The Epistles of Paul - Romans Part 8, 05-23-2014: Israel was and is the Bride of Yahweh.

The Epistles of Paul - Romans Part 8, 05-23-2014: Israel as a Nation was and is the Bride of Yahweh

The Bible itself tells us that it is the book of the race of the Adamic man, in Genesis chapter 5. But very little is given of what is, at least by the Septuagint chronology, a 2,200 year history from the Creation of Adam unto the Flood of Noah. Then we have a table of Nations in Genesis chapter 10, and these Adamic descendants of Noah are the White nations of ancient history. They are all identifiable as such in Scripture and in archaeology and classical history, in spite of the fact that the Canaanites who are also listed are set apart as being accursed and as being race-mixers, fornicators and sodomites later in Scripture. With the establishment of these nations there are, by an approximation taken once again from the Septuagint, over 1500 years until the event which is commonly known as the Call of Abraham. None of the history of this 1500 years is recorded in Scripture. While very little of it is known from history or archaeology, from the records found on clay tablets and other inscriptions which have been dug out of the ground in Mesopotamia we can indeed tell the accuracy of what Scripture does provide.

Scripture records that during these first 3,700 years, Yahweh God had made promises to our entire race, such as those which are recorded in Genesis chapters 3 and 9, and those promises have never been revoked. The promises of God are, as Paul says in Galatians, irrevocable. However very little of nearly four thousand years of Adamic history before the birth of Jacob are mentioned at all. From the time of the Call of Abraham, the entire scripture has been focused upon one man's family, and the promises to Abraham which were transmitted to his offspring through Jacob-Israel. From that time, the other White Adamic nations are only mentioned where they come into contact with Israel. Wherever non-Adamic peoples are referenced in Scripture, it is only in relation to something wicked, or to some plague or some curse.

Since the time of the apparent fulfillment of the promises to Abraham, that his seed would become many nations, all of the ancient Adamic Genesis 10 nations have been eclipsed. Yahweh either gave them up to His enemies as He had stated of Egypt, Ethiopia, and Sheba, or He has destroyed them for their own transgressions, as He had stated of the Philistines, Assyria and Babylon, or they were apparently absorbed into the body of the children of Israel in Europe in fulfillment of other prophecies, such as those concerning Japheth in Genesis chapter 9. For this reason, that all of the other Adamic nations were given up by God, was Abraham promised that his seed would inherit the earth. By this had Yahweh demonstrated His sovereignty to our race in antiquity. But we can only see that if we first recognize the facts of history.

Out of all of the ancient Adamic nations, Yahweh purposely chose a man from a nation which was not at all powerful in antiquity. For while the names of many of the other nations of the Genesis 10 patriarchs are well known from history and archaeology, having become notable nations, the names of Arphaxad and Eber are known to us only because of the Biblical accounts and the impression that the Hebrews left on history after the Call of Abraham. Great nations fell by the way for the sake of Abraham's seed. Paul of Tarsus understood ancient history, and therefore Paul explained in 1 Corinthians chapter 1 “27 But Yahweh has chosen the foolish of the Society, in order that He disgrace the cunning; and Yahweh has chosen the feeble of the Society, that He disgrace the strong; 28 and the low born of the Society, and the despised, Yahweh has chosen: those that are not in order that He may annul those that are; 29 so that not any flesh shall boast in the presence of Yahweh.” This accords with the words of Yahweh to Israel in Deuteronomy chapter 7: “7 The LORD did not set his love upon you, nor choose you, because ye were more in number than any people; for ye were the fewest of all people: 8 But because the LORD loved you, and because he would keep the oath which he had sworn unto your fathers....” This is basically the same message to the same people. The reference to “those that are not” in 2 Corinthians is a reference to the nations of Abraham's seed which did not yet exist, as Paul also described in Romans chapter 4 where he said that Yahweh “calls things not existing as existing”. The reference to “those that are” describes all those ancient Adamic Genesis 10 nations which today no longer exist.

