The Beautiful Betrayal

Rejection. It is something that we’ve all experienced, whether waiting in queue for those concert tickets that just sold out, a refused job application or perhaps that familiar unrequited crush.  Coming in different forms of proximity to our very nature and personality and in varying levels of intensity, it goes without saying that whatever the circumstances, it is always a bitter pill to swallow. The most painful rejection of all, is that rejection which we perceive as unjustified. That which fails to recognise our true skills, personality or ability to love.  

I was inspired to write about this topic as I study the book of the prophet Hosea. More accurately, I was blown away as I considered the rejection that the very God who created the universe took, so that we could be in a loving relationship with him. 

The Bible records that God instructed the prophet Hosea to marry a “an adulterous wife” (NIV). This wife symbolised the Israelites, who had turned away from God to worship other gods, relied on their own wealth and prosperity and ultimately “me she forgot”. When faced with an unjust and undeserved rejection of our skills, our intellect or our very personality, how do we react? When we consider the perfect God of the universe, so pure and without sin, so creative and not in need of anything, how should he react? Why should he choose to “allure” this wayward woman? Why should he choose to “lead her into the desert and speak tenderly to her”? And ultimately, why should he choose to renew marriage vows to an unfaithful spouse “I will bethoth you to me forever. I will bethroth you in righteousness and justice, in love and compassion” and to restore her to her status as a wife “you will call me ‘my husband’ you will not longer call me ‘my master’”. His faithfulness, enduring promise and love is all the more pertinent in the face of open rejection, betrayal and inconsistency. Chapter 3 is a stark image of this. Hosea, whose wife was at that point “loved by another”, buys her back and promises a faithful marriage to her. What pride did he have to swallow, what humbling did he endure in pursing a woman who was in the arms of another, in order to take her back into the most intimate and committed relationship we know on earth?

The epitome of rejection is personified in Jesus’ life on earth and death on the cross. The prophet Isiah says, “He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows, and familiar with suffering. Like one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not.”

Jesus was crucified in excruciating pain, exposed and humiliated. His closest and most loyal followers had abandoned him in fear for their own lives. Peter, Jesus’ student and friend through all matter of adventure, verbally denied that he even knew Jesus, on three occasions. And the most painful and heart-breaking of all, as Jesus took all of our sin and filth, none of which he deserved, God turned his back on Jesus. That perfect union, which we as humans cannot even comprehend, was broken. And Jesus took this willingly. So we could be united in a loving permanent relationship with him. I love the verse in Philippians which sums up so clearly the humility and servant love of the God of the universe. This speaks of Jesus:

“Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death – even death on a cross!” (NIV)

Why should God choose to pursue us in our unfaithfulness and rejection of Him? Why should he choose to abandon his splendour, his riches and his kingly status in exchange for “no beauty or majesty”, poverty and weakness? It is a powerful truth which I still deeply desire to fully understand.