The Courtship of Israel & the Creation of Covenant

When I passed by you again and looked upon you, indeed your time was the time of love; so I spread My wing over you and covered your nakedness. Yes, I swore an oath to you and entered into a covenant with you, and you became Mine,” says the Lord God.

Ezekiel 16:8

Now it came to pass, when men began to multiply on the face of the earth, and daughters were born to them, that the sons of God saw the daughters of men, that they were beautiful; and they took wives for themselves of all whom they chose.

Genesis 6:1 & 2

Israel is known as the wife of Yahweh/Jehovah/God! Whether you understand Israel as being only those according to the flesh, or as those according to Promise ( Spirit ), she was and is what may be called The Marriage of Heaven & Earth! The Sinai Covenant, having been traditionally viewed, among most anyway, as the institution of this Marriage & the Formation, or Genesis of Israel as a nation, some have come to see, that Sinai did witness the Genesis of Israel & even more, that this was not the institution of the marriage, but simply the initialization of it! What was begun in the beginning ( 'In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth' ) was the formation of the apple of His eye ( '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'- Ezekiel 16:4 ). When she had matured physically & was ready to be married, Yahweh instituted a Covenant of Betrothal with her, promising, through that Covenant, to marry her 'in the fullness of time'!

Scripture, or the Holy Bible as we English-speaking peoples know it, has been known as a Book of Covenant, in certain circles, God's Love Letter to His People! It is that! How much, though, do we understand by those words? Is it really as simple as 'For God so loved the world..........' ( John 3:16 )?
Well, yes, it IS that simple, but how well do we understand what it really means that 'God so loved the world'? Reading passages from The Song of Solomon & this from Ezekiel 16 ( 'indeed your time was the time of love; so I spread My wing over you and covered your nakedness. Yes, I swore an oath to you and entered into a covenant with you, and you became Mine' ), we see how much impact that phrase really has!

Many Christians ( even non-Christians ) look at the passage above, from Genesis 6, and they see male demons, or fallen spiritual ( non-physical ) beings procreating with female human beings! Not only is this a ridiculous assertion, it has been found through further study, that these 'sons of God' were simply a reference to the sons of Seth, rather than sons ( 'daughters' ) of Cain. The 'sons of God'' in this passage, as well as others, may be seen to refer to & picture those Covenant Children who would become the 'sons of God' ( Matthew 5:9, Romans 8:14 ) in 'the fullness of time', that is, when the Marriage had taken place!

As a sort of side-note, you might say, it was fallen spiritual beings ( Jude 6 ) who impregnated the 'daughters of men'! It was those children of Adam through Cain who had rejected the Knowledge of God & had thus given up the blessings of His Inheritance! These 'angels' ( messengers ), like Israel according to the flesh, failed to relay the Message of God's Love & instead had sown seeds of discord & hate! Because of this failure, God sent His only begotten Son, in 'the fullness of time' to gather His Bride from 'from the four winds' ( Matthew 24:32 )!

The spreading of Yahweh's 'wing' over Israel should bring to our minds the courtship of Ruth & Boaz, wherein she requested of him, 'Take your maidservant under your wing,[a] for you are a close relative' ( Ruth 3:9 )! This strengthens our assertion that this Covenant was not a Covenant of Marriage ( although a Promisory Covenant ), but simply a Covenant of Betrothal!

Much more could be written here, concerning this Courtship, the Choosing ( election ) of the Bride of Christ & the Marriage of Heaven & Earth, but since the purpose of this post is simply to inspire thought in the People of God, we will go no further here, except to say that the Creation ( fattening ) of 'the heavens and the earth' was simply a preparation of the Son of God ( Luke 3:38 ( Exodus 4:23 )  Hosea 11:1 ( Matthew 2:15 ) for that Marriage!

Charles Haddon Shank