There is a Divorce Coming . . .
Photo by mintlipgloss
The story in the "Life" section of Time magazine ("Bye, Bye Love," February 11, 2008, pp. 59-60) caught my attention. Several pictures accompany the story about how some people are finding both humor and profit in divorce, even though divorce is sad. One of the pictures is a picture of a cake marking the end of the marriage, not the beginning. The design features the bride kicking her former groom down the tiers of the cake. Another baker has designed a cake, the upside-down wedding cake. The bride’s or the groom’s legs are sticking out at the bottom as if the cake has crashed down on the figure. People have designed voodoo dolls ("A safe way to stick it to an ex-lover") along with a "Wedding-Ring Coffin" ("Real closure may come from even a symbolic burial of the past.")
Divorce. . . Such an ugly word but a frequently acted out word. Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary (11th edition) offers a definition that somehow ignores the tragedy, "to dissolve the marriage contract between . . . to make or keep separate . . . "
Note the word "contract" is used, not "covenant." Contract smacks of business agreement between two parties whereas covenant strikes at something much deeper in describing the relationship existing between a husband and a wife.
"Covenant" (a "pledge") is the word that describes the relationship existing between Christ, the Bridegroom and the Church, the Bride. To describe the relationship between the believer and Jesus in such intimate terms is common in Revelation (Rev. 3:20; 14:4; 21:2, 9).
Revelation makes it clear that a disciple of Jesus can end the covenant relationship. How? By entering into a relationship with Babylon the Great (14:8), be being seduced by the mother of prostitutes (Rev. 17-18).
But to break the covenant you have with Christ means that you pay the price. The cost is described in Rev. 14:9-12. Christians who break the covenant will pay an incredible settlement to get out of the relationship with Christ. It will cost them their very souls. (John is not describing those who "appeared" to be followers of the Lamb and really were not . . . Rather he is clearly describing those who had been followers–see 14:1-4–but had broken their pledge. The teachings of Calvinism would not have appealed to John the prophet!)
Wedged between the references to marriage (Rev. 21:2, 9), John provides a list in 21:8 of those who will not be in the intimate relationship with Christ. At the head of the list stands the word "cowardly." It has an interesting background. In the Old Testament it was frequently used for those who had been part of the Lord’s Army but they had gone A.W.O.L. Consider:
"Then the officers shall add, ‘Is any man afraid and fainthearted (a coward)? Let him go home . . . ‘" (Deut. 20:8)
God tells Gideon to speak to the soldiers: "Anyone who trembles with fear (anyone who is a coward) may turn back and leave Mount Gilead." (Judges 7:3).
In Rev. 21:8 John says that the fate of those who are cowardly, who break the marriage covenant and abandon Christ, is awful: There will be the great divorce.
Tags: divorce, marriage, revelation
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