This article is designed to address
the love story that is a reoccurring undertone throughout the Bible. From what
I can gather about the theme throughout both Old and New Testaments, that
requires both sections of the Book to be understood is basically the same as
what everyone seems to believe, God loved the world so much He sent His son to
die with the intention to save them from their sin. However, I think there is
much more to this story. It is much deeper than this very generic statement.
This is the love story of how YHWH
feels for His people. He entered in to a covenant with them, the people (His
bride) chose to break the covenant in order to chase (lust) after other gods.
He still loved her, but had to divorce her due to adultery and lack of reciprocated
love. Once divorced, He allowed her to
be captured in order for her to understand how much she really needed Him. She
was stubborn and refused to return to Him. He then allowed her to have
everything she asked for and she was scattered across the whole world. She
continued to chase after the other gods and began assimilating into the pagan
cultures. He saw just how evil she was becoming and how badly she needed Him
back, even if she did not see it. He could not stand the thought of her being
separated from Him for all eternity. However, by His own law He was unable to
take her as a wife again due to the fact she was defiled by her actions. There
was a loophole, only one possible way to release her from marriage covenant
they entered into. He would have to die. Until death do you part must have been
ringing in His ears. He chose to put Himself into a human bodily form in order
to be killed. This action was twofold. First by dying, it would release Israel
from the original covenant. Second, being the unblemished, sin free man, He
would be able to use His blood as the sacrifice that could save all mankind,
just so long as they accepted Him as their savior and carried out His commands.
The commands He gave us were to love the Father and our neighbor. Loving the
Father means to keep and follow the commands that He gave us from the beginning
(1 John 5:3). Loving our neighbor falls back to the “golden rule”, treat others
as you wish they treat you. If you really think about this idea, you will
really love that other person.
1 John 5:3
In fact, this is love
for God: to keep his commands. And his commands are not burdensome,
Now to
get into the story described using biblical verses. I plan to show every step
of the way why I believe the Bible is a love story between YHWH and His people.
Who makes up Israel?
In the beginning, YHWH told Jacob
that his name will now be called Israel, and He makes a promise to him. It is
not long after this that the original covenant will be established between YHWH
and His chosen people, Israel.
Genesis 35:10-12
And God said to him,
“Your name is Jacob; your name shall not be called Jacob anymore, but Israel shall be your name.” So He
called his name Israel. Also God said to him: “I am God Almighty. Be fruitful
and multiply; a nation and a company of
nations shall proceed from you, and kings shall come from your body. The
land which I gave Abraham and Isaac I give to you; and to your descendants
after you I give this land.”
So from here we need to find out
who the nations that come from Israel are. This is extremely important because
it plays out through the rest of the story. Knowing these groups, tribes, and
nations means we can follow those groups throughout the Bible and ultimately it
will help us to understand how much YHWH loves his people.
Genesis 35:22-26
Now the sons of Jacob were twelve: the sons
of Leah were Reuben, Jacob’s
firstborn, and Simeon, Levi, Judah,
Issachar, and Zebulun; the sons of Rachel were Joseph and Benjamin; the sons of Bilhah, Rachel’s maidservant, were
Dan and Naphtali; and the sons of
Zilpah, Leah’s maidservant, were Gad and
Asher.
These twelve tribes made up all of
Israel. These tribes and only these tribes were known as YHWHs people. That
being the case we first need to recognize that the group we know as the Jews,
come from the tribe Judah, and also some of from Benjamin. This becomes
apparent in the next few verses. Israel was split into two kingdoms. The
northern portion kept the name Israel and was made up of all the tribes besides
Benjamin and Judah. The southern portion was called Judah, and was made up of
those two tribes. This is the kingdom that Yeshua descends from. The reason for
the split was because of a difference of opinion between those that followed
Rehoboam and those that chose to follow Jeroboam.
