Longing For The Groom

I don’t believe that we will ever really begin to have a true relationship with Jehovah until we recognize how truly amazing His grace still is. Unfortunately in the Church we don’t spend enough time looking at His staggering grace. We feel like we have worked hard enough and kept the law good enough for God to accept us as His bride but that goes against what the Apostle Paul writes in Romans 5:8 "While we were still sinners, Christ died for us".

While we were wallowing in our own blood, God makes us flourish. That’s how we came into this relationship. As we are united with God through our Baptisms the wedding song was not "Faithful and True."

Not according to the picture we see in Ezekiel 16. If the Biblical picture of our fallenness is true then our wedding march would have been more like this:

Just as I am, without one plea But that thy blood was shed for me And that thou bidd’st me come to thee O Lamb of God, I come, I come. Just as I am! poor, wretched, blind Sight, riches, healing of the mind, Yea, all I need, in Thee to find ....

Nothing in my hand I bring: Simply to Thy cross I cling; Naked, come to Thee for dress; Helpless, look to Thee for grace.

Amazing grace! how sweet the sound! That saved a wretch like me! I once was lost, but now am found; Was blind, but now I see.

I hope that God grace is still amazing to you. God pursues the poor, wretched, and blind like a young man pursuing the love of his life-wearing his best kakis, shaving every week whether he needs to or not, and calling just to hear her voice on the phone. This is the picture of His wild extravagant grace we see next in our passage (9-14):

I bathed you with water and washed off your blood from you and anointed you with oil. I clothed you also with embroidered cloth and shod you with fine leather. I wrapped you in fine linen and covered you with silk. And I adorned you with ornaments and put bracelets on your wrists and a chain on your neck. And I put a ring on your nose and earrings in your ears and a beautiful crown on your head. Thus you were adorned with gold and silver, and your clothing was of fine linen and silk and embroidered cloth. You ate fine flour and honey and oil. You grew exceedingly beautiful and advanced to royalty. And your renown went forth among the nations because of your beauty, for it was perfect through the splendor that I had bestowed on you, declares the Lord GOD.

Once again Ezekiel reminds us how much God has done to show His love for us. He is the Eternal Lover whose relentless courtship culminated in the incarnation of Jesus. The Lover finally came for his bride.

God is our perfect, caring spouse. He is the One, the only One, who can fill our deepest needs.

And it is that Unrestrained love that turns into Jealous love.

We’ve all been warned about the danger of jealousy. About how it can destroy a family, a marriage, and a soul. So perhaps we’re surprised to hear Scripture say that our God is a jealous God. How can that be?

Our passage tonight may have the answer. I was having a conversation with someone this week and they were complaining that their wife was just too jealous. He couldn’t even have a conversation with a female at work without his wife jumping all over him.