A new marriage covenant established, in place of the old

How is it that the Law of Moses could be a “perpetual covenant,” “throughout your
generations” (Exod 31:16; Exod 12:14) – and yet now we can say that it is no longer in
effect, and no longer necessary to observe?

A literal observance of the Mosaic Law is no longer required in any sense.

When God brought the Israelites out of Egypt, He made a covenant with them at Mount
Sinai. This covenant was described as a marriage between God and the house of Israel.

[Jere 3:14] Turn, O backsliding children, saith the Lord; for I am married unto you
[Jere 31:32] 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 a husband unto them, saith the Lord;

All covenants involve a declaration of the covenant terms, and acceptance by both parties with a solemn vow.

The Law of Moses was the terms of the covenant that God made with Israel at Mount Sinai. When Moses presented the law to Israel, they vowed to keep
it. “And he took the book of the covenant, and read in the audience of the people; and
they said, All that the Lord hath said will we do, and be obedient” (Exod 24:7).

Israel and Judah were married to the Lord, but they committed adultery through idolatry. God put away Israel (divorced her), and thus the covenant of marriage between God and Israel was broken. Judah was warned of the same fate unless they would keep the 10 commandments, which they didn’t.

“Backsliding Israel committed adultery, I had put her away, and given her a bill of divorce” (Jere 3:6-20).

The problem of remarriage: Part of the Jewish law on divorce and remarriage is given in Deut 24:1-4 (also mentioned in Jeremiah 3): “When a man hath taken a wife, and married her, and it come to pass that she find no favor in his eyes, because he hath found some uncleanness in her; then let him write her a bill of divorcement, and give it in her hand, and send her out of his house. And when she is departed, out of his house, she may go and be another man’s wife” (Deut 24:1-2).

This happened with Israel. She was divorced by God, and went to commit idolatry with
her pagan lovers. She went into bondage and was taken out of the land of Israel. What
happens if Israel wants to leave the second husband and come back to God, her first
husband?

After God divorced Israel, how can He bring her back into the covenant?

“And if the latter husband hate her, and write her a bill of divorcement, …and sendeth her out of his house; or if the latter husband die, which took her to be his wife; Her former husband which sent her away, may not take her again to be his wife, after that she is defiled; for that is abomination before the Lord; and thou shalt not cause the land to sin, which the Lord thy God giveth thee for an inheritance” (Deut 24:3-4).

God made the covenant with Israel, which terms included the laws on marriage.
According to the Law, the first husband was prohibited from taking the first wife again,
to avoid defiling the land. God was the first husband. If God was going to honor His
own law to the Israelites, He couldn’t remarry Israel after she has been divorced and
married to another.

How can God ever reclaim the House of Israel, if He can’t bring her back into the marriage covenant again?

The solution is suggested in Romans chapter 7. “For the woman which hath a husband is
bound by the law to her husband only as long as he liveth; for if the husband be dead, she is loosed from the law of her husband. So then if, while her husband liveth, she be
married to another man, she shall be called an adulteress; but if her husband be dead, she is free from that law; so that she is no adulteress, though she be married to another man” (Rom 7:1-3).

We said earlier that God was in a marriage covenant with the House of Israel. But
specifically, Jesus said that He is the God of Israel, the one who gave the law (Matt 9:19;
John 8:58; 2Ne 12:78; 2Ne 11:55; 1Ne 7:46; 2Ne 1:23). Jesus was the Bridegroom, and
the divine husband of the House of Israel. While He was alive, according to the Jewish
law on marriage, He could not remarry Israel after she had been another man’s husband.

But if the Bridegroom is dead, the original marriage covenant is nullified, and the
woman (Israel) is free from that law forever. The marriage covenant is not “eternal
marriage,” as taught by the Mormons or as suggested in the question of the Sadducees to
Jesus (Luke 20:27-36).

Death of one spouse frees the living spouse from the terms of the original covenant.

So what happens now if Israel wants to come back into a marriage covenant with God?
They cannot come back under the old covenant, because the first husband (the
Bridegroom) is dead. But they can make a new covenant with a “new husband,” who has
come alive from the dead.

This is explicitly the point that Paul made in Romans.

“Wherefore, my brethren, ye also are become dead to the law by the body of Christ; that
ye should be married to another, even to him who is raised from the dead, that we shouldbring forth fruit unto God” (Rom 7:4).

Besides all the other reasons Jesus had to die, to make an atonement for sins, etc.; another reason for His death was to finally and completely nullify the covenant of marriage with Israel that had been broken by her divorce and remarriage to pagan lovers.

Jesus had to die to free her from the obligations of the old covenant so that a new covenant could be made, allowing the house of Israel to come back into the marriage again.

“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 a 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” (Jere 31:31-33).

If Israel were to engage in two marriage covenants at the same time, she would be an adulteress (Rom 7:3).

In the same way, if we try to live under the obligations of two covenants at the same time, the old and the new, we may be guilty similarly of acting in a sort of spiritual adultery. The Lord only calls us into one of these covenants at a time –

that’s why He had to take away the old covenant in order to establish the new (Heb 10:9).