{"id":7698,"date":"2016-06-24T00:05:45","date_gmt":"2016-06-24T07:05:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/?p=7698"},"modified":"2016-06-23T23:59:45","modified_gmt":"2016-06-24T06:59:45","slug":"when-god-got-a-divorce","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/2016\/06\/24\/when-god-got-a-divorce\/","title":{"rendered":"When God Got a Divorce"},"content":{"rendered":"

The LORD said also to me in the days of Josiah the king: \u201cHave you seen what backsliding Israel has done? She has gone up on every high mountain and under every green tree, and there played the harlot. And I said, after she had done all these things, \u2018Return to Me.\u2019 But she did not return. And her treacherous sister Judah saw it. Then I saw that for all the causes for which backsliding Israel had committed adultery, I had put her away and given her a certificate of divorce; yet her treacherous sister Judah did not fear, but went and played the harlot also. So it came to pass, through her casual harlotry, that she defiled the land and committed adultery with stones and trees. And yet for all this her treacherous sister Judah has not turned to Me with her whole heart, but in pretense,\u201d says the LORD. <\/p>\n

Then the LORD said to me, \u201cBacksliding Israel has shown herself more righteous than treacherous Judah. Go and proclaim these words toward the north, and say: <\/p>\n

\u2018Return, backsliding Israel,\u2019 says the LORD;
\n \u2018I will not cause My anger to fall on you.
\n For I am merciful,\u2019 says the LORD;
\n \u2018I will not remain angry forever. (Jeremiah 3:6-12)<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

God sometimes gives people exactly what they want. Of course, it usually doesn\u2019t take them long to realize that they didn\u2019t really know what they wanted after all. Eve desperately wanted a certain fruit that for some inexplicable reason God was cruelly withholding from her. Only after she got it, were her eyes opened to just how big a mistake she had made.<\/p>\n

God\u2019s words to Jeremiah arrived during the reign of Josiah, one of the most righteous kings Judah ever had. He restored the temple. He got rid of the idols and high places. He worshipped Yahweh exclusively. But, quite obviously, nothing much had really changed. Josiah\u2019s reforms were barely skin deep. With his death, his son Jehoiakim reverted to idols, idols everywhere.<\/p>\n

Israel and Judah wanted to worship other gods. They didn\u2019t care about Yahweh any more. So God gave them up, sent them away, left them to their own devices. But unlike human beings, who are willing to write off those who betray them, God was always willing to take her back. In fact, the \u201cdivorce\u201d was really part of his plan, the final discipline that he knew she needed in order for true repentance to take place. God knows exactly what his people need, even if they don\u2019t see it themselves. His discipline is always perfect, and always achieves his goal: the restoration of the relationship.<\/p>\n

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The LORD said also to me in the days of Josiah the king: \u201cHave you seen what backsliding Israel has done? She has gone up on every high mountain and under every green tree, and there played the harlot. And … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_s2mail":"yes"},"categories":[18,17,16],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7698"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7698"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7698\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7700,"href":"https:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7698\/revisions\/7700"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7698"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7698"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7698"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}