Wedding Covenant Theology, Pt. 3
Defining The Covenant
In part two we looked at Noah and Abraham making proper altar sacrifices on Shavuot. This is significant because it proved that there was not any sort of wedding scenario taking place in the text. It is also significant because a major point of the covenant given to both Noah and Abraham revolved around land inheritance. In this portion of the study we are going to define the land covenant and how it relates to the language we later see referenced in Hosea and Jeremiah. Please go back to read Genesis 15 and Jubilees 14 for Abraham’s story, and Jubilees 6-8 for Noah’s story and divisions of land. These are the foundations that are laid when we get to Moses proclaiming the Torah of the land in Leviticus and Deuteronomy. After the second giving of the Law, Deuteronomy 28 explains beautiful blessings for obedience to the covenant as well as terrible curses for disobedience. Both blessings and curses have consequences involving the land- fruitful or famine, rains or drought, protected or dispersed. Life in the land was dependent on the people's heart to serve and obey Yahuah:
Deuteronomy 28:62-65 You who were as numerous as the stars in the sky will be left few in number, because you would not obey the voice of the LORD your God. Just as it pleased the LORD to make you prosper and multiply, so also it will please Him to annihilate you and destroy you. And you will be uprooted from the land you are entering to possess. Then the LORD will scatter you among all the nations, from one end of the earth to the other, and there you will worship other gods, gods of wood and stone, which neither you nor your fathers have known. Among those nations you will find no repose, not even a resting place for the sole of your foot. There the LORD will give you a trembling heart, failing eyes, and a despairing soul.
Deuteronomy 29:24-28 So all the nations will ask, ‘Why has the LORD done such a thing to this land? Why this great outburst of anger?’ And the people will answer, ‘It is because they abandoned the covenant of the LORD, the God of their fathers, which He made with them when He brought them out of the land of Egypt. They went and served other gods, and they worshiped gods they had not known—gods that the LORD had not given to them. Therefore the anger of the LORD burned against this land, and He brought upon it every curse written in this book. The LORD uprooted them from their land in His anger, rage, and great wrath, and He cast them into another land, where they are today.’
Deuteronomy 30:16-18 For I am commanding you today to love the LORD your God, to walk in His ways, and to keep His commandments, statutes, and ordinances, so that you may live and increase, and the LORD your God may bless you in the land that you are entering to possess. But if your heart turns away and you do not listen, but are drawn away to bow down to other gods and worship them, I declare to you today that you will surely perish; you shall not prolong your days in the land that you are crossing the Jordan to possess.
Being removed from the land was the curse- the natural consequence- for disobedience and idolatry. With this as our definition of the covenant, let’s look at how Hosea and Jeremiah fit into the covenant narrative. Hosea was written approximately 150 years before Jeremiah- what I have found is that much of what Jeremiah is recording, is exactly what was already prophesied of in Hosea. The land that Israel was being brought into was previously defiled- it was the land of Canaanites, Perizzites, Amorites, Jebusites, and so on- they were driven from the land by Yahuah, allowing for the people, the children of Jacob, of Israel to enter into the land.
Hosea 1:2-3 When the LORD first spoke through Hosea, He told him, “Go, take a prostitute as your wife and have children of adultery, because this land is flagrantly prostituting itself by departing from the LORD.” So Hosea went and married Gomer daughter of Diblaim, and she conceived and bore him a son.
It instantly relates the LAND as the prostitute and her children as children of adultery. The passage goes on to express the three children that Gomer bore him, each were given a name that meant particular judgments coming on the people. The land is pictured as the adulterous wife; the children of adultery are the people of Israel. She/the land, was previously defiled but taken in by Yahuah to be renewed and given children. But the land was defiled again- her children went astray. Israel never finished driving out the pagan nations and instead began adopting their ways. They turned back to the idolatrous ways that were previously on the land and forgot Yahuah their Father. So SHE was written a certificate of divorce and her children were scattered among the nations as the covenant said would happen.
Hosea 9:3 They will not remain in the land of the LORD; Ephraim will return to Egypt and eat unclean food in Assyria.
Leviticus 18:26-28 But you are to keep My statutes and ordinances, and you must not commit any of these abominations—neither your native-born nor the foreigner who lives among you. For the men who were in the land before you committed all these abominations, and the land has become defiled. So if you defile the land, it will vomit you out as it spewed out the nations before you. →(that’s what Hosea 1 expresses: Go, take a prostitute as your wife and have children of adultery, because this land is flagrantly prostituting itself by departing from the LORD).
