Issued: 6/11/21 Revised:  10/20/23

NOTE:  Because Bible versions sometimes differ from each other in crucial ways, the version quoted here will be the one that best clarifies the point being made.  For a quick comparison between versions, please go to: http://www.biblehub.com.

   All bracketed material may be authorial comments, attempts at proper syntax, or minimal rewordings of Scripture for the sake of clarity and continuity.  These emendations will not be italicized.

   The “/” will be used to signify “and/or.”  The symbol “↔” is used to connect verses corroborating each other and so establishing doctrinal truths (Matthew 18:16↔2Corinthians 13:1).

  In differentiating between Yahweh Son [Jesus] and Yahweh Father [the Most High God], lower case letters have been used when discussing the former; upper case letters are reserved for the Only and Most High God.  Since Jesus was at pains to differentiate himself from Father, we have followed his lead here.

   The term neo-Christians will be used to differentiate between false Christians and Jesus’ true followers.

   Both in Matthew 9:15 and Mark 2:19 Jesus identified himself as the “bridegroom/husband” of his disciples.  We can only guess how ‘weird’ this must have sounded to his contemporaries:  a man who apparently was never seen alone with women (John 4:27) and went different places with twelve men in tow who were not put off by such claims.  The difference between mindsets is exactly what Paul argues in 1Corinthians 2:14-15:  What seems foolishness to unbelievers is discernedspiritually by people of faith.

   More pointedly, Jesus, who never cared about what others said about him [as did Paul (1Corinthians 4:3], was calling attention to one of the messianic roles that identified him as the Yahweh Son of the Old Testament:  Husband to Israel and Judah; thus laying the groundwork for later doctrine regarding his Bridegroom relationship with the Church and the Heavenly Jerusalem.  So let us go back to the origin of this doctrine, relying on nomenclature previously discussed and which will be used throughout this series.

First Adam and Eve = Last Adam/Jesus and the Church

   It might seem that the creation of “Woman” was an afterthought in the sense that land-dwelling animals of both genders were created alongside “Man” (Genesis 1:24-26), yet no suitable helper could be found for first Adam (Genesis 2:20).  Genesis 1:27 summarizes events actually taking place in Genesis 2:19-20; so that although seemingly out of sequence, Genesis 1:27 fits within the context of Genesis 1, whose purpose is to give both a literal overview of Creation and a symbolic overview of human history [see Genesis:  The Myth that Never Was].  First Adam was placed in a specific place within this creation:  the Garden of Eden (Genesis 2:8); and it was there that animals were brought to him in order to give them names (Genesis 2:19), foreshadowing last Adam/Jesus’ messianic role as Name Giver [see Part II].

   We are then told that there was no female counterpart for first Adam; so Yahweh Son, the proxy Creator identified as “Yahweh God” in Genesis 2:21-22, caused first Adam to fall asleep; and by taking one of his ribs, Yahweh Son fashioned “Woman.”  Genesis 5:2 tells us that Yahweh Son named them both “Adam” [at this point Eve had not yet been so named]; so that by naming both “Adam,” Yahweh Son implemented Yahweh Father’s decree that married people were to be regarded as one person indivisible for life (Malachi 2:16; Matthew 19:6; 1Corinthians 7:39).¹

   For all practical purposes, Genesis 2:21-23 is a blueprint for heterosexual marriage—the only kind, needless to say, allowed by Yahweh Father.  It is important to note that first Adam and “Woman” were made from different substances; thus by definition, she was physically part of him yet not equally dominant, the same way ribs as body parts do not dictate terms to the brain which controls the entire body.  A pious but misguided hogwash has been concocted to argue for parity between husband and wife, stating that “Woman” was taken from first Adam’s side “to be equal with him, under his arm to be protected, and near his heart to be beloved.”  All this sounds very romantic but it has nothing to do with the subservient role Yahweh Son assigned to and expects from every female follower in the aftermath of Eve’s transgression (Genesis 3:16).

