Yahweh’s Betrothal to the children of Israel – April 2022
In these scriptures, LORD is Yahweh, or Jehovah, the Jewish
national name of God. ‘Thus says the LORD (Jehovah) of hosts, the God (Elohim)
of Israel.’ Yahweh = The God of Israel: God the Father of Jesus (Jesus = God the Son, O.T.
= The Angel of the Lord (Yahweh). Israel is Yahweh’s betrothed bride.
The Old Testament’s Angel of the Lord is a theophany. When
you look at this biblical figure, you recognize three crucial truths that
identify this character as Jesus: He is identified as God. He is distinct from
God. He fulfills many of the roles and ministries we recognize in Jesus. Jesus
is the Son of God (Yahweh). The Ecclesia or Church is Jesus’ betrothed bride.
The third person of the Godhead, the Trinity, is the Holy
Spirit. The Holy Spirit is a person, as are the Father and Jesus the son. He is
the Spirit of the Father and the Son and He proceeds from the Father and the
Son, and with the Father and the Son is worshiped and glorified.
The bride price, the covenant, and the promise.
Israel became Yahweh’s (Jehovah’s) betrothed at the time
when she came out of the land of Egypt (the Exodus).
(1) Then he said to Moses, "Come up to the LORD, you
and Aaron, Nadab, and Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel, and worship
from afar. (2) Moses alone shall come near to the LORD, but the others shall
not come near, and the people shall not come up with him." (3) Moses came and told the people
all the words of the LORD and all the rules. And all the people answered with
one voice and said, "All the words that the LORD has spoken we will
do." (4) And Moses wrote down all the words of the LORD. He rose
early in the morning and built an altar at the foot of the mountain, and twelve
pillars, according to the
twelve tribes of Israel. (5) And he sent young men of the people of Israel, who offered burnt
offerings and sacrificed peace offerings of oxen to the LORD. (6) And
Moses took half of the blood and put it in basins, and half of the blood he
threw against the altar. (7) Then
he took the Book of the Covenant and read it in the hearing of the people. And
they said, "All that the LORD has spoken we will do, and we will be
obedient." (8) And Moses took the blood and threw it on the people and
said, "Behold the blood of the covenant that the LORD has made with you in
accordance with all these words." [Exo 24:1-8 ESV]
A Jewish betrothal involved a bride price - the sacrifice of
oxen; a marriage contract, - the Book of the covenant; the bride agreeing to
the covenant and to accept the proposal of marriage by drinking of a cup of new
wine - “we will do, and we will be obedient”; the sealing of the betrothal -
the people being sealed into the covenant by the blood of the sacrifice when
Moses threw the blood of the sacrifice on the people.
In many orthodox Jewish circles, the Jewish festival of Shavuoth (Penetcost) is considered
to be the engagement or betrothal of Israel to Yahweh, the national God of
Israel. The great trumpet blast of Shavuoth on Mount Sinai was
used to call the Israelites to assembly at the foot of Mount Sinai in
preparation to enter into covenant with God. It is called the Blast of the First Trumpet and marks the engagement of Israel
to Yahweh. After this day, Israel is called the wife of Yahweh (Jehovah). The actual wedding is to occur at the blast
of the Last Trumpet during the Feast of Rosh haShanah, the Feast of Trumpets.
The Divorce
Yahweh (Jehovah) divorced Israel (the house of Joseph)
because of her unfaithfulness to Him and her adulteries as she worshipped other
gods.
(6) The LORD said to me in the days of King Josiah:
"Have you seen what she did, that faithless one, Israel, how she went up
on every high hill and under every green tree, and there played the whore? (7)
And I thought, 'After she has done all this she will return to me,' but she did
not return, and her treacherous sister Judah saw it. (8) She saw that for all the
adulteries of that faithless one, Israel, I had sent her away with a decree of
divorce. Yet her treacherous sister Judah did not fear, but she too went and
played the whore. (9) Because she took her whoredom lightly, she
polluted the land, committing adultery with stone and tree. (10) Yet for all
this her treacherous sister Judah did not return to me with her whole heart,
but in pretense, declares the LORD." (11) And the LORD said to me,
"Faithless Israel has shown herself more righteous than treacherous Judah.
