We are Adulterers

Here's how God reacts to adultery:

"They say, If a man put away his wife (divorce), and she go from him, and become another man's, shall he return unto her again?  shall not that land be greatly polluted?  but thou hast played the harlot with many lovers; yet return again to me, saith the Lord."  Jeremiah 3:1

He is making a plea here.  Though we have strayed from Him, he is asking us to simply come back.

If your spouse has committed adultery, you have a God who understands the way it feels.  Why?
We have been committing that same adultery toward Him.

So how does God approach this situation towards us?

"yet return again to me, saith the Lord."

Are you saying that I should forgive my spouse and ask for them to return to the marriage?  Yes.



"Return thou.....saith the Lord; and I will not cause mine anger to fall upon you: for I am merciful, saith the Lord, and I will not keep anger for ever. Only acknowledge thine iniquity, that thou has transgressed againt the Lord thy God..." Jeremiah 3:12 

Here is the tough one.  But what if my cheating spouse doesn't ask for forgiveness?  Here God says to acknowledge your iniquity.  What if he hasn't?

Let me paint a picture that will help you understand the answer to this question.  I will tell you how I came to understand the love of God.  I have admitted now that I cheated on my spouse, but I didn't admit to him before I returned to him. I actually had many sins I committed against my husband that he was aware of.  He had not confronted me or even asked me to admit. Yet he still begged me to return. Here's how it began:

It was a Wednesday night.  I had moved in with a new man already.  I picked my daughter up from daycare. She said, "Mom, I want to see Dad tonight."  He was working night shift at the time but had the day off.  He was having a party that night as he had told me earlier in the day.  She called him and said, "Dad, can I see you tonight."  My daughter passed the phone to me. He hatefully scolded me, "Why do you do this to me?  You know I am having a party tonight. You do this on purpose so I can tell her no and she can be let down."
Something inside me snapped when I heard those words and I lost all hope at that moment.  I knew I was done with him.  He had failed me. And now my daughter? This wasn't the first time he had let her down.  I said to him, "you know, I don't love you.  I don't want anything to do with you anymore.  And if you can't be a father to her, then we don't need you. I am done."  I hung up the phone.  He called me back and said, "Can I please have her?  I promise I won't drink tonight."  I know I have mentioned that he was an alcoholic. Whether I said this out loud or thought it in my head, I can't recall.  But I said or thought, "yeah and a crack head wont' use crack." I just wanted him to love her and be dedicated to her like I was.  Or at least I thought I was...I will get to my sin soon.

I wasn't a Christian at this time. Neither was he.  But that night, I didn't let her go with him. And that night, I emotionally let him go.  The hate turned to no longer caring. I gave up any hope that he would change.

That night with the party going on at his house, he poured out all the alcohol in the house and hit his knees.  That night he made peace with God.  The next day, he was different.

He called within that week and asked to have our daughter that weekend....which was odd.  Those were party nights.  He invited me to have dinner at the house.  I declined.  When I showed up, he had a plate ready for me set out on the table. I didn't stay. I scolded him for finally trying after it was too late. He didn't argue back but invited me to church the next morning.  I mocked him for going to church.

This was only the beginning of the kind acts he showed me, even when I wasn't deserving.
My husband died to himself that Wednesday night.
He died to his hate for my sins against him.  He died to his desires.  He died to his plans to change me.  He simply loved me the way I was for who I was.  

"But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were still yet sinners, Christ died for us." Romans 5:8

"still yet sinners" If you remember, we are the ones who hung him on that cross.  We were still sinning against him, yet he died for us.  Remarkable.  Would you die for someone who wanted you dead?

"For scarcely for a righteous man one will die: yet...for a good man some will even dare to die.  But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were still yet sinners, Christ died for us." Romans 5:7-8 

So did my husband ask me to return before I admitted my wrongs?  Yes.
Could he have demanded that I apologize before he forgive me?  Yes.
I had not seen my sin yet.  As I will describe in coming blogs, only his goodness brought me to shame.

Now tell me, is that not a picture of Christ?