"Behold, I lay in Zion
A chief cornerstone, elect, precious,
And he who believes on Him will by no means be put to shame.
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Discipleship Training Course Come… Follow Me!
Lesson 36: Marriage relationship with God:
Review
In this series of studies we have been considering some of the
elements that lead to an understanding of the meaning of covenant and
commitment to personal relationships, first with the Father and then
with fellow disciples.
We have considered...
1. How Father deals
with sin and the devil through the power of the Cross;
2. How he seeks our the
humble, contrite heart through which He promises to flow in
resurrection power;
3. How He tests the
faith of the disciple through temptation and suffering;
4. The overall
predetermined plan of the Father for each disciple;
5. Communication with
God and the danger of interference from Satan;
6. His desire for
fruitfulness from His people;
7. The need to be
connected through covenant relationships founded upon God's love and
commitment to us.
In this last lesson of the series we will see...
1. Mighty rescue plan
that the Father has instigated on our behalf revealed in Ezekiel;
2. The nature of His
covenant being like the marriage of two partners;
Our objective is...
to affirm the principles of covenant relationship so that as disciples
we can go on to maturity knowing that our vulnerability is covered by
the Father's relationship with us.
1. Father's mighty rescue plan.
Ezekiel 16:1-8
1 Again the word of the LORD came to me, saying,
2 "Son of man, cause Jerusalem to know her abominations,
3 "and say, '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.
4 "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.
5 "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.
6 "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!'
7 "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.
8 "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.
9 "Then I washed you in water; yes, I thoroughly washed off your blood,
and I anointed you with oil.
10 "I clothed you in embroidered cloth and gave you sandals of badger
skin; I clothed you with fine linen and covered you with silk.
11 "I adorned you with ornaments, put bracelets on your wrists, and a
chain on your neck.
12 "And I put a jewel in your nose, earrings in your ears, and a
beautiful crown on your head.
13 "Thus you were adorned with gold and silver, and your clothing was
of fine linen, silk, and embroidered cloth. You ate pastry of fine
flour, honey, and oil. You were exceedingly beautiful, and succeeded to
royalty.
14 "Your fame went out among the nations because of your beauty, for it
was perfect through My splendour which I had bestowed on you," says the
Lord GOD.
15 "But you trusted in your own beauty, played the harlot because of
your fame, and poured out your harlotry on everyone passing by who
would have it.
16 "You took some of your garments and adorned multicoloured high
places for yourself, and played the harlot on them. Such things should
not happen, nor be.
17 "You have also taken your beautiful jewellery from Mygold and My
silver, which I had given you, and made for yourself male images and
played the harlot with them.
18 "You took your embroidered garments and covered them, and you set My
oil and My incense before them.
19 "Also My food which I gave you; the pastry of fine flour, oil, and
honey which I fed you; you set it before them as sweet incense; and so
it was," says the Lord GOD.
20 "Moreover you took your sons and your daughters, whom you bore to
Me, and these you sacrificed to them to be devoured. Were your acts of
harlotry a small matter,
21 "that you have slain My children and offered them up to them by
causing them to pass through the fire?
22 "And in all your abominations and acts of harlotry you did not
remember the days of your youth, when you were naked and bare,
struggling in your blood.
23 "Then it was so, after all your wickedness; 'Woe, woe to you!' says
the Lord GOD;
24 "that you also built for yourself a shrine, and made a high place
for yourself in every street.
25 "You built your high places at the head of every road, and made your
beauty to be abhorred. You offered yourself to everyone who passed by,
and multiplied your acts of harlotry.
26 "You also committed harlotry with the Egyptians, your very fleshly
neighbours, and increased your acts of harlotry to provoke Me to anger.
27 "Behold, therefore, I stretched out My hand against you, diminished
your allotment, and gave you up to the will of those who hate you, the
daughters of the Philistines, who were ashamed of your lewd behaviour.
28 "You also played the harlot with the Assyrians, because you were
insatiable; indeed you played the harlot with them and still were not
satisfied.
29 "Moreover you multiplied your acts of harlotry as far as the land of
the trader, Chaldea; and even then you were not satisfied.
30 "How degenerate is your heart!" says the Lord GOD, "seeing you do
all these things, the deeds of a brazen harlot.
31 "You erected your shrine at the head of every road, and built your
high place in every street. Yet you were not like a harlot, because you
scorned payment.
32 "You are an adulterous wife, who takes strangers instead of her
husband.
33 "Men make payment to all harlots, but you made your payments to all
your lovers, and hired them to come to you from all around for your
harlotry.
34 "You are the opposite of other women in your harlotry, because no
one solicited you to be a harlot. In that you gave payment but no
payment was given you, therefore you are the opposite."
35 'Now then, O harlot, hear the word of the LORD!
36 'Thus says the Lord GOD: "Because your filthiness was poured out and
your nakedness uncovered in your harlotry with your lovers, and with
all your abominable idols, and because of the blood of your children
which you gave to them,
37 "surely, therefore, I will gather all your lovers with whom you took
pleasure, all those you loved, and all those you hated; I will gather
them from all around against you and will uncover your nakedness to
them, that they may see all your nakedness.
