Jeremiah 3:1
They say, If a man put away his wife, and she go from him, and become another man’s, shall he return unto her again? shall not that land be greatly polluted? but thou hast played the harlot with many lovers; yet return again to me, saith the LORD.
The verse states the marriage law that if a man puts away his wife and she leaves him and becomes another man's, her former husband must not take her back again, for such a return would greatly pollute the land. The wife is Israel and Judah, and her playing the harlot with many lovers is spiritual apostasy in forsaking the worship of Jehovah for idolatrous sects, surrounding nations and their gods, worldly powers, and unlawful union with the world. Though such a return would ordinarily seem forbidden and polluting, the Lord still calls His backsliding and unfaithful people to return to Him in unalterable love and mercy to pardon, heal, and restore living connection when they acknowledge their sin. The only legitimate union for the church is with God and Jesus Christ, so for the church to have communion with another power and join itself to the world is fornication and spiritual adultery against the Lord. The harlot imagery represents a corrupt, apostate church professedly allied to Christ but really united to the world, rightly symbolized as Babylon the great the mother of harlots with unfaithful Israel as its prototype, whose present force is apostasy by rejecting God's law and His seventh-day Sabbath and seeking civil power to enforce the false Sunday sabbath.
Divorce Law and Setting
The law is that when a man divorces his wife and she departs from him and becomes another man's wife, her former husband is not to take her back again, because such a return would greatly pollute the land. The statement means exactly what it says. Its condition is repeated from Deuteronomy 24:4 and is given as a check against an iniquitous and ruinous social possibility. Such intermingling of men and women in the marriage relation is abominable.
The prohibition supplies the standard by which Judah's unfaithfulness is exposed. It stands among the prophet's denunciations of sin and his appeals for the people to return to God.
Israel's Unfaithfulness Yet Recalled
The wife is Israel and Judah, pictured as Jerusalem and Zion, and her playing the harlot with many lovers is spiritual apostasy in forsaking the worship of Jehovah and turning to idolatrous or false religious sects. That apostasy was joining to surrounding nations and worshiping their gods, joining to worldly powers and nations, and unlawful friendship and union with the world. Like a wife gone to another man, the church joined itself to the world and departed from God, becoming unfaithful to her divine husband and a harlot, which made the land polluted and brought pollution, destruction and confusion. The combined symbol of a city and a woman is the Bible's chosen representative of a church, or the professed people of God, so the false church professedly allied to Christ but really united to the world is rightly symbolized as Babylon the great, the mother of harlots, of which unfaithful Jerusalem seeking the nations instead of God is the prototype. This spiritual fornication is not the church's use of civil laws for its temporal affairs.
The backsliding went by steps, first building altars to Jehovah upon the high places, then becoming associated with false worship and accustomed to look upon it leniently, then having fellowship with it. Then came building altars to Milcom and Chemosh and Baal and Ashtoreth and a multitude of gods, till at last altars to false gods were erected in the very house of Jehovah. Looking to the hills and to the mountains for help was looking to the false gods worshiped there and hoping for help from them.
The marriage image shows the covenant bond, for the Lord is married to His people and the church is lawfully bound to God alone and counted a harlot when she joins herself to the world and departs from that exclusive bond. Belonging to Him means taking His name and receiving His protection and all His name stands for.
Though such a return would ordinarily seem forbidden and polluting, the Lord still calls His backsliding, unfaithful people to return to Him. The question that stresses pollution becomes an appeal and a plea to backsliders, showing His unalterable love remaining true, His mercy and willingness to pardon when they acknowledge their sin, and that those who have departed may regain a living connection, be restored and healed, and have hope. As a wife may take back a repentant husband without committing adultery, so God may receive His repentant people again despite the apparent barrier to taking back an unfaithful spouse.
For persons in this forbidden marriage situation, in which a former husband must not take back his wife after she has gone from him and lived with another man, everything depends on loving God and truth and purity and eternal life better than the passing comforts and pleasures of this world. Nothing is left but to bring forth fruits meet for repentance into harmony with God's pure thought of the family relation, being true to His word as they value their own salvation and the salvation of husband, children, and the other woman involved, for God names the act playing the harlot with many lovers and greatly polluting the land and forever recognizes such commingling in the marriage relation as abominable. God's welcome of Israel back despite grave unfaithfulness must not be used to excuse or gloss over such sin.
Apostate Church Joined to World
The only lawful union for the church is with God and with Jesus Christ, to whom she belongs as a wife belongs exclusively to her husband, so that for her to have communion with another power and join herself to the world is fornication and spiritual adultery against the Lord. When she departs from that bond and joins herself to the world she is counted an unfaithful wife and a harlot, and the marriage law showing that the land is polluted when a wife leaves her husband for another measures the seriousness of Israel's playing the harlot with many lovers. Babylon's fornication is this same departure from God joined with union with the kings of the earth, with their idolatry, their errors, and their power.
Harlotry in this imagery represents a corrupt, apostate church, set over against a pure woman representing God's true church. The combined symbol of a city and a woman is the Bible's chosen representative of a church, or the professed people of God, so the false church professedly allied to Christ but really united to the world is rightly symbolized as Babylon the great, the mother of harlots. Jerusalem and Zion pictured as a lewd woman playing the harlot with many lovers when apostatizing from God and joining the surrounding nations and worshiping their gods, and seeking the nations instead of God her true husband, is the prototype of that corrupt church in unlawful union with the world, and such unfaithfulness brings confusion.
The illicit connection is twofold, both adopting the world's ways and seeking its aid and civil power to enforce religious dogmas, which God abhors with the strongest repugnance. Its present force falls on apostasy caused by rejecting God's law and refusing His seventh-day Sabbath, in which fallen Babylon, deserted of God, seeks worldly power to enforce the false Sunday sabbath. From all union of church and state comes persecution of the people of God, and the efforts of Catholics and Protestants to secure effective Sunday laws is the beginning of the fulfillment of that fornication in the prophecy of Revelation 13. This spiritual fornication is not the church's use of civil laws for its temporal affairs.