God's Unfaithful Wife: A Biblical Theology of Spiritual Adultery

This theme that the author grabs hold of runs throught the whole bible, yet it is often overlooked. Our God is a a jealous God who compares Himself to a husband whose wife cheats on Him. You need to get this book to understand how passionate and intimate our God wants to be with us. As a side: I had Ray Ortlund Jr for a professor at TEDS and one evening he invited our class to his home. Thankfully, only a handful showed up. My wife and I got to know him at a more intimate level, but to our delight his wife took time to share with us her life. We were both amazed (I'm not using the term "amazed" lightly here) at the authenticity and passion of this couple.

This book is a very straight forward study on the many biblical passages that use the marriage relationship and especially the violation of that bond to portray God's relationship with Israel. Ortlund's study is most helpful in that it develops the biblical text rather than individualistic theories or theologies. Ortlund moves through the Bible (this is biblical theology) dwelling, as expected, on the many passages from the prophets and eventually moves into the New Testament. He avoids prolonged discussion of specific Hebrew words (e.g. znh) in favor of theological development but deals with specific items in his copious footnotes. The author integrates his study with some major theological works, is conversant with Jewish tradition, but places far less emphasis upon current works and theory. Feminist hermeneutics are dealt with in an appendix and mostly seen through the eyes of two representative writers. In addition to any interested in the topic, this book is highly recommended for readers of the prophets.