  Why a rib was chosen is a moot point:  A lung or a kidney would have served as well, since only one is required to support life.  Still, if we were to venture a guess, the rib [Scripture does not specify from which side it was taken] points to the area where Jesus was speared to confirm his death (John 19:33-34);² at which moment his spilt blood gained its potency to redeem sins (Hebrews 9:22, 12:24) and confer immortal life (Deuteronomy 12:23).³   It was with Jesus’ death that his ‘Wife’ the Church, as part of his mystical body, could ostensibly but no yet factually become immortal.  We use the world ‘mystical’ in the sense of having spiritual meaning, so as to differentiate between Jesus’ real body, resurrected as immortal flesh and bone (Luke 24:39), from the spiritual concept of his ‘body’ as the embodiment of the Church.

   As usual it fell to Paul, Jesus’ chosen preacher to the Gentiles (Acts 9:15; Galatians 2:7), to unveil the “hidden wisdom” implicit in Genesis 2:23-24: “For the husband is the head of the wife, just as Christ is the head of the Church, he himself being the Savior of the body [Church].  But as the Church is subject to Christ, so wives ought to be subject to their husbands in everything [see 1Peter 3:1,5-6]. Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the Church and gave himself up for her, so that he might… present [the Church] to himself in all her glory…holy and blameless.   [Likewise] husbands also ought to love their own wives as their own bodies.  He who loves his own wife loves himself; for no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it just as Christ also does the Church, being members [literally all the redeemed] of his body, [and figuratively] of his flesh and of his bones.” ⁴   Paul then proceeds to establish the link with Genesis 2:23-24:  “For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother, and shall be joined to his wife and the two shall become one flesh.”   This mystery is great; but I am speaking with reference to Christ and the Church.”  (Ephesians 5:23-32).

   What is Paul basically doing?  Connecting first Adam to last Adam/Jesus; so that it becomes clear that first Adam’s ‘marriage’ was shadow to the substance of last Adam/Jesus’ ‘marriage’ to the Church.  And if we pay attention to detail, we see that first Adam did not leave any parents to join “Woman,” but last Adam/Jesus actually did:  He left Father in Heaven to join the Apostles, they who could not be mourning a ‘bridegroom/husband’ as yet not dead (Matthew 9:15).  Furthermore, the Apostles could not share Jesus’ immortal flesh until after the first resurrection (1Corinthians 15:50-53); so between Jesus’ own resurrection and the latter event, the now immortal Jesus and all Judeo-Christians do not share the same flesh—which tells us that Genesis 2:24 specifically alludes to the time when they will.

   Thus as far as first Adam and last Adam/Jesus are concerned, we have a Scriptural loop beginning with sin’s entrance into the world and the loss of paradise; extending to the purging of sin at Armageddon; and ending with a return to Paradise.  What about “Woman’s” role in all of this?

   The first thing to note is that first Adam’s initial act of disobedience was violating the chain of command:  Before “Woman” was created, he had been told not to eat from the Tree of Life and Death (Genesis 2:16-17); so that when she gave him to eat from the forbidden fruit (Genesis 3:6), he was bowing to her will rather than Yahweh Son’s.  This is precisely the danger Paul encountered in marriage:  “One who is unmarried is concerned about the things of the Lord, how he may please the Lord (2Timothy 2:4); but one who is married is concerned about the things of the world, how he may please his wife. The woman who is unmarried… is concerned about the things of the Lord, that she may be holy both in body and spirit; but one who is married is concerned about the things of the world and how she may please her husband” (1Corinthians 7:23-24).  What is the problem here?  That by prioritizing one another’s self-interests, married couples are in effect dismissing God’s authority over them.

