Verse-by-Verse Bible Commentary
Jeremiah 3:14

Clarke's Commentary

Verse Jeremiah 3:14. I will take you one of a city, and two of a family — If there should be but one of a city left, or one willing to return, and two only of a whole tribe, yet will I receive these, and bring them back from captivity into their own land. I have heard these words most sinfully applied to show the nature of a fancied eternal decree of election, that has appointed in several cases one only out of a whole city, and two out of a whole family, to be eternally saved, leaving the rest, according to the decree of reprobation, to perish everlastingly! And yet these persons, who spoke thus of the Fountain of eternal goodness and mercy, professed to believe in Him who by the grace of God tasted death for every man.

Bridgeway Bible Commentary

Need for true repentance (3:6-18)

King Josiah had tried to reform Judah, but because people had not changed inwardly, the reformation affected only the external forms of religion. Looking from God’s viewpoint, Jeremiah calls the people’s so-called repentance a pretence (see v. 10). Judah had seen her sister nation Israel divorced from God and sent into captivity because of her spiritual adultery, but Israel’s experience taught her nothing. She is now doing what Israel did. In accepting Josiah’s reforms she pretends to be returning to God, but she is not sincere (6-10).
Judah’s spiritual adultery is more blameworthy than Israel’s, because she ignored the warning God gave her through the divine judgment poured out on Israel (11). Jeremiah promises the northerners that if they acknowledge their unfaithfulness and turn from it, God will bring them from captivity back to their own land (12-14). He will give them new leaders, who will lead the people in his ways (15). There will be no need for the ark of the covenant as symbol of God’s presence, because God himself will dwell among them. He will rule over a united and obedient people (16-18).

Coffman's Commentaries on the Bible

“Return, O backsliding children, saith Jehovah; for I am a husband unto you: and I will take you one of a city, and two of a family, and I will bring you to Zion. And I will give you shepherds according to my heart, who shall feed you with knowledge and understanding. And it shall come to pass when ye are multiplied and increased in the land, in those days, saith Jehovah, they shall say no more, The ark of the covenant of Jehovah; neither shall it come to mind; neither shall they remember it; neither shall they miss it; neither shall it be made any more. At that time they shall call Jerusalem the throne of Jehovah; and all the nations shall be gathered unto it; to the name of Jehovah, to Jerusalem: neither shall they walk any more after the stubbornness of their evil heart. In those days the house of Judah shall walk with the house of Israel, and they shall come together out of the land of the north to the land that I gave for an inheritance unto your fathers.”

“One of a city, two of a family” Here surfaces again the doctrine of the “righteous remnant” of Israel as stressed throughout both Isaiah and Jeremiah. “Out of God’s purifying judgment upon his apostate people shall come a few refined souls. They will be gathered and shall constitute the New Israel, blessed of God (Romans 11:5).Wycliffe Old Testament Commentary, p. 662.

“They shall say no more, The ark of the covenant” “This shows that the old economy was to be dissolved. The old covenant, of which the ark was a central feature, was to give way to another - a preview of 31:31-35.”Charles Lee Feinberg in Ezekiel (Chicago: Moody Press), p. 402. Concurring in this view are the remarks of Cheyne: “In the Messianic period… the ark would no longer be thought of.”The Pulpit Commentary, p. 51.

“In those days… at that time… in those days” All such expressions, including “in the last day,” “in the latter times,” etc., are indications that the times of the Messiah are intended. These, as Cook stated, “were a regular formula for the time of Christ’s coming when all the nation’s hopes would be fulfilled.”Canon F. C. Cook, Jeremiah, p. 155.

“Jerusalem the throne of Jehovah” “Jehovah’s throne shall not be the ark, but Jerusalem, i.e., the Christian Church (Revelation 21:2; Galatians 4:26).”Ibid. It might be readily admitted that neither Jeremiah nor the people who received his prophecy for the first time fully understood all that was involved in these promises; but even if they should have misunderstood, thinking that there would be some kind of a return to the literal land of Palestine, the message would nevertheless have been a very effective message for them.

“The Messianic reference in this chapter is the ruling one. The fulfillment of these promises is carried on during the lives of the apostles of Christ and is carried on throughout the whole history of the Church, and attains its completion in the final conversion of Israel.”C. F. Keil, Keil-Delitzsch’s Old Testament Commentaries (Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company), p. 91.

Keil’s expectation of the “final conversion of Israel,” projected to take place at the end of the current dispensation, and considered by some to be a salient feature of the so-called Millennium is a view held by many scholars; but it is one which this writer has never accepted. That such a thing indeed may be possible we cannot deny; but we do deny that the Bible declares any such thing as an event that God has promised will occur.

Whether or not any such thing as a wholesale conversion of racial Israel will ever take place is left as an open and undecided question in both the Old Testament and the New Testament. In the Old Testament, it must be remembered that Jonah was not placated by the conversion of Nineveh, but that the sacred narrative rings down the curtain upon him still angry, still pouting, still unwilling to appreciate what God did.

In the New Testament, in the parable of the prodigal, it will be remembered that the narrative closes with the father, still pleading, still waiting, still inviting the elder brother to share in the feast, but with the elder brother still angry, still refusing to come in. Of course, both Jonah and the elder brother constitute divine presentations of the way it is with racial Israel to this very day; and we have observed nothing whatever that adds any more favorable details to the picture.

Some commentators think they find the old land promise to Abraham in this chapter and speak confidently of the time when racial Israel shall again be in Palestine with the Lord reigning on a throne in Jerusalem. We are absolutely certain that nothing of this kind is in the chapter or anywhere else in the Word of God. Yes indeed, Jerusalem is the throne of God, now, in the sense that “The word of the Lord went forth from Jerusalem” on the day of Pentecost. “When Christ came, the kingdom was indeed established in Zion, but not in material terms (John 18:36; Acts 1:6, etc.).”R. K. Harrison, Jeremiah in the Tyndale Old Testament Commentaries, p. 66. “The Jerusalem which is above, which is free, is our mother” (Galatians 4:26). It appears to us that if one searches for a certainty, it would surely appear in the fact that the very city that crucified God’s only begotten Son should be the very last place on earth where God would establish his throne! On the Day of Pentecost, the apostle Peter revealed that the Old Testament promise of a Messianic successor to David’s throne was a promise of the Resurrection of Christ! (Acts 2:31).

“Judah... and Israel... shall come together… to the land that I gave for an inheritance” ( Such an event as the union of the divided kingdom of Israel could never occur until there was a genuine repentance and return to the fold of God by both peoples. There having never been the slightest indication that anything like that ever happened, “The projected union must point to the Messianic age of grace, when Jew and Gentile alike will do honor before the enthroned Lord in Zion.”Ibid., p. 67. That such a remark is indeed sound exegesis is proved by the words of the author of Hebrews regarding “where” Christians worship God:

“Ye are not come unto a mount that might be touched... but ye are come unto mount Zion, and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to innumerable hosts of angels, to the general assembly and church of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, and to God the Judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect, and to Jesus the mediator of the New Covenant” (Hebrews 12:18-24).

In passages like this, it is clear enough that words like mount Zion and Jerusalem, in the days of the New Covenant, are to be understood spiritually. “Mount Zion, the heavenly Jerusalem, is that holy hill upon which Christ reigns.”Matthew Henry’s Commentary, p. 421.

“Out of the land of the north” “This refers to the glorious days of Christianity and the ingathering of Jews from all the lands of their dispersion and the uniting of them with the Christian church.”Adam Clarke’s Commentary on the Bible (London: T. Mason and G. Lane, 1837), p. 254.

Robert Jamieson understood these verses to mean that, “The good land covenanted to Abraham is to be restored to his seed; but the question arises, How shall this be done?Jamieson, Fausset, and Brown’s Commentary, p. 510. Many sincere people ask this same question; but the answer is simple enough. God has already fulfilled his holy promise to deliver Palestine to the posterity of Abraham; but when they became more evil than the pagan Canaanites they had replaced, God threw them out of Palestine for just reasons; and there is no record anywhere that God ever promised to establish an apostate and rebellious nation forever in Palestine, merely upon the basis that they had indeed once inherited it.

Subsequently to their loss of Palestine through their gross sins, there are many promises like the one in this chapter, in which God speaks of the “return” of his people and of his restoring them to “their land”; but all such promises have their fulfillment, not in the old racial Israel at all, which has never repented and is still God’s enemy; but in the “righteous remnant” along with the Gentiles who constitute the New Israel of God, and who are “spiritually returned” to Jerusalem, not the old one, but “the heavenly Jerusalem.”

