The Ugly Bride

Fierce: Knowing the God of Exodus  •  Sermon  •  Submitted
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Marriage and the covenant of God at Mt. Sinai

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God : Israel :: Husband : Bride

[slide] SAT ANALOGY QUESTIONS:

Intro
PALTRY : SIGNIFICANCE ::
A. redundant : discussion
B. austere : landscape
C. opulent : wealth
D. oblique : familiarity
E. banal : originality
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[slide] GOD : ISRAEL ::: ______ : ______

PALTRY : SIGNIFICANCE ::
A. hammer : home
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B. body guard : celebrity
C. husband : bride
D. universe : planet
E. banal : originality

AND/OR

These passages liken God to the metaphoric “husband” of Israel, who in turn is likened as his collective “bride.”
Jeremiah, Hosea, and Ezekiel all associate this metaphoric marriage with the wilderness sojourn experience.

[PICTURE: SLIDE] Throughout history Jewish couples have established their marriages under the chuppah (pronounced huppa). The canopy over top of the couple represents two things:

[PICTURE: SLIDE] Throughout history Jewish couples have established their marriages under the chuppah (pronounced huppa). The canopy over top of the couple represents two things:
The presence of God dwelling over the couple as God dwelled over the people of Israel in the cloud at Mount Sinai
The openness of the couples’ home in that they will embody hospitality and openness for the world.
Other passages to consider reviewing on your own: ; ; (for further commentary on these passages see the accompanying document that has some excerpts from my dissertation).
Other passages to consider reviewing on your own: ; ; (for further commentary on these passages see the accompanying document that has some excerpts from my dissertation).
The marriage metaphor is used in the both the OT and the NT to describe God’s covenantal relationship with us (cf. ; ; ; ; ; ; ; 4:142; 14:2; ; ; ; , ; and 22:17.)
Big Point - The early readers of Exodus understood the event at Mount Sinai to be a marriage ceremony where the LORD marries his chosen people. This morning we are going to explore how they did this.

An ancient Near Eastern Royal Marriage

There are dozens of diplomatic marriages in the ancient Near East, during the time the Exodus occurred and the book was being written. A diplomatic marriage is a royal marriage between a king and a foreign princess from another kingdom.
In the ancient Near East kings often married foreign princesses and also sent their own daughters to become the bride to another king in a neighboring kingdom.
The only kings who never sent a princess to another king were Egyptian kings. We have ample documentation where they boast about never doing so, albeit they married dozens of princesses from Babylon, Hatti, Mitanni, and Amurru. The only attestation of an Egyptian king ever sending a daughter to marry another king is the time the Egyptian king sends his daughter to marry King Solomon in the tenth century B.C. (cf. ). This is a time when Egypt was no longer politically strong and they were slipping into a time period known as the Late Period. In other words, they no longer held the prestigious power over the ancient Near East that they had in the Late Bronze Age prior to the rise of the Davidic kingdom.

Main Point - Royal marriages were common in the ancient Near East and key to establishing political alliances and relationships. Oliver’s research is showing the book of Exodus seems to be implying that the relationship the LORD is establishing with Israel is framed as a royal marriage that is centered on the sacred, political, covenantal document known as the “Book of the Covenant” (cf. )—a document that is summarized in the “Ten Words” (cf. ).

So what does an ancient Near Eastern royal marriage look like? In short most involve the following three acts (at Calvary main, I will be using four stage characters to help me frame this whole talk.)

1. [slide] King to King - Requesting the princess be sent.

§ Because the kings were separated geographically, they would send ambassadors carrying these messages back and forth. The request always involved the verb “Sending.” The idea was that the one king would ask the other to “send” a daughter to him for marriage.
§ In the Exodus narrative, YHWH makes SEVEN requests to Pharaoh to “Send out my people” (; ; 7:26; 8:20; 9:1; 9:13; 10:3).
§ Particularly interesting is the context of YHWH’s requests in the book of Exodus are the five instances where the composer informs readers that Pharaoh does not heed (Hb שׁמע) the request. As it concerns marriage in the ancient Near East, Martha Roth explains that “acceptance of marriage is marked by the verb šemû ‘to agree, heed, hear,’ and echoes the terminology used in the request. The parties who accede to the request are, as might be expected, those to whom the request was addressed.”[1] The Akkadian term šemû is used in first millennium B.C. Babylonian marriage contracts as an acceptance or refusal clause for marriage proposals, and is cognate to the verb used in Pharaoh’s refusal to not accept or heed YHWH’s proposal. In other words, the language employed in Exodus concerning YHWH’s requesting of Israel from Pharaoh, and Pharaoh’s subsequent refusal to send out Israel, is reflective of matrimonial language found in both civilian marriage contracts written in Akkadian from the first millennium as well as the correspondence texts written in Akkadian dating to the Amarna Period.