Hosea 9:15 & 17 All their evil appears at Gilgal, for there I hated them. I will drive them from My house for the wickedness of their deeds. I will no longer love them; all their leaders are rebellious. . .My God will reject them because they have not obeyed Him; and they shall be wanderers among the nations.
Deuteronomy 28:64 Then the LORD will scatter you among all the nations, from one end of the earth to the other, and there you will worship other gods, gods of wood and stone, which neither you nor your fathers have known.
The Marriage Language
The wedding covenant theology is built on the premise that God divorced Israel, and Israel is the bride of Messiah. But circling back to Part 1, the people are never called the bride- the city is. The book of Hosea is highly romanticized, but if you study closely, you’ll see that ‘land’ is mentioned 37 times, only one time is Gomer mentioned, and Israel is consistently referred to as children, son/him, or Jacob. The defiled land was metaphorized as the adulterous wife; Yahuah dispossessed His children from the land just as He said He would in the terms of the covenant. This is why we need the NEW land- Zion/ New Jerusalem is who is called the bride. She is a virgin land, prepared for her ruler and adorned with children. As we continue reading in Hosea, we can see the distinction being made between who the bride is, and who her children are. We’ll also look at a passage from the prophet Ezra in a writing that was removed from the canon of scripture.
2 Esdras 2:1-7 Thus says the Lord: I brought this people out of bondage, and I gave them commandments through my servants the prophets; but they would not listen to them, and made my counsels void. The mother who bore them says to them, ‘Go, my children, because I am a widow and forsaken. I brought you up with gladness; but with mourning and sorrow I have lost you, because you have sinned before the Lord God and have done what is evil in my sight. But now what can I do for you? For I am a widow and forsaken. Go, my children, and ask for mercy from the Lord.’ I call upon you, father, as a witness in addition to the mother of the children, because they would not keep my covenant, that you may bring confusion upon them and bring their mother to ruin, so that they may have no offspring. Let them be scattered among the nations, let their names be blotted out from the earth, because they have despised my covenant.
Hosea 2:1-5 “Say of your brothers, ‘My people,’ and of your sisters, ‘My loved one.’ Rebuke your mother, rebuke her, for she is not My wife, and I am not her husband. Let her remove the adultery from her face and the unfaithfulness from between her breasts. Otherwise, I will strip her naked and expose her like the day of her birth. I will make her like a desert and turn her into a parched land, and I will let her die of thirst. I will have no compassion on her children, because they are the children of adultery. For their mother has played the harlot and has conceived them in disgrace.”
This passage corresponds with an abundant amount of scripture throughout the other prophets warning Israel and Judah to repent; warning of the destruction coming and the imminent captivity about to happen. But, within the prophecy of destruction, we also see Yahuah’s heart and plan for RESTORATION- just as the covenant promises. And again, the promise for restoration involves the land! Hosea 2:16-23 says exactly what we have read from Isaiah 49, 54, 60, and 66 in part 1. *Please read those whole chapters for yourself, they are so rich but far too much to include here.
Isaiah 54:5-6 For your husband is your Maker (Hebrews 11:10)—the LORD of Hosts is His name—the Holy One of Israel is your Redeemer; He is called the God of all the earth. For the LORD has called you back, like a wife deserted and wounded in spirit, like the rejected wife of one’s youth,” says your God.
Jeremiah 31:15-17 This is what the LORD says: “A voice is heard in Ramah, mourning and great weeping, Rachel weeping for her children and refusing to be comforted, because they are no more.” This is what the LORD says: “Keep your voice from weeping and your eyes from tears, for the reward for your work will come, declares the LORD. Then your children will return from the land of the enemy. So there is hope for your future, declares the LORD, and your children will return to their own land.
Isaiah 54:1 Shout for joy, O barren woman, who bears no children; break forth in song and cry aloud, you who have never travailed; because more are the children of the desolate woman than of her who has a husband.
2 Esdras 10:27-28 And I looked, and behold, the woman was no longer visible to me, but there was an established city, and a place of huge foundations showed itself. Then I was afraid, and cried with a loud voice and said, “Where is the angel U′riel, who came to me at first? . . .40-44 This therefore is the meaning of the vision. The woman who appeared to you a little while ago, whom you saw mourning and began to console but you do not now see the form of a woman, but an established city has appeared to you and as for her telling you about the misfortune of her son, this is the interpretation: This woman whom you saw, whom you now behold as an established city, is Zion.
