this morning. The first one is in Genesis chapter 2. That should be easy to find. The second one is in Malachi chapter 2. That also should be easy to find. It's the last book of the Old Testament. And then returning back to the Song of Solomon, which is in the middle of the Old Testament. I'm looking today at the subject of marriage and Old Testament spirituality. Marriage and Old Testament spirituality. And we trust that as we look at this subject today, we will be blessed in our hearts regarding our walk with the Lord, that we will know something more of the grand scheme of Old Testament teaching with regard to the relationship that the Israelites had with the Lord, and that we have with the Lord then, by extension. But I want us to read Genesis chapter 2, verses 18 to 25. The Lord God said, it is not good that man should be alone. I will make him and help me for him. And out of the ground the Lord God formed every beast of the field and every fowl of the air and brought them unto Adam to see what he would call them. And whatsoever Adam called every living creature, that was the name thereof. And Adam gave names to all cattle, to the fowls of the air and to every beast of the field. But for Adam there was not found and help meet for him. And the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam, and he slept. And he took one of his ribs and closed up the flesh, and stayed thereof. And the rib which the Lord God had taken from man, made he a woman, and brought her unto the man. And Adam said, This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh. She shall be called woman, because she was taken out of man. Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife, and they shall be one flesh. They were both naked, the man and his wife, and were not ashamed. Malachi chapter two, please. We're going to see the significance of these readings. The last book in the Old Testament, chapter 2 and the verse 10. The Lord is speaking now to Israel, the end of the Old Testament era almost, in scripturated Old Testament anyhow. And he's speaking to Israel concerning their relationship with him. And you'll notice that he's using the illustration or the symbol of marriage to speak of that relationship Malachi 2.10, have we not all one father? Hath not one God created us? Why do we deal treacherously every man against his brother by profaning the covenant of our fathers? Judah hath dealt treacherously and An abomination is committed in Israel and in Jerusalem for Judah hath profaned the holiness of the Lord which he loved and hath married the daughter of a strange God. There's the idea of marriage. The Lord will cut off the man that doeth this, the master and the scholar out of the tabernacles of Jacob and him that offereth an offering unto the Lord of hosts. And this have ye done again covering the altar of the Lord with tears, with weeping, and with crying out, inasmuch that he regarded not the offering any more, nor receiveth it with good will at your hand. Turn back to Song of Solomon then. The Song of Solomon, chapter 4. There's a couple of passages I want to read from this book. As we deal with this marriage, the couple Solomon and the Shulamite are coming together in these two portions that I'm going to read. They signify the relationship between them. The Song of Solomon, chapter 4, verse 8. And this is a Shulamite. Come with me from Lebanon, my spouse, with me from Lebanon. Look from the top of Amana, from the top of Shinar and Hermon, from the lion's den, from the mountains of the leopards. Thou hast ravished my heart, my sister, my spouse. Thou hast ravished my heart with one of thine eyes, with one chain of thine neck. How fair is thy love, my sister, my spouse! How much better is thy love than wine, and the smell of thy anointments than all spices. Thy lips, O my spouse, drop as an honeycomb. Honey and milk are under thy tongue, and the smell of thy garments is like the smell of Lebanon. A garden enclosed is my sister, my spouse, a spring shut up, a fountain sealed. Thy plants are an orchard of pomegranates with pleasant fruits, campfire and spikenard, spikenard and saffron, calamus and cinnamon, with all trees of frankincense, myrrh and aloes, with all the chief spices. A fountain of gardens, a well of living waters and streams from Lebanon. Awake, oh north wind, and come thou south. Blow upon my garden. With the spices, they're off. With the spices, they're off, rather. May blow, may flow out. Let my beloved come into his garden and eat his pleasant fruits. I am coming to my garden, my sister, my spouse. I've gathered with my spice. I've eaten my honeycomb and my honey. I've drunk my wine with milk. Eat, oh friends. Drink, yea, drink abundantly, oh beloved. Turn over to chapter eight then, the last chapter of the book, and the verse six. Set me as a seal upon thine heart, as a seal upon thine arm, for love is strong as death, jealousy is cruel as the grave. The coals are off our coals of fire, which hath a most vehement flame. Many waters cannot quench love, neither can the