§ Because Pharaoh continually says NO and because YHWH is determined to get Israel, war breaks out and this is an attested matter in the ancient Near Eastern marriage process. If a king refused to send a bride, sometimes he’d be attacked until he relented to do so. Pharaoh will finally “send out Israel.”

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2. The Bride is Sent out with a military Escort

§ Once a king agreed to send out the princess (and Pharaoh eventually agrees in the book of Exodus to send out Israel), the princess would be accompanied by a military escort as she traveled to meet her new husband-king.
§ From my dissertation - “As noted in the last chapter, the escorts for brides in an ancient Near Eastern diplomatic marriage included military troops as well as other royal attendants and officials. In the book of Exodus the composer explains that YHWH sees the Israelite men as his army (Hb. צָבָא). Prior to the Israelites’ departure from Egypt, the composer reminds readers that in YHWH had commanded Moses and Aaron “Bring the Israelites out from the land of Egypt by their hosts.” According to , YHWH affirms: “Pharaoh will not listen to you and I will lay my hand upon Egypt and I will bring out my hosts—my people, the Israelites—from the land of Egypt by great acts of judgments.”[2] And then again in the composer explains what happens on that final night when YHWH brings his people out of Egypt: “At the end of 430 years, on that very day, all the hosts of YHWH went out from Egypt.” The composer could have used a variety of words to describe the Israelite people as they departed Egypt but chose to employ the term צָבָא which means “army, war, host, military, or service.” “
§ “In the Pentateuch, the term צָבָא is used almost exclusively to refer to military contexts.[3] This might explain why the composer of Exodus notifies readers that: כְּשֵׁשׁ־מֵאוֹת אֶלֶף רַגְלִי הַגְּבָרִים לְבַד מִטָּף – “about six hundred thousand footmen besides children” () are leaving Egypt on the night of Passover. It is intriguing that Pharaoh’s military forces are described similarly using the numerical notice six in which states: וַיִּקַּח שֵׁשׁ־מֵאוֹת רֶכֶב בָּחוּר – “And he [Pharaoh] took six hundred chosen chariots…”[4] Elsewhere the composer notes: וַחֲמֻשִׁים עָלוּ בְנֵי־יִשְׂרָאֵל מֵאֶרֶץ מִצְרָיִם – “armed, the Israelites went up out from Egypt” () indicating again that the Israelites are being viewed as YHWH’s military forces. Indeed, the military force is led by a pillar of cloud by day and fire by night that YHWH sends. In many respects this could be viewed as analogous to an escort that a husband king would send in order to accompany his new bride and her attendants as they journeyed to meet him.[5] Although YHWH does not send a physical caravan of troops and officials to escort his bride, he does send pillars of cloud and fire to accompany Israel as well as commissions the men to function as the joint military escort for Israel. To be sure, this military escort is tested by the Amalekites who try to plunder the Israelites on their journey to meet YHWH (). With the help of YHWH, the Israelites are able to ward off this enemy and continue their journey to Mount Sinai.
· We will have a pillar of cloud escorting Israel from Egypt, away from Pharaoh, down an aisle toward YHWH on stage under the huppa (i.e., Mount Sinai and the dark cloud hovering over top).

