Israel and the Church

The Church has not replaced Israel

Israel is represented as the “Wife of Jehovah,”

whereas the Church is represented as the Bride of Christ

A failure to maintain that distinction

will only result in a misinterpretation

of what the Scriptures teach.

Israel: Wife of Jehovah

The relationship of Israel as the Wife of Jehovah

is viewed throughout the Scriptures

The Marriage Contract

The entire format of the Book of Deuteronomy

is that of both an ancient treaty and an ancient marriage contract.

In this book, Moses took the three earlier books

and presented them in the form of an ancient marriage contract.

In this book we find the marriage contract signed between Israel and God

whereby Israel becomes the Wife of Jehovah.

There are key passages

that demonstrate how the Book of Deuteronomy

fits into the scheme of a marriage contract.

The first passage is found in Deuteronomy 5.1-3

which declares that God entered into a covenant

with His people Israel at Mount Sinai.

The Jewish prophets always viewed this covenant-relationship

as a marriage contract.

In Deuteronomy 6.10-15

God announces His jealousy over His Wife, Israel:

...You shall not go after other gods ...

Deuteronomy 6.13-15

In this passage,

Israel is warned against committing adultery

through the worship of other gods

because God’s burning jealousy

will be kindled against her

and will eventually cause her expulsion out of the Land.

Ezekiel is one example of the Jewish prophets

who viewed this covenant-relationship

as a marriage contract:

Ezekiel 16.8

The Great Adultery

Several Old Testament prophets described Israel’s great adultery.

Jeremiah 3.1-5

shows Israel being guilty of playing the harlot

with many lovers and in Jeremiah 3.20

Israel is compared to a wife

who has turned away from her husband.

Israel was a wife guilty of adultery:

According to Jeremiah 31.32

the original marriage contract was broken because of this adultery

A long passage in 'Ezekiel 16

also describes this great adultery Ezekiel 16.15-34

and Hosea 2.1-5 declares the charge God had against Israel:

she was guilty of harlotry.

The Separation

Because of this adultery,

a separation took place between God and Israel

in the days of Isaiah.

In Isaiah 50.1 God spoke to the prophet

stating that God had not yet divorced His Wife.

If God had divorced her,

He would have given her a bill of divorcement;

and since no such bill of divorcement was in hand,

it meant that a divorce had not taken place.

This separation lasted approximately one hundred years.

The Divorce

The one hundred years of separation

failed to produce repentance in Israel

and finally God had no other choice

but to issue the bill of divorcement

on the grounds of adultery.

This bill of divorcement is contained in Jeremiah 3.6-10.

To a great extent,

almost all of Jeremiah can be declared

to be God’s bill of divorcement of Israel,

but especially this passage in chapter three.

The Punishment

Several Old Testament prophecies

speak of the punishment of Israel for her unfaithfulness:

Ezekiel 16.35-43 and

Hosea 2.6-13 are two examples.

The aim of this punishment

is not simply so that God could be vengeful toward Israel,

but rather to cause her to stop sinning

and to stop her adulteries Ezekiel 16.43.

Also, the purpose of the punishment

is to show Israel her need for her true husband

and not for her false lovers Hosea 2.7b

Although God has a long program of punishment for Israel’s sins,

throughout the period of punishment

there is a continual call to repentance.

This call is presented in Jeremiah 3.11-18. Jeremiah 3

The Remarriage

A coming day when Israel will again become the restored Wife of Jehovah.

This will require a brand-new marriage contract,

which is found in Jeremiah 31.31-34.

{What is often known as the new covenant 

is in many respects a new marriage contract

that God will make with both the houses of Israel and Judah.}

This new covenant of marriage will be necessary

because the old marriage covenant was broken.

This remarriage contract is also described in Ezekiel 16.60-63.

According to Ezekiel,

God will enter into an everlasting covenant with Israel in the future.

The restoration of Israel as Jehovah’s Wife is also described in Isaiah 54.1-8,

and the remarriage is further described in Isaiah 62.4-5.

Hosea, who had much to say about the adulteries of Israel,

also spoke of Israel’s reunion with her husband.

Hosea 2.14-23 describes the courtship

and the wooing in the wilderness and shows the four results of this reunion.

The Church- The Bride of Christ

The Church and her relationship as the Bride of Christ

is radically different from regarding Israel as the Wife of Jehovah.

The Bride of the Messiah is true New Testament churches.

They will be a universal body at the rapture.

The “local church” is one of many churches scattered around the earth.

The Church is pictured today as an engaged Bride

who is not yet joined by marriage to her husband.

The Espousal

2 Corinthians 11.2

Speaking to the church found in the city of Corinth,

Paul declares that by means of evangelism,

they were espoused ... to one husband for the purpose

of eventually being presented as a pure virgin to Christ. 

Unlike Israel, who was guilty of adultery,

when the union comes between the Messiah and the Church,

the Church will be presented as a pure virgin.

Ephesians 5-25

Church to be presented as a pure virgin as pictured in 2 Corinthians 11.2

Church Marriage

Revelation 19.6-9

The Jewish wedding system

had four distinct stages,

which are found in the relationship of the Church as the Bride of Christ

In the first stage, the father of the groom

makes the arrangement for the bride and pays the bride price.

In this case, the bride price was the blood of the Messiah.

Described in Ephesians 5.25- 27

While the first stage has already been completed,

the other three stages are still future.

The second stage is the fetching of the Bride.

Just as a long period of time could transpire

between the first and second stages in the Jewish system,

so it has been with the Church.

Two thousand years have passed since the first stage was accomplished.

However, someday the second stage will take place

when the Messiah will come in order to fetch the Bride to His home.

This fetching of the Bride is referred to today as the rapture of the saints,

and is described in 1 Thessalonians 4.13-18

The third stage of the Jewish wedding system is the marriage ceremony

The marriage ceremony will take place in Heaven

just prior to the Second Coming of the Messiah at the end of the Tribulation,

Revelation 19.6-9

Daniel 12.2

John the Baptist

who was the last of the Old Testament prophets

called himself a friend of the bridegroom 

and did not consider himself to be a member of the Bride of Christ, the Church

John 3.27-30

Revelation 21

The bride is now the married wife.

A graphic description of the glorious, eternal wife of the Lamb in her eternal abode.

If one makes the Wife of Jehovah (Israel)

and the Bride of Christ (the Church) one and the same thing,

he is faced with numerous contradictions because of the different descriptions given.

Only when the two separate entities are seen:

Israel as the Wife of Jehovah

and the Church as the Bride of Christ,

do all such contradictions vanish.

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