Quote:
Originally Posted by Ohio
Even a seven year old can understand the love that's visible at a wedding.
But it seems you have to reject the finale of the Bible: "The marriage of the Lamb has arrived, and the bride has made herself ready." Mankind could never make this up.
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It does seem that I have downplayed love, doesn't it? I tend to argue so strenuously that everything else disappears, even love. So admittedly I'm not skilled at arguing points.
But in the wedding, and the marriage, which involve love, there also involve a committed faithful relationship, in which are "headship" and "obedience". Now imagine we are back in the patriarchal days, and you'll understand the obedience idea better. The danger is that we try for a love affair with Jesus but we miss the obedience part. And in the Charismatic Christian hyper-emotional scene where we shriek "We love You, Jeeeezus!!!" together on Sunday morning this may be a danger. But perhaps I was trying to put hard on the dependent relationship and obedience theme, and ignoring the love theme. I understand that my argument didn't look very attractive to you. So maybe I can clarify, a bit.
Israel played the harlot, and went after other Gods. But God wanted her to be betrothed to Him, i.e. to be completely focused on Him, to be a Holy people as He is a Holy God. The God of Israel is not like the gods of the nations, a creation of wood or stone. God is spirit, life, love and we need to escape the fall by being utterly committed to Him and His ways. The law was a marriage covenant. Even though Israel broke it, God in His mercy sent His Son.
So marriage, to me, involved the ideas of being demure, chaste, obedient, pliant, as well as romantic love. In the modern age we look for the last but skip all the hard stuff (and I speak for the men as well - we are as bad). That's why we all love to watch the wedding shows on tv now, but the divorce rate remains so high.
I just think that the "lonely bachelor God" perhaps is too simplistic, and doesn't do justice to the biblical narrative. It is more of a distraction than an aid. Just my opinion. Sorry for being so sharp in my critiques. Peace.