Therefore it can be established that salvation is a multidimensional concept. As Paul explains in Romans chapter 4, the promises of Christ certainly did come to those nations which descended from Abraham's seed. The promises that Israel would be saved, or preserved out of Yahweh's judgment of the old Adamic world are kept in the White Christian nations of today. However the eternal Adamic soul and the promises that the Adamic man would have eternal life so long as he grasped onto the Tree of Life are distinct from the promises of earthly preservation to Israel. This we have already presented here where Paul himself had explained it in Romans chapter 5. The Adamic man was created by God to be eternal, and he is.

With the advent of modern history and the dawn of the White world which is now extant, the old Adamic world was consumed. That consumption is evident in the words of the prophets, where it was also said many times that Israel would be preserved. No other White nation had that promise, and today none of them recognizably exist. The White nations which are left today are indeed descended from Abraham's seed through Jacob. The children of Jacob are characterized collectively in scripture as the bride of Yahweh. The nations of Israel, and therefore of true Christendom, are collectively the Wife of Yahweh our God.

The mainstream denominations, following the Roman Catholics, want to replace Israel the Bride with some multicultural non-national church organization. Of course, now there are many such churches so they must compete with one another. However the Israel of God in the New Testament is still recognized as twelve tribes by Christ (Matthew 19, Luke 22, Revelation chapters 7 and 21), by Paul of Tarsus (Acts chapter 26) and by the apostle James (James 1:1). So the denominational churches are clearly fraudulent. However, what is worse yet is that there are so-called Christian Identity Pastors who now completely deny the literal concept of Israel as the bride of Yahweh. They attempt to diminish the meaning of the relationship by insisting that it is merely allegorical, in spite of the many plainly literal statements by which Yahweh Himself defines the relationship.

With this, they really have another agenda. If they can convince us that the marriage relationship of Yahweh to Israel is not real, then they can claim in turn that Yahweh is not bound to treat Israel according to His law, and that Yahweh Himself did not have to die in order to release Israel from the law. With this agenda, they would have a hard time explaining from Scripture exactly why Christ had to die on behalf of the sins of the children of Israel, or more importantly, how Christ could die on account of their sins.

The following passage from Ezekiel chapter 18 concerns the children of Israel and their relationship to Yahweh while in the captivity: “4 Behold, all souls are mine; as the soul of the father, so also the soul of the son is mine: the soul that sinneth, it shall die.... 20 The soul that sinneth, it shall die. The son shall not bear the iniquity of the father, neither shall the father bear the iniquity of the son: the righteousness of the righteous shall be upon him, and the wickedness of the wicked shall be upon him.” Yet we are told in Isaiah chapter 53 that Yahweh would lay the iniquity of all Israel on one man. How could this be, if every man was to die for his own iniquity? How could one man then die for the iniquity of all Israel? How could the death of one man propitiate sin for an entire people?

We had already been told in Isaiah chapter 9 that “unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.” That same child, who was indeed “the mighty God” and “the everlasting Father”, was also the “Lamb of God”, as it was attested of Him by John the Baptist (John 1:36).

The only rational way to understand how one man could die on behalf of all of the sins of the children of Israel, and even those who still sin (as the apostle John explained that if we sin, we have an intercessor) is if that one man is indeed the mighty God, who has come as a man to die in order to release Israel from the law! Israel, the bride of Yahweh, would be released from the law upon the death of the Husband. Yahweh God takes His law seriously, and this signifies the extent to which He goes to keep His law, and to show His love for His people Israel: That He Himself would die to fulfill His own law and at the same time demonstrate His love for His people.

Those who question Yahweh's marriage relationship with Israel certainly do not take seriously either Yahweh God, His law or anything from the Bible. With their claims they prove themselves to be no better than Jewish interlopers, whose nature has always been to contend with Scripture rather than to learn from Scripture. Here in Romans chapter 7, the words of Paul of Tarsus directly contradict their claims.

1 Are you ignorant, brethren (I speak to those who know the law,) that the law lords over the man for as long a time as he should live?

