Marriage at Work 2. The Hope of Israel
Review
A level of depth and intimacy enters into work when we appreciate employment as a space where our Husband’s gifts and graces can be revealed[1].The difficulty of this task goes back to the failure Adam and Eve to guard and grow God’s presence in their working environment of Eden. As a punishment they and their descendants were cast into a world where labour involves hardship; ““cursed is the ground because of you; in pain you shall eat of it all the days of your life; thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you; and you shall eat the plants of the field. By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread, till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; for you are dust, and to dust you shall return.” (Gen 3:17-19 ESV). The faithful creator God did not however abandon humanity to the futility of endless labour; he pioneers a way forward through a covenant with a nation chosen to reveal his light to the world. Israel was called to illuminate the spheres of work and culture as places of divine glory and wisdom.
The Bride of God at Work
The prophets make it clear that the LORD is the Husband of Israel who holds her in the tenderest affection, “The word of the LORD came to me, saying, ““I remember the devotion of your youth, your love as a bride, how you followed me in the wilderness, in a land not sown.” (Jeremiah 2:1-2 ESV); “For your Maker is your husband, the LORD of hosts is his name; and the Holy One of Israel is your Redeemer, the God of the whole earth he is called.” (Isaiah 54:5 ESV)[2]. The covenant between God and Israel was not some external legal arrangement to keep her in line but constituted a bond of loving marriage (Ezek 16:8). This has far reaching implications for how we understand the stipulations of the Mosaic Law.
The Law of Moses, particularly in relation to the spheres of work and culture, such as lending money, treatment of the poor and keeping the Sabbath, was an all-encompassing guide for the old covenant believer (Ex 20:8-11; Lev 25:25-28; Deut 23:19-20 etc.). The sacred-secular or Sunday-Monday divide as we know it today did not exist for Israel. All of life was to be expressly dedicated to God. As a nation of priests and kings with a prophetic calling to reveal God’s light to the nations Israel was a Bride whose laws for everyday life are a preparation for spiritual union with the LORD (Ex 19:4-6). The Law was a spur to holiness and made possible the consummation of marital intercourse with God which took place in the Jerusalem Temple (Pss 27:4; 48:9; 65:4; 84:1, 10). Work and worship were integrated dimensions of what it meant to be the wife of Yahweh. This beautiful divine design was tragically never really achieved.
Playing the Harlot
From her earliest beginning Israel behaves more like a harlot than a faithful spouse. The Old Testament is peppered with references to covenant breaking in the going after foreign gods. “And the Lord said to Moses, “…this people will rise and whore after the foreign gods among them in the land that they are entering, and they will forsake me and break my covenant that I have made with them.”” (Deut 31:6 cf. Ezek 16; Hosea). Israel’s adultery was particularly acute in relation to the worship of Baal who was a fertility god believed responsible for the sending of rain (Hos 2:16).. The favour of Baal towards bountiful harvests was cultivated by sex with sacred cult prostitutes (Deut 23:7; Hos 4:10). Israel’s idolatry is adultery not in some vague spiritual sense but because it involved abandoning God’s laws relating to finance, poverty and the Sabbath; laws which were designed to reveal his love as a Husband for his people (Jer 3:1, 8; Ps 106:39; Isa 1:21; Ezek 16; 23; Amos 2:6; Zech 7:9-10).
Through her idolatries Israel wilfully became like the nations; admiring the wealth of the surrounding powers (Assyria, Babylon, Tyre) she took on their commercial attitudes to business, justice and rest. Her motivation was naked profit, “we will…make offerings to the queen of heaven …For then we had plenty of food, and prospered, and saw no disaster.” (Jeremiah 44:17 ESV cf. 2 Ki 17:15; Ezek 20:32). Abandoning her intimacy with Yahweh meant that Israel prostituted the domains of work and culture for selfish personal interest. As a jealous Husband God poured out his anger upon the nation handing her over to the opposite of her worldly desires; famine, nakedness and the sword (Deut 32:21; Prov 78:58; Jer 7:1-34; Ezek 5:13etc.). Boom turned to bust as a punishment on an unfaithful wife who had deserted her vocation of manifesting the glory of her Husband in all the realms of life and culture.
The Hope of Israel
With time the prophets abandoned any expectation that Israel would turn back to the LORD as her first love under the normal conditions of life. They looked forward to the time of the End when by God’s miraculous acts of power Israel will once again be a true wife; “You shall no more be termed Forsaken, and your land shall no more be termed Desolate, but you shall be called My Delight Is in Her, and your land Married; for the LORD delights in you, and your land shall be married. For as a young man marries a young woman, so shall your sons marry you and as the bridegroom rejoices over the bride, so shall your God rejoice over you.” (Isaiah 62:4-5 ESV cf. 54:5; Hos 2:16). At that End time God’s goodness and justice will cover all the spheres of life and culture. Such a situation awaited the coming of the Messiah and a new covenant that imparts the power to live a consistent marital relationship to the glory and praise of God (Ps 72; Jer 23:5-6; 33:15-16; 31:31-34).
Conclusion
The history of Israel is a poignant story of the pleas of a devoted Husband for his wife to return his constant affections. The Law and sacrificial system are not legalistic strictures to keep such a spouse in line, but instructions from a devoted partner aimed at promoting marital bliss in the whole of life. Abandoning God and his Law meant the prostituting of all the spheres of work and culture. A spurned, offended and jealous Husband cannot passively stand by and watch the glory of Israel turn to public shame (Hos 2:16; 4:7). The final word of the Old Testament is not however one of wrath, but one of hope. This hope will crystallise with the coming of the Messiah, Jesus of Nazareth, and the rebirth of the people of God in the form of the Church. Work as an expression of marriage will remain, but through a new covenant spiritual power will be released enabling a greater level of faithfulness. The Church of Christ is called to enter work and culture as redeemed spheres of marital fellowship through which God can reveal his eternal purposes for humankind.