Split
1 Kings 12: 20-21
Now it came to pass
when all Israel heard that Jeroboam had
come back, they sent for him and called him to the congregation, and made him king over all Israel. There was none who followed the house of David,
but the tribe of Judah only. And when Rehoboam came to Jerusalem, he assembled all the house of Judah with
the tribe of Benjamin, one hundred and eighty thousand chosen men who were
warriors, to fight against the house of
Israel, that he might restore the kingdom to Rehoboam the son of Solomon.
YHWH told Rehoboam not to attack
the northern house of Israel and thus we ended up with two kingdoms. The
northern tribes began to sin against YHWH and caused Him to divorce her. They
brought the curses mentioned in Deuteronomy upon themselves due to their lack
of faith in the words given to them from Moses. Moses was given the words
directly from YHWH, and therefore, they should always be obeyed. Not long after
the Northern Israel was divorced, Southern Judan began doing the very same
things.
Divorce
Jeremiah 3: 8
And I saw, when for
all the causes whereby backsliding
Israel committed adultery I had put her away, and given her a bill of divorce; yet her treacherous sister Judah feared not, but went and played the
harlot also.
These continuous adultery forced
YHWH to lift His hand of protection and allow both kingdoms to be taken into
captivity.
Captivity
2 Kings 17:6
In the ninth year of
Hoshea, the king of Assyria captured
Samaria and carried Israel away into exile to Assyria, and settled them in
Halah and Habor, on the river of Gozan, and in the cities of the Medes.
1 Chronicles 9:1
So all Israel was
enrolled by genealogies; and behold, they are written in the Book of the Kings
of Israel. And Judah was carried away
into exile to Babylon for their unfaithfulness.
After both were captured, we only
ever see that the Southern tribes return. There is no mention of Northing
Israel ever returning to their land. They end up being scattered across all
nations while Judah comes home.
Return from captivity
Ezra 2: 1
Now these are the people of the province who
came back from the captivity, of those who had been carried away, whom
Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon had carried
away to Babylon, and who returned to
Jerusalem and Judah, everyone to his own city.
This is where the story gets very
interesting. It seems that most people consider all of the previous as history
and no longer important to the story told in the Bible. However, I believe this
is just the beginning of the story, and that this particular story continues
throughout the rest of the Bible. I believe that the death of Christ is a
direct result of this story. I am not, in any way, saying that Christ’s death
was not planned from the beginning, but rather that simply stating that it is
the rebellion of Israel, a people that YHWH dearly loves, that caused Christ to
have to be sacrificed. His dying for our sin is only a small part of the bigger
picture. The mystery that Paul discovers, I believe is directly related to this
bigger picture. This mystery is that YHWH divorced Israel, but says that He
will remarry her at the last day. The problem falls with the fact that once a
woman has been divorced, she cannot be reunited with her first husband.
The Mystery of the
Gospel
Deuteronomy 24:4
then her first husband, who divorced her, is not allowed to marry her again after she has been
defiled. That would be detestable in the eyes of the LORD. Do not bring sin
upon the land the LORD your God is giving you as an inheritance.
Romans 7:2
For example, by law a married woman is bound to her
husband as long as he is alive, but if her husband dies, she is released from the law that binds her
to him.
When Christ died, he opened the
door way for her to be remarried to her first husband. See, the marriage
covenant is ended when one of the two participants dies. With there no longer
being a legal bond between the two. YHWH cannot go back on His own command.
That would make Him a liar and we all know that He is not a liar. Israel has
been scattered among all the nations of the earth so much so that she has
assimilated into these nations and are no longer recognizable as Israelites.
Something
that I always found interesting is what Yeshua says in the book of Matthew.
Jesus words
Matthew 10:6
But go rather to the lost sheep of the house of
Israel.
Matthew 15:24
But He answered and
said, “I was not sent except to the lost
sheep of the house of Israel.”
I
always thought this was strange before reading and understanding what was meant
behind this statement. Israel were the lost sheep, and they are referred to
that way several times. They had joined the gentiles and become intermixed with
them. This is a big reason why gentiles are now part of the mix. Any one of us
could potentially have descended from one of the tribes of Israel.