38 "And I will judge you as women who break wedlock or shed blood are
judged; I will bring blood upon you in fury and jealousy.
39 "I will also give you into their hand, and they shall throw down
your shrines and break down your high places. They shall also strip you
of your clothes, take your beautiful jewellery, and leave you naked and
bare.
40 "They shall also bring up an assembly against you, and they shall
stone you with stones and thrust you through with their swords.
41 "They shall burn your houses with fire, and execute judgments on you
in the sight of many women; and I will make you cease playing the
harlot, and you shall no longer hire lovers.
42 "So I will lay to rest My fury toward you, and My jealousy shall
depart from you. I will be quiet, and be angry no more.
43 "Because you did not remember the days of your youth, but agitated
Me with all these things, surely I will also recompense your deeds on
your own head," says the Lord GOD. "And you shall not commit lewdness
in addition to all your abominations.
44 "Indeed everyone who quotes proverbs will use this proverb against
you: 'Like mother, like daughter!'
45 "You are your mother's daughter, loathing husband and children; and
you are the sister of your sisters, who loathed their husbands and
children; your mother was a Hittite and your father an Amorite.
46 "Your elder sister is Samaria, who dwells with her daughters to the
north of you; and your younger sister, who dwells to the south of you,
is Sodom and her daughters.
47 "You did not walk in their ways nor act according to their
abominations; but, as if that were too little, you became more corrupt
than they in all your ways.
48 "As I live," says the Lord GOD, "neither your sister Sodom nor her
daughters have done as you and your daughters have done.
49 "Look, this was the iniquity of your sister Sodom: She and her
daughter had pride, fullness of food, andabundance of idleness; neither
did she strengthen the hand of the poor and needy.
50 "And they were haughty and committed abomination before Me;
therefore I took them away as I saw fit.
51 "Samaria did not commit half of your sins; but you have multiplied
your abominations more than they, and have justified your sisters by
all the abominations which you have done.
52 "You who judged your sisters, bear your own shame also, because the
sins which you committed were more abominable than theirs; they are
more righteous than you. Yes, be disgraced also, and bear your own
shame, because you justified your sisters.
53 "When I bring back their captives, the captives of Sodom and her
daughters, and the captives of Samaria and her daughters, then I will
also bring back the captives of your captivity among them,
54 "that you may bear your own shame and be disgraced by all that you
did when you comforted them.
55 "When your sisters, Sodom and her daughters, return to their former
state, and Samaria and her daughters return to their former state, then
you and your daughters will return to your former state.
56 "For your sister Sodom was not a byword in your mouth in the days of
your pride,
57 "before your wickedness was uncovered. It was like the time of the
reproach of the daughters of Syria and all those around her, and of the
daughters of the Philistines, who despise you everywhere.
58 "You have paid for your lewdness and your abominations," says the
LORD.
59 'For thus says the Lord GOD: "I will deal with you as you have done,
who despised the oath by breaking the covenant.
60 "Nevertheless I will remember My covenant with you in the days of
your youth, and I will establish an everlasting covenant with you.
61 "Then you will remember your ways and be ashamed, when you receive
your older and your younger sisters; for I will give them to you for
daughters, but not because of My covenant with you.
62 "And I will establish My covenant with you. Then you shall know that
I am the LORD,
63 "that you may remember and be ashamed, and never open your mouth
anymore because of your shame, when I provide you an atonement for all
you have done," says the Lord GOD.'"
2. The Father’s marriage to His people.
Jeremiah 31:31
Behold, the days are coming, says the LORD, when I will make a new
covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah;
Jeremiah 31:32-33
32 not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the
day that I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt,
My covenant which they broke, though I was a husband to them, says the
LORD.
33 "But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel
after those days, says the LORD: I will put My law in their minds, and
write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be My
people.
3. The Christian sign of the betrothal
covenant - the Communion.
1 Corinthians 11:27-30
27 Therefore whoever eats this bread or drinks this cup of the Lord in
an unworthy manner will be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord.
28 But let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of the bread and
drink of the cup.
29 For he who eats and drinks in an unworthy manner eats and drinks
judgment to himself, not discerning the Lord's body.
30 For this reason many are weak and sick among you, and many sleep.
Genesis 14:18
Then Melchizedek king of Salem brought out bread and wine; he was the
priest of God Most High.
Hebrews 7:1-2
1 For this Melchizedek, king of Salem, priest of the Most High God, who
met Abraham returning from the slaughter of the kings and blessed him,
2 to whom also Abraham gave a tenth part of all, first being translated
"king of righteousness," and then also king of Salem, meaning "king of
peace,"
Psalms 23:5
You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; You anoint
my head with oil; my cup runs over.
Malcolm Vine, Cornerstone Ministries. September 2004.
To contact the Bible School email: bibleschool@cornerstoneministries.org.uk
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