Look at the picture of a woman deserted that is redeemed. We talked previously about how in Isaiah 54 & 49 the children are put on Zion as a bride puts on jewels- we are the adornment of the bride, sparkling as a diadem over the land! Well, Hosea is also referring to the LAND as a bride:
Hosea 2:16-23 “In that day,” declares the LORD, “you will call Me ‘my Husband,’ and no longer call Me ‘my Master.’ For I will remove from her lips the names of the Baals; no longer will their names be invoked. On that day I will make a covenant for them with the beasts of the field and the birds of the air and the creatures that crawl on the ground. And I will abolish bow and sword and battle in the land, and will make them lie down in safety. So I will betroth you to Me forever; I will betroth you in righteousness and justice, in loving devotion and compassion. And I will betroth you in faithfulness, and you will know the LORD.” “On that day I will respond—”declares the LORD—“I will respond to the heavens, and they will respond to the earth. And the earth will respond to the grain, to the new wine and oil, and they will respond to Jezreel. And I will sow her as My own in the land, and I will have compassion on ‘No Compassion.’ I will say to those called ‘Not My People,’ ‘You are My people,’ and they will say, ‘You are my God.’” (Romans 9:25 & 1 Peter 2:10)
This passage is the response; the solution to Hosea 1:2-9. It is the promise of restoration of the land and the restoration of ‘her’ children- the 3 children of Gomer that were given names of judgments against the children of Israel. But the ‘wife’ references are referring to the land- He will respond to the earth and ‘sow her as My own in the land.’ This is the promise of Zion, of the New Jerusalem a renewed/ redeemed LAND (as we discussed in part 1 looking at Isaiah 49 and 54) for the redeemed/ cleansed children to inherit! That is the NEW COVENANT! That is the fulfillment of the Land of Promise! The land Abraham walked as a sojourner and the portion where Israel dwelt in for a period of time was only a deposit of what is to come as an eternal, unblemished land!
The Renewed Covenant
Deuteronomy 30:1-6 When all these things come upon you—the blessings and curses I have set before you—and you call them to mind in all the nations to which the LORD your God has banished you, and when you and your children return to the LORD your God and obey His voice with all your heart and all your soul according to everything I am giving you today, then He will restore you from captivity and have compassion on you and gather you from all the nations to which the LORD your God has scattered you. Even if you have been banished to the farthest horizon, He will gather you and return you from there.And the LORD your God will bring you into the land your fathers possessed, and you will take possession of it. He will cause you to prosper and multiply more than your fathers.The LORD your God will circumcise your hearts and the hearts of your descendants, and you will love Him with all your heart and with all your soul, so that you may live.
Ezekiel 37:23-26 They will no longer defile themselves with their idols or detestable images, or with any of their transgressions. I will save them from all their apostasies by which they sinned, and I will cleanse them. Then they will be My people, and I will be their God. My servant David will be king over them, and there will be one shepherd for all of them. They will follow My ordinances and keep and observe My statutes. They will live in the land that I gave to My servant Jacob, where your fathers lived. They will live there forever with their children and grandchildren, and My servant David will be their prince forever. And I will make a covenant of peace with them; it will be an everlasting covenant. I will establish them and multiply them, and I will set My sanctuary among them forever.
The earth will respond:
Joel 2:23-24 Be glad, O children of Zion, and rejoice in the LORD your God, for He has given you the autumn rains for your vindication. He sends you showers, both autumn and spring rains, as before. The threshing floors will be full of grain, and the vats will overflow with new wine and oil.
Zechariah 8:12 For the seed will be prosperous, the vine will yield its fruit, the ground will yield its produce, and the skies will give their dew. To the remnant of this people I will give all these things as an inheritance. (Isaiah 54:17)
Chapter 3 of Hosea goes on to talk about the children of Israel turning to other mighty ones- the children of Israel will remain without a sovereign, but the children of Israel will return and seek Yahuah their Elohim AND David their sovereign- in the latter days! Then 4 goes into more distinction about the children of Israel, the inhabitants of the land…there’s no truth or knowledge of Elohim in the land.
Hosea 4:3-5 Therefore the land mourns, and all who dwell in it will waste away with the beasts of the field and the birds of the air; even the fish of the sea disappear. But let no man contend; let no man offer reproof; for your people are like those who contend with a priest. You will stumble by day, and the prophet will stumble with you by night; so I will destroy your mother.
