A Marriage Defiled
Whose Marriage Was Defiled?
Can you imagine your marriage being defiled by the one whom you made a covenant with? You chose this person to love and to be loved in return, instead you receive a host of betrayals throughout your marriage. What is supposed to be the most joyful and fruitful union turns out to be the exact opposite. This is a situation that God is not a stranger to. He knows it very well—the heartbreak, the anger, the seeking of justice that comes with the notion of a defiled marriage. God gave Himself to Israel in a holy marriage when He chose them to be His in the covenant He made with Abraham. God pledged Himself to Israel; He promised to guide, protect, and fulfill Israel with all that He had. In return, Israel promised to love, obey and honor Him. However, it wasn’t long into the holy marriage when the bride became unsatisfied with God and began to seek other lovers. This is a rather heartbreaking and tragic love story that unfolds before our eyes if we pay attention to the marriage of God and Israel.
The scene of Ezekiel 8 takes me to a new height of brokenness for God’s defiled marriage. To summarize Ezekiel 8, God takes Ezekiel to the temple in Jerusalem where His bride is committing adultery in every room of His house. But the most heartbreaking scene is when God takes Ezekiel to the inner court of the temple (equivalent to the bedroom of the bride and groom). As they enter the inner court, Ezekiel and God find His own bride worshipping another god. God then turns to Ezekiel and says, “Have you seen this, O son of man? Is it too light a thing for the house of Judah to commit the abominations that they come here…” (Ezekiel 8:17). This is where my brokenness lies. Arrogance and discontentment led the bride of God to destroy the most sacred marriage by sinking into whoredom.
The scene of Ezekial 8 is parallel to you walking into your house and seeing your spouse committing acts of adultery with multiple people (an orgy). As you walk into your bedroom, where the marriage bed is not supposed to be defiled, there lies your spouse committing him/herself to another lover. What God said to Ezekiel in Ezekiel 8:17 is essentially you saying, “Is our marriage so worthless that you would bring another person into our bed?” What would you do if you found your spouse committing adultery? For God, He persistently pursued after His bride even after they’ve gone off to prostitute themselves to other gods.
In Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and Hosea, God is seen as a Groom who is heartbroken and angry, yet always willing to forgive His bride. Regardless of God having pleaded for His bride to return to Him, Israel treated Him as if He were unworthy and inadequate to love. Instead of returning, the bride ran to other lovers with the perception that they would offset God’s failure to fulfill them.
“Adulterous wife, who receives strangers instead of her husband! Men give gifts to all prostitutes, but you gave your gifts to all your lovers bribing them to come to you from every side with your whorings. So you were different from other women in your whorings. No one solicited you to play the whore, and you gave them payment, while no payment was given to you…” (Ezekiel 16:32-34)
The prophets of the OT raised their voices against the violated marriage between God and His people by using unpleasant language of calling Israel the “whore” over 60 times. The bride of God opened herself up to the point of paying for other lovers to come to her. Israel’s promise to love, obey and honor God was a lie. Their betrayal was tenfold. How unfortunate, though, that they would choose lovers that would never satisfy them. I am broken for God and my heart cries for Him. How can a love so perfect be betrayed?
Rekindling a Defiled Marriage
Though we may not realize it, we have organically chosen an idol over God…whether in the past or currently. Oftentimes when we read of the Israelites, we think about how terrible they are. The whisper in our heart says, “I would never do that to you God.” But we are all the same—seeking to satisfy ourselves with someone or something else. Are we not a generation like Israel today? Pursuing other idols, promising to honor God yet behind His back we do the very things He despises, paying for the very idols we believe will satisfy us? The tragic love story of Israel is the story of all mankind in relation to God. “None is righteous, no, not one; no one understands; no one seeks for God” (Romans 3:10-11). We are not the heroes of the Bible, we are not the faithful bride that returns to God; we are an adulterous nation who has defiled the marriage covenant with God.
I know, this all sounds like terrible news. But praise God that the love story is not over—for He is able to rekindle a dead marriage. The story of God and His bride is still unfolding before us. There will be a day when God will return to make all things right. It will be with the new covenant in Christ, where we will be His bride and He will be our Bridegroom. God will work within the church to perfect us for His Son. In these latter days, the church is struggling, but “I am sure of this, that He who began a good work in us will bring it to completion on the day of Jesus Christ” (Philippians 1:6).
God continues to pursue us no matter how many times we’ve given ourselves away. Though we already belonged to Him, He still purchased us out of prostitution (Hosea) by the blood of Christ. It is with great wonder and awe that God would still choose to make me a part of the bride for His Son. Repent and return my friends; God’s love is persistent and He is longsuffering for His bride. The great wedding feast awaits us.
CY