Don Smith :: Isa; Eze; Jer; Hos; The Major Prophets

The Major Prophets

A Collection of Portraits of Christ

The materials in this section have been collected not only to show the golden thread of the Promise Doctrine throughout the Major Prophets but also hopefully to provide helpful commentary on key passages of the Bible, as well as to encourage pastors to preach Christ to their people.

Portraits of Christ – “The Bride”
The Prophets – Isaiah, Jeremiah and Hosea

God is passionate for His eternal Bride; He takes great joy in His Church. (Isaiah 61:10; 62:5)

• “I will greatly rejoice in the LORD, My soul shall be joyful in my God; For He has clothed me with the garments of salvation, He has covered me with the robe of righteousness, As a bridegroom decks himself with ornaments, And as a bride adorns herself with her jewels.”
• “As the bridegroom rejoices over the bride, so shall your God rejoice over you.”
• “For the LORD will not forsake His people, for His great name’s sake, because it has pleased the LORD to make you His people.” (1 Samuel 12:22-23)
• “For you are a holy people to the LORD your God, and the LORD has chosen you to be a people for Himself, a special treasure above all the peoples who are on the face of the earth.” (Deuteronomy 14:2)
• “Yes, I have loved you with an everlasting love; Therefore with lovingkindness I have drawn you.” (Jeremiah 31:3)

1. God created and ordained marriage
   • Male and female were created in the likeness of God. (Genesis 1:26-27)
   • “Then God said, ‘Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.’ So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.”
2. God ordained marriage as a life-long covenant relationship. (Genesis 2:24)
   • “Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.”
3. God intended marriage to be a metaphor for Christ and His Church. (Ephesians 5:22-33)
   • “Wives, submit to your own husbands, as to the Lord. For the husband is head of the wife, as also Christ is head of the church; and He is the Savior of the body. Therefore, just as the church is subject to Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands in everything. Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself for her, that He might sanctify and cleanse her with the washing of water by the word, that He might present her to Himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she should be holy and without blemish. So husbands ought to love their own wives as their own bodies; he who loves his wife loves himself. For no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as the Lord does the church. For we are members of His body, of His flesh and of His bones. ‘For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.’ This is a great mystery, but I speak concerning Christ and the church.”

God is jealous for the eternal Bride He chose and redeemed.

1. God is jealous for an exclusive marriage. (2 Corinthians 11:2)
   • “For I am jealous for you with godly jealousy. For I have betrothed you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ.”
2. God remains faithful even when His Bride is not faithful. (2 Timothy 2:11-13)
   • “This is a faithful saying: For if we died with Him, We shall also live with Him. If we endure, We shall also reign with Him. If we deny Him, He also will deny us. If we are faithless, He remains faithful; He cannot deny Himself.”
3. God is like a husband crushed by the adulterous heart of His Bride. (Ezekiel 6:9)
   • “The Lord said, ‘I was crushed by their adulterous heart which has departed from Me, and by their eyes which play the harlot after their idols.’”

Hosea’s purchase of His adulteress wife is a picture of God’s love and grace – Hosea chapter three.

1. The Lord asked the prophet to go again and love the woman who betrayed him as a picture of God’s love for the children of Israel. (Hosea 3:1)
   • The phrase “loved by another” used to describe Gomer; however this may mean she is the one loved by “her friend,” her former husband, Hosea.
   • Even though Israel had turned to other gods and loved cakes of raisins (feasts to the gods) God was pursuing her.
2. Hosea found his adulterous wife at the open slave market and purchased her back in for the price of a slave. (Hosea 3:2)
   • How pitiful to see her bartered for but bought by her loyal and loving husband.
   • This is the picture of God the Father, who sent forth his Son, Jesus (salvation, the well-spring of God’s love) when he became a servant, even death on a cross, to buy back the bride who had become a servant to sin and degradation.
3. Hosea informed his wife her days of infidelity would no longer be tolerated. (Hosea 3:3)
   • She had to dwell with him in exile as his wife for many days.
   • She could no longer play the harlot with other men.
4. The Lord made the analogy between Hosea and his wife to that of God and Israel. (Hosea 3:4)
   • For many days Israel would live without a king, without sacrifice or pillar, without a ephod or household of gods.
   • The seclusion God would bring meant exile from all Israel used to treasure.
   • She would lose national sovereignty; lose religious freedom at the Temple; lose of sacrifices because they had come to be mere formality to her; and lose the instruments of worship she depended upon (stones, cultic objects and idols).
5. Afterwards the Lord would return her to the land and Himself. (Hosea 3:5)
   • After the Babylonian exile Israel would seek the Lord their God.
   • She would look for “David their King” (Messiah).
   • They shall come in fear to the Lord and to His goodness in the latter days.