Barnes' Notes on the Whole Bible

Children ... married - The twofold relationship gives a double certainty of acceptance. As children, they were sure of a father’s love, as a wife they might hope for a revival of past affection from the husband of their youth.

One of a city, and two of a family - The family (in Hebrew) is far larger than a city, as it embraces all the descendants of a common ancestor. Thus, the tribe of Judah was divided into only four or five families. However national the apostasy, it does not involve in its guilt the few who are faithful, and the promises are still their rightful possession.

To Zion - To the true Church. The fulfillment of the promise began with the return to Palestine after the Babylonian exile, but is complete only in Christianity.

Calvin's Commentary on the Bible

Jeremiah repeats the same thing in other words; but God by so many words shews clearer how ready he would be to grant pardon, provided the Israelites really repented. It would have been enough for God to testify once, that he would be reconcilable, but seeing that they were slow and hard to believe, he proceeds in the same strain. It is a wonderful forbearance and kindness that God, finding his favor neglected, and as it were rejected through the sloth of men, should yet persevere, and invite them again and again. What man would thus patiently bear the loathing of his favor and kindness? But we see that God does not immediately reject the tardy and the slothful, but adds new stimulants that he might at length move them, though this may seem more than necessary. How great is our torpidity? Were not God daily to urge us, how little attention would any of us give to his admonitions? It is, therefore, no wonder that he, pardoning our tardiness, should again and again invite us to repentance; which we find is done continually in the Church.

This, then, is the reason why the Prophet now repeats the same thing, Return, now, ye rebellious children; for he had said before, “Return, thou rebellious Israel.” He then adds, For I am a husband to you Some regard בעל bol, in the sense of being wearied, when found as here, בעלתי בכם bolti b ek em, “ I have been wearied by you:” but this meaning does not comport with this passage. ⁽⁸⁴⁾ More correctly, then, have others rendered the words, “I am lord to you: “but this lord is not to be taken indefinitely as in Latin, for it properly means a husband, who is a lord to his wife. God, then, no doubt, continues the same comparison, that of a marriage, which has already been often mentioned; for he charges the Israelites with adultery, because they had departed from him. Hence it is that he says, I am your husband He had previously said, “Though a person, when he repudiates his wife, and she be married to another, will never again be reconciled to her; yet I am ready to forgive your perfidy and wantonness: only observe chastity hereafter, and I will deal kindly with you.” Similar is this passage, “I am your husband,” though I have repudiated you. He had, indeed, said, that he had given them a bill of divorce, and thus testified, as by a public document, that there was no longer any connection between him and that people, for exile was a kind of divorce; but he says now, “I am your husband; for though I have been grievously offended with you, because you have broken your pledged faith, I yet remain in the same mind, so as to be ready to be your husband.”

We now, then, perceive the real meaning of the Prophet: despair might have laid hold on the Israelites so as to dread that access to which the Prophet had invited them; but that no terror might hinder them to repent, God here declares that he would become their husband, and that he had not forgotten that relationship with which he had once favored them. The sum of what he says is, “I have once embraced you with the love of a husband; ye have, indeed, become alienated from me, but return, and I am ready to forgive and to receive you, as though ye had always been faithful to me.”

Again will I take you, he says; and then he adds, one from a city, two from a family Deserving of especial notice is this passage; for God shews that they were not to wait for one another, and also, that though the whole body of the people rotted in their sins, yet a few would return to him, and that he would be reconciled to them. This was a point most necessary to be taught; for God’s covenant was in common with the whole seed of Abraham; they might then have concluded that the covenant was extinct, except he gathered together the whole people; for he had not chosen one or two or a hundred or a thousand, but all the seed of Abraham. Since then the promise, without exception, was common, to all, any one might thus reason, “What connection have I with God, except as one born of the race of Abraham? but I am not alone, for we are all the children of Abraham: yet I see that none turn to God, so I must perish with the rest of the people.” Now, that this thought should not hinder the godly, he says, “I will take one from a city, two from a family;” ⁽⁸⁵⁾ that is, “If one only come to me from a city he shall find an open door; if two only from a tribe come to me, I shall receive them.” We now apprehend the design of the Prophet.

Interpreters, indeed, explain one from a city as meaning, that though the multitude should perish, yet God would not deny forgiveness to three or four; but they teach not what is especially worthy of notice, that two or three are mentioned, because this thought, as it has been said, might have perplexed them, that is, that they had been all in common chosen as a holy people.

What is here taught may be useful to us in the present day. For we see many foolishly excluding themselves from the hope of salvation, and seeking no access to God, because they have a regard to one another, and the great mass hold them entangled. How is it under the Papacy, that so many pertinaciously resist God? even because they think themselves safely hid in the multitude. We also find among us that some are an hindrance to others. Let this truth be ever remembered, that when God stretches forth his arms, he is ready to receive, not only all, were they with one consent to come to him, but also two or three, even from one city, or from a whole people.

He adds, I will cause you to come to Zion. This had been once said before: God intimates that their exile would be temporary, that the Israelites would again be made partakers of his inheritance, if they returned to God in sincerity and truth. It follows —

(84) Nor is there an instance of such a meaning. Literally it is, “For I have been married with (or to) thee.” When this verb is followed by כ, as in Jeremiah 31:32, this is its meaning; but when followed by ל, as in 1 Chronicles 4:22, it means to rule, to exercise dominion. The Vulgate is, “For I am thy husband.” The Targum gives the meaning, “For I have chosen you.” The Septuagint went astray, “For I will rule over you.” — Ed

(85) The word is taken sometimes in a limited sense, and means what we understand by family: but it has here evidently a more extended meaning, and signifies a tribe, a community; for it includes more than a city. Such is its meaning in Jeremiah 8:3; and in Amos 3:1, it comprehends the whole community of Israel. It is rendered “ἐκ πατριᾶς, — from a tribe,” by the Septuagint, but improperly; “kindred,“ by the Vulgate and the Targum It no doubt means sometimes kindred, but not evidently in this place. — Ed

Smith's Bible Commentary

They say ( Jeremiah 3:1 ),

That is, in quoting the law and in speaking of the law, Deuteronomy.

If a man puts away his wife, and she goes from him, and becomes another man's wife, shall he return unto her again? shall not the land be greatly polluted? ( Jeremiah 3:1 )

Under the law if you divorce your wife and she married another man, then you could not marry her again. That was under the law of Deuteronomy, chapter 24, I think it is. Yet God said, even so,

you have played the harlot with many lovers; yet return again unto me, saith the LORD ( Jeremiah 3:1 ).

"I'll take you back." Oh, the patience of God. The love of God. It's just so amazing to me. "Though you've become a harlot and you've had many lovers, yet turn back to Me," saith the Lord. "Come on back."

Lift up your eyes unto the high places ( Jeremiah 3:2 ),

Just find a place that you haven't committed spiritual adultery.

In the ways hast thou sat for them, as the Arabian in the wilderness ( Jeremiah 3:2 );

That is, the robbers in the wilderness. You've just lurked and waited.

and thou hast polluted the land with your whoredoms and with your wickedness. Therefore [because of this] the showers [the rain] has been withheld, and there hath been no latter rain; and you had a whore's forehead, and you refused to be ashamed. Wilt thou not from this time cry unto me, My father, thou art the guide of my youth? Will he reserve his anger for ever? will he keep it to the end? Behold, thou hast spoken and done evil things as evil as you could ( Jeremiah 3:2-5 ).

Now, that is the end of the first message that the Lord gave to Jeremiah. Verse Jeremiah 3:6 starts the second message that the Lord gave to Jeremiah concerning the backsliding of Judah.

The LORD said also unto me in the days of Josiah the king ( Jeremiah 3:6 ),

He introduces his second message with that phrase.

Hast thou seen that which backsliding Israel hath done? she is gone up upon every high mountain and under every green tree, and there hath played the harlot ( Jeremiah 3:6 ).

As I said, the places of worship were established on the high mountains and then in these groves. And the worship, of course, God speaks of it as playing the harlot. And most of the worship was involved with the goddess of fertility, and thus, they were fertility rites, and the worship of the gods involved sexual intercourse in various fertility rites and all.

And I said after she has done all these things, Turn unto me. But she returned not. And her treacherous sister Judah saw it ( Jeremiah 3:7 ).

Now you've seen what happened to Israel. You saw how that they went into idolatry, how that they worshipped all of these gods. And I called them to return to me but they didn't. And you saw them, treacherous sister Judah, down here. She saw what happened to Israel, her sister Israel.

And I saw, when for all of the causes whereby backsliding Israel committed adultery, I had put her away, and given her a bill of divorce; yet her treacherous sister Judah did not fear, but went out and played the harlot also ( Jeremiah 3:8 ).