There is something which our ancestors took for granted, which is evident in many contexts but not really spelled out explicitly: the belief that their words had the power to bind their descendants as well as themselves to an agreement or an oath. That is the reason why the patriarchs blessed their children, recorded those blessings, and the children took the blessings seriously. That is also an underlying concept of the word heritage, and each of us represents a part of the heritage of our ancestors. On many occasions, terms such as throughout your generations or in your generations … forever appear in Scripture. The appearance of those words reveals that the belief that we could be bound by our ancestors also came from our God. Paul, referring to the law, was therefore correct in stating that the law bound a man for as long as he lives. We are bound to our God by the nature of our birth. But according to Scripture, Yahweh God only bound those who are of the children of Israel. Honoring one's parents is the second concept found in the ten commandments of God, after those first commandments which are meant in order that we honor God Himself. By keeping our heritage, we honor our parents. By forsaking our race, we forsake our God and dishonor our parents. The laws of our God forbid us from forsaking our race, and assure us that if we honor our parents we shall be blessed.

Speaking of the descendants of the children of Israel, while the agreement that our ancestors made with God at Mount Sinai which is recorded from Exodus chapter 19 had bound us to the law, Christ set us free from that law. In Galatians chapter 5 Paul had stated that “1 In the freedom in which Christ has set us free, you stand fast indeed, and do not again be entangled in a yoke of bondage. 2 Behold, I Paul say to you, that if you should be circumcised, Christ will be of no advantage to you. 3 And I testify again to every man getting himself circumcised, that he is obligated to do the entire law.”

Ezekiel 33:13 helps to explain Paul's statement about circumcision and the law at Galatians 5:3: “When I shall say to the righteous, that he shall surely live; if he trust to his own righteousness, and commit iniquity, all his righteousnesses shall not be remembered; but for his iniquity that he hath committed, he shall die for it.” As Paul said in Romans chapter 5, through one decision of judgment on the part of Christ, the entire Adamic race was considered righteous. He has deemed us righteous, but not of ourselves or our own doing. Foreseeing this, Yahweh said in Ezekiel that man should not trust in his own righteousness. Therefore turning to the law for our righteousness, if we fail we are liable to the whole law, as the apostle James also explained in his one epistle, at James 2:10: “For whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all.” Here Paul explains exactly how it was that we were set free from the law in Christ.

2 For a woman married to a living husband is bound by law; but if the husband should die, she is discharged from the law of the husband:

The word for married is literally under or subject to a man. Israel was a nation married to Yahweh, and therefore subject to His law for as long as He lived, or for as long as the wife lived, which is the nation. Because the house of Israel was married to Yahweh, it was also called the house of God by both Peter and Paul (i.e. 1 Timothy 3:15, Hebrews 10:21 and 1 Peter 4:17).

We have long upheld the patriarchal tradition amongst the various nations of our race, whereby a man is considered the king of his own house. Here we shall read from Hebrews chapter 3, from the King James Version: “1 Wherefore, holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling, consider the Apostle and High Priest of our profession, Christ Jesus; 2 Who was faithful to him that appointed him, as also Moses was faithful in all his house. [By “all his house” Paul means the House of Yahweh God, which are the people of Israel.] 3 For this man was counted worthy of more glory than Moses, inasmuch as he who hath builded the house hath more honour than the house. [Christ is Yahweh, the builder of the house, where Moses was only a part of the house.] 4 For every house is builded by some man; but he that built all things is God. [Therefore Paul tells us indirectly that Christ is God, the only way that He could be the builder.] 5 And Moses verily was faithful in all his house, as a servant, for a testimony of those things which were to be spoken after; 6 But Christ as a son over his own house; whose house are we, [Israel is the house of God, Christ is the builder and a son, and it is his house, so Christ must be God] if we hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing of the hope firm unto the end.”

Here we shall examine parts of Exodus chapters 19 through 24. There should be little doubt that the record here is that of a marriage agreement between Yahweh and the children of Israel. The nation would be the bride of God, and the law was given to Israel as the terms of that marriage. The children of Israel, where all twelve tribes are present, are represented as having fully agreed to this arrangement.

