ON THE VANGUARD

GOD MY HUSBAND
“’In that day,’ declares the LORD, ‘you will call me my husband; you will no longer call me my master.’”
Hosea 2:16

I know what you’re thinking. Why is he starting out a devotional calling God his husband? I assure you that there is a reason, and I hope to do well to explain this to you today. It is also my goal that you will see the LORD in the same light. However, in order for this thought to make sense, we first must travel back in time and culture.
The Biblical Hebrew gives two words for ‘husband’. The word ‘ISH’ is used most commonly, and describes the connection with his wife, ‘ISHA’, where the two are on the same level. A great illustration of this is seen in God’s words to Adam in Genesis 2:24. “For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and they will become one flesh.” The ISH respects and views his ISHA as himself, and together they are one flesh. But the second term used is BA’ALIY, which shows the husband as the master and the wife as his servant. Perhaps it is for this reason that Paul wrote Ephesians 5:25, “Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her.”
Let us contemplate just for a moment this thought. Christ loves the church, and gave Himself up for her. Christ came as a servant, not as a master. He came as the ISH, and not the BA’ALIY. It is His love for us through the giving of Himself, both in His serving and in the giving of His life that makes us want to love Him back by the giving of our lives. Is it not true that we love Him because He first loved us (I Jn 4:19)? God never came as the forceful tyrant demanding our love, but rather came as the servant to win our love. I am reminded of Ted Dekker’s Circle series, where the main character of Thomas Hunter wins the love of his bride not by forcing her to love, but by the constant wooing of her in every action done. As I read these books, my eyes were opened to the many ways in which God has wooed me, and allowed me to come to a love for Him as my ISH.
If we look back to the book of Hosea, we see that God had asked Hosea to take a bride who was less than honorable. Gomer, his wife, was a harlot. Coming from the streets where she made her living, she did not view men as ISH but as BA’ALIY. Therefore, as she served Hosea, her love for him was not built on the one flesh idea that God had in mind. After time, she returned to her ways on the street. But God gave a hope to Hosea, and spoke of a day when she would be his wife again, but this time his ISHA. In Hosea 3, God speaks to the prophet to go and buy his wife back. Even though Gomer was his wife and he had the right to lord over her as the BA’ALIY, he went back to her and paid a price in love for her. Although nothing more is written concerning Gomer, I am pretty sure that God’s words came true. In that day she began to call him ‘husband’ and no longer called him master.’
So now this brings us full circle to ourselves. First I speak to the men. Does your wife see you as her ISH or BA’ALIY? Are you one with her, or are you her master? Secondly, I ask the women, how do you see your husband? Does he love you in the same respects as you love him, or are you treated like a genie in a bottle, expected to grant his every desire? And thirdly, I ask us all, is God our ISH or BA’ALIY? My first thought of this as I was researching was in how I pray. Do I come to God with a list of demands and expectations in prayer that He must deliver upon for me to feel His love? Honestly, there are times I do. As humbling as this is to write, I do not always see God as my ISH. But I do not think it was a coincidence that I found this truth in my study. As one who has hopes to marry again and not repeat the same mistakes I’ve made in the past, this truth plays an important role. I must see God as my husband and not my master, just as I must be seen by my wife as her husband and not her master. When it is all lined up between God and us first, then every other part that needs to be aligned will follow. Is God your husband?