floods drown it. If a man would give all the substance of his house for love, it would utterly be condemned. Amen. We'll end our reading there. Chapter 8 and the verse 7. We come as we introduce ourselves to the book of the Song of Solomon. And as I've said, I want us to introduce ourselves slowly and understand the context, the language of the Old Testament in relation to the Song of Solomon. Last week we considered the Song of Solomon and Old Testament wisdom. This is a wisdom book. How does the wisdom genre or category of books fit into the Song of Solomon? Is there wisdom there for us in the Song of Solomon? And I think we discovered that there is wisdom in the Song of Solomon for us. The wisdom that's in the Song of Solomon comes to its apex, I believe, in the nation of Israel because here we have this book that speaks of our pursuit of Christ, that speaks of our pursuit of wisdom, and that is the ultimate goal of humanity. In all thy getting, get wisdom. And if we pursue Him, and we get Him, and we find Him, and we fellowship with Him, then we've got wisdom in Him. We come today to look at the subject of marriage and Old Testament spirituality. And I think the whole subject of marriage, when we think of it in relation to the Old Testament, also comes to its apex in the book of the Song of Solomon. We're going to see that a little later on. We will look next week at the subject of songs. and the Old Testament. And we will see there that the song of Solomon comes to its, the singing in the Old Testament, rather, comes to its apex, its climax, in the song of Solomon. Because this is the song of songs. As we look this morning at marriage in the Old Testament and Old Testament spirituality, we have to understand that there are a number of different relationships that are used in the Old Testament, in the Scripture, to speak of our relationship with the Lord. There are a number of different human relationships that are analogous to our relationship to the Lord. We have the Father and Son relationship. He is our Father, we are His sons. Coming to the New Testament we see that we are sons of His, we are born of Him, that means we are born of His house, but we also read that we are adopted. So are we born of Him, are we sons of Him by birth, or are we sons of Him by adoption? We're both. And the Bible uses these illustrations of humanity and human relationships to illustrate different aspects of our relationship to Him. I am born of Him. Born of the Spirit with life from above. I'm born again. But there's something in the relationship of a father and an adopted son that also is analogous to my relationship with the Lord. And that's the legal aspect of it. Once a son is adopted, there's a legal requirement. There's a legal obligation upon the father. And that legal obligation has been met in Christ. So there's the father-son relationship. There's the master-slave relationship. Paul calls himself a slave, a servant, a doulos of Christ. We are servants of God. There's the sibling relationship. He is our brother. He says in Scripture that he is not ashamed to call us brethren. He is referred to in the Scriptures as our elder brother. So you see the sibling relationship. But we come this morning to see the husband-wife relationship. And this is by far the most common relationship analogy that is used throughout all of scripture to speak of our relationship as children of God, as his family. The marriage relationship is the most common by far. In fact, there are three Old Testament books that are underpinned by this marriage relationship. You got it, Solomon Song is one of them. There's another couple. I think we could say the book of Ruth is also a book that is underpinned by the marriage relationship. He is our kinsman redeemer. The book of Ruth is often called the romance of redemption, this love story between Ruth and Boaz. There's another book in the Old Testament that perhaps you can't think of that is underpinned by the marriage relationship and that's the book of Hosea. And it is dealing not with the joy of our relationship with him as Song of Solomon is dealing with. Hosea deals with the violation of that relationship. The adulterous marriage relationship where there's a broken relationship. We're going to see that as we go on here. But I want us to understand that marriage and the whole idea of marriage underlies our relationship with Him and is used as a symbol and as a type. Symbol, if you remember back a few weeks ago, deals with something that is now. It symbolizes my relationship with him now. But a type deals with something that is future. It is typical of a relationship that I will have with him in the future. There's the marriage supper of the lamb. I'm not there yet. And so the relationship that I have in marriage with him now is typified in typifying the marriage supper of the lamb. You remember back, if you remember our studies in the tabernacle, the cloud that came down over the tabernacle symbolized the presence of the Lord with Israel. It symbolized the fact that the