The sermon series at EV. Free is called “Relentless – the God of Jeremiah”. I made a comment to a few people this week that the relentlessness of God only comes clear when we keep in mind the actions of Judah. God relentlessly pursues, chastens, and woos His chosen people, who had prostituted themselves to everything else. Jeremiah 5:7 provides a picture of God’s people – full, yet craving more, marching to houses of whores and uttering animal sounds crying for each other’s wife.
Rick insightfully wrote on the church's blog site earlier that the picture of Yahweh and Judah provides a picture of marriage. I would like to add just a thought. This picture of marital union is the basis for understanding the ugliness of infidelity and the lengths to which God went to go after her again and again (read the book of Hosea or sigh… Redeeming Love!). We should be shocked when we understand the relentless pursuit and love of God for His people when we see them whoring themselves out.
But also this image of husband and wife is supposed to remind us of the larger biblical picture in the history of redemption. Ray Stedman, in Whoredom: God’s Unfaithful Wife in Biblical Theology, wrote that this provides …”the larger biblical vision of ultimate reality in Christ and His church, the Bridegroom and the Bride. And all of his people, women and men alike, both betray him with their infidelities and yet by His grace will enter into the perfect consummation of the marriage, where together we will inherit the only true human fulfillment that exists.”
What we see in a wedding ceremony is actually the gospel enacted before us. Why does it always move you when you see the bride standing in the back with her father? She is radiant, a ravishing beauty! She is being given to the groom as they affirm covenant together. He has been waiting for her his whole life and now she is his! This is exactly what’s supposed to stir your heart! Jesus is the Bridegroom and His sacrifice was for His people, the Bride. Despite all of our expressions of infidelity in chasing after anything to fill us, His love wooed us and continues to. We are the beautiful Bride of Christ awaiting His return to be united to Him and enter into the grand wedding reception feast. This is the culmination of the gospel and it’s one of the heart melting visions that Jeremiah presents us with!
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