Daily Devotion

August 20, 2006

Psalms 106:40-41 Therefore was the wrath of the LORD kindled against his people, insomuch that he abhorred his own inheritance. And he gave them into the hand of the heathen; and they that hated them ruled over them.

The husbandman went on a journey far away; He left his estate in the able hands of his wife, the redeemed bride, the one he has redeemed with a great price. When she saw that he tarried to return, she went to the streets and played the harlot. She invited many lovers to her bed and defiled it with adulterous loves. The husbandman returned and was stricken with grief at the sight of his polluted wife and household. He did not dare to enter in. If that is what his beloved wife wants, so be it and he left her in the evil hands of the abusers of souls until she receives the due recompense of her actions.

What else could we do in such a situation? Even if he would come in and chase the lovers away it would be to no avail. They were not the offense. The offense was the ungrateful bride and her desire for stolen waters and for bread eaten in secret (Proverbs 9;17). The husband, as hurt as he was, had no other recourse than to let the bride finish what she was doing until, bruised and abused, when she has received the fruits of sin, she cries in a repentant spirit to her husband for help. At that, he will chase the lovers away, deliver his bride from their impure hands, cleanse his house from the filth of their abominable orgies, and receive his bride again unto him in a sprit of new life and forgiveness.

Can we understand this parable? Do we understand the Lord’s mercy towards us? What would we do in His place? We would probably reject the bride and give her a bill of divorce; but this is not the way of our Lord. Because He loves His bride dearly, the Lord takes the hurt, the offense, the shame and the insult into His own bosom and waits for her to return. When has learned to love Him and truly desires to forsake all others for Him, He reinstates her to her former status. What a wonderful Lord we have.

Jer 3:1 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.

Patrick Lumbroso
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