Commandment No. 7 God & Church Relationship
In the old covenant God was married to the nation of Isra’el, then “a thriving olive tree with fruit beautiful in form” (Jeremiah 11:16).
10 When I first found you, it was like finding grapes growing in the desert. When I first saw your ancestors, it was like seeing the first ripe figs of the season. HOSEA 9 tev
The marriage went awry.
2 I remember how faithful you were when you were young, how you loved Me when we were first married… 21 I planted you like a choice vine from the very best seed. But look what you have become! You are like a rotten, worthless vine. 22 Even if you washed with the strongest soap, I would still see the stain of your guilt. JEREMIAH 2 tev
21 See how the faithful city has become a harlot! She once was full of justice; righteousness used to dwell in her—but now murderers! ISAIAH 1
5 [Your fathers] worshiped worthless idols and became worthless themselves. 7 …They defiled the country I had given them. 17 Isra’el… you deserted Me while I was leading you along the way. JEREMIAH 2 tev
Isra’el slept with Lucifer. God had to divorce her.
8 I gave faithless Isra’el her certificate of divorce and sent her away because of her adulteries. JEREMIAH 3
God—the loving and faithful Husband—was exchanged for a scoundrel (Jeremiah 31:3, 51:5). The scoundrel brought Assyria and Babylon to ransack her treasury and destroy her temple. Isra’el was forced to march six hundred miles from her home to Babylon, where she suffered as a sex slave for seventy years.
God saw what became of His bride. He wanted to help but He would not violate her freewill. Only after she had cried for God’s help did God free her from captivity. He brought her home, gave back her dignity, but because she did not repent of her adulteries, God did not renew their marriage covenant.[1]
31 The time is coming, declares the Lord, when I will make a New Covenant with the house of Isra’el and with the house of Judah. 32 It will not be like the covenant I made with their forefathers when I took them by the hand to lead them out of Egypt; because they broke My covenant though I was a Husband to them. JEREMIAH 31God instituted a new marriage covenant and invited everyone to it, the nations of Isra’el and Judah included. In it the new covenanters put together would compose the Church, God’s Bride-to-be. The couple (God and the Church) would go through betrothal or engagement period, during which time the Bridegroom would stay abroad and the Bride would cleanse herself of unfaithfulness. The Bridegroom would return to claim His bride in holy matrimony, hopeful that when He does, her stride in love and faithfulness would no longer falter or fail—the prevailing circumstances confronting her notwithstanding.
The Wedding
When a Jewish couple married, the bridegroom would come unexpectedly for the wedding ceremony. In like manner, the Bridegroom would return unexpectedly. It is not for the Church to know when.10 The day of the Lord will come like a thief. 2 PETER 3
13 Therefore keep watch, because you do not know the day or the hour. MATTHEW 25
Suffice to say, the wedding would soon take place (Revelation 1:1).
6 Then I heard what sounded like a great multitude, like the roar of rushing waters, and like loud peals of thunder, shouting: “Hallelu-yah! For our Lord God Almighty reigns. 7 Let us rejoice and be glad and give Him glory! For the wedding of the Lamb has come, and His bride has made herself ready.” REVELATION 19
A wedding banquet would be prepared (Matthew 22:2) for 1,000 years of feasting (eat-drink-and-rejoice-all-you-can). “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled” (Matthew 5:6).
37 It will be good for those servants whose Master finds them watching when He comes. I tell you the truth, He will dress Himself to serve, will have them recline at the table and will come and wait on [serve] them. LUKE 12
Whether we look forward to it or not, whether we participate in it or not, the wedding ceremony and banquet would take place. “God keeps His promises” (1 Corinthians 10:13 tev).
15 I have eagerly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer. 16 For I tell you, I will not eat it again until it finds fulfillment in the kingdom of God. LUKE 22
[1] Both the Bible and history reveal that Isra’el did not repent of its sins at the end of the seventy-year captivity in Babylon. In fact, the Scriptures record in the books of Ezra and Nehemiah that the minority of fifty thousand who chose to return with Ezra to the Promised Land did so with little faith. The vast majority of the Jews remained in pagan Babylon. They failed to repent of their disobedience, which was the reason God sent them into captivity in the first place. This majority who refused to immigrate home to Isra’el, composing over 95 percent of the Jewish captives, simply settled down as colonists in what is now Iraq-Iran.—The Signature of God, p. 167.
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