Israel referred to as
sheep
1 Kings 22:17
Then he said, “I saw all Israel scattered on the
mountains, as sheep that have no shepherd. And the Lord said, ‘These have
no master. Let each return to his house in peace.’”
Jeremiah 50:17
“Israel is like scattered sheep; The lions have driven him away.
First the king of Assyria devoured him; Now at last this Nebuchadnezzar king of
Babylon has broken his bones.”
Micah 2:12
“I will surely assemble all of you, O Jacob, I will surely gather the remnant of Israel; I will put them together like sheep of the fold,
Like a flock in the midst of their pasture; They shall make a loud noise because
of so many people.
The final thing I would like to
point out is that there is only one way to enter in to the kingdom of heaven.
That way is by going through one of the 12 gates. Those twelve gates are named
after each of the twelve tribes of Israel, symbolically saying that you must
enter the kingdom of heaven through one of the twelve tribes of Israel. There
is no other entrance. There is no gentile gate. This idea also goes hand in
hand with being grafted into the Olive Tree we read about in the book of
Romans.
Entering the Kingdom
Revelation 21:12-13
Also she had a great and high wall with twelve gates,
and twelve angels at the gates, and names written on them, which are the names of the twelve tribes of the
children of Israel: three gates on the east, three gates on the north,
three gates on the south, and three gates on the west.
If the
only way we can enter into the kingdom of heaven is through one of the gates of
the 12 tribes, then it must be understood that we have to become part of one of
those tribes. Why else would they be labeled? Why else is there not a
thirteenth gate issued for “gentiles”? It seems likely that we must be part of
the covenant that God creates. The problem that I see is that too many people
do not understand that the covenant was ONLY made with Israel and Judah. If the
gentiles want to take part, they must join one of these two groups. It just so
happens that these two groups make up each of the 12 names mentioned on the
gates that grant access to the kingdom of heaven.
Personally, this revelation of the
biblical love story carries so much more weight. I used to think that, yes,
Christ died for me and that meant so much. He loved me so much that He lay down
His life for my sin, so that I could become a part of the Kingdom of Heaven. I
always felt like that was enough. But when I look around, I can see others that
would die for people they loved. But let’s look at this from the biblical love
story point of view. YHWH was married to Israel, and He loved her. He provided
for her, and protected her. He also gave her everything He always promised. In
return she went out and committed adultery. She disrespected Him in such a way
that it would have ripped any normal man to shreds. He still loved her, but
could no longer be married to her because she had become defiled based on His
own commands. After divorcing her, His love was still so strong for this woman.
Yes, she cheated on Him, and showed little to no respect for her and even
lusted after others, but He loved her so much. The only way to get her back,
according to His own laws that He set out for all mankind to keep, was to
release her from the bonds of marriage. The only way to do this was to die. So
think about this for a minute. Our God, loved this woman (Israel) so much, that
He would die for her, even after she had committed adultery with multiple
others, possibly innumerable others. He still loved her enough to lay down His
own life. But, not only that, He made himself in the flesh specifically for the
purpose of dying to release her from the marriage covenant. She is now free to
choose to come back to Him or not. If you do not see this as more powerful,
think of it this way, looking at the death of Christ from a He died to save me
point of view, and then from the Biblical love story point of view, which one
would take more love?
He died for me…
I am a sinner, my God loved me so
much that He lay down His life so that I could be with Him in heaven.
Biblical love story…
YHWH loved His bride so much that He
chose to die for her so that she could have the option (according to His own
biblical law) to remarry Him without being considered defiled.
I don’t know of any man that loves
any woman so much that he would die for her even after she had committed
adultery on multiple occasion. Now you might say, well, what if it meant she
would come back to him? That could be the case, but even in this narrative,
that is not necessarily going to happen. His death only releases her from the
original covenant and gives her the option to come back, that doesn’t mean she
will take it.