From Exodus 19: “5 Now therefore, if ye will obey my voice indeed, and keep my covenant, then ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto me above all people: for all the earth is mine: 6 And ye shall be unto me a kingdom of priests, and an holy nation. These are the words which thou shalt speak unto the children of Israel. 7 And Moses came and called for the elders of the people, and laid before their faces all these words which the LORD commanded him. 8 And all the people answered together, and said, All that the LORD hath spoken we will do. And Moses returned the words of the people unto Yahweh. 9 And Yahweh said unto Moses, Lo, I come unto thee in a thick cloud, that the people may hear when I speak with thee, and believe thee for ever. And Moses told the words of the people unto Yahweh. 10 And Yahweh said unto Moses, Go unto the people, and sanctify them to day and to morrow, and let them wash their clothes, 11 And be ready against the third day: for the third day Yahweh will come down in the sight of all the people upon mount Sinai.” For the next several chapters the laws are given which Israel must follow as their part in the agreement. This is the first prenuptial agreement in recorded history.

Then in Exodus chapter 24 we see this: “3 And Moses came and told the people all the words of the LORD, and all the judgments: and all the people answered with one voice, and said, All the words which the LORD hath said will we do. 4 And Moses wrote all the words of the LORD, and rose up early in the morning, and builded an altar under the hill, and twelve pillars, according to the twelve tribes of Israel. 5 And he sent young men of the children of Israel, which offered burnt offerings, and sacrificed peace offerings of oxen unto the LORD. 6 And Moses took half of the blood, and put it in basons; and half of the blood he sprinkled on the altar. 7 And he took the book of the covenant, and read in the audience of the people: and they said, All that the LORD hath said will we do, and be obedient. 8 And Moses took the blood, and sprinkled it on the people, and said, Behold the blood of the covenant, which the LORD hath made with you concerning all these words.”

Understanding that Israel is the house of God, and that the nation itself is the Wife of God, we can understand what Paul explains next:

3 so then as the husband is living, she would be labeled an adulteress if she were found with another man; but if the husband should die, she is free from the law, she is not an adulteress being found with another man.

Paul is talking about the law of marriage here apart from the possibility of divorce, which need not be considered for the purpose of his illustration. However because of the naysayers, we shall indeed discuss it at length.

First, there are two steps to a proper divorce under the law of God. Here it is in Deuteronomy chapter 24: “1 When a man hath taken a wife, and married her, and it come to pass that she find no favour in his eyes, because he hath found some uncleanness in her: then let him write her a bill of divorcement, and give it in her hand, and send her out of his house. 2 And when she is departed out of his house, she may go and be another man's wife. 3 And if the latter husband hate her, and write her a bill of divorcement, and giveth it in her hand, and sendeth her out of his house; or if the latter husband die, which took her to be his wife”. [It must also be noted that there is no requirement to await third-party approval in this process. Yahweh is God, not the governments of man.]

Because of the use of certain terms in modern English, many scoffers claim that to be put away is somehow different than being divorced. If that claim stands, then there must be two different verbs in both Hebrew and Greek, one which describes the act of being put away, or of putting away, and one which describes the act of divorce or of being divorced. Yet in either Biblical language there are no such verbs describing the act of divorce which distinguish that act from the act of putting away. The Hebrew and Greek verbs translated as put or putting away represent the only verbs which describe the act of divorce. The word translated as bill of divorcement is a noun and only describes the piece of paper which records the act of putting away, which is indeed the act of divorce. There is a lengthy article explaining this at Christogenea entitled Divorce in the Bible.

