When we reflect on how God used marriage as a reflection of his covenantal love for his people (both ancient Israel and us today), how would that change the way we look at marriage? Do we bail out when things go sour? How often would we insist on having our own way? What then can do to honour our spouse given the beautiful metaphor that God has modelled for us?
From pages 93-5 of: How Jesus Transforms The Ten Commandments
The prophet Ezekiel uses the figure of marriage to describe God's covenant relation to Israel. He speaks of marriage in its legal force as a figure for God's covenant made at Sinai. Yet it is not left as one contract among others. No, the Lord holds his people with jealous love. He cannot permit other gods to share his claim of love. The worship of other gods is the greatest offence against the Lord, whom the people of Israel must love with all their heart, soul, mind, and strength.
The prophets describe the love of God for his people as the love of a father leading his son Israel through the desert. "When Israel was a child, I loved him, and out of Egypt I called my son . . . It was I who taught Ephraim to walk, taking them by the arms; but they did not realize it was I who healed them" (Hos. 11:1, 3). More often, the prophets speak of God as a loving husband. The time when God led Israel through the wilderness was a tryst with them. The Lord was wooing his people and leading them home to the house where he would dwell with them. When Israel turned aside in spiritual adultery, the Lord cried, "How can I give you up, Ephraim? How can I hand you over, Israel? . . . My heart is changed within me; all my compassion is aroused" (Hos. 11:8).
The Lord, the Creator, uses the image of a husband's love to show the love he has for Israel:
For your Maker is your husband—the LORD Almighty is his name—the Holy One of Israel is your Redeemer... The LORD will call you back as if you were a wife deserted and distressed in spirit—a wife who married young, only to be rejected. For a brief moment I abandoned you, but with deep compassion I will bring you back. (Isa. 54:5-7)
The Lord gives his people tender names of love, the way a husband would proudly claim and perhaps even tease his wife, loving her for just the person she is. "You will be called Hephzibah [my delight is in her], and your land Beulah [married]; for the LORD will take delight in you, and your land will be married . . . As a bridegroom rejoices over his bride, so will your God rejoice over you" (Isa. 62:4b-5).
Ezekiel 16 compares the Lord's love to that of a young man who discovers an abandoned baby girl, kicking in her blood by the side of the road. He finds the girl, washes and clothes her, and provides for her as she grows into a beautiful young woman. He then marries her, spreading his robe over her in protection and claiming her as his beloved bride. God says that he has taken to himself his bride, his people Israel. But the bride, wedded to the Lord in his covenant, becomes a prostitute, and offers up the children of the Lord to heathen gods. The Lord will judge her, but at last restore her and establish his covenant with her.
There will come a great and final day when the covenant is fulfilled, not by the faithfulness of the bride, but by the steadfast love of the Bridegroom. That day will bring the sealing of the love of the Lord for his people. " 'In that day,' declares the LORD, 'you will call me "my husband"; you will no longer call me my master" [Baal]' " (Hos. 2:16). In that day, the Daughter of Zion will sing, for "The LORD your God is with you, he is mighty to save. He will take great delight in you, he will quiet you with his love, he will rejoice over you with singing" (Zeph. 3:17). The prophet speaks of the Lord's deepest love, to be revealed with the coming of the Lord. Then at last, the Lord, the Bridegroom, will come to claim his own.
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