Then it goes into judgement for the priests because they led the people into idolatry. We see this expressed in multiple places throughout the prophets, one instance is Jeremiah 2, directly before the divorce language.
Jeremiah 2:7-8 I brought you into a fertile land to eat its fruit and bounty, but you came and defiled My land and made My inheritance detestable. The priests did not ask, ‘Where is the LORD?’ The experts in the law no longer knew Me, and the leaders rebelled against Me. The prophets prophesied by Baal and followed useless idols.
There were multiple warnings given to the people of the land but they did not repent. You will find the same message of Hosea written in Amos; the same message repeated in Micah leading into the days of Jeremiah. We have a vast amount of evidence making a distinction between the people committing idolatry and the punishment that is executed on the land, or removal from the land. So when we get to the metaphors and personifications, we have to take the whole context and literal descriptions into consideration. The prophets giving a picture of the land as a mother/wife, is picturing the land bearing the reproach of her children. There is no literal marriage, neither Yahuah or Yeshua can physically marry a land; “there is no marriage or giving in marriage in the Kingdom of Heaven” (Matthew 22:30). Marriage holds the purpose of reproducing- that is not what is happening here. The metaphor is in reference to headship/ leadership/ provision for a house- the whole house of Israel. Israel of the old testament was not literally married to Yahuah; they were called children. “The church” grafted into Israel is not literally marrying Messiah; we are called His brethren and co-heirs to the land. Yes, there is a description of a certificate of divorce but it was an annulment to their rights to be on the land.
Jeremiah 3:20 AS a woman may betray her husband, so you have betrayed me.
It is a simile- like or as. Yahuah is giving a comparison to the betrayal. But He also calls Israel CHILDREN and Himself Father, far more times than the simile is used. Over and over again throughout Hosea, Jeremiah, and the other prophets, Israel is referred to as a child, as a he…as a son…as Jacob. And Yahuah refers to Himself as ‘Father.’
Jeremiah 3:19 Then I said, ‘How I long to make you My sons and give you a desirable land, the most beautiful inheritance of all the nations!’ I thought you would call Me ‘Father’ and never turn away from following Me.
Jeremiah 3:4-5 Have you not just called to Me, ‘My Father, You are my friend from youth. Will He be angry forever? Will He be indignant to the end?’ This you have spoken, but you keep doing all the evil you can.”
Jeremiah 3:19 Call Me ‘My Father’ and do not turn Me.
Jeremiah 3:14-15 “Return, O faithless children,” declares the LORD, “for I am your master, and I will take you—one from a city and two from a family—and bring you to Zion. Then I will give you shepherds after My own heart, who will feed you with knowledge and understanding.”
Hosea 11:1 When Israel was a child, I loved him, and out of Egypt I called My son.
Hosea Chapter 11 goes on to express how Yahuah was a Father to Ephriam, teaching him how to walk…but that the people went backyards and refused to repent. Hosea 12 literally tells the story of Jacob in relation to the nation of Israel as a whole. None of that indicates a marriage between that Father and those whom he called children. They were not allowed to remain in the land. The certificate of divorce was a metaphor for cutting off rights to the land- because that is the punishment for breaking the covenant. No where in the covenant does it state that the children are also the bride, nowhere does it state that they will be divorced from Yahuah, unable to return until He comes to die in the flesh- it’s simply not there!
Israel is meant to be one with the land, so yes, sometimes the land and the people are spoken of together but looking at the whole picture there are distinct descriptions of the land/ Zion, apart from the people. The people compliment the land, the children are meant to be her adornment, but because of idolatry, the people lost their rights to the land until the time of restoration comes, until Zion. That’s why we can’t just stake our claim today, but we can still call ourselves children of the Most High. This is why the scattered tribes were able to join Hezekiah’s Passover in 2 Chronicles 34 (before the cross), and why various nations were gathered for Shavuot in Acts 2- for the renewing of the covenant as we discussed in Part 2.
Additional points of study:
Compare the desolate woman in Isaiah 54 to the woman sent to the wilderness in Revelation 12.
Compare the descriptions of the bride/mother being the city to 2 Esdras 1 and 10
Compare the texts of Hosea 1-3 in the Masoretic bible to the Septuagint.
Compare the text of Jeremiah 31 in the Masoretic to the Septuagint, (Jeremiah 38).