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| The Divorce of Israel.
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19. The
Divorce of Israel.
Now, keeping in mind what we said above in regard to the
passage from Isaiah about the bill of divorcement, we will say that the
mother of the people separated herself from Christ, her husband,
without having received the bill of divorcement, but afterwards when
there was found in her an unseemly thing, and she did not find favour
in his sight, the bill of divorcement was written out for her; for when
the new covenant called those of the Gentiles to the house of Him who
had cast away his former wife, it virtually gave the bill of
divorcement to her who formerly separated from her husband—the
law, and the Word. Therefore he, also, having separated from her,
married, so to speak, another, having given into the hands of the
former the bill of divorcement; wherefore they can no longer do the
things enjoined on them by the law, because of the bill of
divorcement. And a sign that she has received the bill of
divorcement is this, that Jerusalem was destroyed along with what they
called the sanctuary of the things in it which were believed to be
holy, and with the altar of burnt offerings, and all the worship
associated with it. And a further sign of the bill of divorcement
is this, that they cannot keep their feasts, even though according to
the letter of the law designedly
commanded them, in the place which the Lord God appointed to them for
keeping feasts; but there is this also, that the whole synagogue has
become unable to stone those who have committed this or that sin; and
thousands of things commanded are a sign of the bill of divorcement;
and the fact that “there is no more a prophet,” and that
they say, “We no longer see signs;”6190
for the Lord says, “He hath taken away from Judæa and from
Jerusalem,” according to the word of Isaiah, “Him that is
mighty, and her that is mighty, a powerful giant,” etc., down to
the words, “a prudent hearer.”6191
Now, He who is the Christ may have
taken the synagogue to wife and cohabited with her, but it may be that
afterwards she found not favour in His sight; and the reason of her not
having found favour in His sight was, that there was found in her an
unseemly thing; for what was more unseemly than the circumstance that,
when it was proposed to them to release one at the feast, they asked
for the release of Barabbas the robber, and the condemnation of
Jesus?6192
And what was
more unseemly than the fact, that they all said in His case,
“Crucify Him, crucify Him,” and “Away with such a
fellow from the earth”?6193
And can this
be freed from the charge of unseemliness, “His blood be upon us,
and upon our children”?6194
Wherefore,
when He was avenged, Jerusalem was compassed with armies, and its
desolation was near,6195
and their house was
taken away from it, and “the daughter of Zion was left as a booth
in a vineyard, and as a lodge in a garden of cucumbers, and as a
besieged city.”6196
And, about
the same time, I think, the husband wrote out a bill of divorcement to
his former wife, and gave it into her hands, and sent her away from his
own house, and the bond of her who came from the Gentiles has been
cancelled about which the Apostle says, “Having blotted out the
bond written in ordinances, which was contrary to us, and He hath taken
it out of the way, nailing it to the cross;”6197
for Paul also and others became proselytes
of Israel for her who came from the Gentiles.6198
The first wife, accordingly, not
having found favour before her husband, because in her had been found
an unseemly thing, went out from the dwelling of her husband, and,
going away, has become joined to another man, to whom she has subjected
herself, whether we should call the husband Barabbas the robber, who is
figuratively the devil, or some evil power. And in the case of
some of that synagogue there has happened the former thing which was
written in the law, but in the case of others, that which was
second. For the last husband6199
hated his wife
and will write out for her some day at the consummation of things a
bill of divorcement, when God so orders it, and will give it into her
hands and will send her away from his dwelling; for as the good God
will put enmity between the serpent and the woman, and between his seed
and her seed,6200
so will He order it
that the last husband shall hate her.E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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