Exodus 21:9 And if he have betrothed her unto his son, he shall deal with her after the manner of daughters.

Earlier I had said that God would not ask anything of you that He would not perform Himself. Here in the Old Testament is a prescribed treatment for those who He has betrothed to His Son Jesus Christ. The issues of adoption into the family of God is centered on this prescribed treatment. Once the hostilities have ended, we are no long entreated as the enemy but as daughters.

Can we see in this prescribed treatment how God entreats us now that our relationship has changed? As a man I had a hard time seeing how this applied to our relationship because I wanted to maintain my fleshly understanding of manhood and all that my earthly father had taught me. I missed the deeper meaning of this prescribed treatment.

The daughter earns nothing, everything is given to her. She is loved without expectation. She is nurtured and protected because she is innocent and pure in the eyes of the father. She has no rights to an inheritance which comes solely by means of her husband.

We as the bride of Christ, His betrothed, are given gifts we did not earn. We are loved with a perfect love not because of what we have done or will do, but because of who He is in quality and personality. We are nurtured and protected even if we do not see the protective covering. Our innocence and purity is in His eyes because we are in Christ and not because of our past. Everything in heaven and earth has been given over to the Son because of His faithfulness to do the will of the Father and became the sacrifice that made this all possible.

I never saw this until I learned to look at things through God’s eyes.