In other words, they should have learned from what happened to the Northern Kingdom. They should have learned the lesson when the Northern Kingdom was carried away captive by Assyria. And they should have returned to God with a whole heart and completely, but they didn't learn from it. But they themselves persisted in the same kind of actions that brought the judgment of God upon the Northern Kingdom.

And it came to pass through the lightness of her whoredom, that she defiled the land, and committed adultery with stones and with stocks ( Jeremiah 3:9 ).

That is, with the little idols made of stone and of wood.

And yet for all this her treacherous sister Judah hath not turned unto me with her whole heart, but only feignedly, saith the LORD ( Jeremiah 3:10 ).

It was only a surface revival that was going on. It wasn't really down deep affecting the heart of the nation. It was just something that was taking place on the surface. Somewhat like what is happening in the United States as churches are reporting increased attendance and Gallup poll is reporting fifty percent Christians, sixty percent born again in the United States. That's just a surface thing. It hasn't really affected the real life of the individual. There is a lack of real commitment to God and to Jesus Christ. People mouth the words. It's a popular movement. They're using born again for everything now. Shampoos or anything else, you know. It's a term that has been picked up and become popularized in the worldly jargon. But it is without meaning or significance in so many cases.

Let us examine ourselves. Is it meaningful with me? Have I really made a true commitment to God? Is my love divided? Do I love God partially? Am I committed partly? Or is there a total, full commitment of myself unto God and to Jesus Christ and the things of the Spirit? Or am I still desiring and lusting after the things of my flesh? And do I have a divided heart? Now God is calling us for a full commitment of ourselves to Him. God is calling us away from the idolatry, the things of the world, the love of the world and the things that are in the world. "Come ye apart from them and be ye separate, saith the Lord. Touch not the unclean thing. And I will be a Father unto you and you shall be my sons and daughters" ( 2 Corinthians 6:17-18 ).

So many are being enticed by the things of the world. They're being drawn and attracted by the excitement of the things of the world. But, "Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. For he that hath the love of the world in his heart hath not the love of the Father" ( 1 John 2:15 ). And many of you are like treacherous Judah. Your love for God is only feigned; it is only a surface thing. It really isn't a full true commitment of your life to Him. You go through the motions. You say the words. But God is looking at your heart and He sees a heart that is divided. He sees a heart that is lusting after the world. And God knows your heart and it is breaking God's heart.

What iniquity, God said, have I done that you should turn from Me? I can remember that day when your commitment was so fervent. When you were singing praises unto Me all day long. When all you could think of was Me and you were in this beautiful harmony and communion with Me. What happened? Why is it that you've turned away and you're drawn after the things of the world? And God said, I'm calling to you. Listen. Wake up. Come back.

And the LORD said unto me, The backsliding Israel has justified herself more than treacherous Judah ( Jeremiah 3:11 ).

Now Judah is more to blame because she saw the example of Israel and what happened. And yet she did not turn.

Go and proclaim these words toward the north, and say, Return, backsliding Israel, saith the LORD; and I will not cause mine anger to fall upon you: for I am merciful, saith the LORD, and I will not keep my anger for ever. Only acknowledge your iniquity ( Jeremiah 3:12-13 ),

That's all God asks you to do. Acknowledge your iniquity. "If we confess our sins, then He is faithful and just" ( 1 John 1:9 ). But if you cover, "Oh, it's all right. I am not too bad. I still love the Lord. I still do this and that." And you're justifying yourself, then God can't do anything with you. Acknowledge your iniquity and your transgressions against the Lord thy God. Acknowledge the things that you've done.

how that you've turned to the strangers under every green tree, and ye have not obeyed my voice, saith the LORD. Turn, O backsliding children, saith the LORD; for I am married to you: and I will take you one of a city, and two of a family, and I will bring you to Zion: And I will give you pastors according to mine heart, which shall feed you with knowledge and understanding ( Jeremiah 3:13-15 ).

God gave me this passage of scripture several years ago, and He said, "This is the kind of a pastor I want you to be. This is a pastor after God's heart. The pastor who will feed the people with knowledge and understanding of God. That's the pastor after God's heart." And I said, "Lord, I want to be a pastor after Your heart. To feed the people with the knowledge and the understanding of God." And God is speaking of this day that is coming when He gives them this kind of pastors.

And it shall come to pass, when you are multiplied and increased in the land, in those days, saith the LORD, they shall say no more, The ark of the covenant of the LORD: neither shall it come to mind: neither shall they remember it; neither shall they visit it; neither shall that be done any more ( Jeremiah 3:16 ).

Talking about the glorious Kingdom Age. You won't be talking about the ark of the covenant because you'll have the new covenant--Jesus Christ dwelling with us. You'll not be thinking about the laws and the tables of stone and all that were in that ark, the covenant that God made with Israel. Whereas if you keep these laws I will be a God unto thee. That will be taken away, for Jesus said, "This blood is a new covenant in my blood which is shed for the remission of sins."

At that time they shall call Jerusalem the throne of the LORD ( Jeremiah 3:17 );

For Jesus is coming and He will reign over the earth from Jerusalem.

and all of the nations shall be gathered unto it, to the name of the LORD, to Jerusalem: neither shall they walk any more after the imaginations of their evil hearts. In those days the house of Judah shall walk with the house of Israel, and they shall come together out of the land of the north to the land that I have given for an inheritance unto your fathers. But I said, How shall I put thee among the children, and give thee a pleasant land, a goodly heritage of the hosts of nations? and I said, Thou shalt call me, My father; and shalt not turn away from me. Surely as a wife treacherously departs from her husband, so have you dealt treacherously with me, O house of Israel, saith the LORD. A voice was heard upon the high places, weeping and supplications of the children of Israel: for they have perverted their way, and they have forgotten the LORD their God. Return, ye backsliding children, and I will heal your backslidings. Behold, we come unto thee; for thou art the LORD our God ( Jeremiah 3:17-22 ).

This is the response of the people in that day.

Truly in vain is salvation hoped for from the hills ( Jeremiah 3:23 ),

That is, those that are worshipping on the tops of the mountains.

and from the multitude of mountains: truly in the LORD our God is the salvation of Israel ( Jeremiah 3:23 ).

You won't find salvation in any of the cisterns that you may have hewed out. Salvation only lies through Jesus Christ.

For shame hath devoured the labor of our fathers from our youth; their flocks and their herds, their sons and their daughters. We lie down in our shame, and in our confusion we are covered: for we have sinned against the LORD our God, we and our fathers, from our youth even unto this day, and have not obeyed the voice of the LORD our God ( Jeremiah 3:24-25 ).

"

Dr. Constable's Expository Notes

The future repentance and return of all Israel 3:11-18

Dr. Constable's Expository Notes

Changing the figure, the Lord invited the prodigal Israelites to return to their Father (Jeremiah 3:4). He would take them back and be their master (Heb. Ba’al) again. [Note: Perhaps this promise is the reason the prodigal son in Jesus’ parable asked to come back home as a servant rather than as a son (cf. Luke 15:11-32).] He, the sovereign Lord of the covenant, was their master, not Baal (lit. "master").

". . . ’I am your ba’al (husband)’ implies that no longer would Judah be bound to the Baals of the fertility faith to which she had so easily fallen away from the true covenant faith." [Note: Craigie, p. 60. Ba’al sometimes has the connotation of "husband."]

The Israelites did not have to come en mass. The Lord would receive any individual Israelites who really repented, even though they were part of a larger group that did not repent. The Lord would even bring them back to Himself in Zion, the place where He had promised to meet with His people. Thus the way was open for a remnant of spiritually sensitive Israelites to respond.

Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible

Turn, O backsliding children, saith the Lord,.... All of them were children by national adoption, and some by special grace, and yet "backsliders", O monstrous ingratitude! "backsliders", and yet "children", still the relation continues, O marvellous grace! God's own children may backslide, and often do; either in heart, when love waxes cold, faith declines, zeal wanting; when they get into a carnal sleepy frame of spirit, and have not that quick sense of sin, and of duty, as heretofore: or in practice, when private prayer is restrained; public worship is neglected; get into bad company, and fall into gross sins; all which is owing to the prevalence of indwelling sin, the force of Satan's temptations, and the enticing snares of the world; but God will not leave them, he calls unto them again and again to turn unto him by repentance, and to doing their first works; which calls, at length, through powerful grace, become effectual; see Jeremiah 3:22 and the arguments used to engage to it follow,

for I am married unto you; in a civil sense as a nation, Jeremiah 31:32, and in a spiritual sense to a remnant of them; Christ is the bridegroom, the church is the bride, which he has secretly betrothed to himself in eternity; openly in time, at the conversion of everyone of them; and will more publicly at the last day, when all are gathered in and prepared for him. This relation, as it is a very near one, so it is very astonishing, considering the disparity between the two parties, and it always continues; love, the bond of it, never alters; the covenant, in which this transaction is carried on, is ever sure; and Christ always behaves agreeably to it; wherefore it is base ingratitude to backslide; and reason there is sufficient why his backsliding spouse should return to him. The Septuagint version is, "because I will rule over you." agreeable to which is Jarchi's note,

"because I am your Lord, and it is not for my glory, (or honour) to leave you in the hand of enemies.''

