“Thus says the Lord: “Where is your mother’s certificate of divorce, with which I sent her away? Or which of my creditors is it to whom I have sold you? Behold, for your iniquities you were sold, and for your transgressions your mother was sent away.” Isaiah 50:1 ESV
Reflection: how can divorce ever be an act of love?
Forgiveness is often misunderstood, and even misapplied as reconciliation. These are two very different concepts in relationships; in our relationship with God, and in our human relationships. Let’s say someone has severely wronged you. You point out to them their fault, and they ask for your forgiveness. And, let’s say you offer that to them. But then they continue to do the same thing again, what are we to do? Let’s read “Then Peter came up and said to him, “Lord, how often will my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? As many as seven times?” Jesus said to him, “I do not say to you seven times, but seventy-seven times.” Matthew 18:21-22 ESV. But, wait a minute, are we to just forgive anything, and then move on? Does that mean people can just trample on us with no consequence? Clearly, we cannot have a functioning relationship that way.
In today’s focus verse, we read perhaps a shocking question, and statement by the Lord. “Where is your mother’s certificate of divorce, with which I sent her away? Or which of my creditors is it to whom I have sold you?” Isaiah 50:1a ESV. What?? The Lord divorced His people, and sent them away?? How do we connect that with what Jesus commanded, to forgive? Let’s read the second half of the verse, where the Lord explains why He did this, “Behold, for your iniquities you were sold, and for your transgressions your mother was sent away.” Isaiah 50:1b ESV. If we spend any time studying and thinking about the relationship between God and His people, we see that the Lord time and time again reached out His hand to the people, correcting them, forgiving them, asking them to follow Him. But the people were stubborn, stiff-necked and with a hard heart unwilling to change. Unwilling to follow His ways. So although the Lord would forgive them, it wasn’t sufficient for maintaining a relationship, since the relationship ended up being one-sided. They didn’t want to have a relationship with God; they wanted to do their own thing, thinking they knew better. Not to be “constrained” by God’s laws and commandments.
So God, in His pure love, His wisdom, let them go. He gave them what they thought they wanted.
He could have forced them to obey Him, but that would have been bondage or slavery, right? That is not a relationship built on love, it is not reflective of our God. So here we have the crux of the difference between forgiveness and reconciliation. Forgiveness can be one-sided, but reconciliation requires two. Forgiveness is not sufficient for having a relationship. To restore and maintain a relationship, understanding wrongs, and taking responsibility for wrongs with a remorseful heart, meaning with the intention of not doing that again. It is the essential starting point for any reconciliation. And we remember what happened to God’s people who were “divorced”, exiled to Babylon, as we have looked at before. After 70 years, God freed them through Cyrus, and some of them returned to rebuild Jerusalem. To restore the temple and to recommit themselves to the Lord. They understood and took responsibility for their error, and pleaded with the Lord to “take them back”. To restore their relationship with Him.
The divorce, the exile, was a necessary rebuke for the people to understand the depth of their error, to humble them, if you will. And, when we read on in the next verse, we see the Lord is right there all along, “Why, when I came, was there no man; why, when I called, was there no one to answer? Is my hand shortened, that it cannot redeem? Or have I no power to deliver? Behold, by my rebuke I dry up the sea, I make the rivers a desert; their fish stink for lack of water and die of thirst.” Isaiah 50:2 ESV. The Lord was there, preparing the way for them to come back into a relationship with Him. But, they still had to choose to come back, and as we remember, only a remnant did return, from which the Lord Jesus came from.
What love, what wisdom of the Lord!
There are so many lessons here, relevant to our time, to our lives and relationships. One important one is to remember that we are commanded to forgive a brother that comes to us in repentance, as the Lord did. But that is not the same as being solely responsible for reconciling and maintaining functioning relationships, which takes two parties. But perhaps the most important lesson to remember today is to what lengths our Lord went to in order to redeem us, to deliver us. He humbled himself, to the point of death, even death on a cursed tree. To offer us a new covenant in His blood, a true reconciliation with Himself. He loves us, and desires a relationship with us.
