Good Morning Yamon Ki Yesepar
Isaiah 62:5a “For as a young man marrieth a virgin, so shall they sons marry Thee:
The word for marry here is “baal,” yeah the same word that is used for a false god. What could the sages be thinking when they used the same word for marriage that is used for a pagan god. Meditate on that a little. In it’s primitive form the word baal means “possessor” or “owner.’ Basically marriage is when you own each other. The wife owns her husband and the husband owns his wife. That is an odd arrangement. The thing owned owes the owner. Of course, I know someone who owns an antique car (not a yamon ki yesepar). After listening to him talk all the time about his car, the money he spends on his car, the way he protects his car, the way he works on his car, and the time he spends with his car, I realized the car also owns him.
What is so beautiful about this expression of being married to God is that God not only owns us, but we also own Him. “I am His and He is mine.” That could get a little dangerous as a person can get really hurt, but not when His banner over us is love.” Song of Solomon 2:4. But if our banner over God is not love that get’s a little risky for God. He pours his love out on us and when we are unfaith in this marriage, and God has made us in His image, then God must feel the same hurt and rejection as anyone would feel upon learning their mate has been unfaithful.
Here is a thought my study partner helped to bring out. Note the picture here is not man as the bride and God as the husband but God as the bride (virgin) and man as the husband. Is not this a little backward, should it not be that we are the bride and God is the husband? Why is it that we are the one who marry a “virgin” God.
Note the word virgin is “bethulah” is not a young woman (almah) as some versions translate this, but it is a real virgin, one who has not known a man. Think about it. We are married to a God as if he were a virgin, as if he were not intimate with anyone else but us. One of the hardest things to face if you ever had a mate that was unfaithful to you is that you are haunted by the thought: “I was not good enough.” Get this? When we marry ourselves to God we are marrying a virgin God, as if he has not be intimate with anyone else. We never have to worry about God saying: “Well, you’re certainly not like my lover the Apostle Paul” or “Why can’t you be more like my lover David.”
But soft, how many times have you said: “So, Lord, you prefer maybe Billy Graham?” What devastation it is if you love your mate dearly and then you mate accuses you of preferring someone else. We look around at other Christians and say to ourselves: “Wow, I wish I could be as dedicated as that Christian, or study the Word as that Christian, God surely will honor that person more than me.”
Not only does Isaiah 62:5 throw a wrench in that thinking by reminding us that when He is with us it is as if no one else exist, we are His and only His, He is a virgin God, but it also deeply hurts God when we think He would prefer someone else over us, that we are not good enough for him. He died on a cross to make us good enough for Him.
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