  Where the Gospel was concerned, Paul regarded marriage as a snare best avoided:  It would be better for men not to marry; but because of sexual urges, it was best they did rather than be tormented by the desires of the flesh (1Corinthians 7:1,8-9).  In that situation, husband and wife should view sex as an escape valve rather than the obsession it has normally become.  And when it came to Eve, Paul was mindful that Satan had zeroed in on her as the weakest link in the chain of command and that first Adam’s faux pas had been giving in to her initiative—all too often the norm in human marriages.  Hence Paul’s advice to rectify the situation by forbidding women to speak in churches—the contemporary norm—and to be instructed in Gospel matters—a possibly extinct practice—privately by their husbands (1Corinthians 14:35; 1Timothy 2:11-14).

   Yahweh Son was not that understanding.  “Woman’s” punishment was to endure painful pregnancies while bearing children; establishing a perpetual enmity between her seed and Satan’s; and subjecting her to her husband’s will (Genesis 3:15-16).  Then following the name-giving modality established in Genesis 2:19, first Adam named her Eve; a name traditionally meaning “living,” but which enhanced by her gender, Scripture renders as “mother of all the living” (Genesis 3:20).  And here we arrive at the gist of the matter:  On the shadow side, “mother of all the living” means humanity at large; but on the substance side, it refers to the righteous, they who although physically dead, constitute the “living” for God (Matthew 22:32; John 11:25; Ephesians 2:4-5); as opposed to non-believers, who although physically alive, are viewed as dead—the differentiation Jesus drew attention to in Luke 9:60.

   Thus Eve symbolizes Jesus’ Church—again all the redeemed from Abel to those living at the time of his return, some now dead but figuratively ‘alive,’ and those literally alive at the second coming (1Thessalonians 4:15-17).  All, however, were conceived by ‘mother’ Church in suffering and persecutions allegorized in Scripture as ‘pregnancies’, of which Jesus, her first-born amongst humans was Satan’s principal target (Revelation 12:4).  So that when we come to her symbolic representation in Revelation 12, we are told of her painful pregnancy, of Jesus’ birth, and the subsequent ordeals of all her progeny (Revelation 12:2,5,17).  Most significantly, she is “clothed with the sun,” simultaneously evoking Jesus’ “Light” and his “Sun of righteousness/morning star” attributes (↔Malachi 4:2; Revelation 22:6); and she is standing over the moon, symbolic of Satan as ‘ruling’ over night (Genesis 1:16), so that Satan is positioned under her heel to do his ‘bruising’ (Genesis 3:15).

   Now, the very fact that the now immortal Jesus and all his mortal followers do not share the same flesh leads us to a higher level of meaning.  The Church as Jesus’ body is a symbolic concept and not a factual place; and while is true that the Holy Spirit inhabits each faithful (John 14:17; Romans 8:9; 1Corinthians 6:19↔Ezekiel 36:27), this symbolic body is not the Most High’s ultimate Sanctuary:  The Heavenly Jerusalem is (Revelation 21:3).  Therefore as Jesus from Heaven interacts with his ‘helpmates’ on earth, each individual is viewed as a stone or a brick making up the structure of his conceptual body (Ephesians 2:20-22; Hebrews 3:6; 1Peter 2:5).  Thus in a spiritual sense, each individual—be it man or woman—is ‘married’ to Jesus just as Paul was, enduring ‘pregnancies’ to produce offspring worthy of Jesus (2Corinthians 11:2; Galatians 4:19), who would in turn give him further spiritual issue.  Because ‘wives/helpmates’ connote marriage and they may rub some readers the wrong way, we will henceforth borrow the term “suitable helpers” from Genesis 2:20 to describe Jesus’ followers of both sexes.