Kimchi's father interprets the word used by קצתי, "I loath you", or I am weary of you; the reverse of which is the Targum,

"for I am well pleased with you;''

and so the Syriac version, "I delight in you"; which carries in it a much more engaging argument to return, and agrees with what follows:

and I will take you one of a city, and two of a family: or tribe, or country; for sometimes a whole country is called a family, as in Jeremiah 1:15 and here it must design more than a city; for otherwise there are many families in a city; the meaning is, according to Kimchi, that though there may be but one Jew in a city of the Gentiles, or two only in a nation, the Lord would take them from thence; and, according to others, that though one or two, or a few, here and there one of the backsliders, should return to him by true repentance, he would receive them graciously; the smallness of their number would be no objection to him; which is a sense not to be despised: but the phrase seems to denote the distinguishing grace of God to his people; which appears in the choice of them in his Son; the redemption of them by him; and the sanctification of them by his Spirit; and very few are the objects of his grace, as it were one of a city, and two of a tribe; however, they shall none of them be lost, notwithstanding their backslidings, to which they are bent: for it is added,

and I will bring you to Zion; to the church of God here, a Gospel church state, whither to come is the great privilege of the saints,

Hebrews 12:22 and to the Zion above, the heavenly state, where all the chosen and ransomed, and sanctified ones, shall come, with songs, and everlasting joy upon their heads, Isaiah 35:10 and all as the fruit of distinguishing and efficacious grace.

Henry's Complete Commentary on the Bible

      12 Go and proclaim these words toward the north, and say, Return, thou backsliding Israel, saith the LORD; and I will not cause mine anger to fall upon you: for I am merciful, saith the LORD, and I will not keep anger for ever.   13 Only acknowledge thine iniquity, that thou hast transgressed against the LORD thy God, and hast scattered thy ways to the strangers under every green tree, and ye have not obeyed my voice, saith the LORD.   14 Turn, O backsliding children, saith the LORD; for I am married unto you: and I will take you one of a city, and two of a family, and I will bring you to Zion:   15 And I will give you pastors according to mine heart, which shall feed you with knowledge and understanding.   16 And it shall come to pass, when ye be multiplied and increased in the land, in those days, saith the LORD, they shall say no more, The ark of the covenant of the LORD: neither shall it come to mind: neither shall they remember it; neither shall they visit it; neither shall that be done any more.   17 At that time they shall call Jerusalem the throne of the LORD; and all the nations shall be gathered unto it, to the name of the LORD, to Jerusalem: neither shall they walk any more after the imagination of their evil heart.   18 In those days the house of Judah shall walk with the house of Israel, and they shall come together out of the land of the north to the land that I have given for an inheritance unto your fathers.   19 But I said, How shall I put thee among the children, and give thee a pleasant land, a goodly heritage of the hosts of nations? and I said, Thou shalt call me, My father; and shalt not turn away from me.

      Here is a great deal of gospel in these verses, both that which was always gospel, God's readiness to pardon sin and to receive and entertain returning repenting sinners, and those blessings which were in a special manner reserved for gospel times, the forming and founding of the gospel church by bringing into it the children of God that were scattered abroad, the superseding of the ceremonial law, and the uniting of Jews and Gentiles, typified by the uniting of Israel and Judah in their return out of captivity. The prophet is directed to proclaim these words towards the north, for they are a call to backsliding Israel, the ten tribes that were carried captive into Assyria, which lay north from Jerusalem. That way he must look, to show that God had not forgotten them, though their brethren had, and to upbraid the men of Judah with their obstinacy in refusing to answer the calls given them. One might as well call to those who lay many hundred miles off in the land of the north; they would as soon hear as these unbelieving and disobedient people; backsliding Israel will sooner accept of mercy, and have the benefit of it, than treacherous Judah. And perhaps the proclaiming of these words towards the north looks as far forward as the preaching of repentance and remission of sins unto all nations, beginning at Jerusalem,Luke 24:47. A call to Israel in the land of the north is a call to others in that land, even as many as belong to the election of grace. When it was suspected that Christ would go to the dispersed Jews among the Gentiles, it was concluded that he would teach the Gentiles,John 7:35. So here.

      I. Here is an invitation given to backsliding Israel, and in them to the backsliding Gentiles, to return unto God, the God from whom they had revolted (Jeremiah 3:12; Jeremiah 3:12): Return, thou backsliding Israel. And again (Jeremiah 3:14; Jeremiah 3:14): "Turn, O backsliding children! repent of your backslidings, return to your allegiance, come back to that good way which you have missed and out of which you have turned aside." Pursuant to this invitation, 1. They are encouraged to return. "Repent, and be converted, and your sins shall be blotted out,Acts 3:19. You have incurred God's displeasure, but return to me, and I will not cause my anger to fall upon you." God's anger is ready to fall upon sinners, as a lion falls on his prey, and there is none to deliver, as a mountain of lead falling on them, to sink them past recovery into the lowest hell. But if they repent it shall be turned away, Isaiah 12:1. I will not keep my anger for ever, but will be reconciled, for I am merciful. We that are sinful were for ever undone if God were not merciful; but the goodness of his nature encourages us to hope that, if we by repentance undo what we have done against him, he will by a pardon unsay what he has said against us. 2. They are directed how to return (Jeremiah 3:13; Jeremiah 3:13): "Only acknowledge thy iniquity, own thyself in a fault and thereby take shame to thyself and give glory to God." I will not keep my anger for ever (that is a previous promise); you shall be delivered form that anger of God which is everlasting, from the wrath to come; but upon what terms? Very easy and reasonable ones. Only acknowledge thy sins. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive them. This will aggravate the condemnation of sinners, that the terms of pardon and peace were brought so low, and yet they would not come up to them. If the prophet had told thee to do some great thing wouldst thou not have done it? How much more when he says, Only acknowledge thy iniquity?2 Kings 5:13. In confessing sin, (1.) We must own the corruption of our nature: Acknowledge thy iniquity, the perverseness and irregularity of thy nature. (2.) We must own our actual sins: "That thou hast transgressed against the Lord thy God, hast affronted him and offended him." (3.) We must own the multitude of our transgressions: "That thou hast scattered thy ways to the strangers, run hither and thither in pursuit of thy idols, under every green tree. Wherever thou hast rambled thou hast left behind thee the marks of thy folly." (4.) We must aggravate our sin from the disobedience that there is in it to the divine law. The sinfulness of sin is the worst thing in it: "You have not obeyed my voice; acknowledge that, and let that humble you more than any thing else."

      II. Here are precious promises made to these backsliding children, if they do return, which were in part fulfilled in the return of the Jews out of their captivity, many that belonged to the ten tribes having perhaps joined themselves to those of the two tribes, in the prospect of their deliverance, and returning with them; but the prophecy is to have its full accomplishment in the gospel church, and the gathering together of the children of God that were scattered abroad to that: "Return, for, though you are backsliders, yet you are children; nay, though a treacherous wife, yet a wife, for I am married to you (Jeremiah 3:14; Jeremiah 3:14) and will not disown the relation." Thus God remembers his covenant with their fathers, that marriage covenant, and in consideration of that he remembers their land,Leviticus 26:42.

      1. He promises to gather them together from all places whither they are dispersed and scattered abroad, John 11:52, I will take you, one of a city, and two of a family, or clan; and I will bring you to Zion,Jeremiah 3:14; Jeremiah 3:14. All those that by repentance return to their duty shall return to their former comfort. Observe, (1.) God will graciously receive those that return to him, nay, it is he that by his distinguishing grace takes them out from among the rest that persist in their backslidings; if he had left them, they would have been undone. (2.) Of the many that have backslidden from God there are but few, very few in comparison, that return to him, like the gleanings of the vintage--one of a city and two of a country; Christ's flock is a little flock, and few there are that find the strait gate. (3.) Of those few, though dispersed, yet not one shall be lost. Though there be but one in a city, God will find out that one; he shall not be overlooked in a crowd, but shall be brought safely to Zion, safely to heaven. The scattered Jews shall be brought to Jerusalem, and those of the ten tribes shall be as welcome there as those of the two. God's chosen, scattered all the world over, shall be brought to the gospel church, that Mount Zion, the heavenly Jerusalem, that holy hill on which Christ reigns.

