By Jack Eberle
Israel was redeemed from
Egypt. God gave
Israel the covenant from Sinai. This is a marriage contract between
Israel and Jehovah. To understand more fully the heart of God, look at Ezekiel 16. In this passage God speaks of the beginning, coming of age, and downhill move of His beloved. Notice Verses 2-6
Israel’s childhood, verses 4-5 speak of “nativity” and birth, verses 7-14 speaks of the growing up time. Notice the “marriage”covenant of verse 8. Verse 14 states, “And thy renown went forth among the nations for thy beauty: for it was perfect through My comeliness, which I had put upon thee, saith the Lord, God.”
But notice the downslide in the following verses of the chapter: “played the harlot”, “fornications”, “high places”, “made images of men”, “whoredom”, “thy whoredoms”, “thy wickedness”, high place”, “multiplied thy whoredoms”, “committed fornication”, “thy lewd way” and many more. Is there any question that
Israel was an unfaithful wife? In verse 38 God says, “I will judge you, as women who break wedlock and shed blood are judged…” The bright spot for
Israel is verse 60. “NEVERTHELESS, I will remember My covenant with you in the days of your youth, and I will establish unto you an age covenant.”
Israel has a future. This “age covenant” is the covenant of Jer. 31:31-32.
Today, many in Christendom have been misled into thinking that they are partakers of this “new” covenant. See verse 32: The new covenant “…not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt; which my covenant they brake, although I was an HUSBAND unto them saith the Lord.”
Isaiah 55:3 connects the new covenant with “…the sure mercies of David.” Read Isaiah 54:4-6 “For thy maker is thine Husband…” From Isaiah 62:1-7, we see that this joy will return in the millennial kingdom “of heaven”. “…til He make
Jerusalem a praise in the earth.” Verse 2 reads, “…the Gentiles shall see thy righteousness…” There are many passages in the prophets concerning these truths. We will look at one more prophet, Hosea.
Hosea 3:3-5 speaks of
Israel’s present time, Lo-Ammi, i.e. “Not My people”. This is the time begun at Acts 28:28 and continuing until the “parousia”. This is the coming of Christ to set up His earthly kingdom, the time of “The Sermon on the Mount” found in Matthew 5-7. Hosea speaks of a marriage, an unfaithful wife, a bringing back and renewal of the marriage. Hosea may not have understood why he wrote as he did, but wrote from his heart of his own sorrow. God used his pen to write His Words about His unfaithful wife,
Israel.