   The ‘engendering’ process was to span the whole of Christian history until an unspecified number of converts was attained—a great multitude (Revelation 5:11, 7:9) as innumerable as the stars (Genesis 15:5).  But once these had been resurrected immortal and gathered, the concept of ‘body as Church’ was no longer relevant:  She had ‘birthed’ a sinless, immortal nation (Revelation 5:9-10) in Son’s and Father’s true image, needing an external Sanctuary to house them all:  The Heavenly City (Hebrews 11:16).  Thus the symbolic ‘wife/Church’ of Revelation 12 was replaced by a new ‘Bride’ tailor-made and truly suitable for Son:  “Come and I will show you the bride, the wife [to be, prior to the wedding feast (Luke 12:37; Revelation 19:9)] of the Lamb.  And [the angel] carried me away in the Spirit to a mountain great and high, and showed me the great City, the Holy Jerusalem, coming down out of Heaven from God” (Revelation 21: 9-10).⁵

   This symbolic upgrading was not lost on Paul:  “But the Jerusalem above is free; she is our mother.  For it is written, ‘Rejoice, barren woman who does not bear [she did not conceive her population; the Church did]; break forth and shout, you who are not in labor [unlike pregnant Eve/Church]; for more numerous are the children of the desolate [‘sad’ for being barren] than the one [the earthly Jerusalem] who has a husband [i.e., Yahweh Son]’” (Galatians 4:26-27).  While we admit we cannot trace Agar’s connection to the Sinaitic covenant or to earthly Jerusalem (Galatians 4:22-25), Paul’s comparison between ‘barren’ Sarah (Genesis 16:2) and the Holy City is valid, as well as their respective, innumerable progenies.  That being said, we are not challenging Paul’s conclusions, since he, like all Biblical writers, wrote what the Holy Spirit inspired him to (2Peter 1:20-21); so the limitation is ours.

Upgrading Symbols:  From Church to Holy City

   To recap:  As Jesus’ suitable helper, Paul’s ministry [his painful ‘pregnancy’] engendered ‘Christs’ in his converts (Galatians 4:19); they in turn would ostensibly engender ‘Christs’ in others; and so on.  Once the Holy City’s population reaches its limit (?), the Church’s ‘engendering’ ends:  All her offspring, their old selves ‘dead,’ have now become new creatures in Christ (2Corinthians 5:17) and transitioned from mortal to immortal flesh (1Corinthians 15:51-53)—the ‘rebirth’ Jesus mentioned to Nicodemus (John 3:3).  For all practical purposes, then, the Church as helpmate to Jesus, as conceptualizing his ‘mystical’ body, as provisional sanctuary for the Holy Spirit, and as mother of the mortal faithful, becomes obsolete—’dead.’ 

   According to the Law, either espouse is free to re-marry after the death of the original partner; consequently, Jesus is able to ‘marry’ a brand new wife, the Holy City, not a concept but a factual place, populated by Judeo-Christians made ‘pure’ [the ‘virgins’ Paul refers to in 2Corinthians 11:2] for him.  As we shall see, none of this was true of Yahweh Son’s ‘marital’ relationships with Israel and Judah in the Old Testament.

  Thus the symbolic, pregnant “woman” of Revelation 12:1-17 is upgraded to the symbolic Virgin/Bride of Revelation 21:1-27.  Please note that the Church’s place in history spans the formation of Israel, symbolized by the crown of twelve stars [Genesis 37:9↔note how Joseph counts himself as a star as well] over her head, corresponding to the twelve tribes and their descendants throughout the Old Testament, up to the persecution of Judeo-Christians throughout history.  The Holy City manifests itself at the timeless dawn of a new order of things (Revelation 21:1), the embodiment of the victorious, joint labors of Jews and Christians.  So that as the Jewish effort made it possible for the redeemed from all quarters of the earth to gain access into her (Isaiah 52:1↔Revelation 21:27; Joel 3:17; Matthew 24:31; Ezekiel 36:24-28), the Holy City’s doors bear their names; and as Christians gave her stability by laying her foundations—Jesus himself being the cornerstone (Isaiah 28:16↔Acts 4:11; 1Peter 2:4,6-8; Ephesians 2:19-21), “the wall of the City had twelve foundation stones, on which [are] inscribed the twelve names of the twelve Apostles of the Lamb” (Revelation 21:14).

