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Having established a baseline argument for the identity of the Christian gentiles as the scattered 10 northern tribes of Israel, and plan of reconciliation between God’s two houses of His people, through Christ, let us now see what befell the south after the fall of the north in 722BC.
The prophets Jeremiah (650-570BC) and Ezekiel (622-570BC) warn the south that they are in danger of the same judgement that came upon the north. They describe the House of Israel and House of Judah as an unfaithful wife, committing adultery against God, akin to Hosea’s children of harlotry, who are the offspring of his harlot wife, backslidden Israel.
They warn that God, having scattered the northern tribes, has now turned His attention toward Judah, and will remember her sins, for Judah saw the calamities that befell the north, and continued in their ways. Jeremiah begins his book by chastising the north for turning away from God, and he warns Judah they are doing the same:
“20 “For long ago I broke your yoke and burst your bonds; but you said, ‘I will not serve.’
Yes, on every high hill and under every green tree you bowed down like a whore. 26 “As a thief is shamed when caught, so the house of Israel shall be shamed: they, their kings, their officials, their priests, and their prophets, 27 who say to a tree, ‘You are my father,’ and to a stone, ‘You gave me birth.’ For they have turned their back to me, and not their face. But in the time of their trouble they say, ‘Arise and save us!’ 28 But where are your gods that you made for yourself? Let them arise, if they can save you, in your time of trouble; for as many as your cities are your gods, O Judah.”
Jeremiah 2:20,26-28 ESV
Jeremiah then characterizes the relationship between God and Israel as a marriage, and that Israel has committed adultery against Him by sacrificing to other gods. As an adulteress, God has grounds within His law to ask for divorce. In fact, we see the scattering of the Northern House of Israel as a divorce decree. In Jeremiah 3, we see God acknowledge His divorce with the northern tribe, but then holds the southern tribe in even more contempt for seeing what happened to the northern tribe, but continually playing the whore anyway. According to God’s law and New Testament writings (see Matt 5:32), legal divorce is only granted through death or adultery. For the northern tribe, divorce is decreed by their adultery, and they are put away. In addition, if His estranged wife (in this case the northern House of Israel), then marries themselves to other gods, they are lost, for He will not return to those members.
“1 If a man divorces his wife and she goes from him and becomes another man’s wife, will he return to her? Would not that land be greatly polluted? You have played the whore with many lovers; and would you return to me? declares the Lord. 6 The Lord said to me in the days of King Josiah: “Have you seen what she did, that faithless one, Israel, how she went up on every high hill and under every green tree, and there played the whore? 7 And I thought, ‘After she has done all this she will return to me,’ but she did not return, and her treacherous sister Judah saw it. 8 She saw that for all the adulteries of that faithless one, Israel, I had sent her away with a decree of divorce. Yet her treacherous sister Judah did not fear, but she too went and played the whore.”
Jeremiah 3:1,6-8 ESV
We see in Jeremiah 3:1 that God asks a rhetorical question, and gives us the answer. We see this as a reference to Deuteronomy 24:1-4, where it states that if a man divorces his adulterous wife, he will not return to her if she remarries and then divorces the 2nd husband or if the 2nd husband dies.
“When a man takes a wife and marries her, if then she finds no favor in his eyes because he has found some indecency in her, and he writes her a certificate of divorce and puts it in her hand and sends her out of his house, and she departs out of his house, 2 and if she goes and becomes another man’s wife, 3 and the latter man hates her and writes her a certificate of divorce and puts it in her hand and sends her out of his house, or if the latter man dies, who took her to be his wife, 4 then her former husband, who sent her away, may not take her again to be his wife, after she has been defiled, for that is an abomination before the Lord. And you shall not bring sin upon the land that the Lord your God is giving you for an inheritance.
Deuteronomy 24:1-4 ESV
So after the northern tribe is divorced and scattered, the people that remain in Jerusalem try to live in both worlds. They worship other gods in addition to YHWH, despite seeing what happened to their sister, the northern tribe. In Jeremiah 32, we read that the south has turned their back to Him, but not their face, just as the north had done in Jeremiah 2:27.
“30 For the children of Israel and the children of Judah have done nothing but evil in my sight from their youth. The children of Israel have done nothing but provoke me to anger by the work of their hands, declares the Lord. 31 This city has aroused my anger and wrath, from the day it was built to this day, so that I will remove it from my sight 32 because of all the evil of the children of Israel and the children of Judah that they did to provoke me to anger—their kings and their officials, their priests and their prophets, the men of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem. 33 They have turned to me their back and not their face. And though I have taught them persistently, they have not listened to receive instruction. 34 They set up their abominations in the house that is called by my name, to defile it. 35 They built the high places of Baal in the Valley of the Son of Hinnom, to offer up their sons and daughters to Molech, though I did not command them, nor did it enter into my mind, that they should do this abomination, to cause Judah to sin.
Jeremiah 32:30-35 ESV
So the south is in danger of divorce just as the north. What is interesting is that legal divorce is only granted in adultery or death. The north was divorced because they committed adultery and married other gods. The south is preserved to bring in Christ, but are only reconciled into a new covenant marriage through death. The death and resurrection of Christ.
Next Section: Glimpse of the New Covenant
