“Can a maid forget her ornaments, or a bride her attire? yet my people have forgotten me days without number” (Jeremiah 2:32). A bride on her wedding day would never forget her makeup or her dress. She is looking in the mirror all day making sure she is perfect for her wedding. For a bride to go up the aisle and realize she had not changed into her dress would be unthinkable. Yet, this sort of incredible occurrence happened in the spiritual realm with the nation of Judah that was in spiritual decline during the days of Jeremiah. God says He had been forgotten. How could they do such a thing?
God remembered the honeymoon He had with His nation (Jeremiah 2:2-3). The people followed Him out into the wilderness before they were ever given the blessings of the land they now inhabited. Much like a young couple that is so much in love that it doesn’t matter if they don’t have money, they have each other, so God’s relationship was with His people. It seems odd for God to condescend to this imagery of a young couple in love to illustrate His relationship to His people. It is an image that does not evoke a concept of God’s supreme majesty. But it does bring to our minds an image of what our sin does to God. Divorce is such a painful experience. There are many that have gone through such an experience. There are many that have been close friends to those who have gone through such turmoil and can only imagine what it is like. Those who have experienced a spouse being unfaithful to them know what it is like to open themselves up to someone in marriage and make themselves vulnerable only for their spouse to walk out on them. This is the pain we cause God when we sin. When we put other efforts, people, or things in His place, whatever it may be, we betray Him who wants to be our one, true love.
None of the replacements we have for God make us complete. Just as Judah had false gods that could not deliver them, people today try to make themselves complete with things that can never make them complete. You see God is the ornaments and the attire of the bride (Jeremiah 2:32). Even though no bride is flawless, somehow every bride is perfect on her wedding day. Jesus Christ gave Himself for the church, His bride (Ephesians 5:23-25). He came to earth and died for the church, “That he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word, That he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish” (Ephesians 5:26-27). Jesus is God; He was already perfect before the world ever began (John 1:1-3; 17:24). He did not come to the world because He had any sin or defect (Matthew 3:14-15; John 8:46). The reason He came to live as a man on earth and die for us was to make us perfect. Through baptism, “the washing of water,” we come in contact with this cleansing blood that can make us pure white before God (Ephesians 5:26; cf. Revelation 1:5; 7:14). When we’re baptized we put on Christ Jesus just as bride puts on her dress (Galatians 3:27). Each day we must continue to put Him on by pursuing Him instead of sin (Romans 13:14). Have you forgotten your dress that makes you complete? Don’t walk out on Jesus for something else that can never make you complete.
-Mark Day
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