Brethren, we went through this horrible situation with the type of the bride of Christ, physical Israel, including Judah, that did not hold on to the marriage covenant agreement. They had faithlessly come and they made it in good faith with God. He made it in good faith, but they played the harlot. They were faithless, they divorced Him.
Even though God in His faithfulness, as Paul tells us in Romans 3, has left Judah in place, keeping some of the laws in their hands, they still are a faithless people, and it is only through His faith that we can see where the Sabbath and the holy days and those particular ordinances are still being kept, but it is not because they are still part of the bride of Christ. They are not part of the bride that He had made physical Israel in separating from the world.
This needs to be on our mind as the reality of the bride of Christ is being created and each of those selected few who have made the New Covenant with Him now. This may seem to be something we would rather not consider as we assemble here this week to rejoice and refresh, but it must be carefully considered as we make all those little choices to remain faithful and prepare to be the perfect witness that Christ is preparing us for as His helpmate in spiritual Israel.
The Jews now knew what was going on in Israel. They knew that the Assyrians came down and conquered Israel. That was not hidden from them. They knew why Israel went into captivity. They should have learned, but they did not. Even though what Judah did may not have been any worse in terms of the actual acts that they did, yet Judah is more culpable, more responsible, because they had an example to follow, or not to follow. "To whom much is given, from him much is required," and that is why God says Judah was worse.
Can you imagine that? No fear. It was just as if it did not matter at all. The harlotry we are talking about here is primarily spiritual harlotry—committing spiritual adultery by worshipping false gods.
Hypocrisy is involved here. The reforms by which the Jews came under the authority of God were made possible by hypocrisy. They reformed, but it was not of the heart. They did what Josiah said, but they really did not do it willingly. They did it because Josiah made them do it. He had to use the authority of the office of king to get these people to make the reforms. It was done with pretense. It was hollow. There was no real heart there.
Remember that the entering into the covenant was a marriage agreement in which the wife—Israel—consented to submit to the governance of her husband—God. So, Israel became His wife.
You have to understand that God also divorced Judah. If that is so, then the wife is no longer under the authority of her husband. A divorce has taken place. Now who is the governor? I gave you some insight into that when I said that they had a high priesthood, which was under Herod, who was subject to Rome, who was subject to Satan.
