Our sermon text from this past week, Isaiah 57, opens by drawing upon a common metaphor for the covenant relationship found in both the Old and New Testaments. In this metaphor, the covenant bond between God and His people is compared to marriage—another covenantal arrangement. The common elements of the marriage covenant are shared by the Mosaic covenant: an exchange of vows and mutual commitments between two parties, the solemnization of these vows through a ritual, the presence of witnesses, and a final pronouncement concluding the proceedings. These aspects of marriage, along with its nearly universal character, make it a useful and apt metaphor for our covenant relationship with God.
In the prophets, this metaphor generally appears in a negative form, as in our text today. The people of God are unfaithful to their covenant vows, and so Isaiah calls them “offspring of the adulterer and the loose woman.” Because Yahweh is naturally cast in the role of husband in the metaphor, the prostitute or unfaithful wife becomes the comparison point. This woman, pursuing the lustful desires of the flesh, chases after and pursues other lovers. Isaiah clarifies what this looks like by drawing connections with various pagan worship rituals that had polluted Israel in the centuries leading up to Hezekiah and which would recur and multiply during the reign of his son Manasseh.
We will see Hosea, a contemporary of Isaiah, make extensive use of this metaphor, as will later prophets like Jeremiah and Ezekiel. I remember when I was in elementary school, I challenged myself as a ten-year-old to read through the entire Bible in a month (actually, my frenemy/rival told me he thought I couldn’t do it, and I was determined to prove him wrong). When I came to Ezekiel 23, an extended play on this metaphor that gets rather explicit, I was very confused! And oftentimes, the sensitivities of translators disguise how shocking this metaphor can be. For example, in 57:8, we read: “You have loved their bed; you have looked on nakedness.” The sexual character of this is inescapable, but if you look at the footnote for that verse, you’ll see that literally what the text says is not “nakedness” but “you have looked on a hand.” Why is this translated as “nakedness”? In Semitic languages, “hand” was often used as a euphemism for the male reproductive organ. The NASB captures the sense of it, although it loses the veiled character of the reference: “you have looked on their manhood.”
Suffice it to say, the point is that lustful desires can control a human being and draw them away from obedience and devotion to God. Although the sexual character of this imagery is primary, it expands outward into all sorts of sinful passions and urges. Ultimately, the root of this metaphor goes back to Numbers 25, a seminal moment in the history of Israel. It was not the first time that sexual practices are addressed in the Torah, but it is the first time they appear under this guise—as a temptation into covenant unfaithfulness.
The context of the passage is the movement of the nation in the final stages of their sojourn in the desert. They are now passing out of the wilderness and into land occupied by other nations, although they have not yet reached the land they are commanded to seize. They are still “passing through” and therefore intend no immediate threat. However, having a large army pass through your territory was understandably anxiety-inducing for the Moabites and Midianites; nor did they want a powerful new nation to emerge so close to them. As a result, the Israelites were forced to fight several battles in the lead-up to their entrance into the Promised Land.
The king of Moab at that time, a man named Balak, decided to take a different approach. He sent for a man named Balaam, a local spiritualist known for cursing or blessing people for a fee. He requested that Balaam curse the Israelites, but Balaam finds himself unable to do so (despite trying three times). Instead, he suggests that Balak try a different tactic. The strength of the Israelites seemed to come from the power of their God, Yahweh. Therefore, if Balak could tempt the people away from Yahweh, perhaps they would be weakened—or even provoke Yahweh to turn against them Himself. So Balak follows this plan. The people of Israel begin to engage in the pagan religion of the Moabites, tempted by the opportunity to participate in sexual practices forbidden by the law of Yahweh. The worship of Baal, a common Canaanite god, involved ritualized sexual behavior. As Scripture says, “the people began to whore with the daughters of Moab.” The plan is effective, and it seems for a time that it will succeed. Yahweh does turn against His people, and a great plague sweeps through their camp.
Just as the plague is peaking, however, an Israelite man brings one of the Moabite priestesses/prostitutes into the camp and, in full view of the tent of the Lord, begins to couple with her. At that moment, Phinehas, the grandson of Aaron (and grand-nephew of Moses), takes a spear and plunges it into both of them. This zealous action shocks the people into repentance, and the sexual immorality is expelled from their midst.
So we can see that this vivid connection between sexual unfaithfulness and covenant unfaithfulness has been present from the very beginning. In the New Testament, we see this metaphor used in the opposite direction. Rather than as a method of rebuke, it is used positively to motivate. Paul compares the covenant relationship between Jesus and His church to a faithful marriage. The husband loves and gives himself for his wife, and the wife obeys and submits to the husband. This model of wifely faithfulness and devotion informs our understanding of our relationship with Jesus.