Did you know that God divorced Israel? Yes, God hates divorce. However, He does allow the divorce of an unfaithful spouse, and Israel was unfaithful over and over. In fact, He would have divorced Judah as well if it hadn’t been for His promise to David. For God declared that Judah’s whoring was worse than her sisters (See Hosea 1:9-2:2). One of the places we find this story is in Jeremiah:
The Lord said to me in the days of King Josiah: “Have you seen what she did, that faithless one, Israel, how she went up on every high hill and under every green tree, and there played the whore? And I thought, ‘After she has done all this she will return to me,’ but she did not return, and her treacherous sister Judah saw it. She saw that for all the adulteries of that faithless one, Israel, I had sent her away with a decree of divorce. Yet her treacherous sister Judah did not fear, but she too went and played the whore. (Jeremiah 3:6-8 ESV)
What makes this even more troubling is that the law prohibits God from remarrying her, as explained in Deuteronomy:
“When a man takes a wife and marries her, if then she finds no favor in his eyes because he has found some indecency in her, and he writes her a certificate of divorce and puts it in her hand and sends her out of his house, and she departs out of his house, and if she goes and becomes another man’s wife, and the latter man hates her and writes her a certificate of divorce and puts it in her hand and sends her out of his house, or if the latter man dies, who took her to be his wife, then her former husband, who sent her away, may not take her again to be his wife, after she has been defiled, for that is an abomination before the Lord. And you shall not bring sin upon the land that the Lord your God is giving you for an inheritance. (Deuteronomy 24:1-4 ESV)
It’s clear that Israel was defiled. Moreover, God expressed the issue of taking her back, making a clear connection to the passage in Deuteronomy. “If a man divorces his wife and she goes from him and becomes another man’s wife, will he return to her? Would not that land be greatly polluted? You have played the whore with many lovers; and would you return to me? declares the Lord” (Jeremiah 3:1). Notice that God equates the man’s wife with the land. Both refer to Israel.
That being the case, how do we explain this? “‘Return, faithless Israel, declares the Lord. I will not look on you in anger, for I am merciful, declares the Lord; I will not be angry forever’” (Jeremiah 3:12). We know that God cannot sidestep the law and simply show mercy for He did not pardon our sins but sent His Son to pay the debt that we could not pay. But it is in fact the very act of dying for her that allowed God to remarry Israel. For the law of marriage is only in effect for as long as the two shall live. When Jesus died, both Israel and God were released from the marriage. In this passage, Paul explains how the divorced tribes of Israel were freed from the marriage:
Or do you not know, brothers—for I am speaking to those who know the law—that the law is binding on a person only as long as he lives? For a married woman is bound by law to her husband while he lives, but if her husband dies she is released from the law of marriage. Accordingly, she will be called an adulteress if she lives with another man while her husband is alive. But if her husband dies, she is free from that law, and if she marries another man she is not an adulteress. Likewise, my brothers, you also have died to the law through the body of Christ, so that you may belong to another, to him who has been raised from the dead, in order that we may bear fruit for God. (Romans 7:1-4 ESV)
Notice that Paul is speaking to Jews, those who “know the law”, for they were the ones who were at an impasse. God obeys His own laws for He is a just and righteous God. Therefore, the Jews needed an answer to their dilemma and that is what Paul is addressing. Which brings up an important aspect of the New Testament. Like the Old Testament, it’s still primarily about Israel and the Jewish people. Even though Gentiles dominate the branches, Israel is the olive tree. We Gentiles were simply grafted in.