“If a man divorces his wife and she goes from him and becomes another man’s wife, will he return to her? Would not that land be greatly polluted? You have played the whore with many lovers; and would you return to me? declares the Lord.” (Jeremiah 3:1, ESV)
I recently heard of a proposed change to the marriage laws. It was to enter marriage under a contract. Now today it is not unusual for couples to prepare a prenuptial contract. I do not agree with such a contract, but it is done and is generally put into place to preserve financial assets for one or both newlyweds in the case of divorce. Yet the contract that I heard about was sort of an extension to this prenup idea.
This new type of marital contract would put a term on the marriage. For example, it might say that the couple would be married for five years and at the end of the term the marriage would be annulled. There was also a slight variation to this through the addition of an automatic renewal clause.
One of the issues I have with these types of contracts is that they cheapen marriage. There is no thought of permanence to the marital union. This makes divorce easier and ultimately weakens the family unit. There are a lot of logical reasons that divorce is bad. It is bad for the family unit as it adversely affects the children. It also places huge financial pressures on the divorced couples in legal fees, child support, alimony, and etcetera. No one is better off when a family divorces.
However, the major problem with divorce is that God hates it. He has designed marriage to be permanent. Jesus stated it, “What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate.” (Mark 10:9, ESV) In the Bible the sanctity of marriage and faithfulness is joined. God hates the sin of being infidelity to one’s spouse.
Now while, in my view the Bible leaves some openness for divorce in specific situations such as adultery, desertion, and physical/mental abuse. These reasons are not to be seen as a willy nilly way for a man or a woman to justify a divorce. Moreover, divorce only results because of the sinful heart of either the husband or the wife. An example of this is when one person might run off with a person other than their spouse.
This is the picture that the Lord painted of Israel in this passage. It is that of Israel being the unfaithful bride of God. Now, we must understand that the Lord as the husband of the nation was perfect in every way. The Lord demonstrated repeatedly His infinite perfection and care for the nation of Israel. The Lord watched over the nation. He protected them and provided every necessity for them. Yet Israel was the faithless one. They turned their back on the Lord and sought after other gods and human alliances. To this the Lord stated that they had “played the whore with many lovers.”
In essence they had divorced the Lord their God who had been continuously faithful. To this He presented three rhetorical questions. The first one was, “If a man divorces his wife and she goes from him and becomes another man’s wife, will he return to her?” This pointed to the law in Deuteronomy which indicated that if a divorce occurred and the wife married another, she could not remarry her former husband (Deut 24:1-4). This indicated that Israel’s infidelity would produce a permanent separation by their own choice. Now with this in mind we must also realize that Lord would maintain a faithful and small remnant of Israel to fulfill His covenant promises to Abraham, David, and that of the New Covenant.
The second rhetorical question was “Would not that land be greatly polluted?” Israel’s actions of spiritual adultery would have significant adverse effects on the land itself. We see numerous examples of when the Lord God brought drought and famine on the land. Their spiritual adultery brought sever hardships in the past as the Lord withheld His hand of blessing on the nation. This would happen again in the conquest of Babylon to come that would devastate the land and the city of Jerusalem.
The third question was, “You have played the whore with many lovers; and would you return to me?” The nation had ample opportunity to repent, but they did not. We will see that God called the nations to repent over and over to no avail. They refused to return to Him.
How does this apply today? Let us ask ourselves a couple questions. What is the state of the church today? Is the church healthy? One of my greatest passions is to see believers and churches experience spiritual renewal of the heart. As I have visited churches as a guest speaker, I have seen vibrant churches that just exude a love for the Lord. I could just sense it when I spoke to the congregation. Yet there were other congregations that just seemed to have lost the heart of devotion. They were distant, defeated, and dead. They were without life. There are many reasons for the difference, but every issue is one of the heart. It is an issue of love and devotion.
Churches that have lost heart have a variety of issues. Some have elevated things to the level of divine authority. It may be traditions that have been made sacred. It may be that they are trusting a church model that they have copied from another prosperous church. Yet it is not the model that makes the difference it is the heart. It may be that they are trusting in their building, or church architecture. It might be the style of music or lighting.
The solution for these churches that have lost the spark of the manifest presence of God, those that have lost heart is very simple. The Lord is constantly calling these churches to repentance, that is to turn. To turn from their self-sufficiency. To turn from their trust in all the things, their idols. To turn from their own ideas and traditions. “Turn back to me,” says the Lord. The Lord says to the churches, “I love you and gave my life for you, return my bride to me.” The solution for the church is to Love the Lord our God with all our heart. Let us return to Him and see what happens.
Renewing the Heart 