God divorcing Israel

[ReformedWretch]

I am breaking this off of another topic. In the other topic I posted this..

I had a dispensationalist ask me why I could be so strict in my views on marriage and divorce yet believe God divorced Israel. He said that if I believed God only allowed divorce because of the hardness of mans heart, why would He divorce?

I found it a very good question.

Burt responded with this

One might argue that God divorced Israel for the purpose of bringing about repentance and reconciliation not for chasing after another people. In the same way, the argument could be made that that's how Christians should view divorce, not for chasing after a new spouse but for bringing about repentance and reconciliation.

It's a tough issue for sure.

Any other thoughts?

 

[BobVigneault]

That IS a good question Adam. I'm brainstorming it right now and here is the direction my thinking is going. Let's see if we can hammer this out.

As preterists, if we recognize that the book of Revelation is actually a writ of divorce and that the Babylon of Rev 4 is Jersualem, then perhaps the answer lies in those whom are represented by Jerusalem.

Does God's divorce of Jersusalem mean he is divorcing all of the Jews? Of course not, for God will continue to save Jews but not through the old administration. Remember, not all Israel is Israel. Who were those who were not Israel? Those who failed to see Christ in the signs, symbols and shadows of the old atonement economy. I believe that Jersusalem represents the power seat, the leadership, the priests and pharisees who clung to the rituals and letter of the law but missed the one whom the law pointed to.

So I believe God was not divorcing all Israel as much as he was divorcing those who were responsible to administer the keeping of the covenant. Christ's sacrifice made the old sacrificial system unecessary and God divorced himself from it. It was replaced with the New Covenant or rather the new administration of the eternal covenant. Now Israel and all people enter through the cross of Christ. One people of God, a nation of priests.

What do think?

 

[ReformedWretch]

I think I like it! Very good thoughts here Bob. God divorcing Himself from the sytem and those who clung to it seems like sound logic to me. I am going to explore it further and get back to you with some more of my thoughts.

Thanks! I look forward to more comments as well. Just because Bob's are so good don't shy away from taking a stab at this.

 

[jaybird0827]

Adam,

What is the Scripture, including chapter and verse, that you were referring to in your original post? I'm thinking I read something to that effect in one of the OT prophets.

 

[Swampguy]

What about Israel commiting adultery with other gods?

 

[BobVigneault]

Was it Jer 3:1-8?

3:1 "œIf a man divorces his wife
and she goes from him
and becomes another man's wife,
will he return to her?
Would not that land be greatly polluted?
You have played the whore with many lovers;
and would you return to me?
declares the Lord.
2 Lift up your eyes to the bare heights, and see!
Where have you not been ravished?
By the waysides you have sat awaiting lovers
like an Arab in the wilderness.
You have polluted the land
with your vile whoredom.
3 Therefore the showers have been withheld,
and the spring rain has not come;
yet you have the forehead of a whore;
you refuse to be ashamed.
4 Have you not just now called to me,
"˜My father, you are the friend of my youth"”
5 will he be angry forever,
will he be indignant to the end?´
Behold, you have spoken,
but you have done all the evil that you could."

 

[BobVigneault]

Originally posted by Swampguy
What about Israel commiting adultery with other gods?

Everyone is guilty and culpable for their sin however God deals with the representatives. The priests represent the people to God. Is that what you were asking about?

 

[Swampguy]

Weren't their altars to other gods even in the temple that the Levites worshiped and attended?

 

[BobVigneault]

Gentry has written and lecture profusely on God divorcing Israel but the challenge is finding this information without having to pay an arm and a leg. Has anyone read his book or listened to his tapes on God Divorcing Israel?

 

[BobVigneault]

Originally posted by Swampguy
Weren't their altars to other gods even in the temple that the Levites worshiped and attended?

In the days of Jeroboam II there was an Asherah pole erected right in the temple and 'worshippers' would have sex with the temple protitutes in front of it. What an incredible persversion and misuse and degradation of God's house.

Edit: Actually, I can't find that this happened in the temple though I heard that in a lecture somewhere. I know that there was an Asherah pole at Bethel.

2 Kings 23:15 Moreover, the altar at Bethel, the high place erected by Jeroboam the son of Nebat, who made Israel to sin, that altar with the high place he pulled down and burned, reducing it to dust. He also burned the Asherah.

[Edited on 9-25-2006 by BobVigneault]

 

[jaybird0827]

Originally posted by Swampguy
What about Israel commiting adultery with other gods?

That's where I'm going.

 

[Swampguy]

The verse is 2 Kings 23:4 where they cleanse the temple.

 

[Robin]

I think the subject must be approached from a different direction. Here is an excerpt of Dr. Clark's wonderful essay: "The Israel of God".



.....Israel Astray

Israel was not, however, God's natural Son. That much was evident in the wilderness, in Canaan and finally in the ejection when God changed the name of his "son" Israel to "Lo Ammi, not my people" (Hos 1.9-10)

God disinherited his adopted, temporary, national "son" Israel as a national people precisely because God never intended to have a permanent earthly, national people. After the captivity, they had largely fulfilled their role in the history of salvation. As a sign of this fact, the Glory-Spirit departed from the temple. This is because their chief function was to serve as a type and shadow of God's natural Son, Jesus the Messiah (Heb 10.1-4).

Jesus the Israel of God

It is the argument of this essay that Jesus Christ is the true Israel of God and that everyone who is united to him by grace alone, through faith alone becomes, by virtue of that union, the true Israel of God. This means that it is wrong headed to look for, expect, hope for or desire a reconstitution of national Israel in the future. The New Covenant church is not something which God instituted until he could recreate a national people in Palestine, but rather, God only had a national people temporarily (from Moses to Christ) as a prelude to and foreshadowing of the creation of the New Covenant in which the ethnic distinctions which existed under Moses were fulfilled and abolished (Ephesians 2.11-22; Col 2.8-3.11).

Read the rest, in context: http://www.wscal.edu/clark/israel.php

It is important to use the categories Holy Scripture does. National Israel is not the "bride" of Christ; National Israel is not the "real" son, Jesus is. The idea of "divorce" perhaps truncates the fact of Israel's betrayal of the the covenant (they have been exiled just like Adam & Eve were driven out of the land.) There is more to the idea of divorce; curses for disobeying the covenant are also part of the deal. Everything must be considered in light of the covenantal relationship God imposes on His people.

Just some of my thoughts when I hear dispensational error.



Robin