Yahweh Son = Israel’s and Judah’s Husband

   Establishing Yahweh Son’s identity as Israel’s ‘husband’ is easy:  “For your Maker [the proxy Creator] is your husband, Yahweh of hosts [Son, not Yahweh the King, Father↔Isaiah 44:6) is his name, and your Redeemer,  the Holy One of Israel, [proxy and Interim↔Matthew 18:28; 1Corinthians 15:23-28; Revelation 12:5, 19:13-16 ] God of all the earth he shall be called’” (Isaiah 54:5).  As stated before, Yahweh Son’s attribute as Redeemer is equally applicable to Yahweh Father, since Yahweh Son/Jesus did the actual shedding of the blood that redeems souls, but was only able to accomplish his task by channeling Yahweh Father’s power, which was also true of his appointed duties as Creator and proxy God.  In Matthew 18:28 the resurrected Jesus makes clear that all authority in Heaven and earth is given to him, obviously by the only Being in the position to do so:  The Most High God (Daniel 4:35, 5:21)—which by the way, also holds true for Satan (Luke 4:6).  Revelation 5:1,5-7 records this transfer of power.

   Now, ‘husband’ is an attribute that Yahweh Son did not share with Yahweh Father, for the Most High does not marry anyone; but Yahweh Son did share it with Jacob.     Like all the Patriarchs, Jacob was an early symbol for Jesus:  He was a man of peace (Genesis 25:27); like Abel, a shepherd (Genesis 4:2; 31:38-39) and a zealous observer of pre-Mosaic laws—i.e., animal sacrifices and payment of tithes, respectively (Genesis 4:4; 28:22); both victim of godless, older brothers (Genesis 4:5-8; 27:41).  From birth to adulthood, Jacob was single-mindedly focused on securing God’s blessings (Genesis 25:26,31; 28:12-22, 32:26).  His two wives, Leah and Rachel, were sisters:  Leah the mother of tribal leaders who envied Joseph and sold him for pieces of silver, just as the Jewish priests betrayed Jesus centuries later (Genesis 37:11,28; Matthew 26:15; Mark 15:10); and Rachel, who gave birth to Joseph, the Appointed Steward over all of Egypt, Pharaoh’s proxy ruler but lower than Pharaoh regarding the throne (Genesis 41:40,55, 45:8-9); sent by the Most High to ensure the survival of his brothers (Genesis 45:7).  Here is Son prefigured down to the proverbial “T”:  Steward over God’s house (Isaiah 22:20-23↔Revelation 3:7; Hebrews 3:5-6); Redeemer of his brothers; lower in rank to the Most High (John 14:28) by sitting to the right of the Father’s throne (Psalms 11:1; Acts 7:56); and sent by the Father to the world for men’s salvation (Isaiah 53:4-6,10↔John 19:11; John 18:11, 20:21).

   Jacob loved Rachel best and labored seven years to marry her (Genesis 29:18,30); but her father, Laban, conned Jacob into marrying her sister Leah first:  Apparently Jacob, like Noah and Lot before him, drank themselves to the point of engaging in improper behaviors (Genesis 9:21, 19:32-35, 29:22-25)—perhaps the precedents on which later prohibitions against drinking were based (Leviticus 10:9; Ezekiel 44:21; Ephesians 5:18; 1Timothy 3:8; Titus 1:7).⁶  Therefore, if Jacob[shadow]=Yahweh Son/Jesus[substance], could it not be that Leah[shadow]=Israel and its then capital city, Samaria[substance]; whereas Rachel[shadow]=Judah and its capital city, Jerusalem[substance]?

