I will even betroth thee unto me in faithfulness: and thou shalt know the LORD.
The promise pictures God's bond with His people as a faithful, enduring marriage covenant, the sacred and lasting relation between Christ and the church and also between Christ and the individual believer. That betrothal was secured when Christ redeemed His people by giving His life for them. It is God's restoration of repentant Israel after apostasy and punishment to a lasting covenant relationship with Him, a return to hope and to the joy of Israel's early days.
In the last days, near the coming of the Lord, God renews this covenant and binds His commandment-keeping, obedient people to Himself in faithfulness, amid a world of disobedience and transgression of His law. The betrothal is forever in faithfulness, joining righteousness and judgment and lovingkindness and mercy. It belongs to a people made ready to stand in the day of the Lord, who are purified, made white, and tried, who practice the truth and give the last warning.
To be so betrothed in faithfulness is to know the Lord as God in a relationship marked by fidelity. That promised knowledge expresses the soul's desire for certain knowledge of God, and such knowledge means holiness and sanctification.
The promise pictures God's bond with His people as a faithful, enduring marriage covenant, the sacred and lasting relation between Christ and the church and also between Christ and the individual believer. That betrothal was secured when Christ redeemed His people by giving His life for them. It is God's restoration of repentant Israel after apostasy and punishment to a lasting covenant relationship with Him, a return to hope and to the joy of Israel's early days.
In the last days, near the coming of the Lord, God renews this covenant and binds His commandment-keeping, obedient people to Himself in faithfulness, amid a world of disobedience and transgression of His law. The betrothal is forever in faithfulness, joining righteousness and judgment and lovingkindness and mercy. It belongs to a people made ready to stand in the day of the Lord, who are purified, made white, and tried, who practice the truth and give the last warning.
To be so betrothed in faithfulness is to know the Lord as God in a relationship marked by fidelity. That promised knowledge expresses the soul's desire for certain knowledge of God, and such knowledge means holiness and sanctification.