      2. He promises to set those over them that shall be every way blessings to them (Jeremiah 3:15; Jeremiah 3:15): I will give you pastors after my heart, alluding to the character given of David when God pitched upon him to be king. 1 Samuel 13:14, The Lord hath sought him a man after his own heart. Observe, (1.) When a church is gathered it must be governed. "I will bring them to Zion, not to live as they list, but to be under discipline, not as wild beasts, that range at pleasure, but as sheep that are under the direction of a shepherd." I will give them pastors, that is, both magistrates and ministers; both are God's ordinance for the support of his kingdom. (2.) It is well with a people when their pastors are after God's own heart, such as they should be, such as we would have them be, who shall make his will their rule in all their administrations, and such as endeavour in some measure to conform to his example, who rule for him, and, as they are capable, rule like him. (3.) Those are pastors after God's own heart who make it their business to feed the flock, not to feed themselves and fleece the flocks, but to do all they can for the good of those that are under their charge, who feed them with wisdom and understanding (that is, wisely and understandingly), as David fed them, in the integrity of his heart and by the skilfulness of his hand,Psalms 78:72. Those who are not only pastors, but teachers, must feed them with the word of God, which is wisdom and understanding, which is able to make us wise to salvation.

      3. He promises that there shall be no more occasion for the ark of the covenant, which had been so much the glory of the tabernacle first and afterwards of the temple, and was the token of God's presence with them; that shall be set aside, and there shall be no more enquiry after, nor enquiring of, it (Jeremiah 3:16; Jeremiah 3:16): When you shall be multiplied and increased in the land, when the kingdom of the Messiah shall be set up, which by the accession of the Gentiles will bring in to the church a vast increase (and the days of the Messiah the Jewish masters themselves acknowledge to be here intended), then they shall say no more, The ark of the covenant of the Lord, they shall have it no more among them to value, or value themselves upon, because they shall have a pure spiritual way of worship set up, in which there shall be no occasion for any of those external ordinances; with the ark of the covenant the whole ceremonial law shall be set aside, and all the institutions of it, for Christ, the truth of all those types, exhibited to us in the word and sacraments of the New Testament, will be to us instead of all. It is very likely (whatever the Jews suggest to the contrary) that the ark of the covenant was in the second temple, being restored by Cyrus with the other vessels of the house of the Lord,Ezra 1:7. But in the gospel temple Christ is the ark; he is the propitiatory, or mercy-seat; and it is the spiritual presence of God in his ordinances that we are now to expect. Many expressions are here used concerning the setting aside of the ark, that it shall not come to mind, that they shall not remember it, that they shall not visit it, that none of these things shall be any more done; for the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth,John 4:24. But this variety of expressions is used to show that the ceremonies of the law of Moses should be totally and finally abolished, never to be used any more, but that it would be with difficulty that those who had been so long wedded to them should be weaned from them; and that they would not quite let them go till their holy city and holy house should both be levelled with the ground.

      4. He promises that the gospel church, here called Jerusalem, shall become eminent and conspicuous, Jeremiah 3:17; Jeremiah 3:17. Two things shall make it famous:-- (1.) God's special residence and dominion in it. It shall be called, The throne of the Lord--the throne of his glory, for that shines forth in the church--the throne of his government, for that also is erected there; there he rules his willing people by his word and Spirit, and brings every thought into obedience to himself. As the gospel got ground this throne of the Lord was set up even where Satan's seat had been. It is especially the throne of his grace; for those that by faith come to this Jerusalem come to God the judge of all, and to Jesus the mediator of the new covenant,Hebrews 12:22-24. (2.) The accession of the Gentiles to it. All the nations shall be discipled, and so gathered to the church, and shall become subjects to that throne of the Lord which is there set up, and devoted to the honour of that name of the Lord which is there both manifested and called upon.

      5. He promises that there shall be a wonderful reformation wrought in those that are gathered to the church: They shall not walk any more after the imagination of their evil hearts. They shall not live as they list, but live by rules, not do according to their own corrupt appetites, but according to the will of God. See what leads in sin--the imagination of our own evil hearts; and what sin is--it is walking after that imagination, being governed by fancy and humour; and what converting grace does--it takes us off from walking after our own inventions and brings us to be governed by religion and right reason.

      6. That Judah and Israel shall be happily united in one body, Jeremiah 3:18; Jeremiah 3:18. They were so in their return out of captivity and their settlement again in Canaan: The house of Judah shall walk with the house of Israel, as being perfectly agreed, and become one stick in the hand of the Lord, as Ezekiel also foretold, Jeremiah 37:16; Jeremiah 37:17. Both Assyria and Chaldea fell into the hands of Cyrus, and his proclamation extended to all the Jews in all his dominions. And therefore we have reason to think that many of the house of Israel came with those of Judah out of the land of the north; though at first there returned but 42,000 (whom we have an account of, Ezra 2:1-70) yet Josephus says (Antiq. 11.68) that some few years after, under Darius, Zerubbabel went and fetched up above 4,000,000 of souls, to the land that was given for an inheritance to their fathers. And we never read of such animosities and enmities between Israel and Judah as had been formerly. This happy coalescence between Israel and Judah in Canaan was a type of the uniting of Jews and Gentiles in the gospel church, when, all enmities being slain, they should become one sheepfold under one shepherd.

      III. Here is some difficulty started, that lies in the way of all this mercy; but an expedient is found to get over it.

      1. God asks, How shall I do this for thee? Not as if God showed favour with reluctancy, as he punishes with a How shall I give thee up?Hosea 11:8; Hosea 11:9. No, though he is slow to anger, he is swift to show mercy. But it intimates that we are utterly unworthy of his favours, that we have no reason to expect them, that there is nothing in us to deserve them, that we can lay no claim to them, and that he contrives how to do it in such a way as may save the honour of his justice and holiness in the government of the world. Means must be devised that his banished be not for ever expelled from him,2 Samuel 14:14. How shall I do it? (1.) Even backsliders, if they return and repent, shall be put among the children; and who could ever have expected that? Behold what manner of love is this!1 John 3:1. How should we who are so mean and weak, so worthless and unworthy, and so provoking, ever be put among the children. (2.) To those whom God puts among the children he will give the pleasant land, the land of Canaan, that glory of all lands, that goodly heritage of the hosts of nations, which nations and their hosts wish for and prefer to their own country, or which the hosts of the nations have now got possession of. It was a type of heaven, where there are pleasures for evermore. Now who could expect a place in that pleasant land that has so often despised it (Psalms 106:24) and is so unworthy of it and unfit for it? Is this the manner of men?

      2. He does himself return answer to this question: But I said, Thou shalt call me, My Father. God does himself answer all the objections that are taken from our unworthiness, or they would never be got over. (1.) That he may put returning penitents among the children, he will give them the Spirit of adoption, teaching them to cry, Abba, Father,Galatians 4:6. "Thou shalt call me, My Father; thou shalt return to me, and resign thyself to me as a father, and that shall recommend thee to my favour," (2.) That he may give them the pleasant land, he will put his fear in their hearts, that they may never turn from him, but may persevere to the end.

Spurgeon's Verse Expositions of the Bible

The Relationship of Marriage

by C. H. SPURGEON (1834-1892)

© Copyright 2003 by Tony Capoccia. This updated file may be freely copied, printed out, and distributed as long as copyright and source statements remain intact, and that it is not sold. All rights reserved. Verses quoted, unless otherwise noted, are taken from the HOLY BIBLE: NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION ©1978 by the New York Bible Society, used by permission of Zondervan Bible Publishers.