3. Bride is sent with Dowry of Precious Commodities

§ Dozens of the marriages in the ancient Near East involve a dowry of precious commodities being sent with the princess as she travels to meet her groom.
§ From my dissertation - “In the Hebrew narrative, the Israelites are sent out of Egypt with their flocks and herds; vessels made of Egyptian gold and silver; and Egyptian clothing. According to the composer, the Israelites asked their Egyptian neighbors to give them the gold, silver, and clothing (cf. , also cf. 3:22; 11:2), and adds: “And also a mixed multitude went up with them and sheep and oxen—a very great amount of livestock” (). Upon their release, the Israelites leave Egypt in the same manner a foreign bride would leave her household in a diplomatic marriage in that Israel departs with precious commodities commonly found in dowry lists known from the Bronze and Iron Ages.”
§ “As the Hebrew narrative continues, the materials are brought to YHWH at Mount Sinai, who eventually instructs the Israelites to use them for constructing his holy tent (cf. ). Typically, goods in a dowry are for the princess’ own personal use and not the use of her king, although some of the materials in the royal diplomatic dowry lists appear to have been sent with the king’s desires in mind. The composer records YHWH’s instructions to the Israelites relayed through Moses: “Take from among you a sacred offering for YHWH. Whoever has a generous heart let him bring a sacred offering of YHWH: gold, silver, copper…” (; also cf. ). The list of goods continues with yarns, oils, and other valuable commodities that will be utilized for constructing the tabernacle. These valuable goods (except bronze) are elements the Israelites received from their Egyptian overseers as they made their exit from Egypt. In the same way dowries were eventually presented to kings who made requests for a bride, so too were the goods received from Egypt presented to YHWH who had made seven requests for Israel. The significant difference is that the goods in the Hebrew account are utilized for the building of a holy tent.
· SKIT - We need to make sure that the bride is traveling with her dowry as she makes her way to YHWH on stage. We need articles of gold, silver, and precious clothing.

By the time Israel arrives at Mount Sinai, it is clear to readers familiar with the process for an ancient Near Eastern marriage that the process for Israel’s departure for Egypt is really the process for Israel to begin her intimate marriage relationship with YHWH as his royal treasure.

[slide] THE CEREMONY and as i go through it point these things out.

· This is the first point in the whole narrative where Israel meets God. She has journeyed to Mount Sinai the way a princess would journey to meet her groom-king and now we will see the ceremony unfold.
· Key Observations:

1. God describes them as the “treasured possession,” they are beautiful in the eyes of God (cf. )

§ “The term “treasured possession” in Hebrew is סְגֻלָּה and is cognate to the Akkadian term sikiltum which is used as an epithet in a ruler’s title meaning “servant” or “beloved” and it can also carry the meaning “private possessions.”[7] Sarna draws attention to a royal seal of Abban, king of Alalakh, which includes such an epithet in the title.[8] At Ugarit the cognate term sglt “treasured possession” also appears in a letter that characterizes a Hittite king’s vassal.[9] The Hebrew term is also cognate to Egyptian sḏꜢw “precious,” and sḏꜢwt “precious things, treasures.”[10] Desmond Alexander explains that the term סְגֻלָּה is used elsewhere in the Hebrew Scriptures “to describe the jewels and valuable objects in a king’s treasury (; )” which suggests Israel may be viewed similarly in Exodus.[11] The idea is that Israel could become exclusively YHWH’s beloved and treasured possession. This is similar to the adorning language in the First Hittite Marriage narrative used to describe the Hittite bride when she meets her groom-king.” (Dissertation)
§ He also calls them a “kingdom” of priests again drawing attention to Israel’s new reality of owning her royal status. She is no longer slave, she is royalty.

2. The people are invited to keep the LORD’s covenant and they agree (cf. )

§ In a royal marriage, we have tremendous evidence of a treaty covenant being issued from one king to the other. In these cases the treaties stipulate what the vassal kingdom, the kingdom of the bride, would be expected to do in the relationship. Notably, such a document would be recorded twice in order that one copy would be stored in one kingdom and the other in another. The Ten Commandments are recorded on TWO tablets and while modern art and media have told us that the two tablets contain one copy of the ten commandments, it could be that there were two copies of the ten commandments.
§ Note, the language Israel uses in her response is “We will do!” which is the type of language we still hear today as the bride and groom are declaring their intent and exchanging their vows before witnesses today in a marriage ceremony.
§ The Ten Commandments and then the “Book of the Covenant” (possibly reflective of an ancient Near Eastern treaty document?) is issued at Mount Sinai following Israel’s initial agreement (cf. ). This is followed again by a ritual ceremony of blood where the people again say “We will” and “We do” (cf. )

3. Smoke is covering the mountain top and represents the LORD (cf. )

§ This may be one of the origins for the huppa in a Jewish marriage. In other words, the huppa hovering over the couple in marriage is symbolic and references the presence of the LORD who hovered over his people as he married the collective community.