Do not judge what Biblical divorce is by the modern laws of man, because we today have made the process much more complicated than the one described in Deuteronomy chapter 24. In the ancient world, women did not have the same property rights and child custody rights which they have today, and our divorce process is much more complicated primarily for that reason. In the ancient world, a woman put out of the house by her husband had no recourse whatsoever, and the force of the husband was all that he needed to prevail. But the laws of Yahweh in Deuteronomy chapter 24 describe a simple two-step process and that is all that He requires, however even that was designed to protect women in some degree. Not having any property rights, a woman put out of the house of her husband would be forced into prostitution or perhaps starve to death because no other man could take her in. If another man took her in, he risked being labeled an adulterer by the first husband, and both the other man and the woman could be stoned. A spiteful husband may be tempted to perform such an evil deed if he found that his divorced wife was given refuge in the home of a neighbor, or that she had found another husband. But if the woman possessed a bill of divorcement written by the first husband, it would be safe under the law for another man to take that woman into his house, whether out of pity or as a wife. [As an aside, when Israel was put away it was also without property. All the property of the nation was seized by the Assyrians and Babylonians, Yahweh's lawyers.]

The children of Israel were indeed put away by Yahweh. They were put away for reason of fornication and idolatry, and they had already joined themselves to other gods. Yet at the first they had no bill of divorcement to prove that they were put away, so even their idols and the aliens they joined themselves to were liable to death under Yahweh's laws. From Isaiah chapter 50: “1 Thus saith the LORD, Where is the bill of your mother's divorcement, whom I have put away? or which of my creditors is it to whom I have sold you? Behold, for your iniquities have ye sold yourselves, and for your transgressions is your mother put away.” Israel did not have the required bill of divorcement when she was found with other gods, so Israel remained liable to the penalty of death.

Only a hundred and twenty or so years later does Yahweh record having given Israel a bill of divorce, in Jeremiah 3: “6 The LORD said also unto me in the days of Josiah the king, 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. 7 And I said after she had done all these things, Turn thou unto me. But she returned not. And her treacherous sister Judah saw it. 8 And I saw, when for all the causes whereby backsliding Israel committed adultery I had put her away, and given her a bill of divorce; yet her treacherous sister Judah feared not, but went and played the harlot also.” The remnant of Judah would later also be divorced.

The prophecy of Hosea is, for the most part, the story of Yahweh's divorce of Israel. While most of Judah was taken away with Israel, there was at that time a remnant upon which Yahweh had mercy. Yet about a hundred and forty or so years later, Yahweh indeed put away Judah as well. Therefore in Jeremiah chapter 33 we have confirmation that both Israel and Judah were put away by Yahweh: “23 Moreover the word of the LORD came to Jeremiah, saying, 24 Considerest thou not what this people have spoken, saying, The two families which the LORD hath chosen, he hath even cast them off? thus they have despised my people, that they should be no more a nation before them. 25 Thus saith the LORD; If my covenant be not with day and night, and if I have not appointed the ordinances of heaven and earth; 26 Then will I cast away the seed of Jacob, and David my servant, so that I will not take any of his seed to be rulers over the seed of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob: for I will cause their captivity to return, and have mercy on them.” Here we have a promise of mercy to Israel and Judah, in spite of the fact that they were both put away, or divorced, by Yahweh their God.

This interpretation of Jeremiah is corroborated in Ezekiel, who was his contemporary, where he wrote of Judah in Ezekiel chapter 23: “18 So she discovered her whoredoms, and discovered her nakedness: then my mind was alienated from her, like as my mind was alienated from her sister." In Brenton's Septuagint, the reading is "And she exposed her fornication, and exposed her shame: and my soul was alienated from her, even as my soul was alienated from her sister." The Greek word translated as alienated here is the verb aphistami. The same word of which the noun apostasion is translated as divorce! Judah was indeed divorced by Yahweh, as well as Israel.

Once the children of Israel adopted the customs of the surrounding Canaanite nations, broke the law, began practicing paganism, and began mixing their race - which is indeed a practice originating in paganism and a part of the fertility rituals of the ancient pagan temples, they were found to be adulterers by Yahweh, who was the Husband of the nation.