Lord was there with them in the present. But a typified The fact that there was going to come one who would dwell amongst them, even Christ. So you see the difference between a symbol and a type. Marriage is a symbol and a type of our relationship with the Lord. The importance of marriage is seen in the fact that the Lord, as we've read already, created Eve out of the side of man. and stated that man would leave his mother and father and would cleave unto his wife. They would become one flesh. And those two words, one flesh, are repeated throughout scripture to speak of the marriage relationship. There are two aspects, if you like, of that marriage relationship. It is a covenant relationship. It is a mutually binding agreement between two parties. Typical marriage is a mutually binding agreement between two parties. Your wife or your husband agreed to marry you. It's a mutual agreement. It is also an exclusive and permanent relationship. It is an exclusive and permanent relationship. If you turn over to Matthew chapter 19 and the verse 6, we see here how the Lord deals with it in the New Testament. Wherefore, let me read from verse 5, and he said, for this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, here he's quoting from Genesis chapter 2, So a man leave his father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife, and they twain shall be one flesh. Wherefore they are no more twain, they are no more two, but one flesh. What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder. So you have this idea in the marriage relationship of a leaving and a cleaving. Leaving and cleaving. Leaving one group or social environment and cleaving on to the spouse. Those two aspects. And those two words are used in scripture to speak of a spiritual affiliation also. We are joined to the Lord. But we have left the gods of this world. We are joined to the Lord. We have left all that is in opposition to him and we have trusted him. And so this idea of leaving and joining. The concept, beloved, of one flesh that is repeated in scripture shows that there's no closer or no more intimate relationship in all of human society than the marriage relationship. One flesh. And the Christian couple is so closely united that they're said to be joined. The word joined is used over and over again. And the word joined together, that they are joined in one flesh, is a euphemism for a sexual union. It's putting, if you like, in terms that are palatable to a broad audience, that there's a union between two people. That's why I say it is not only a mutually binding agreement between two parties, but it is an exclusive, i.e. you're married to this person, all other persons are out of the question. It is exclusive. And it is permanent. What God has joined together, let not man put asunder. The marriage union then, to quote Krumacher commenting on a David relationship, is such a privileged and blessed relationship that it can contribute to the improvement. It is such an intimate and close relationship that it can contribute to the improvement and sanctification of each other. A blessed and happy marriage is such a close-knit union and communion together that it can contribute to the improvement and sanctification of each other. But it is also so closely knit together that it can accelerate the pace of each other's ruin. common terms. This is the union, this is the intimacy of the union that we have, one with another, in a marriage relationship. But beloved, in this relationship of marriage, as we've seen it from Genesis chapter two, and from the Lord's teaching in Matthew chapter 19, from this relationship of marriage, there are spiritual lessons. It is a symbol of my relationship with the Lord. A panoramic view of the history of Israel shows us the ups and downs of that relationship. You read through history, you read through Israel particularly, and you see the ups and downs of that relationship between them and the Lord, between the nation and the Lord. It is presented to us throughout all of the history of Israel. All of the language that is used of marriage between a man and a woman is also used to speak of the spiritual relationship between Israel and the Lord. And I want you to think of Israel, the nation of Israel, in four main periods of our history. four main areas of their history that exemplify and are brought out in scripture to speak of their relationship with the Lord. The first one is the relationship begun. The relationship begun. You go back to Moses in the wilderness of Sinai and Moses is the first to use this language of marriage to speak of the relationship with the Lord Jehovah and Israel. They are about to enter into a pact, a covenant, the Mosaic covenant at Sinai. They have been given their freedom as a people. They have been given at Sinai the law of the Lord for them as a people. There's only one thing missing now for them to become a nation, and that's the land. And the land is just beyond. They're about to enter into the land. They're about to become a nation. That nation and the