Relationship With God: Faithful Husband and Bridegroom

One of the reasons for writing this blog is to help emotional eaters who struggle with an unhealthy relationship with food to turn to God and grow in relationship with Him.  God wants relationship with His children.  To clarify further—God desires intimate relationship with us.  The Bible describes God’s relationship with His people in several intimate ways—Father and son/daughter, Husband and wife, Bridegroom and bride, Friend.  The Husband-wife references are particularly to Israel, the Bridegroom-bride Scriptures refer to Christ and the Church.  Both imply a particularly intimate relationship:

“‘For your Maker is your husband—the LORD Almighty is his name—the Holy One of Israel is your Redeemer; he is called the God of all the earth.  The LORD will call you back as if you were a wife deserted and distressed in spirit—a wife who married young, only to be rejected,’ says your God.” 

Isaiah 54:5-6 (NIV)

 

“No longer will they call you Deserted, or name your land Desolate. . . for the LORD will take delight in you, and your land will be married. . . as a bridegroom rejoices over his bride, so will your God rejoice over you.” 

Isaiah 62:4-5 (NIV)

 

“‘In that day,’ declares the LORD, ‘you will call me “my husband”; you will no longer call me “my master”. . . I will betroth you to me forever; I will betroth you in righteousness and justice, in love and compassion.  I will betroth you in faithfulness, and you will acknowledge the LORD. . . I will show my love to the one I called “Not my loved one.”  I will say to those called “Not my people”, “You are my people”; and they will say, “You are my God.”’” 

Hosea 2:16, 19-20, 23 (NIV)

 

“‘I remember the devotion of your youth, how as a bride you loved me and followed me through the wilderness, through a land not sown.  Israel was holy to the Lord, the firstfruits of his harvest; all who devoured her were held guilty, and disaster overtook them,’ declares the LORD.” 

Jeremiah 2:2b-3 (NIV)

 

“‘The days are coming,’ declares the LORD, ‘when I will make a new covenant with the people of Israel and with the people of Judah.  It will not be like the covenant I made with their ancestors when I took them by the hand to lead them out of Egypt, because they broke my covenant, though I was a husband to them,’ declares the LORD.  ‘This is the covenant I will make with the people of Israel after that time,’ declares the Lord.  ‘I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts.  I will be their God, and they will be my people.’” 

Jeremiah 31:31-33 (NIV)

 

“But it was because the LORD loved you and kept the oath he swore to your ancestors that he brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you from the land of slavery, from the power of Pharaoh king of Egypt.  Know therefore that the LORD your God is God; he is the faithful God, keeping his covenant of love to a thousand generations of those who love him and keep his commandments.” 

Deuteronomy 7:8-9 (NIV)

 

God is in a covenant relationship with His people, just like a marriage!

 

All Bible commentators agree that as often written in the Bible, the idolatries of God’s people are as adulteries.  In many passages, God accuses Israel, sometimes in graphic language, of spiritual adultery and prostitution because of their unfaithfulness to His covenant love.  For example, after a very graphic read about Israel and Judah in Ezekiel 23:1-37 (I recommend you read it):

“They committed adultery with their idols . . .”  

Ezekiel 23:37b” (NIV)

“‘I myself said, “How gladly would I treat you like my children and give you a pleasant land, the most beautiful inheritance of any nation.”  I thought you would call me “Father” and not turn away from following me.  But like a woman unfaithful to her husband, so you, Israel, have been unfaithful to me,’ declares the LORD.”                   

Jeremiah 3:19-20 (NIV)

A particularly convicting verse from Ezekiel 16 describes the sins of Samaria and Sodom:

“‘Now this was the sin of your sister Sodom:  She and her daughters were arrogant, overfed and unconcerned; they did not help the poor and needy.  They were haughty and did detestable things before me.  Therefore I did away with them as you have seen.’”

Ezekiel 16:49-50 (NIV)

 

But the passage goes on to say that the sins of corrupt Judah compared to Samaria and Sodom were multiplied and more abominable.

 

The idolatry of God’s people is often spoken of as spiritual harlotry in the Old Testament.  Here is one of many:

“See how the faithful city has become a prostitute!” 

Isaiah 1:21a (NIV)

 

But we must never miss His great compassion, love, and mercy:

“‘Return, backsliding Israel,’ says the LORD; ‘I will not cause My anger to fall on you.  For I am merciful,’ says the LORD; ‘I will not remain angry forever.  Only acknowledge your iniquity, That you have transgressed against the LORD your God . . .’” 