“Return, faithless people,” declares the LORD, “for I am your husband.” [Jeremiah 3:14 ]

These are delicate words a good medicine for a troubled conscience. Such remarkable comfort is intended to encourage the soul, and put the brightest hope on all of its prospects. The person to whom it is addressed has an eminently happy position. My dear believer in Christ, tonight Satan will be very busy with you. He will say, “What right do you have to believe that God is married to you?” He will remind you of your imperfections, and of the coldness of your love, and perhaps of the backsliding state of your heart. He will say, “Why, with all this about you, can you be presumptuous enough to claim union with the Son of God? Can you venture to hope that there will be any marriage between you and the holy One?” He will speak to you as though he were an advocate for holiness, that it is not possible that someone like you could really be a partaker of so choice and special a privilege as being married to the Lord Jesus Christ. Let this suffice for an answer to all such suggestions: the text is found addressed, not to Christians in a flourishing state of heart, not to believers on the Mount of Transfiguration with Christ, not to a spouse that is completely pure and lovely, and sitting under the banner of love, feasting with her lord; but it is addressed to those who are called “faithless people.” God speaks to his church in her lowest and most wretched condition, and though he does not fail to rebuke her sin, to express grief over it, and to make her grieve over it too, yet still in such a condition he says to her, “I am your husband.” Oh! it is pure grace that Jesus should be married to any of us, but it is grace at its highest pitch, it is the ocean of grace at its flood-tide, that he should speak in this way of “faithless people.” That he should speak words of love to any of the fallen race of Adam is very strange and wonderful; but that he should select those who have behaved treacherously to him, who have turned their backs to him and not their faces, who have been unfaithful to him, although, nevertheless, his own, and say to them, “I am your husband;” this is loving-kindness beyond anything we could want or imagine. Listen, heaven above, and admire, earth below, let every understanding heart break forth into singing, yes, let every humble mind bless and praise the condescension of the Most High! Cheer up you poor weak hearts. Here is sweet encouragement for some of you who are depressed, discontent, and all alone, to draw living waters out of this well. Don’t let the noise of the enemy keep you back from this refreshing well. Don’t be afraid lest you should be cursed while you are anticipating the blessing. If you trust only in Jesus, if you long for the once humbled, now exalted Lord, come with holy boldness to the text, and whatever comfort there is here, receive it and rejoice in it. To this end let us carefully consider the relationship, which is here spoken of, and diligently question how much we are actually acquainted with it. I. IN CONSIDERING THE RELATIONSHIP WHICH IS HERE SPOKEN OF, you will observe that the relationship of marriage, though very much like family, is not one of birth. 1. Marriage is not a relationship by blood or by a common ancestor. It is contracted between two persons who may, during the early part of their lives, have been entire strangers to one another; they may scarcely have looked at each other in the face, except during the few months that preceded their wedding. The families may have had no previous acquaintance; they may have lived on the opposites sides of the earth. One may have been rich, and in possession of vast domains, and the other may have been poor, barely able to make ends meet. Genealogies don’t regulate it: differences don’t hinder it. The connection is not of natural birth but of voluntary contract or covenant. Such is the relationship, which exists between the believer and his God. Whatever relation there was originally between God and man, it was stamped out and extinguished by the fall. We were aliens, strangers, and foreigners, far off from God because of our wicked works. We therefore had no relation to the Most High; we were banished from his presence as traitors to his throne, as condemned criminals who had revolted against his power. There could be no communion between our souls and God. He is light and we are darkness. He is holiness and we are sin. He is heaven, and we are far more analogous to hell. In him there is consummate greatness, and we are puny insignificance. He fills the entire universe with his strength, and as for us, we are the creatures of a day, who know nothing, and who are easily crushed like the moth. The gulf between God and a sinner is something terrible to contemplate. There is a vast difference between God and the creature even when the creature is pure, but between God and the fallen creature oh! who is he that can measure the infinite distance? There was only one way of ever bridging so terrible a chasm and that only by the person and passion of the Lord Jesus Christ? How could we have ever perceived the infinite design, unless it had been revealed to us as an accomplished fact, by which he has reconciled us and brought us into communion with himself, that we should be married to him? Now, My dear Christian, just contemplate what you were, and the degraded family to which you belonged, that you may magnify the riches of his grace who chose you for his wife even while you were still a wicked sinner, and has so obligated himself with all the pledges of a husband that he said, “I am your husband.” What were you? It is a evil catalog of wicked sinners which the apostle gives in the first epistle to the Corinthians (6:9-11), I refrain from reciting the filthy vices at the end of which he says, “But you were washed, you were sanctified.” In those crimes he enumerates, many of us had a share, no, all of us! What was our father? What was our aim? What was our practice? What were our desires? What were our tendencies? They were earthly, downward, hell-ward. We were at a distance from God, and we loved that distance. But the Lord Jesus took our nature upon himself: upon him God laid the iniquity of all his people. And why did he do this? Not merely to save us from the wrath to come, but that we, being lifted up out of our degradation by virtue of his atonement, and being sanctified and made right by the power of the Spirit, should have a relationship established between us and God which was not formed by nature, but which has been achieved and consummated by astounding grace. Let us give thanks to the Lord this night, as we remember the pit where we were pulled up from, and call to mind the fact that now we are united to him in ties of blood and bonds of love. 2. The union of marriage is the result of choice. Any exceptions to this rule that might be pleaded are invalid, because they arise from folly and transgression: there ought to be no exception. It is scarcely a true marriage at all where there has not been a choice on each side. But certainly if the Lord our God is married to us, and we are married to God, the choice is mutual. The first choice is with God. That choice was made, we believe, before the creation of the universe. God never began to love his people. It was impossible for the spiritual mind to entertain so unworthy a thought. He saw them in the telescope of his decrees; he saw them in the future, with his eye of foresight, in the mass of humanity, completely fallen and doomed; but yet he looked at them, and pitied and loved them, elected them and set them apart. “They will be mine,” said the Lord. At this point we are all in agreement; and we ought to be all in agreement on the second point, namely, that we also have chosen our God. Brothers and sisters, no one is saved against their will. If any one could say that they were saved against their will, it would be proof that they were not saved at all; for reluctance or indifference reveals hostility in their heart. If the will is still set against God, then it is proof that the whole person is still hostile against the Lord. In our natural state we did not choose God: in our natural state we kicked against his law, and turned away from his authority. But is it not written, “My people will be willing in the day of my power”? [Psalms 110:3 , KJV] Don’t you understand how, without any violation of your freewill, God has used divine arguments and motives so as to influence your understanding? Through our understanding our will is convinced, and our souls are suddenly drawn without hesitation. It is then that we throw down the weapons of our rebellion, and humble ourselves at the footstool of the Most High; and we freely choose that which we once wickedly abhorred. Don’t you, Christian, at this very hour, choose Christ with all your heart to be your Lord and Savior? If it could be put to you over again to make a choice whether you would love the world or love Christ, wouldn’t you say, “Oh! my Beloved is better to me than ten thousand worlds! He captures all my love, captivates all my passion: I freely and completely give myself up to him; he bought me with a great price; he won me with his great love; he captivated me with his indescribable charms, so I completely give myself up to him”? This is a mutual choice. Oh, I wish that some of our friends would refrain from making such a strong stand against the doctrine of God choosing us. If they will only read the Scriptures with an unbiased mind, I am quite sure they will find it there. It always seems incomprehensible to me that those who so boldly claim freewill for man, should not also allow some freewill to God. I suppose, no one would not like to be married to someone whom they had not chosen, and why shouldn’t Jesus Christ have the right to choose his own bride? Why shouldn’t he put his love where he wants, and have the right to exercise, according to his own sovereign mind, that bestowment of his heart and hand which no one could by any means deserve? Know this for sure, that Jesus will have his own choice whether we doubt the doctrine or not; for he will have mercy on whom he will have mercy, and he will have compassion on whom he will have compassion. At the same time, I wish that those friends who believe this truth, would receive the other, which is just as much true. We do choose Christ in return, and that without any violation of our freewill. Some people cannot see two truths at the same time; they cannot understand that God has made all truth to be double. Truth is many sided. While divine predestination is true, human responsibility is also true; while it is true that Christ chooses us, it is also true that the unregenerate mind will not choose him: Jesus said, “You refuse to come to me to have life.” [John 5:40 ] This is the sin and the condemnation of man, that “Light has come into the world, but men loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil” [John 3:19 ] Settle it, however, in your minds, that when God says, “I am your husband,” it implies that there is a blessed choice on both sides; and thus it is a true marriage. 3. Our third reflection is, that marriage is cemented by mutual love. Where there is a lack of this mutual affection, it does not deserve the name of marriage. The pain and anguish of such a relationship would be a heavy load for either heart to bear; but where there is true and genuine love; it is the sweetest and happiest mode of living. It is one of the blessings of paradise, which has been preserved for us after the fall. Without love, wedded life must be like experiencing some of the very pains of hell on earth. In the solemn contract, which has brought our souls this night to God, the marriage is sustained, cemented, strengthened, and made enjoyable by mutual love. Need I talk to you of the love of God? It is a theme we are scarcely competent to talk of. You need to sit down and weep about it for the very joy of it, joy which fills the heart, and makes the eyes overflow, but almost chains the tongue, for it is a deep, profound, and inexpressible joy. “He loved me, and gave himself for me.” “How great is the love the Father has lavished on us” [1 John 3:1 ]. “As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you” [John 15:9 ]. Oh, the love of God it would surpass the powers of an angel to declare it. Surely, it will be the blessed employment of eternity's long ages for us to comprehend the love of God; and, perhaps, when billions of years have rolled over our happy souls, we will still be as much struck with wonder with it as we were at first. The marvel does not diminish as we examine it: familiarity cannot make it common. The nearer we approach God’s love, the deeper will be our wonder, amazement, and awe. It will be as great a surprise that God would love such cold, such faithless, such unworthy creatures as ourselves, at the end of ten thousand years as it was at first, perhaps even more so. The more thoroughly we come to know ourselves, the more fully we will understand the goodness and holiness of the Lord; thus will our wonder grow and expand. Even in heaven, we will be lost in surprise and admiration at the love of God to us. The rapture will augment the reverence we feel. But dear brothers and sisters, I trust we will also love him in return! Do you ever feel one soft affection rising after another as you ponder the Christ of God? When you sometimes listen to a sermon in which the Savior's dear love to you is described, don’t you suddenly feel that a tear wets your cheek? Doesn’t your heart swell sometimes, as if it were unable to hold your emotions? Isn’t there “an inexpressible and glorious joy,” that comes over you? Can’t you say

