When we take the stance that we should be automatically forgiven, and, too, allowed to continue as if there was no offense, we discard the close relationship that we need to have with the way of the LORD. To give you an idea of how this relates to the husband-wife situation, here is a time when the LORD described such a relationship between God and the congregation of Israel. Unfortunately, the reference was to a time that was in a state of transition. Actually, I should not say, unfortunately; for, the transition that was coming upon them was a blessed one.
Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah: Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt; which my covenant they brake, although I was an husband unto them, saith the LORD:
But this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel; After those days, saith the LORD, I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be my people. And they shall teach no more every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the LORD: for they shall all know me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith the LORD: for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.
(Jeremiah 31:31-34)
Yes, just as the children did; when we assume that we have a right to forgiveness, we both damage our relationship with the LORD and mishandle the responsibility that God has placed in our hands. However, the offense of someone who has mishandled responsibility–such as happens when there is an abusive or cheating spouse–does not stop with the desire of that person to be retroactively forgiven. The offense continues in that they require their true mate to participate with them in a public display of calm waters. When you are a husband that has abused or cheated your wife, and either require or expect her to go on as if there had been no storm; this is the type of treatment that you are inflicting on your wife. Moreover, by your request for complicit duplicity, you are asking her to consent to your violation of the law of God; after all, she is the other portion of your whole self, now, as Jesus reminded us.
Explore The Fullness of David: Part Four
…