Can This Marriage Be Saved?

It cries out for pity. Any normal human heart would be moved to at least SOME measure of compassion. A newborn baby girl simply discarded in blood-soiled rags, crying by the edge of the road. Her parents had hoped for a son and received a girl instead, so they left here there to be taken in by another or even simply to die.

It cries out for pity. She was once a stunningly beautiful woman whose attractiveness was enhanced by being extravagantly clothed, bling around her neck, dangling from her earlobes, jangling on her wrist. Magnificent Mile would have been her shopping haunt. She displayed the best that money could buy. Obviously, someone was very proud of her and had showered her with gifts and kindness. But now, it screams out for pity.

Every good thing that her husband could possibly bring to her was hers. Not a penny did he spare, nor was any price tag considered too large for a purchase. She had it all because he gave his all to her. People noticed, men noticed. She began to realize that men noticed and she felt very good about herself. She forgot that she had been that abandoned, forsaken unloved baby girl. She forgot the years of kindness that had washed away the stains of your former rejection. She forgot that all the good things in her life were but expressions of costly love. She forgot…

So she gave herself away. She ran with the rich and the famous. She found her place under the lights, reveled in the heady realm of approval and applause and she forgot she was a married woman. She forgot she had committed her love to another. She found herself loving herself and she convinced herself that her newfound crowd adored her too. That is until…

Like so many who give themselves freely, she soon found herself cheapened and rejected. There are always new faces and willing replacements. In her desperation she fell to a new low. Where once she was showered with gifts and presents, she instead began to buy companions. It cries out for pity.

Her broken-hearted husband cried, "Then your fame went forth among the nations on account of your beauty, for it was perfect because of My splendor which I bestowed on you. But you trusted in your beauty and played the harlot because of your fame, and you poured out your harlotries on every passer-by who might be willing." —Ezekiel 16:14-15.

Can this marriage be saved? What she deserved was to be placed again on the side of the path, to be stripped of all her possessions and returned to the shame of her stains. But where one would expect to find rejection, one discovers mercy and grace! "'Nevertheless, I will remember My covenant with you in the days of your youth…and you will never open your mouth (to repeat your story again) anymore because of your humiliation (forgiven sins are forgotten sins), when I have forgiven you for all that you have done, the Lord God declares.'"—Ezekiel 16:62-63.

What cries out for pity discovers incomparable mercy and amazing grace. Marriage is designed by God to be a living example of His very own steadfast, unchanging, covenant-keeping love!

See you Sunday, Church!

Pastor Tom