“Jesus, I love your charming name, It is music to my ear; Happily would I sound it out so loud That earth and heaven should hear”?

I hope you don’t need to sing tonight

“It is a point I long to know.”

but, I trust, that in the solemn silence of your souls you can say, “You know that I love you;” be grieved that the question should be asked, but still be ready to answer, with Peter, “Lord, you know all things, you know that I love you.” Now, it is impossible for you to love God without the strong conclusive evidence that God loves you. I once knew a good woman who was the subject of many doubts, and when I got to the bottom of her doubt, it was this: she knew she loved Christ, but she was afraid he did not love her. “Oh!” I said, “that is a doubt that will never trouble me; never, by any possibility, because I am sure of this, that the heart is so naturally corrupt, that love to God could never get there without God first putting it there.” You may rest quite certain, that if you love God, it is a fruit, and not a root. It is the fruit of God's love to you, and did not get there by the force of any goodness in you. You may conclude, with absolute certainty, that God loves you if you love God. There never was any difficulty on his part. It always was on your part, and now that the difficulty is gone from you there is no more difficulty left. O let our hearts rejoice and be filled with great delight, because the Savior has loved us and given himself for us. So let us realize the truth of the text, “I am your husband.” 4. My fourth observation is, that this marriage necessitates certain mutual responsibilities. I cannot say “duties,” for the word seems out of place on either side. How can I speak of the great God making pledges of faithfulness? and yet with reverence, let me say it just that way, for in any vocabulary I can hardly find words to declare it. When God becomes a husband, he undertakes to do a husband's part. When he says, “Your Creator is your husband,” you may rest assured that he does not take up the relationship without assuming (well, I must say it) all the responsibilities which belong to a husband. God’s part is to nourish, to cherish, to shield, to protect, and to bless those with whom he condescends, in infinite mercy, to enter into the union of marriage. When the Lord Jesus Christ became the husband of his church, he felt that he had an obligation and commitment to us, and inasmuch as there were debts incurred, he paid them.

“Yes, said the Son, with her I'll go, Through all the depths of sin and woe; And on the cross will even dare The bitter pains of death to bear.”

He never shrunk back from doing any of those loving works which belong to the husband of his chosen spouse. He exalted the word “husband,” and made it to be more full of meaning than it ever had been before, so that the apostle could see it glittering in a new light, and could say, “Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself for her.” Oh, yes! dear friends, there is a responsibility arising out of this relationship, and Jesus Christ has not turn away from it; you know he hasn’t. And now, what about our side? The wife has to reverence her husband, and to be subject to him in all things. That is precisely our position towards him who has married us. Let his will be our will. Let his wish be our law. Let us never need to be flogged into service, but let us say “It is love that makes our willing feet move in swift obedience.” O Christian, if the Master condescends to say, “I am your husband,” you will never need to ask, “What is my duty?” but you will say, “What can I do for him?” The loving wife does not say, “What is my duty?” and stand coldly questioning how far she should go, and how little she may do, but all that she can do for him who is her husband she will do, and everything that she can think of, every thing she can devote herself to, in striving to please him in all things she will most certainly do and perform. And you and I will do the same if we have realized our union with Christ. O beloved, don’t grow sentimental and waste your energies in foolish dreams as some have done. Consider the wife where the family is large, the work is heavy, and the responsibility great. I must remind you, as time permits, of the words of King Lemuel, and the oracle his mother taught him. Bear with me at least while I caution you listen to a mother’s wisdom to her son, that the heart of your husband may safely trust in you. Be careful to provide food for your family. Grab the spindle with your fingers; don’t stop being diligent; don’t eat the bread of idleness. Open your arms to the poor and extend your hands to the needy. Speak with wisdom, and be sure that faithful instruction is on your tongue.” And also be sure that you yourself, in regard to all the duties of your situation, are fulfilling your obligations to your Lord. Jesus has shown us how much he loved us by His matchless deeds on our behalf, therefore let us impress our song of love to him on the hearts of some tender young child who are committed to our care. O that the life I now live in the flesh, by faith in the Son of God, might become a poem, and a grateful response to him that loved me, and gave himself for me. I hope we now understand that when God says, “I am your husband,” it requires mutual responsibilities. 5. Fifthly, it also involves mutual intimacy. How will we call that a marriage where the husband and wife are still two persons, maintaining individuality as if it were a conscientious condition of the contract? That is utterly foreign to the divine idea of marriage. In a true marriage, the husband and wife become one. Therefore their joys and their cares, their hopes and their labors, their sorrows and their pleasures, rise and blend together in one stream. Brothers and sisters, the Lord our God has said that he, “…confides in those who fear him; he makes his covenant known to them” [Psalms 25:14 ]. “Then Judas (not Judas Iscariot) said, "But, Lord, why do you intend to show yourself to us and not to the world?” [John 14:22 ]. This is an example of the intimate and private relationship, because there is a union between Christ and his people, which there is not between Christ and the world. How joyful do the words sound they have a melodious ring to them “I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master's business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you.” [John 15:15 ]. Christ keeps nothing back from you, his spouse. Remember another word of his: “If it were not so, I would have told you.” Oh, how delightful! He says, “I go to prepare a place for you.” He tells them that he is going to prepare a place for them, and then he says, “If it were not so, I would have told you I keep no secrets back from you; you are close to me, my flesh and my bones. I left my Father's house in glory, that I might become one with you, and show myself to you, and I keep nothing back from you, but reveal my very heart and my very soul to you.” Now, Christian, think of this: your relationship to Christ is that of a spouse, and you must pour out your very heart to Christ. No, don’t go and pour out your heart to your neighbors, nor your friends, for, somehow or other, the most sympathizing heart cannot understand or share all of our heartaches. There are sorrows, which the stranger cannot help us with; but there never was a heartache or pain which Christ could not help us to overcome. Make a confidant of the Lord Jesus tell him everything. You are married to him: play the part of a wife who keeps no secrets back, no trials back, no joys back; tell them all to him. I was in a house yesterday where there was a little child, and it was said to me, “He is such a funny child.” I asked in what way, and the mother said, “Well, if he falls down and hurts himself in the kitchen, he will always go upstairs crying and tell somebody, and then he comes down and says, “I told somebody;” and if he is upstairs he goes downstairs and tells somebody, and when he comes back it is always, “I told somebody,” and he doesn’t cry any more, Ah! well, I thought, we must tell somebody: it is human nature to want to have sympathy, but if we would always go to Jesus, and tell him everything, and leave it there, we would often dismiss the burden, and be refreshed with a grateful song. Let us do so, and go with all our joys and all our troubles to Jesus, who says, “I am your husband.” I know the devil will say, “Why, you must not tell the Lord your present trouble: it is too little, and besides, you know you did wrong, and brought it upon yourself.” Well, I ask you, wouldn’t you tell your husband, wouldn’t you? and will you not tell your Lord? You couldn’t tell a master or a stranger, but you can tell a husband. Oh! Feel free to call Christ, “My man, my husband,” and put that confidence in him which a wife is expected to place in a husband who dearly loves her. 6. We must now go on to a sixth point. This marriage implies fellowship in all its relations. Whatever a husband possesses becomes his wife's. She cannot be poor if he be rich; and what little she has, whatever it may be, belongs to him. If she is in debt, her debts become his. When Jesus Christ called out his people, he gave them all he had. There is nothing which Christ has which he has not given to us. It is noteworthy that he has given his church his own name! “Where?” you say. Well, there are two passages in Jeremiah that most remarkably illustrate this (chap. 23:6, and chap. 33:16). In the one it says, “This is the name by which he will be called,” and in the other, “This is the name by which she will be called” [KJV]. In both, the name is identical. “The Lord our Righteousness.” What “She will be called”? Yes, as though he said, “She will take my name, and with the name, of course, the entire open acknowledgment of his interest in her and her interest in him. As such she is partaker of all his glory: if he is a king, she is a queen; if he is in heaven, then so are we, for “God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms;” [Ephesians 2:6 ] if he is heavenly, she also will bear the image of the heavenly; if he is immortal, so will she be; and if he is at the right hand of the Father, so will she be also highly exalted with him. Now, it is saying but very little when I add, that, therefore, whatever we have, belongs to him oh! it is so little, so very little, and one wishes it were more. I have sometimes thought, “O that Christ were not so glorious as he is.” It was a half-wicked wish, but I meant it in the right way, that I might help to glorify him. O that he were still poor, that one might invite him to a feast! O that he were still in this world, that one could break the alabaster jar of expensive perfume and pour it on his head! But you are so great, most blessed Master, that we can do nothing to increase your greatness! You are so elevated, that we cannot exalt you! You are so happy, that we cannot bless you! Yet, what am I saying? It is all a mistake! He is still here. He calls every one of his people “Members of his body;” and if you wish to enrich him, help the poor; if you want to feed him, feed the hungry. Those that clothe the naked, put clothing on the Lord himself. Jesus said, “Whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me” [Matthew 25:40 ]. 7. A seventh observation, and then I will refrain from dwelling any longer on this point. The very crown of marriage is mutual delight and contentment. The wife of a Persian nobleman, having gone to a feast, which was given by King Darius, was asked by her husband whether she thought that Darius was the finest man in the world. No, she said, she did not think so; she never saw any one in the world who was comparable to her husband. And doubtless that is just the opinion which a husband forms of his wife and a wife of her husband where the marriage is as it should be. Now, certainly Christ has a very high opinion of us. I remember meditating on a passage in the Song of Solomon, looking at it and wondering how it could be true believing it, and yet not being able to comprehend it where Christ says, “All beautiful you are, my darling; there is no flaw in you!” [Song of Song of Solomon 4:7 ] Oh, what eyes he must have! We say that love is blind; but that cannot be true in the case of Christ, for he sees all things. Why, this is how it is: he sees himself in us. He does not see us as we are, but in his infinite grace he sees us as we are to become, as we sing:

“Not as she stood in Adam's fall, When sin and ruin covered all; But as she'll stand another day, Brighter than sun's brightest ray.”

The sculptor says he can see a bust in a block of marble, and that all he has to do is to chip away the extra marble, and let the bust appear. So Christ can see a perfect being in every one of us, if we are his people; and what he does with us each day is to continue to remove our many imperfections, making us to become more like him. He can see us as we will one day be before the throne of God in heaven, without spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing. His delights are with men and women who belong to him. He loves to hear our praise, and to listen to our prayers. The songs of his people are his sweet perfume, and communion with his people is like beds of spices, and beds of lilies. And as for us, who are his people, I am sure we can say that there is no delight, which can equal communion with Christ. We have tried other delights shame on us! we have tried some of them, but after having done so, we find that there is nothing like our Lord, “Meaningless! Meaningless!” says the Teacher. “Utterly meaningless!” [Ecclesiastes 1:2 ]; but when we come to Christ, we find nothing meaningless there, but can say:

“Where can such sweetness be As I have tasted in your love, As I have found in thee?”

The Christian's heart is like Noah's dove: it flies over the wide waste, and cannot rest its foot until it comes back to Christ. He is the true Noah, who puts out his hand and takes in the weary, trembling dove, and gives it rest. There is no peace in the whole world except with Christ.

“There's no such thing as pleasure here, My Jesus is my all; As He shines or disappears, My pleasures rise or fall.”

We have so far only skimmed the surface of this delightful word, “I am your husband,” but we must move on to our next point. II. HOW MUCH DO YOU AND I TRULY UNDERSTAND THIS? I am afraid some of you think that I am half crazy tonight. You are saying, “Well, I don’t comprehend this; what is this man talking about? God married to us! Christ married to us! I don’t understand it!” God have mercy on you, my poor listener, and bring you to know it! But let me tell you, if you could come to understand it, then you would discover a secret here that would make you a thousand times more happy than all the joys of the world can ever make you. You remind me of the chicken in the fable, who found a diamond on the dunghill, and as he turned it over, he said, “I would rather have found a grain of barley.” He acted according to his nature. And so it is with you. This precious pearl of union to God will seem to be nothing to you: a little worldly pleasure will be more to your liking. One could weep to think there should be such ignorance of true joy and true delight! Oh! blind eyes, that cannot see beauty in the Savior! Oh! stone-cold hearts, that can see no loveliness in him! Jesus! they are obsessed, they are insane, who cannot love you! It is a strange foolishness of men and women to think that they can do without you, that they can see any light apart from you, you the bright Sun of Righteousness, or anything like your beauty in all the gardens of the world apart from you, you the Rose of Sharon, you the Lily of the Valley! O that they knew you! Do I address any one here tonight, who, while they pretend to be religious people, have no real allegiance to the Lord? There are many like that, and we occasionally meet with them here. They cannot satisfy their conscience without some show of religion, so they join with us as listeners and spectators in the solemn assembly; but they never unite with the church, because they have not dedicated their hearts to Christ. Ask them the reason, and their answer sounds pure, and yet in truth it is anything but innocent. You tell us that you are afraid to become a true Christian because you would not walk consistently? Wouldn’t it be more truthful to admit that your relationship with the world, your love of money, your ordinary pastimes, and your occasional partying, harmless as you try to persuade yourselves they are now, if viewed in the light of marriage to Christ, would be accounted as very shameful? So far as the principles of Christianity are concerned, you endorse them with your private creed, and you are “Protestant” enough to prefer the most evangelical doctrines; but your reluctance to make a true commitment to Christ is a clear index to a most fatal flaw in your character. You might admit that God is supreme, but not the exclusive Lord of your heart. You would give the Lord's altar more honor than any other altar, but still you would not remove the high places which desecrate the land. Your opinion is that there is no god in all the earth but the God of Israel, yet your practice is to bow down to the god of this world. You wish to have all the promises of God bestowed on you, but you decidedly object to make any vows to him. It is to people like you that these delicate appeals are most distasteful, “Return, faithless people, for I am your husband.” Nothing in your experience responds to this. You stand aloof as if you were offended. I must warn you, therefore, that God can be your God only in these bonds of covenant union. But, Christian, now I speak to you. Surely you know something about this, that God is married to you? If you do, can’t you say with me, “Yes, and he has been a very faithful husband to me”? Now, there are none of you who can object to that! Thus far he has been very faithful to you, and what have you been to him? How kind and tender has he been; how faithful, how generous, how sympathizing! In your every affliction he has been afflicted, and the angel of his presence has saved you. Just when you had reached your limits of endurance he has come to your aid. He has carried you through every difficulty, even until now. Oh! you can speak well of him, can’t you? And as for his love, Christian, as for his love, what do you think of that? Is it not heaven on earth to you? Don’t you think it to be

“Heaven above To see his face, to taste his love”?

Well, then, speak well of him, speak well of him! Make this world hear his praise! Ring that silver bell in the deaf ears of this generation! Make them know that your Beloved is the fairest of the fair and compel them to ask, “How is your beloved better than others, most beautiful of women?” [Song of Song of Solomon 5:9 ] Again, for those of you who do not know him, I would like to ask you this question, and you need to answer it. Do you want to be married to Christ? Do you wish to have him? Oh! then, there will be no difficulties in the way of the match. If your heart goes after Christ, he will have you. If, when you get home tonight and kneel down next to your bed, you say to him, “Dear Savior, here is my heart, take it, wash it, save me,” he will hear you. Whoever you may be, he will not refuse you. Oh he seeks you, he seeks you! And when you seek him, that is a sure sign that he has found you. Though you may not have found him, yet he has already found you. The wedding-ring is ready. Faith is the golden ring, which is the token of the marriage bond. Trust the Savior! Trust him! Give up trusting in your good works. Give up depending on your merits. Take his works, his merits, and rest alone in him, for today he says to you, “I will make you my wife forever; showing you righteousness and justice, love and compassion. I will be faithful to you, and you will acknowledge me as LORD” [Hosea 2:19-20 ] Oh, may the Lord Jesus do that to every one of you, and may Christ's name be glorified forever. Amen.