Saying number 18 is from Proverbs 23:26-28.  It says, “26 Give me your heart, my son, and let your eyes delight in my ways. 27 For a harlot is a deep pit and an adulterous woman is a narrow well. 28 Surely she lurks as a robber, and increases the faithless among men.”

The verse above is very sound wisdom to apply to our lives and teach to our children; however, there is a another adultery that we would be wise to consider and examine to see if this is in our lives, and that is spiritual adultery. You may ask, “How does one commit spiritual adultery to YHVH?”  It is through our disobedience to the covenant we made with Him when we received Yeshua as the Messiah and His way of life. For example: When He says to rest/cease from working on the Sabbath AND have a holy convocation, which in the Hebrew means a public assembly where He’s placed His name, and yet we work anyway and/or don’t go to the holy convocation, then we have been unfaithful. Unfortunately, many have misrepresented the word rest to mean relax, as in stay home and have a pajama party.  However, this couldn’t be further from the Hebrew meaning.  It means to stop creating or working in order to gather with His people. Every week there is a rehearsal and prophetic picture of the millennial reign with Messiah.  We misrepresent the “marriage vow” when we practice otherwise. Below we will look at a few verses that YHVH our Creator gave to Jeremiah to give to adulterous Israel as a whole.

Jeremiah 3:6-10 says, “6 Then YHVH said to me in the days of Josiah the king, “Have you seen what faithless Israel did? She went up on every high hill and under every green tree, and she was a harlot there.[The IVP Commentary says, “Part of the fertility rites of local Canaanite sanctuaries were carried out on hilltops in connection with various sorts of trees (including oaks, poplars and terebinths). The sexual rituals dedicated to gods of fertility are also mentioned in Hosea 4:13. Asherah is pictured in Israelite iconography as a stylized tree.”]

7 I thought, ‘After she has done all these things she will return to Me’; but she did not return, and her treacherous sister Judah saw it.

8 And I saw that for all the adulteries of faithless Israel, I had sent her away and given her a writ of divorce, yet her treacherous sister Judah did not fear; but she went and was a harlot also.

9 Because of the lightness of her harlotry, she polluted the land and committed adultery with stones and trees. This is speaking of spiritual adultery committed against YHVH.  Adultery done in the natural is sin and continually practicing it pollutes the land.  But there is another adultery that is just as, if not more, polluting to the land and that is being unfaithful to YHVH in our commitment to Him by being obedient to His ways. Unfaithfulness to Him is no small matter.

10 Yet in spite of all this her treacherous sister Judah did not return to Me with all her heart, but rather in deception,” declares YHVH.”

With all of the strong and heartbreaking language in the verses above, yet, we are NOT left without hope and a way of escape.  Let’s move forward and read where YHVH invites Israel to repentance.  This is how He is and He never changes, therefore, the patterns apply for all of His people in need of repentance.

Jeremiah 3:11-15 says,

11 And YHVH said to me, “Faithless Israel has proved herself more righteous than treacherous Judah.

12 Go and proclaim these words toward the north and say, ‘Return, faithless Israel,’ declares YHVH; ‘I will not look upon you in anger. For I am gracious,’ declares YHVH; ‘I will not be angry forever.

13 ‘Only acknowledge your iniquity, that you have transgressed against YHVH your Elohim and have scattered your favors to the strangers under every green tree, and you have not obeyed My voice,’ declares YHVH.

14 ‘Return, O faithless sons,’ declares YHVH; ‘For I am a master to you, and I will take you one from a city and two from a family, and I will bring you to Zion.’ [This is the place where the faithful are gathered.  Therefore, the one who repents and becomes faithful to YHVH will be gathered with others on His Holy days.  This is the pattern for the one in right standing with the covenant.]

15 “Then I will give you shepherds after My own heart, who will feed you on knowledge and understanding.”

Oh how we need the Spirit of Wisdom found within the pages of Scripture, our Ketubah…the marriage contract, to keep us from being adulterous and wandering away from our marriage vows to the Holy One of Israel. May we repent and return from being FAITHLESS Israel to being FAITHFUL Israel and we do this by being obedient to His ways and not our own definition of His ways.

Have a blessed and shalom filled day!!

Tammy

Courtesy of
River of Life Tabernacle
Tammy McLendon
Great peace have they who love Your law. Psalm 119:165a