There is in the Bible an action which is called a prophetic symbol. Jeremiah, for instance, buys an earthen pot, dashes it to the ground and proclaims in prophetic words what it is he is doing. “Thus says the Lord of hosts: so will I break this people and this city as one breaks a potter’s vessel, so that it can never be mended” (19:11). Ezekiel takes a brick, draws a city on it, draws siege works around the city and then lays siege to the city. This city, he proclaims, is “even Jerusalem” (4:1), and his action is “a sign for the house of Israel” (4:3). On another occasion he takes a sharp sword, shaves his hair with it, burns some of it, scatters more to the wind and carries the rest around Jerusalem. He interprets his actions with the words: “This is Jerusalem” (5:5).

Each prophet explains the meaning of his action. As Jeremiah dashes his pot to the ground, as Ezekiel cuts and burns and scatters his hair, so God will dash and shatter and burn and scatter Jerusalem. The prophets act out prophetic symbols, actions which proclaim and realize and celebrate in representation the presence and the action of God. What is done by Jeremiah and Ezekiel is not just the shattering of a cheap pot or the scattering of shorn hair. It is also in prophetic representation God’s shattering and scattering of Jerusalem. In both Old and New Testaments marriage is presented as such a prophetic symbol.

Central to the Israelite notion of their special relationship to their God, Yahweh, was the idea of the covenant. Yahweh is the God of Israel; Israel is the people of Yahweh; together they form a community of salvation. It was probably only a matter of time until Israelites began representing their covenant with Yahweh in the prophetic symbol of marriage, and it was the prophet Hosea who first did so. He preached about the covenant relationship of Yahweh and Israel within the context of his own marriage to his harlot wife, Gomer.

It is quite irrelevant whether the Book of Hosea is a historical account or what Hosea actually did, namely, that he took a harlot-wife, or whether it is a parable about marriage as steadfast covenant. It is only relevant that Hosea found in human marriage a prophetic symbol in which to represent the steadfastness of Yahweh’s covenantal love for his people. On the human level, the marriage of Hosea and Gomer is like many another marriage. But on a more profound level, it becomes prophetic symbol, proclaiming, making real, and celebrating in representation the steadfast covenant union between Yahweh and Israel. That view of marriage as prophetic symbol becomes the New Testament view of Christian marriage.

Tags: Marriage and Family, Marriage