to Me”; but she did not return.’ Because of Israel’s unrelenting hardness of heart in persisting with her unfaithfulness, God made a decision: ‘I had sent her away and given her a writ of divorce’ (Jeremiah 3:6–8). It was on the basis of her unrepentant and incessant spiritual adultery that God, so to speak, finally gave Israel a certificate of divorce. That does not mean, however, that you and I are free to divorce our spouses for spiritual adultery, for something they do in their minds. Divorce
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