Thus says the Lord God to Jerusalem: your birth and your nativity are from the land of Canaan; your father [ was ] an Amorite and your mother a Hittite. [ As for ] your nativity, on the day you were born your navel cord was not cut, nor were you washed in water to cleanse you; you were not rubbed with salt nor wrapped in swaddling cloths. No eye pitied you, to do any of these things for you, to have compassion on you; but you were thrown out into the open field, when you yourself were loathed on the day you were born.
And when I passed by you and saw you struggling in your own blood, I said to you in your blood, ‘Live!’ Yes, I said to you in your blood, ‘Live!’ I made you thrive like a plant in the field; and you grew, matured, and became very beautiful. [ Your ] breasts were formed,
your hair grew, but you [ were ] naked and bare.
Ezekiel 16:3-7
As we read throughout the Hebrew Scriptures, Israel 'according to the flesh' was infamous for her rebellions harlotry! Though her God had proven time and time again that it was only through His strength that she could stand, she showed time and time again her weakness and the rebelliousness of her wicked heart!
In Ezekiel 16, God recounts, through the prophet, and in metaphorical language, how He had taken Israel from among the nations and made her holy unto Himself. Furthermore, we read in this account, in very graphic and suggestive language, how she turned from the safety of His wings and sought the lewd embraces of other gods. We need not read very far in Scripture, even during the Exodus from Egypt, how she spurned the blessings of His Presence and lusted after the sin of her own concupiscence!
From the Beginning, when 'God planted a garden eastward in Eden' ( Genesis 2:8 ), the man He had created strove with Him, forever testing his will against the Will of God! Several times throughout the History of His Creation, God caused great calamity to fall upon them because of their rebelliousness and wickedness, most notably in the Great Flood of Noah's day. Through the Divine Long-suffering, though, they were never totally destroyed; there was always a Remnant!
Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.
And they were both naked, the man and his wife, and were not ashamed.
Genesis 2:24 & 25
And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden.
Genesis 3:8
The History of Creation, and specifically, the History of Israel, is all about how God brought Heaven to Earth, first, in the form of a Garden planted ( Exodus 15:17-Amos 9:15 ), and then in the Tabernacle & Temple. Finally, at the Consummation of the Ages, He sent His Son to redeem & marry His People, and reveal Him ( and Them ) as His True Temple; this was the Reconstitution of Israel!
Our Heavenly Father formed His human creation in order that their union might be a picture of the union that He wished to experience with His People! In his letter to the Church at Ephesus ( Ephesians 5:31 ), Paul reasserted the words of God in Genesis 2:24, then explained, 'This is a great mystery, but I speak concerning Christ and the church'. The first marriage on record was not just the union of two souls; it was ( and is ) a picture of the Marriage of Heaven & Earth!
As the Offspring of this Marriage,
Charles Haddon Shank
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