Jump Start # 919

Isaiah 50:1 “Where is the certificate of divorce by which I have sent your mother away?
Or to whom of My creditors did I sell you? Behold, you were sold for your iniquities, and for your transgressions your mother was sent away.”

God divorced? That’s how this passage begins. We would never think of God as divorced. Yet we’d never think of God having a child that left home and became a failure, as the story of the prodigal illustrates. God told the prophet Hosea to marry a harlot to parallel what the nation was doing to Him. God’s wife unfaithful to Him? God’s wife having children by other men? All of this doesn’t set well with us. If anyone had the perfect home, we’d think it would be God. If anyone had the perfect marriage, it ought to be God.

First, remember that these images are pictures of relationships. God doesn’t actually get married, not in the sense that we do.

Second, this shows the betrayal, hurt and shame that God has gone through with indifferent and rebellious people who are supposed to be followers of God. Divorce hurts. Even when one is ending a marriage broken by adultery and lies, divorce hurts. Divorce is the crashing of dreams that never came true. Divorce is the end of a trail of many things that should not have been. Divorce is common, but still very, very sad. No one on their wedding day longs for the day of divorce. God uses this human tragedy in relationships to define what the nation of His people were doing to Him. They had broken trust. They had lied. They had trashed His commandments. They had sought other gods. They had used Him and thought that they could continue on this way.

Third, the declaration of divorce shows that even God will only go so far with rebellious people. God has limits. Some tend to think that God will allow them to do whatever they want, getting deeper and deeper in sin, drifting further and further away from Him, and yet believe, that God will tolerate this and be ok with such rebellion. God will go so far with a heart that doesn’t care. God will not be the fool. There is a difference between someone who is trying and someone who is playing a game. There is a difference between someone who is weak and someone who is rebellious. There is a difference in someone who cares and someone who doesn’t. God sees through all the smoke. God knows. There comes a time, when God is finished with those who are not serious with Him. There comes a time when God says, “Enough.” There comes a time when God divorces Himself from a sinful people.

The mercy and justice of God demands that. There is a responsibility upon us toward God. This is not a one sided relationship, in which we get to what we want and God puts up with us. How shallow we must be to think God is like that.

God divorced. God divorced because the nation didn’t want God. God divorced because the nation was no longer interested in pleasing God.

God divorcing is nothing compared to God’s declaration of judgment and the sentence of Hell. That word doesn’t exist in many people’s concept of God. Far too many churches have given up on Hell. They have outgrown that idea. The ole’ hell, fire and brimstone preaching wouldn’t go well in most places these days. Too many want a smiling God that is so happy that He will let His children do whatever they want just to be happy. This thinking has distorted the true image of God and fed a culture that is stuck on itself.

If God could divorce a nation long ago, don’t you think He could divorce us if we continue to play this game of church and not being serious about His word or His ways? The happiness culture of today, fails to grasp what disobedience does to God. It hurts Him. It shames Him. It is like the husband at home, waiting for His wife who stays out all night. He knows what she is doing. He knows she no longer wants Him. Our sins does that to God.

The opposite of divorce is true for those who love, cherish and honor God by following Him. God enjoys a rich, rewarding and an amazing relationship with those who trust Him, obey Him and hold to Him. God is there. God blesses. God hears. God does things.

Don’t make your relationship with God one-sided. Don’t think that God will allow you to do anything you want, any way you want. Israel found out a long time ago, that God will remove Himself from a crooked, wicked and one sided relationship. Captivity and destruction followed the divorce from God. The nation suffered. Life without God is always ugly.

What an interesting concept this passage puts before us.

Roger