The Prophet Hosea whose ministry was not many years before that of Isaiah hath made use of the same figure of the married state, to represent the Mediator's union with his people; and here the Prophet Isaiah adopts the same method. It is indeed, a very striking figure, and the Lord Jesus himself seems to delight in it. See Hosea 2:1; Jeremiah 3:14; Matthew 22:2. It may serve to teach us some sweet and precious things. By the assumption of our nature the Lord Jesus hath shown, that the soul is a marriageable creature to Christ, and therefore capable of an union with him, and enjoyment in him, to all eternity. What a sorrowful thought then is it, that by sin we should at any time estrange ourselves from our Lord, our husband; and that our iniquities should act like a bill of divorcement! Precious Jesus! be thou our husband still, and perform the tender office of the husband and the friend, notwithstanding our backsliding; for the Lord God of Israel saith that he that hateth putting away, Malachi 2:16. I only add, that perhaps the expressions here denoted, concerning the Lord's, drying up the sea, making the rivers a wilderness, and causing the fish to stink, hath respect to the display of his miracles in Egypt, for the deliverance of his people.

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