If Leah and Rachel respectively represent Israel and Judah as we have posited, where do we find proof of this?  In Jeremiah 3:9-10: “‘Because Israel’s immorality mattered so little to her, she defiled the land and committed adultery with stone and wood; yet for all this, her treacherous sister, Judah has not returned to me with her whole heart, but only in pretense,’ says Yahweh [Son].”  Because of both sisters’ idolatrous adulteries, “‘Surely as a wife treacherously departs from her husband, so you have dealt treacherously with me, house of Israel,’ says Yahweh [Son]” (Jeremiah 3:20); warranting the “certificate of divorce” allowed under Deuteronomy 24:1:  “And I saw, when for all the causes by which backsliding Israel committed adultery I had put her away, and given her a bill of divorce; yet her treacherous sister Judah [Christendom]feared not, but went and played the harlot also” (Jeremiah 3:8).  It bears reminding that it was the beloved Rachel, not Leah, who stole her father’s idols (Genesis 31:19,32,34); and though we may conjecture as to her reasons for doing so, the fact remains that like her symbolic counterpart, Judah, Rachel cleaved to a husband who abhorred idolatry.

   In the course of the Old Testament, especially after the Babylonian captivity, the so- called ‘ten lost tribes of Israel’ disappear from the Biblical record solely to focus on Judah, Jesus’ ‘tribe’ according to the flesh [shadow (Hebrews 7:14)], but simultaneously symbolizing his earthly ‘tribe,’ Christendom [substance].  In this context the ‘ten lost tribes,’ denoting Israel/Judaism had already had their chance to make good and had failed.  The onus, under the faith covenant mediated by Jesus, was now on Gentiles/Christianity (Acts 9:15, 10:35, 15:7-9)↔John 11:52, 17:20; Romans 11:25) until their own transgressions reached the prescribed time-limit (Luke 21:24).  Hence the Books of Jeremiah and Lamentations with their focus on Judah and Jerusalem, ‘critiquing’ the spiritual condition of Christians past and present in terms of their idolatries (Jeremiah 9:14, 10:14); their falsifying of God’s words (Jeremiah 8:9); their moral bankruptcy (Jeremiah 4:22; 6:13; 9:4-5; 10:21; Lamentations 2:14, 4:13); the pagan cult of a ‘heavenly queen’ (Jeremiah 45:17-27); and most important of all, Jerusalem’s fall (Luke 21:20)⁷ and the destruction of God’s Temple—both foreshadowing Christendom’s downfall.

   Let us remember that Jerusalem lies on hills where Abraham was sent to sacrifice Isaac (Genesis 22:2), the heir to God’s promises; and it does not take rocket science to see the connection between that event and Father’s role in Son’s crucifixion (John 18:11, 19:11).  Amongst all Jewish cities, Jerusalem had been singled out as Son’s ‘beloved’ [shadow] and future [substance] Bride (Isaiah 62:1-4); let alone the fact that she was the site of his earthly, dwelling place.⁸ Jesus had to die in Jerusalem in order to be free from his earthly obligations to her.

In summary, Jacob loved  Rachel best, a wife who like Sarah was barren, offered Jacob her female slave in order to have children, and became pregnant late in life (Genesis 29:19,31; 30:22-23).  His marriage to Leach was the result of a ruse to prolong services which were profitable to Laban (Genesis 29:20-30).  And these two women became the mothers of the progenitors of all the tribes of Israel; Leah being Judah’s mother (Genesis 35:23) while Rachel engendered Joseph (Genesis 35:24), Jacob’s best loved son (Genesis 37:3).