Here is what the Law says of adulterers:

Leviticus 20: “10 And the man that committeth adultery with another man's wife, even he that committeth adultery with his neighbour's wife, the adulterer and the adulteress shall surely be put to death.”

Deuteronomy 22: “22 If a man be found lying with a woman married to an husband, then they shall both of them die, both the man that lay with the woman, and the woman: so shalt thou put away evil from Israel.”

So we see that Israel, the wife, had committed a crime worthy of death. In their entirety and without exception, Israel as a nation deserved to die. Yahweh divorced Israel out of His mercy for them, to forestall the judgments of His law. Therefore in relation to the promise of a New Covenant found in Jeremiah chapter 31 Yahweh guaranteed that Israel would always be a nation: “31 Behold, the days come, saith Yahweh, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah: 32 Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt; which my covenant they brake, although I was an husband unto them, saith Yahweh: 33 But this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel; After those days, saith Yahweh, I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be my people. 34 And they shall teach no more every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know Yahweh: for they shall all know me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith Yahweh: for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more. 35 Thus saith Yahweh, which giveth the sun for a light by day, and the ordinances of the moon and of the stars for a light by night, which divideth the sea when the waves thereof roar; The LORD of hosts is his name: 36 If those ordinances depart from before me, saith the LORD, then the seed of Israel also shall cease from being a nation before me for ever. 37 Thus saith the LORD; If heaven above can be measured, and the foundations of the earth searched out beneath, I will also cast off all the seed of Israel for all that they have done, saith the LORD.”

Here I must make another parenthetical statement, for all of the geniuses who insist that Judah was not divorced. If there was a new covenant to be made with Israel and Judah, and Judah was not divorced, why is there a need for a new covenant with Judah as well as Israel? If Judah was not divorced, Judah would still be under the Old Covenant and the law! It should be manifest, that this heresy stems from the confusion of those who mistake Judah with the jews. All of the arguments against Judah's being divorced are sophistry.

While all Israel deserved death under the law, we see that Yahweh promised that Israel would certainly not die, but rather would be a nation forever. There is only one way that this could be done without Yahweh Himself being labeled a hypocrite for breaking His Own law: He himself had to die in order to free Israel from the law! This is why Christ professed that He came to "fulfill the law"!

Christ is recorded in Matthew chapter 5 as having said “17 Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil.” That word translated fulfill is the Greek verb πληρόω (Strong's # 4137), and according to Liddell & Scott it means to make full or to complete.

This is what Paul explains here in Romans chapter 7, where Paul himself tells us that the Husband, Yahweh, had to die to free Israel from the law. Let us repeat Romans 7: “3 so then as the husband is living, she would be labeled an adulteress if she were found with another man; but if the husband should die, she is free from the law, she is not an adulteress being found with another man.” Yahweh did not have to divorce Israel. He could instead have executed the judgments of the law, and done away with Israel completely as He had with all of the other Adamic Genesis 10 Nations. However on account of His Word, and the promises made to the fathers, Israel would live.

But there was a law which barred Israel's reconciliation to Yahweh. For that we must revisit the law in Deuteronomy chapter 24 concerning divorce, and here we shall read it at greater length: “1 When a man hath taken a wife, and married her, and it come to pass that she find no favour in his eyes, because he hath found some uncleanness in her: then let him write her a bill of divorcement, and give it in her hand, and send her out of his house. 2 And when she is departed out of his house, she may go and be another man's wife. 3 And if the latter husband hate her, and write her a bill of divorcement, and giveth it in her hand, and sendeth her out of his house; or if the latter husband die, which took her to be his wife; 4 Her former husband, which sent her away, may not take her again to be his wife, after that she is defiled; for that is abomination before the LORD: and thou shalt not cause the land to sin, which the LORD thy God giveth thee for an inheritance.”

It was said of a newly-divorced Israel in Hosea that not finding her lovers, she would return to Yahweh exclaiming “I will go and return to my first husband; for then was it better with me than now.” But even if Israel disregards the laws of Yahweh, Yahweh does not disregard His Own Law. This for us is a sign of His forbearance and His patience, that He would come as a man and die on behalf of His people, so that He could keep the promises He made to the fathers and be reconciled to Israel once again while at the same time fulfilling the letter of the law.