covenant between the people of Israel and God is a covenant relationship. They have entered into it with Him. That's what they said at Sinai. All that the Lord says to us, we will do. And Moses uses marriage language in Numbers chapter 14 verse 33. And your children shall wander in the wilderness. This is after they sinned. Your children shall wander in the wilderness forty years and bear your whoredoms. It's the language of scripture. They shall bear their iniquity. They shall bear their adulterous relationships. They shall bear your whoredoms. until your carcasses be wasted in the wilderness. The reason, beloved, and if you read through other portions of Scripture in particular, Ezekiel chapter 23, very graphic and lewd language is used to speak of the sin of Israel. There's a reason why the Lord uses that graphic language. It speaks of the heinousness of the sin of forsaking God. The reason for the strength of language is based on the strength of love that the Lord has for them. His love for them is second to none. The word that is used in Exodus chapter 34 in the verse 14 to speak of His love and His ardent zeal for them as His bride, as His people with whom He has entered into a covenant, the word is jealousy. Jealousy. For thou shalt worship no other God for the Lord whose name is Jealous. whose name is jealous. We normally associate the word jealous with a negative emotion. But the root of this word that is used here denotes a deep emotion, a deep and ardent zeal for his people. When the Lord chose us, beloved, He chose us because He loved us with a deep and ardent love. He entered into that relationship with us as His people because He loved us, not with a sentimentality, but with a deep love. The spiritual adultery then of the Israelites is brought into focus when they sin with the nations round about them. They forsake His love. They forsake His ardent emotion and desire for them. They forsake the relationship that they had with Him. You see, Jesus in John chapter 2, at the end of chapter two of the Gospel of John before Nicodemus comes to Christ. We read of the Jews coming, and I want you to understand what we're saying here, because here are people who come to Christ on the feast day, and many believed on his name when they saw the miracles that he did. Now I want us to stop and pause and think about our relationship with the Lord. I want you to think about your relationship with the Lord. I want you to ask yourself, has your relationship with the Lord begun? It's the first question. Has it begun? Marriage is a relationship, a mutual relationship. We agree with that. When you propose to your spouse, you husbands, your spouse, your wife now, agreed to enter into a relationship with you. The marriage that we have, the relationship that we have with Christ is also mutually agreed upon. There's none of us are saved against our will. He brought us to desire Him. He made us willing to desire Him. I desire Him, because He desired me. I trust in Him, because He trusted in me. Follow it. And you turn to John chapter 2, and we read that many believed on His name when they saw the miracles which He did, but Jesus did not commit Himself unto them. What does that mean? If I could read it literally, it means that Jesus did not trust himself to them. Perhaps you're in this meeting this morning and you have a trust in Christianity, you've drawn close to Christianity, you have Christian friends, you like the idea of Christianity, you like the idea of church attendance, you like the idea of doing something, there's a feel-good factor about religion, there's a better feel-good factor about Christianity, and there's a better feel-good factor about Orthodox Christianity. And you think there's something beneficial in drawing near to Jesus Christ. Because you think of him as a good teacher. Or as a good moral character. Or one who gives himself for people. And you're like the Pharisees here. You're like the people at Jerusalem who come up to the feast day. They come to the place where worship is being transacted towards Christ. They believe on him. Why? Not because of who he was or is, but because of what he was doing. They were attracted to the peripheral. They were attracted to the externals of religion. The Bible says this relationship between the Jews in John chapter 2 verse 22 and 24 was not mutual. They trusted in him. But he did not trust himself to them. Now where are you this morning? What's your relationship like with the Saviour? Has your relationship with Christ begun? Or are you standing on the outside with this cerebral, external acquiescence with Christianity? Because there's certain things about it that you like. Or have you entered into an intimate relationship with Him? Do you know Him? And what's more, does He know you? And do you know that He knows you? Or are you basing your relationship in Christ today upon something that you have concocted in your mind? Are you deceiving yourself? Is the question I'm asking. Or have you begun a relationship with Christ today? Have you