Yahweh’s Betrothal to the children of Israel

 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!