Jeremiah 3:12b-13b (NKJV)

 

“‘Return, O backsliding children,’ says the LORD; ‘for I am married to you.  I will take you, one from a city and two from a family, and I will bring you to Zion.  And I will give you shepherds according to My heart, who will feed you with knowledge and understanding.’” 

Jeremiah 3:14-15 (NKJV)

 

“‘Return, you backsliding children, And I will heal your backslidings.’” 

Jeremiah 3:22 (NKJV)

 

“‘If you will return, O Israel,’ says the LORD, ‘Return to Me; And if you will put away your abominations out of My sight, Then you shall not be moved.’” 

Jeremiah 4:1 (NKJV)

 

God pictured His covenant relationship with Israel as a marriage, and pleaded for His people to repent and return to Him.  The book of Hosea is the story of an adulterous wife and a faithful husband.  After bearing him children, Gomer was unfaithful to Hosea.  In spite of her adultery, Hosea continued to support her, but she thought that it came from her lovers!  Eventually, Gomer ended up on the slave market, totally degraded.  God commanded Hosea to go and buy back his errant wife out of slavery and restore her as his wife.  The restoration of Gomer by Hosea is a picture of God taking back His adulterous people.  Perhaps the most moving text of all is when God commanded the prophet Hosea to buy back his estranged wife, the prostitute Gomer:

“Then the Lord said to me, ‘Go again, love a woman who is loved by a lover and is committing adultery, just like the love of the Lord for the children of Israel, who look to other gods and love the raisin cakes of the pagans.’

“So I bought her for myself for fifteen shekels of silver, and one and one-half homers of barley.”

Hosea 3:1-2 (NKJV)

 

What a picture of God’s love for His wayward people!  The Bible is God’s love letter to us.  Do you read it?  The physical immorality of the wife, Gomer, is a picture of the spiritual idolatry of Israel.  The meaning of the name “Hosea” is “salvation”, the same as that of Joshua and Jesus.  Hosea was a prophet in the time of Israel when kings from both the northern kingdom Israel and the southern kingdom Judah repeatedly sought out alliances with their heathen neighbors rather than seeking the Lord’s help, not too dissimilar to repeatedly turning to food for “help”, even developing a relationship with food, rather than seeking the Lord’s help.

 

While the Husband-wife references in the Bible specifically describe God’s relationship with Israel, Christians are in a New Covenant relationship with God through Jesus Christ.  God is so serious about His Covenant relationship with us that He calls anything that takes us away from our relationship with Him spiritual unfaithfulness, or adultery!

  “Adulterers and adulteresses!  Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God?  Whoever therefore wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.  Or do you think that the Scripture says in vain, ‘The Spirit who dwells in us yearns jealously’?  But He gives more grace. . . Therefore submit to God.  Resist the devil and he will flee from you.  Draw near to God and He will draw near to you.”

James 4:4-6a, 7-8a (NKJV)

 

Importantly, the Greek word for friendship used here describes a strong emotional attachment.  Dear reader, do you have a strong emotional attachment to food?  If so, be encouraged.  God’s “more grace” can rescue us from spiritual adultery.  God’s “more grace” is greater than the power of sin, the flesh, the world, and Satan.  And the Word of God, written for our good:

“Dear children, keep yourselves from idols.”  

1 John 5:21 (NIV)

 

Think about the unprofitableness of idolatry.  People generally yield to sin because they think it will bring some advantage, albeit temporary.  For example, when I was in the throes of my food addiction I felt that bingeing would “satisfy” the cravings and any uncomfortableness that resulted if I didn’t binge.  It seemed like it did satisfy (because I did not have the real satisfaction that comes from God to compare it to) but very soon the cravings would always return—every day for 15 years straight--until I finally yielded myself to God and began the real journey to Healing where the underlying issues and pain were resolved.  The idolatry of food brought me no overall gain whatsoever (except weight gain!).  In fact, it was a huge expenditure.  I wasted an incredible amount of time, energy, emotions, money, food and health bingeing on food which only kept me “stuck” emotionally instead of moving forward.  Furthermore, idols cannot appease cravings.  In fact, they actually do the opposite as they only serve to excite the desire further.

Next week I will write about the believer’s relationship to God as the Bride of Christ, the Church.

For more encouragement you can check out the N.E.W. LIFE e-book which includes further support, the N.E.W. LIFE Eating Plan and additional nutrition information.

Your Christian dietitian and friend in Christ,

Diane