committed yourself to him? Lock, stock, and borrow. for better or for worse, for richer or for poorer, in sickness and in health. They can use a marriage ceremony. That's all that will count, beloved. But there's something else about this relationship. There's not only a relationship begun, there's a relationship enjoyed. And as Israel began the relationship with the Lord, the Lord entered into a covenant with them and he brought them into a communion with himself. He dwelt with them in the wilderness. He dwelt with them in Sinai. He presents himself with them in the tabernacle. And there you see the union coming together. There's a development. of this relationship between Israel and the God of heaven. But as Israel's life went on, there were many times in their history, during the time of the judges, particularly, where they were up and down. Up and down. Faithful and unfaithful. Wandering and coming back to the Lord. And this is what is called in judges the sin cycle. Sinning against God, the Lord chastising them, them repenting, and the Lord bringing them back. This cycle of relationship. But like everything else, beloved, in Israel's history, the language of marriage reached its apex in the time of David and Solomon, his son. David's reign in Israel and Solomon's reign in Israel, through 40 year periods, were the glory days of Israel's history. The glory days. There's nowhere in the Old Testament where the enjoyment of the Lord comes into focus, comes into its own in the history of Israel than under David's reign and Solomon's reign. And out of these two men, we have the Psalms, Proverbs for the most part, Ecclesiastes and Song of Solomon. David's Psalms, the sweet Psalmist of Israel, singing and praying and relating to the Lord in every aspect of life. That's what makes the Psalms so poignant and so desirable for us today because they touch us where we're at. They touch the heart of who we are. Not the periphery, not the external. They touch us in the intimacy of our heart. And that's where David lived. That's where David lived. He was a man after God's own heart. But you come into the Song of Solomon, and here we see again the apex of this marriage relationship. There are other passages in Scripture that deal with the relationship between God and His people. In Zephaniah 3.17, for instance, we read, The Lord thy God in the midst of thee is mighty. He will save. He will rejoice over thee With joy he will rest in his love, he will joy over thee with singing. Amazing language of relationship and desire and delight that God is using towards his people. This language of love, this language of relationship, this language of marriage and delighting in. And here we have the enjoyment of marriage, the enjoyment of that relationship. The enjoyment of relationship in the Song of Solomon, I want us to notice, is primarily the brides for the bridegroom. You can read through the Old Testament and the Lord, for instance, in Isaiah 62, verses four and five, and in Jeremiah 33, verses 11, 10, 11, and in Zephaniah 3, 17, it deals there with the Lord's desire for his people. Because the people were generally wayward, wandering, And the Lord was reassuring them of his desire for them. He delighted in them. But you come into the Song of Solomon, and you see something interesting, and this is significant. A significant observation that the woman's voice, Shulamite's voice, is heard more often in this song than the bridegroom. And you do an analysis of the Song of Solomon, and you see here the enjoyment of the Shulamites' desire for Solomon. You see, beloved, in the Song of Solomon, and when we come into the book, I trust we will see more than ever in our lives before, we will see in our hearts, in our minds, we will see our desire for the Lord as we've never seen it before. That we will pursue Him. that we will love Him as we have never loved Him before, that we will understand His delight for us as we have never understood it before, and that His delight for us will only warm our hearts to delight in Him, and to pursue Him, and to love Him. That's what Wesley said in his hymn, Jesus, lover of my soul, let me to thy bosom fly. That's what John understood as he sat at the table in the upper room and he leaned across on the breast on the chest of the Lord Jesus Christ and he is referred to in the Gospels as the disciple whom Jesus loved. And John in turn loved him and pursued him. So the next question that we have to ask ourselves beloved is, is the relationship with our Savior begun yet? Have you started? Have you entered into a relationship with Him? Are you saved? Are you saved? Have you been converted? Have you been converted or has your conversion, as I have on the back of the bulletin, has your conversion overhauled your soul and your personality? Or has your conversion simply changed a few externals of your life? Rosaria Butterfield says, Making a life commitment to Christ was not merely a philosophical shift. It was not a one-step process. It did not involve rearranging the surface prejudices and