November 15, 2004

THE HUSBAND

"For your Maker is your husband, the Lord of hosts is His name" (Isaiah 54:5, NKJV).

This metaphor of the husband most appropriately portrays the bonding relationship between Christ and His people. Repeatedly the husband-wife motif is used in Scripture to illustrate the inseparable union between Christ and His church.

Three Old Testament prophets--Isaiah, Hosea, and Ezekiel--vividly illustrate God's supreme love as a true husband. They portray Him as self-giving, forgiving, and willing to restore the broken relationship between Himself and His people. Israel behaved as an unfaithful wife. By their infidelity, God's people had broken their relationship with Him. Hosea's willingness to take back his unfaithful wife and restore her to her former status is illustrative of Christ's willingness to forgive His people and restore them to divine favor. Although Israel had forsaken her "Husband," He promised to bring her back to Himself and again be her husband.

John the Beloved, in his apocalyptic vision, saw the church at the end of the grand climax of the ages--not as a defective, wayward, Laodicean spouse, but as "a bride adorned for her husband" (Revelation 21:2). Just as a bride in her radiance is ready to meet her bridegroom, so will the church be ready to meet her husband who gave Himself for her. Then He will joyfully "present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish" (Ephesians 5:27, NIV). "In both the Old and the New Testament the marriage relation is employed to represent the tender and sacred union that exists between Christ and His people, the redeemed ones whom He has purchased at the cost of Calvary. 'Fear not,' He says; 'thy Maker is thine husband; the Lord of hosts is His name.' "--Thoughts From the Mount of Blessing, p. 64.

My Prayer Today: Lord, as a loving husband, You have promised to forgive and redeem me in mercy. Thank You for such undeserving love. Amen.