4. Oddly, the people abstain from sex in their consecration process (cf. )

MAIN POINT - A royal marriage is happening at Mount Sinai between YHWH and Israel. The celebration meal follows the issuing of YHWH’s covenant expectations and Israel’s agreement to them. The relationship has begun, the LORD is now going to have Israel build the tabernacle—the very entity where the two lovers will consummate their relationship together and be in each other’s presence intimately.

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· Summarize The marriage is in progress and Moses has gone up on the mountain to receive the instructions for how to build the tabernacle. He will be gone for 40 days and 40 nights.
· Again, he is receiving instructions for how to build the house of intimacy.

[slide] READ - bad news

· Moses is gone too long for the people and they press in hard on Aaron his brother. Aaron buckles and takes the gold—from their dowry!—and fashions a different lover for the people. The irony of the scene is incredible as Israel is supposed to building the house of intimacy for God and instead they have built for themselves another lover to worship.
WHILE MOSES IS GETTING THE INSTRUCTION TO BUILD THE HOUSE OF INTIMACY
Moses is gone too long for the people and they press in hard on Aaron his brother. Aaron buckles and takes the gold—from their dowry!—and fashions a different lover for the people. The irony of the scene is incredible as Israel is supposed to building the house of intimacy for God and instead they have built for themselves another lover to worship.
· Moses is gone too long for the people and they press in hard on Aaron his brother. Aaron buckles and takes the gold—from their dowry!—and fashions a different lover for the people. The irony of the scene is incredible as Israel is supposed to building the house of intimacy for God and instead they have built for themselves another lover to worship.
· They rise us the next day and engage in a party. PLAY - Revelry - [Orgy] - The term for revelry is charged with sexual connotations, which again is interesting in light of the marriage concept as sexuality is an integral part of marriage. In the Hebraic mind, sex is the equivalent of marriage in that the act was what officially consummated a marriage agreement.
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Will the presence of the LORD remain?

· Moses goes down the mountain, smashes the tablets because of what he sees the people doing, and God responds to the matter by having some of the people drink a concoction made from the ground up golden calf and water. This is fascinatingly the test or check an adulterous wife would have to undergo in ancient times (cf. )
§ The scene here would be like a bride during a wedding ceremony having an affair with another lover while the groom was off dealing with a different matter.

Summarize the rest of Story

Summarize the rest of Story

· Moses goes down the mountain, smashes the tablets because of what he sees the people doing, and God responds to the matter by having some of the people drink a concoction made from the ground up golden calf and water. This is fascinatingly the test or check an adulterous wife would have to undergo in ancient times (cf. )
Main Point - Israel here has become an ugly bride. She has chased after other lovers. But aren’t we also like this in so many ways? Don’t we often chase other lovers in light of our pain, loneliness, or boredom?

· [slide] I’m going to dwell on some of the ways we chase other lovers here and appear as the ugly bride before the LORD, the ugly bride who breaks covenant faithfulness.

§ We chase SUCCESS/POWER/FAME

§ We chase SUCCESS/POWER/FAME

§ We chase A FEELING

§ We chase MONEY/SECURITY

§ We chase MATERIALISM (#3 amazon,m #7 ebay, #10 craigslist)

§ We chase VIOLENCE - top 5 online games involve killing

§ We chase SEX / SELF-GRATIFICATION (#6 top rates site - Pornhub)

§ We chase

Fashioning gods out of God-given gifts

Just as the people of Israel used the gifts from God - the dowry that Egypt gave them as they left - to fasten themselves a new God. They used the gold meant as a gift to be the object of worship.
We are chasing other lovers - we are chasing
We too, take the things God intends to give us as gifts, and we make gods of them. We make gods of our spouses, our children, our jobs, our sexual proclivities.
TRANSITION TO CONFESSION: What good things have you fastened into an idol?
Transition: They didn’t wear the ornaments, marriage in jeopardy. What will God do with them/us?
We are all the ugly bride.