fickle loyalties of my life. Conversion didn't fit my life. Conversion overhauled my soul and personality. It was arduous. It was intense. I experienced with great depth the power and authority of God. I ask you today, in Christ's name, is that what conversion has done for you? Do you experience the power and authority of God? Or do you have just some sentimental love for Jesus, but you hold your own authority? And then the next question is our enjoyment of Him. How much do we enjoy Him? How much do we pursue him? Do we seek after him as for hidden treasure? The third relationship that we see in the history of Israel, not only a relationship begun and the relationship enjoyed in the period of David and Solomon's reign, but there's a relationship violated. A relationship violated. And we see this in the prophets. And the language of the marriage and adultery is used in the prophets over and over again, in particular, and you read when you go home, I'm not gonna read it today, but we've read it just a few weeks ago, Ezekiel 23. That's using graphic language. Beloved, if the Song of Solomon is a type of the blessed relationship between me and my Savior, then Hosea, the prophecy of Hosea, is a type of the broken and violated relationship between me and my Savior. Hosea speaks of apostasy. If you remember the story of Hosea, he was told to marry a woman of whoredoms. I believe that was indicated, the Lord indicated, I want you to marry this woman with the knowledge that she's going to commit adultery. And you're going to live through this. You're going to experience what it is to live with a woman who has committed adultery. And what's the significance of that? The significance of that is that what the Lord lives with, with Israel. He married Israel. He brought Israel into union with Himself. and Israel played the field, committed adultery, went after other gods, sought pleasure in other gods round about them. That's the lesson that Hosea is learning and he's going to teach Israel. Read the book of Hosea, beloved. There we see that relationship violated. Israel walked away from God. Israel had no desire for Him. Israel loved another. Loved another. In Jeremiah chapter 3 verses 6-9 we read the Lord said also unto me in the days of Josiah the king, Hast thou seen what backsliding Israel hath done? She has gone up upon every high mountain and under every green tree and there hath played the harlot. And I said, after she had done these things, turn thou unto me. He pursued her and he wooed her back just as Hosea was told to do. Turn now unto me. But she returned not, and her treacherous sister Judah saw it, and I saw. When for all the causes whereby backsliding Israel committed adultery, I had put her away and given her a bill of divorcement, yet her treacherous sister Judah feared not. Beloved, you look out in your life and you see people who have wandered off from the Lord, they've committed spiritual adultery, they've wandered after the things of the world, they have forsaken the Lord and sought for pleasure in the things of this world. They have backslidden from the Lord and there's only one way to go. in life, in a backslidden state. It's not a pretty picture. It's an ugly scene. But we, like Judah, see it and we fear not. We also play the harlot. and came to pass through the likeness of her whoredom, that she defiled the land and committed adultery with stones and with stocks. Beloved, here's a picture of Israel's sin against God. There's also a picture of our sin. We are quick to judge Israel for its wandering after other gods and for its wandering after idols. Let's not be too quick to judge Israel. Let's look at ourselves. And the next question we have to ask ourselves is what is the object of your love today? Perhaps there was a time when you did enjoy Christ. You enjoyed those glory years of Christianity, but you've grown cold, you've grown sceptical and cynical. You're losing out with Christ. Something else has come in. Your own ideas. Something in the world. Some physical attraction in the world. Some object that you're throwing your weight behind and pursuing at the expense of Christ. And you're losing out. Because you're playing the harlot. Spiritual adultery. You've left off the Lord. You're not pursuing Him as you once did. You don't love Him like you once did. and you don't love his company like you once did or the company of his people. There's no pursuit. The last area of relationship that we see with Israel is not only relationship begun and relationship enjoyed and relationship violated, there's finally and thankfully relationship healed. Relationship healed. Because we are the Lord's people. We're His children. We have entered into a relationship with him. He is married to us. And that which God has joined together, let no man pull us under. And that which God has joined together between me and him, I can't even destroy. I might soil it and destroy it in its appearance and its enjoyment, but I cannot destroy it. Because nothing can separate me