   By the time of the Exodus, Egyptians had forgotten Joseph’s accomplishments (Exodus 1:8); Israelites had backslid into apostasy; yet continued to be Yahweh Father’s ‘children’ on account of the promise made to their forbears (Exodus 2:24-25).  Thus Yahweh Father sent them a liberator in the person of His proxy Angel God, Yahweh Son; who in turn imitating Father’s ways (John 5:19) gave the Israelites a human counterpart, Moses, that would perform Yahweh Son’s roles at the human level:  As mediator between Yahweh Father and men (Exodus 7:1↔1Timothy 2:5); as lawgiver (Exodus 31:13-18↔John 14:24, 15:10); and as judge over all (Exodus 18:15-16↔Genesis 18:25; John 5:22).  It is for these reasons that Moses exhorted Israelites to listen to a future Jewish prophet—like him—sent by Yahweh Father (Deuteronomy 18:15)—who the Apostles understood to be Jesus (Acts 3:20-23).

   We will expand on these things when we examine Jesus’ Angel God attribute; but as preamble to that discussion, here is the familiar husband attribute applied to that Angel God:  “Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers (Acts 7:38) in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt (Exodus 14:19; 23:20-23); which covenant they broke (Deuteronomy 31:16; Psalms 78:10; Isaiah 24:5), although I was a husband to them, says Yahweh [Son]” (Jeremiah 31:32).  And what does the Exodus allegorize?  Israel’s entry into the promised Kingdom led by Son:  “Return, backsliding children,” says Yahweh [Son]; “for I am a husband to you.  I will take you one of a city, and two of a family, and I will bring you to Zion” (Jeremiah 3:14)—exactly what Jesus promised to do in Matthew 24:40-41.

Final Comments on Yahweh Son’s “divorce” from Israel

   Jesus’ comments in Matthew 19:3-12 that it was lawful to divorce a wife only in the event of “fornication” specifically alluded to spiritual adultery through idolatry.  In terms of husbands separating from their wives, Jesus clarified that “in the beginning, it was not so” and only due to Jews’ “hardness of heart”—Scripturese for zealous obedience to the letter of the Law rather than Christian ethos (Matthew 23:23; Romans 9:30-32, 10:1-3)—was divorce allowed (Matthew 19:8).

   “In the beginning” means pre-Moses, when the union of man and woman as one flesh became binding for all time and consecrated by God in such a way that men were forbidden to undo it (Matthew 19:4-6).  Again, Adam and Eve are the shadow prototypes for Jesus and the Church [substance].  And because Jacob lived in that timeline, it is to that unbreakable marriage bond that Yahweh Son was beholden to:  In his nobility of soul and forbearance, he could forgive “wifely” fornications, unlike “hard-hearted” men who, repudiating outright such transgressors, made Mosaic laws of divorce a necessity.

   So while expressing grief,

“I am broken with their [Israel’s] adulterous heart, which has departed from me, and with their eyes, which play the harlot after their idols” (Ezekiel 6:9);

and,

“Judah [has] dealt unfaithfully, and an abomination is committed in Israel and in Jerusalem; for Judah [has]profaned the sanctuary of Yahweh [Father] which He loved, and [has] married [fornicated with?]the daughter[Asherah?, Babylon the Great?]of an alien god [Satan, the Baal connected with Asherah (Judges 6:22,25), who has a throne in a Christian church (Revelation 2:13)];

the divine command was towards forgiveness and reconciliation:

“Therefore take heed to your spirit, and let no one deal unfaithfully against the wife of his [marriage covenant].  For ‘I hate divorce,’ says Yahweh [Father], the God of Israel …Therefore take heed to your spirit that you don’t deal unfaithfully” (Malachi 2:15-16).

   And because Yahweh Father hates divorce, Yahweh Son forgives the infidelities of both Israel and Judah in obedience to His will:  “Even to old age I am he [↔Exodus 3:14; John 18:5-6], and even to gray hairs will I carry you. I have made [as proxy Creator (John 1:3; Colossians 1:16-19; Hebrews 1:2-3)], and I will bear [as suffering Messiah (Acts 3:18)]; yes, I will carry and will deliver [as Redeemer]”(Isaiah 46:4).