Transition: No ornaments (33:4), marriage in jeopardy. What will God do with them/us?

The Good News [slide]

DESPITE BEING AN UGLY BRIDE - - GOD RE-WRITES THE TABLETS AND GIVES THEM AND RENEWS THE COVENANT. But ,
· There is good news because God is slow to anger and deeply in love with us to the point that he is willing to forgive his ugly bride and make her beautiful again. Despite Israel’s sin, God still establishes the covenant with Israel and allows them to build the tabernacle and experience his presence.

As Moses was getting their instructions to prepare a place for intimacy with God in the tabernacle, Jesus has gone to prepare a place for us ()

Transition into Confession
Transition into Worship
1. We have huppas located all around the Worship Center and we want to take some time reflecting on our covenant relationship with the LORD. How have we failed to live up to his standards? How have we chased after other lovers? I want to encourage us this morning to get up and move to one of the huppa stations and perhaps you’d want to kneel under it alone, or with a friend, or with your spouse and just pray with God, acknowledge the ways you’ve been chasing other lovers or failing to live into his standard of holiness and in this space allow God to speak to your heart and offer you his forgiveness… Yes we are ugly brides, but we’re ugly brides who the LORD is interested in cleaning up. That’s the business of Jesus, cleaning his ugly bride.
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[1]Roth, Babylonian Marriage Agreements, 6. For some examples see nos. 1:9; 2:7; 3:8; 4:4 etc. She transcribes and translates forty-five marriage contracts from the Neo-Babylonian period.
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[2]Cf. , .
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[3]In the Pentateuch, the term צָבָא is applied to people (primarily Israelites) in military contexts in the following passages: , ; ; , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ; , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ; , ; , , , , , , , , , , , , ; ; , , , , , , , , , , , , ; ; and 24:5.
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[4]The numerical notice six occurs elsewhere in the Bible and ancient Near East in regard to personnel involved in military contexts. Aside from the two examples in the Exodus of the Israelites and Pharaoh, Ezekiel sees six men in vision with weapons prepared for slaughter along with a single man dressed in linen (). In the Qumran “War Scroll” God is leading an army of 6,000 men divided up into 12 tribes consisting of 500 men. Similarly in the New Testament, Peter and six Jewish men meet up with Cornelius and other Gentiles in order to discover that the Holy Spirit has been poured out on Gentile believers as well as the Jews (). In all of these examples, there are notably six men or groups of men led by one divine representative (e.g., Moses, Pharaoh, Peter, man in linen, or God).
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[5] In commenting on this chapter, James Hoffmeier pointed this detail out. For brief commentary on the pillars and their military significance in ancient Near Eastern thought see: Moshe Weinfeld, “Divine Intervention in War in Ancient Israel and in the Ancient Near East,” in History, Historiography and Interpretation: Studies in Biblical and Cuneiform Literatures (Jerusalem, Israel: Magnes Press, 1983), 131-36. He notes on p. 131 that the pillars “are substantially the messengers of God who fulfill His mission—in this case [i.e., crossing the Sea of Reeds] the annihilation of the enemy.”
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[6]Stol, Women in the Ancient Near East, 103. See also which poetically describes the כָּלָּה “bride” as departing the חֻפָּה “tent” in parallelism with the groom departing his room. And also which similarly describes the חָתָן“bridegroom” as departing his חֻפָּה “tent.”
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[7]HALOT, 1.742.
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[8]Nahum M. Sarna, Exploring Exodus: The Origins of Biblical Israel (New York: Socken Books, 1996), 131.
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[9]Sarna, Exodus = Shemot, 104.
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[10]CDME, 258. In commenting on this section, Gary Rendsburg drew my attention to this cognate. Rendsburg points out that Egyptian /ḏ/ is equivalent to Hebrew /ג/ as evidenced in the cognate terms Hb. מגלה and Eg. mdꜢt used for “scroll.”
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[11]T. Desmond Alexander, From Paradise to the Promised Land: An Introduction to the Pentateuch, 3rd ed. (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2012), 298.
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