(20) Surely,
as a treacherous wife leaves her husband, so have you been treacherous to me, O
house of Israel, declares the LORD.'" (21) A voice on the bare
heights is heard, the weeping and pleading of Israel's sons because they have
perverted their way; they have forgotten the LORD their God. [Jer 3:20-21 ESV]
(1) Thus says the LORD: "Where is your mother's certificate of divorce,
with which I sent her away? Or which of my creditors is it to whom I
have sold you? Behold, for your iniquities you were sold, and for your
transgressions your mother was sent away. [Isa 50:1 ESV]
The Restoration
Israel is restored as Yahweh’s wife at Israel’s national
restoration at the end of the age.
(1) And
the LORD said to me, "Go again, love a woman who is loved by another man
and is an adulteress, even as the LORD loves the children of Israel, though
they turn to other gods and love cakes of raisins." ... (3) And I said to
her, "You must dwell as mine for many days. You shall not play the whore,
or belong to another man; so will I also be to you." ... (5) Afterward the
children of Israel shall return and seek the LORD their God, and David their
king, and they shall come in fear to the LORD and to his goodness in the latter
days. [Hos 3:1, 3, 5 ESV]
(12) Go, and proclaim these words toward the north, and say, "'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. (13) Only acknowledge your guilt, that you rebelled against the LORD your God and scattered your favors among foreigners under every green tree, and that you have not obeyed my voice, declares the LORD. (14) Return, O faithless children, declares the LORD; for I am your master; I will take you, one from a city and two from a family, and I will bring you to Zion. ... '" [Jer 3:6-14, ESV].'"
(21) Then you will say in your heart: 'Who has borne me
these? I was bereaved and
barren, exiled and put away, but who has brought up these? Behold, I was
left alone; from where have these come?'" (22) Thus says the Lord GOD: "Behold, I will lift
up my hand to the nations, and raise my signal to the peoples; and they shall
bring your sons in their arms, and your daughters shall be carried on their
shoulders. ... (26) I will make your oppressors eat their own flesh, and
they shall be drunk with their own blood as with wine. Then all flesh shall know that I am the LORD your
Savior, and your Redeemer, the Mighty One of Jacob." [Isa 49:21-22,
26 ESV]
(1) Say to your
brothers, "You are my people," and to your sisters, "You have
received mercy." (2)
"Plead with your mother, plead-- for she is not my wife, and I am not her
husband-- that she put away her whoring from her face, and her adultery from
between her breasts; ... (14) "Therefore, behold, I will allure
her, and bring her into the wilderness, and speak tenderly to her. (15) And
there I will give her her vineyards and make the Valley of Achor a door of
hope. And there she shall
answer as in the days of her youth, as at the time when she came out of the
land of Egypt. (16) "And in that day, declares the LORD, you will
call me 'My Husband,' and no longer will you call me 'My Baal.' (17)
For I will remove the names of the Baals from her mouth, and they shall be
remembered by name no more. (18) And I will make for them a covenant on that
day with the beasts of the field, the birds of the heavens, and the creeping
things of the ground. And I will abolish the bow, the sword, and war from the
land, and I will make you lie down in safety. (19) 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. (20) I will betroth you to me in faithfulness. And you shall know the
LORD. [Hos 2:1-2, 14-20 ESV]
In the latter days, the end of days, the end of the age,
when Israel is restored at the Lord Jesus’ second coming as the King, Yahweh
will take Israel back and all Israel will call Yahweh “My Husband”. And Yahweh
says, “I will betroth (to make a spouse) you to me forever.” The wedding occurs
at the blast of the Great Trumpet, the Last Trumpet of the last Feast of
Trumpets at the Lord’s return to earth as King of kings!
