Imagine cheating on your husband. He gave you everything you could ever need or want. He loved you like no one had ever loved you before. And one day, you decided to play the whore and commit adultery.
One day turned into outright rebellion over many more occasions, despite his continued love and affection.
So he finally did what any man in his situation would do and divorced you.
But he loved you still … and despite your continued rebellion said, “return to me.”
“They say, If a man put away his wife, and she go from him, and become another man’s, shall he return unto her again? shall not that land be greatly polluted? but thou hast played the harlot with many lovers; yet return again to me, saith the LORD.” Jer. 3:1
This is a picture of what YHWH has done for his bride. Only the story goes much deeper…
“For the woman which hath an husband is bound by the law to her husband so long as he liveth; but if the husband be dead, she is loosed from the law of her husband.” Rom. 7:2
Yahshua died so that we could return to the Father.
The word ‘return’ is שׁוּב (shuv)—from which teshuvah, commonly translated ‘repentance’ is derived—and it literally means “to turn back.”
Worshipping other gods and living according to our own desires instead of according to His instructions (Torah) was the result of our turning away into harlotry. In his mercy, He provided a way for us to come back, even though, according to His law, it was impossible. And it’s His kindness that leads us to repentance…
Or should lead us.
Yet so many people insist that following his instructions no longer matters. That we can go on doing whatever we want, because Yahshua died.
But that raises a challenging question: if you cheated on your husband and he took you back, would you go out and play the harlot on him again? Would you insist that being faithful isn’t important and that he died so that you could just go on living the way you want without any regard for what honors and pleases Him?
This post is day 35 in my 40 Days of Repentance series. Click here to read day 34.