For this reason Christ is found saying in Luke chapter 16 that “The law and the prophets were until John: since that time the kingdom of God is preached, and every man presseth into it. 17 And it is easier for heaven and earth to pass, than one tittle of the law to fail. 18 Whosoever putteth away his wife, and marrieth another, committeth adultery: and whosoever marrieth her that is put away from her husband committeth adultery.” Yahweh did not put Israel away so that he could remarry any other people, and with this understanding the concepts of universalism and replacement theology are completely disintegrated. The words of Christ in Luke 16 also corroborate Paul's statements in Romans chapter 7, and our interpretation of it, because neither is Christ interrupting His Own train of thought to offer a sermon on domestic relations! Rather, He is referencing the marriage relationship of Yahweh and Israel.

That same Yahshua Christ said in another place, which we see in Matthew chapter 19, that “8... Moses because of the hardness of your hearts suffered you to put away your wives: but from the beginning it was not so. 9 And I say unto you, Whosoever shall put away his wife, except it be for fornication, and shall marry another, committeth adultery: and whoso marrieth her which is put away doth commit adultery.”

Therefore Yahweh divorced Israel justly, since it was for reason of fornication. Yet from the beginning it was not so, that a man should divorce his wife. Therefore we see that divorce is a feature of God's permissive will, because men are weak, and it was allowed in the Mosaic law. But divorce is not a feature of God's divine will, and the prophet said “Therefore take heed to your spirit, and let none deal treacherously against the wife of his youth. 16 For the LORD, the God of Israel, saith that he hateth putting away” (Malachi 2:15-16).

Nevertheless, Yahweh put away Israel, but as Christ exclaims in Luke chapter 16, He would not marry another. He said this in the context of an answer to the Pharisees whom he was upbraiding for justifying themselves before men. He prefaced this with the statement that “the kingdom of God is preached, and every man presses into it”, because many of those Pharisees were not Israelites and only Israelites belong in the Kingdom of God! However in order to satisfy the law which governed the relationship of Yahweh and Israel, yet maintain His exclusive marriage relationship with Israel, He had to die thereby freeing Israel and Himself from a law which prevented reconciliation, and which was nullified upon His death. In that manner not one jot or tittle of the law would fail! Doing so, the marriage, divorce and remarriage stipulations of Deuteronomy no longer prevented Him from reconciling Israel, and Israel would no longer be under the liability of the death penalty for her initial adultery and fornication.

4 Consequently, my brethren, you also are put to death in the law through the body of Christ; for you to be found with another, who from the dead was raised in order that we should bear fruit for Yahweh.

After announcing His divorce of Israel, speaking of a future time the Word of Yahweh says in Hosea chapter 2: “16 And it shall be at that day, saith the LORD, that thou shalt call me Ishi; and shalt call me no more Baali. 17 For I will take away the names of Baalim out of her mouth, and they shall no more be remembered by their name.... 19 And I will betroth thee unto me for ever; yea, I will betroth thee unto me in righteousness, and in judgment, and in lovingkindness, and in mercies. 20 I will even betroth thee unto me in faithfulness: and thou shalt know the LORD.” Hosea proves that in their reconciliation Israel is returning to Yahweh as the husband, which can only be in Christ. That is what the Wedding Supper of the Lamb in the Revelation is all about. That is why John the Baptist referred to Christ as the bridegroom, and Christ referred to Himself as the bridegroom. For these same reasons Paul said to the Corinthians “For I am jealous over you with godly jealousy: for I have espoused you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ” (2 Corinthians 11:2). The return of Israel to Christ is an espousal, or a betrothal. The gospel is an announcement of that betrothal, intended only for the children of Israel. The New Covenant and the wedding supper are not consummated until His final return, which is described in Revelation chapter 19.