from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus, nothing. We come into the latter books of the Old Testament and we see in those books this idea of healing in Israel. It's a healing of heart. It's a healing of heart. We see it in Hosea chapter 14. Hosea chapter 14 speaks of the Lord healing their backsliding. They come back to the Lord. He brings them back and He heals their backsliding. He returns them to Himself. The promise, beloved, was that Israel would come back to the land. After it was chastised in the Babylonian captivity, they would come back to the land and the Lord would deal with them again as His people, as His bride. As a people in whom He delighted in. We saw it today in our reading in Ezekiel chapter 36. He delights in them. Even though they wander and play the field spiritually. After the Babylonian captivity, the Lord called the people back to himself, back to Israel. But what had happened? You follow the history of Israel. What had happened while the children of Israel were in Babylon? They had married Babylonians. And they come back to the land and there's all of these relationships, marriage relationships with Babylonians, with Chaldeans, with foreigners. And Ezekiel and Nehemiah read the scriptures. And the people come to Ezra and Nehemiah. The people come to Ezra and Nehemiah and say, we need to get rid of our foreign wives. We need to deal with this. The law of God says that we should not be married to foreign wives. We need to get rid of them. Now one significant, this is in Ezra chapter nine, one to 10. and in Nehemiah chapter 13. One significant and encouraging aspect of this post-exilic reform, if you like, with regard to their marriage, was that it came from the people. Not from the leaders. It wasn't Ezra standing saying, this is what you have to do. It wasn't Nehemiah standing saying, this is what you must do. It was the people heard the law of God. They came to Ezra and Nehemiah and said, we need to reform. We need to change. Is that not what we read in Ezekiel this morning? When the Lord brings them back, he will put a new spirit within them. He will reform them. But He brings us back, beloved. He changes our heart. He brings us and woos us back. He makes us conform to His word and will. He makes us fall in love again with Himself. He turns us from the cold comfort of the world. He turns us from the lurid comfort of sin. And He draws us to Himself, and we fall in love again with Him. We fall in love again with him. And very often, if I can use this with respect, very often making up is what it's all about. Making up again with our spouse. Falling in love again. Dealing with the issues. Where did this healing come from? How would the Lord heal Israel? How would the Lord bring Israel back into relationship? And beloved, how will the Lord bring you back into relationship with himself? And this is where the type emerges out of the symbol because it points us forward. It was in the promised Messiah. Malachi chapter 4 verse 2. We read, the son of righteousness shall rise with healing. With healing in his wings. There's the relationship fixed. There's this broken marriage, this violated relationship is going to be healed and it's going to be healed in the promised Messiah. And that's what Song of Solomon points us to, the Christ, the one who has entered into this relationship with him. And we see this relationship violated there also, this union and communion. She's indifferent towards him and he wanders off and she pursues him. And the Lord, beloved, after centuries in Israel, after centuries of failure and infidelity, after centuries of spiritual fornication, after centuries of struggling, against sin in the nation of Israel. What does the Lord say? What does the Lord say as He stands in Israel? He says, come unto me. All ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. That, beloved, is where healing is. It's in Christ. And He stands this morning. Your relationship with the God of heaven has been violated by sin. Whoever you are, saved or unsaved, sin violates, separates us from God. But Christ stands and He says, come unto me, all you that labour under heavy laden, and I will give you rest. It's interesting that the Sabbath rest and marriage are institutions that were both brought in together in the Garden of Eden, and they both meet their fulfillment in Christ. Because there's only rest for the soul in Christ. Beloved, I've sought to give you an overview of the whole idea of marriage in the Old Testament and how it relates to our relationship with the God of heaven. That fluctuating relationship, the ups and downs of married life, the struggles, the violation, the enjoyments. Our marriage relationship reaches its best years. reaches its most enjoyment in those times when we pursue Him, when we see Him for His beauty and we love Him. Love for Him that can never be quenched. Desire for Him that can never be satisfied. Because He's infinite. I trust today that we will seek, by God's grace, to pursue Him, to come to Him, to find in Him our enjoyment and our peace.