In the time leading up to my own wedding last summer, my soon-to-be wife Paige and I spent a lot of time discussing different aspects of marriage, how to prepare our hearts for them, and how God would be working through us to use our marriage as a demonstration of His love. Naturally, in this day and age, one topic that arose was divorce. Being a part of the Blumhorst family, divorce has never been very realistic or present. One relevant moment that sticks out in my mind was on a family vacation around five years ago, when my grandparents, my mother and father, my father’s three siblings and their significant others were gathered together with all our families. Someone noted that in that room were about 150 years of marriages altogether, and that our family was built around never giving up on each other. That’s a small moment that’s been deeply ingrained in my beliefs as a man, and now as a husband.
Considering this, reading through today’s passage, Jeremiah 2, breaks my heart. Jeremiah has been called at the start of this book to prophesy to a broken Jerusalem, one that has entirely abandoned God. In his own words, The Lord says through him (Jeremiah 2:2-3):
“I remember the devotion of your youth, your love as a bride, how you followed me in the wilderness, in a land not sown. Israel was holy to the LORD, the first fruits of his harvest. All who ate of it incurred guilt; Disaster came upon them, declares the LORD.”
Knowing this, and how I feel about my own wife, the degree to which God describes how Jerusalem has turned away from Him is heartbreaking. Yes, it’s not appropriate to compare earthly love like ours to God’s, and imagining how much more pain God feels from such deeper offense is not within our capabilities, but one can only imagine. In this chapter, we hear all sorts of horrible treatment from what was God’s people: worshipping false idols, taking part in pagan ceremonies, flirting with the ways of the people of Egypt, crying out to their own imagined gods in times of need, and worst of all, claiming themselves to be pure and free of guilt. Further embodying the marriage relationship, Jeremiah says (Jeremiah 2:32):
“Can a virgin forget her ornaments, or a bride her attire? Yet my people have forgotten me days without number.”
Yet, despite the depth of their inequities towards the Lord, and His obvious displeasure, we see most of all that He still loves and will never forsake His people. As God further commands Jeremiah to tell the Israelites in the next chapter (Jeremiah 3:12):
“Return, faithless Israel, declares the LORD. I will not look on you in anger, for I am merciful, declares the LORD. I will not be angry forever.”
This is something we see time and time again, no matter how little His people deserve it in our eyes: God forgives every time. God does not abandon us. And as we are called to mirror Him in our marriages, God will never walk away from us or hold forgiveness from us when we come to Him in need. In Hosea 2:19-20, as the LORD commands the prophet Hosea to command to sinful Israel:
“And I will betroth you to me forever. I will betroth you to me in righteousness and in justice, in steadfast love and in mercy. I will betroth you to me in faithfulness. And you shall know the LORD.”
Again, as Ezekiel repeats what the LORD has said to him about faithless and transgressing Israel in Ezekiel 16:60:
“…yet I will remember my covenant with you in the days of your youth, and I will establish for you an everlasting covenant.”
No matter how often God’s people turn away from worshipping Him, or try to carve out their own futile wells of spiritual water only to end up thirsty, or forget the Lord’s past blessings and promises, God does not give up on those who repent and seek forgiveness. As a perfect example for us, God forgives and continues to love His bride, His people, at all times. And in this, He sets a perfect example for us of how to accept each other with open arms and love in our hearts, in and out of our marriages. I pray today that those of you with husbands or wives would pray for & with them, that you would always be able to look to God as an example of forgiveness and love and celebrate the perfect example He sets for you both. And for those without husbands and wives, I pray that you remember today that God is always ready with open and loving arms to accept you when you need, that you would be full of praise for our loving Lord, and that you would joyfully share the peace and love He brings you with those you encounter.
Ross B.