Readings:
Jeremiah 3
Sirach 35
1 Peter 3

Jeremiah 3

God is comparing the people of Israel to a wife and he is the husband, this is a somewhat common theme in the Old Testament to describe the relationship between God and Israel. It is an all encompassing covenant they made and repeatedly renewed, he is their father in the way he loves his children and protects them, but he’s also a husband that will not sit by while his wife lays with every passerby she sees.

That’s the comparison made in a lot of the Old Testament between infidelity in a marriage and idolatry in the relationship with God. It’s both literal and symbolic; the symbolic because if God is the husband of Israel and they go worship Baal then they’ve symbolically had an affair on their spouse. But it’s sometimes literal because many near eastern religions employed temple prostitution where the infidelity is quite real and the way it’s described in this chapter seems like it’s both senses being spoken of.

1 Peter 3

Peter transitions from the conduct of Christians towards authorities and to the conduct of spouses in the community and towards each other. The natural order is to be respected with the husband as the head of the family, and the wives are encouraged to be a good example of a Christian woman so that they might even win over some of their husbands who aren’t even believers yet.

This doesn’t mean men are supposed to treat their wives as submissive servants. That would be an abuse of the marriage covenant. Husbands are told in this same passage to be considerate of their wives and to bestow honor on them. In the ideal marriage in both Peter and Paul’s opinions, is the husband as the head of the family and the wife as a honored and respected partner.

Peter knows deep down that hard times are coming, and in some cases may have already arrived, so he encourages the church to take heart and imitate Christ in accepting the suffering that is coming their way. He says to not return evil for evil, but to be prepared to offer a defense for the reasons you believe what you do. That’s an important thing to remember that we can defend our beliefs, but we shouldn’t become defensive. Easier said than done.

He closes and the clearest statement on the efficacy of baptism in the New Testament. He says “baptism now saves you.” Peter sees the flood of Noah as a clear prefigurement of baptism in the Old Testament. For more on baptism typology in the Old Testament read paragraphs 1217-1222 of the catechism of the Catholic Church http://www.scborromeo.org/ccc/p2s2c1a1.htm#1219

The Church has seen in Noah’s ark a prefiguring of salvation by Baptism, for by it “a few, that is, eight persons, were saved through water”: The waters of the great flood
you made a sign of the waters of Baptism,
that make an end of sin and a new beginning of goodness.

CCC 1219

Tomorrow’s Readings:
Jeremiah 4
Sirach 36
1 Peter 4