NEW STUDIES IN BIBLICAL THEOLOGY 2

Series editor: D. A. Carson

God’s Unfaithful WifeA BIBLICAL THEOLOGY

OF SPIRITUAL ADULTERY

Raymond C. Ortlund Jr

InterVarsity Press, USA P.O. Box 1400, Downers Grove, IL 60515-1426, USA World Wide Web: www.ivpress.com Email: email@ivpress.com

©1996 by Raymond C. Ortlund Jr.

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The Scripture quotations marked rsv are from the Revised Standard Version of the Bible, copyright 1946, 1952, 1971 by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the U.S.A. Used by permission. All rights reserved. Scripture quotations marked nrsv are from the New Revised Standard Version of the Bible, copyright 1989 by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the USA. Used by permission. All rights reserved. (Italics are added by the author.)

First published under the title Whoredom: God’s Unfaithful Wife in Biblical Theology in 1996; reprinted under the title God’s Unfaithful Wife: A Biblical Theology of Spiritual Adultery in 2002.

USA ISBN: 978-0-8308-2614-8 UK ISBN: 978-0-85111-480-4

Set in Baskerville Photoset in Great Britain by Parker Typesetting Service, Leicester

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Preface

What the biblical writers lacked in diplomacy they made up forin pungency. However indelicate the form of their accusationsagainst the people of God, their bold vision matched the offencethey aimed to expose. The people covenanted to God are guiltyof spiritual adultery. The wife of God has become a whore.

Formerly a more prominent theme in theological discourseand pastoral ministry than it is today, discussion of the vision ofGod as the husband of his people, with all that such a relationshipentails for them, has recently been reopened by Nelly Stienstra inher 1993 monograph, YHWH is the Husband of his People. Thefollowing study was initially prompted by her excellent work butsoon struck off in its own direction as an exposition of the biblicaltheme of harlotry toward God. What begins as Pentateuchalwhispers rises later to prophetic cries and is eventually echoed inapostolic teaching. That message proclaims that, if Yahweh is thehusband of his people, then their lapses from faithfulness to himmay properly be regarded as the moral equivalent to whoredom.Such an analysis is not pleasant to the sensibilities. It may at firstseem a strident exaggeration; but is is clearly declared inScripture and offers a searching assessment of the nature ofhuman sin which our own age has largely overlooked or evenforgotten. Alternatively, the marital nature of the covenantintimates depths of communion with God for which the humansoul yearns amid the barrenness of the modern world.

In order for unfaithfulness to God, branded as whoredom, tobe meaningful, it is necessary to begin this study by setting forththe logic of human marriage as explained by Scripture. Thisunderstanding of the human marital bond provides thecovenant community with the premise and ideal standard fromwhich they may extrapolate in their thinking about theirrelationship with God. If a proper marriage makes visiblenothing less than a ‘one flesh’ union, and if the covenantcommunity’s relationship with God is of a marital nature, then

G O D ’S U N FA I T H F U L W I F E

Raymond C. Ortlund Jr

G O D ’S U N FA I T H F U L W I F E

G O D ’S U N FA I T H F U L W I F E

G O D ’S U N FA I T H F U L W I F E

G O D ’S U N FA I T H F U L W I F E