovingkindnesses.
15 Look down from heaven, and behold From the habitation of thy holiness and of thy glory: Where is thy zeal and thy strength, The sounding of thy bowels and of thy mercies toward me? are they restrained?
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This is especially seen in the parable of the prodigal son. The father had this deep mother-like feeling for his son to return, and when we did this mercy was revealed when the son was re-instated to son-ship and was treated with love and dignity.
Faithfulness
Faithfulness
The final price of the betrothal, coveys God’s utter dependability, the reliability of all His words and deeds, especially His promises.
9 Know therefore that the Lord thy God, he is God, the faithful God, which keepeth covenant and mercy with them that love him and keep his commandments to a thousand generations;
23 Let us hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering; (for he is faithful that promised;)
All these attributes are to found on the lips of those are recipients of them and have praises to give back to their Lord.
5 Thy mercy, O Lord, is in the heavens; And thy faithfulness reacheth unto the clouds.
6 Thy righteousness is like the great mountains; Thy judgments are a great deep: O Lord, thou preservest man and beast.
Ps 36:5-6
To Know the Lord
To Know the Lord
Jeremiah 9
To go on to know the Lord is not just another phrase for an intimate relationship with God, but implies much more.
Those who have responded to the betrothal of God will respond correspondingly by committing themselves to the covenant as God wholly as God has committed Himself.
It leads us to then be faithful and obedient to God as a godly wife is faithful and obedient to her godly husband in the Lord.
To know God is to have eternal life.
3 And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent.
But the only we can know the Lord and have eternal life is to respond to His betrothal, and return to Him as our first husband, and recognize that all is vanity and empty unless we are His and He is ours.
7 And she shall follow after her lovers, but she shall not overtake them; And she shall seek them, but shall not find them: Then shall she say, I will go and return to my first husband; For then was it better with me than now.
1 Come, and let us return unto the Lord: For he hath torn, and he will heal us; He hath smitten, and he will bind us up.
2 After two days will he revive us: In the third day he will raise us up, And we shall live in his sight.
3 Then shall we know, if we follow on to know the Lord: His going forth is prepared as the morning; And he shall come unto us as the rain, As the latter and former rain unto the earth.
4 O Ephraim, what shall I do unto thee? O Judah, what shall I do unto thee? For your goodness is as a morning cloud, And as the early dew it goeth away.
5 Therefore have I hewed them by the prophets; I have slain them by the words of my mouth: And thy judgments are as the light that goeth forth.
1 Come, and let us return unto the Lord: For he hath torn, and he will heal us; He hath smitten, and he will bind us up.
2 After two days will he revive us: In the third day he will raise us up, And we shall live in his sight.
3 Then shall we know, if we follow on to know the Lord: His going forth is prepared as the morning; And he shall come unto us as the rain, As the latter and former rain unto the earth.
Hosea 6:
To know and to follow on to know the Lord is to live in His presence and be in harmony with Him and His principles.
135 Make thy face to shine upon thy servant; And teach me thy statutes.
As husband and wife are to become one, so God desires to become one with us. And He will do everything that He can do to make this happen. Will you agree to for Him to be your everything?
21 That they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe that thou hast sent me.
John 17:21
24 But let him that glorieth glory in this, That he understandeth and knoweth me, That I am the Lord which exercise lovingkindness, judgment, and righteousness, in the earth: For in these things I delight, saith the Lord.