Paul explains here in Romans that if the husband should die, the wife can marry another without worry. Yahweh died in Christ, freeing Israel from the law. But it must be said that Yahweh, being God, has the power to lay down His life - thereby fulfilling the law - and then take it up again, as Christ asserted that He would do in John chapter 10: “11 I am the good shepherd: the good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep.... 14 I am the good shepherd, and know my sheep, and am known of mine. 15 As the Father knoweth me, even so know I the Father: and I lay down my life for the sheep.... 17 Therefore doth my Father love me, because I lay down my life, that I might take it again. 18 No man taketh it from me, but I lay it down of myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again....” These words help to elucidate the fact that He died and was resurrected so that He could keep Israel, in spite of Israel's sin, while at the same time keeping the letter of the law!

In Daniel chapter 9 we see, in part, the explicitly stated purpose of the Messiah, where it states in verse 24: “... to finish the transgression, and to make an end of sins, and to make reconciliation for iniquity, and to bring in everlasting righteousness, and to seal up the vision and prophecy, and to anoint the most Holy.” Yet the children of Israel did not stop sinning at the cross of Christ, so how did the Messiah make an end of sins? But the apostle John said in chapter 2 of his first epistle that “if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous”, and in chapter 3 of that same epistle he said “Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin; for his seed remaineth in him: and he cannot sin, because he is born of God.” This is only reconciled with the knowledge of what Paul had said in Romans 5:13, that before the law sin was in the world, but sin was not imputed, there not being law. With the fulfillment of the Old Testament law in Christ, He is able to be our intercessor and sin is not imputed to us. Therefore our righteousness is of God, and not of the law. In that manner, Christ shall destroy the works of the devil which caused the fall of Adamic man in the first place. However those who love Christ shall seek to establish that higher form of law which was written on our hearts, which Paul explains in Romans chapter 6 and here again later in Romans chapter 7.

From Isaiah 54:5: “For thy Maker is thine husband; Yahweh of hosts is his name; and thy Redeemer the Holy One of Israel; The God of the whole earth shall he be called.” Yahweh our God is our Creator, He is our Husband and He is our Redeemer: Yahshua Christ.

For that reason, Christ was described as the bridegroom by John the Baptist, as it is recorded in John chapter 3: “25 Then there came a dispute among some of the students of Iohannes with the Judaeans concerning purification. 26 And they came to Iohannes and said to him: 'Rabbi, He who was with you across the Jordan, for whom you testified, look: He immerses and they all come to Him!' 27 Iohannes replied and said: 'A man is not able to receive anything if it has not been given to him from heaven. 28 You yourselves bear testimony for me that I said that I am not the Christ, but that I am being sent before Him! 29 He having the bride is the bridegroom, but the friend of the bridegroom who stands and hears him rejoices in joy because of the voice of the bridegroom! Therefore this, my joy, is fulfilled. 30 It is necessary for Him to be augmented, and for me to be diminished.'”

Christ, in His Own Revelation, described Himself as the Husband of Israel, which is described as the city of God: “2 And I John saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. 3 And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God. 4 And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away.... 9 And there came unto me one of the seven angels which had the seven vials full of the seven last plagues, and talked with me, saying, Come hither, I will shew thee the bride, the Lamb's wife. 10 And he carried me away in the spirit to a great and high mountain, and shewed me that great city, the holy Jerusalem, descending out of heaven from God, 11 Having the glory of God: and her light was like unto a stone most precious, even like a jasper stone, clear as crystal; 12 And had a wall great and high, and had twelve gates, and at the gates twelve angels, and names written thereon, which are the names of the twelve tribes of the children of Israel: 13 On the east three gates; on the north three gates; on the south three gates; and on the west three gates. 14 And the wall of the city had twelve foundations, and in them the names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb.”

Yahweh promising to betroth Himself to Israel, and the bride being the Lamb's wife, the New Jerusalem represents the people themselves, and Yahweh and Yahshua are one indeed. This is how it is said in Hosea, that Israel would return to her first husband, and that Yahweh would betroth Israel to Himself forever.