Centuries later, saddened by Jerusalem’s unrelenting repudiation of him, Son could only bewail:  “Jerusalem, Jerusalem, who kills the prophets, and stones those who are sent to her!  How often I would have gathered your children together, even as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you would not” (Matthew 23:37)!

   Nevertheless, the glory guaranteed by his fidelity to the [heavenly] bride of his covenant trumped everything else:

“Zion said, ‘Yahweh Son has forsaken me, and [Yahweh Father] has forgotten me’.  Can a woman forget her nursing child, that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb?  Yes, [she] may forget, yet I [Yahweh Son] will not forget you…As I live, says Yahweh [Son], you shall surely clothe yourself [with the fine lining of righteousness (Revelation 19:7-8)] like a bride…Then you will say in your heart, ‘Who has conceived these for me, since I have been bereaved of my children, and am solitary, an exile, and wandering back and forth? Who has brought up these?  Behold, I was left alone; these, where were they?’  Behold, I [Yahweh Son] will lift up my hand to the nations…and they shall bring your sons in their bosom,  and your daughters shall be carried on their shoulders…and all flesh shall know that I, Yahweh Son, am your Savior, and your Redeemer, the Mighty One of Jacob“(Isaiah 49:15,18,21-22,26).

¹ Please pay attention to the wording of Malachi 2:16:  “‘For I hate divorce,’ says Yahweh the God of Israel [Yahweh Father], “and him who covers his garment with violence,’” says Yahweh of hosts [Yahweh Son].  This is a clear example of Yahweh Son, Yahweh Father’s Spokesperson, quoting Yahweh Father verbatim. 

² An act not without meaning.  Upon piercing Jesus’ side, blood and water flowed (John 19:34).  It is logical to assume that the water came from Jesus’ lungs, which would have filled with fluid after hanging for many hours on the cross.  But we must remember too Moses striking a “rock” [repeatedly a symbol for God and Jesus—1Samuel 2:2; 2 Samuel 23:3; Psalm 144:1; Isaiah 26:4; Habakkuk 1:12] and waters coming out for God’s people to drink (Numbers 20:11); providing a link to Jesus’ reference of “living waters” symbolizing the Holy Spirit which he would send (John 7:38-39, 16:7). 

³ In order not to violate this precept, which anyway was shadow to the substance of Matthew 26:27-28 and John 6:56, Jesus used wine as a symbolic substitute for his blood.

⁴ A perfect example of the damage some translators do when injecting their own biases into Scripture.  Please refer to www.biblehub.com for a comparison between translations and their omissions.

⁵ This will be the one and only abode of the Most High amongst men (Revelation 21:3).  As men cannot possible build an earthbound edifice that could contain Him (Isaiah 66:1; Acts 7:48-50), He currently dwells in a Heavenly Tabernacle built by the Lord and not by human hands (Hebrews 8:2).  However, once the Holy City is on earth, there will be no Temple, “because the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple” (Revelation 21:22↔Ephesians 1:10, 4:6; Colossians 2:9).

⁶ Poor Timothy apparently suffered from stomach disorders that a little wine seemed to settle.  Although for the sake of Timothy’s ministerial work, Paul was pushing him to the max—for example, by circumcising Timothy to clinch his acceptance amongst Jews, Paul cut Timothy some slack regarding his digestive problems and encouraged him to drink wine in moderation (Acts 16:1-3; 1Timothy 5:23).

⁷ Luke 21:20 is not to be taken at face value.  It is one of Scripture’s modalities to bundle up past and present events into a single verse.  While it is true that the Jerusalem Temple was destroyed by the Romans in 70 AD, Jerusalem the City continued to exist; and does to this day without God’s Sanctuary—which relocated to Heaven where every person on earth can access it through prayer (Hebrews 8:1-2, 10:19-22).

   In all probability, Jesus’ dual prophecy includes the capital of modern-day Jews, whose downfall we may see in our times.

⁸ Yahweh Father has never inhabited man-made buildings (Acts 7:47-50, 17:24).