Isaiah 62:4 You shall no more be termed Forsaken; neither shall your land any more be termed Desolate: but you shall be called Hephzibah… I invite your attention to some reflections on the Scriptural use of marriage, as a type of the mystical union betwixt Christ and His Church. This tender, beautiful image implies — I. CHOICE. In all nations there has been the instinctive rule that the initiative choice is not with the bride, but with the bridegroom. Its spiritual parallel is in the declaration of Jesus to His disciples, "Ye has not chosen Me, but I have chosen you." "I am jealous over you," said Paul, "with godly jealousy, for I have espoused you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ." At the same time all are bound, because all are invited, to "seek the Lord while He may be found," to "choose this day whom ye serve;" then the farther element in the marriage symbol will be verified. II. DEVOTION. You will love Him because He first loved you. It is often observed in ordinary married life, how the mutual love of husband and wife enables them to bear, not only without bitterness or mutual recriminations, but with a greater clinging to, and confidence in each other, the trials, sorrows, and burdens of life. Love lightens the load, when each one, for the other's sake, cheerfully takes his or her share. The love of Christ endears Him to the believer, and the believer to Him. III. INSEPARABLE UNION. Earthly ties of man and wife are liable to many incidents of severance. Necessities of particular callings in life sometimes separate them, lands and seas asunder. Guilt, aversion, insanity, disease and death, often dissolve the union, which once bid fair to be firmly riveted "till death them should part." The believer's union with Christ is liable to no such disastrous issues. Not that this consolatory doctrine dispenses with the necessity of a faithful, obedient, and devout course of effort to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace and in righteousness of life. The Divine idea of marriage is a united family, basing its bond of union on the unity of its parentage. "For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother," etc. True spiritual union with Christ involves an ascendency of affection. "If any man love father or mother more than Me," etc. In a deep sense it may be said of Christ and His disciple, "They twain are one Spirit." (J. B. Owen, M. A.) Parallel Verses KJV: Thou shalt no more be termed Forsaken; neither shall thy land any more be termed Desolate: but thou shalt be called Hephzibah, and thy land Beulah: for the LORD delighteth in thee, and thy land shall be married. |
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