Hearken, O daughter, and consider, and incline thine ear; forget also thine own people, and thy father's house;
Address to the Bride.
Hearken, O daughter, and consider, and incline thine ear; forget also thine own people, and thy father's house A foreign princess, espoused by a great king, if she wished to please her lord, would divest herself of the customs of her native land, and conform to the language, manners, dress, and tastes of her husband and his people. So the queen-consort, Israel, is called on to abandon the ancient Jewish ritualism, in order to become wholly Christ's; not that she is to forget the spirit of the law, which is indeed the Gospel expressed in hieroglyphical types. The legal ceremonial and circumcision, in the letter, is 'her father's house,' which now she is to leave for her Bridegroom's better home. How far the future temple service (Ezekiel 40:1-49; Ezekiel 41:1-26; Ezekiel 42:1-20; Ezekiel 43:1-27; Ezekiel 44:1-31; Ezekiel 45:1-25; Ezekiel 46:1-24; Ezekiel 47:1-23) is literal or figurative we know not yet, but we are sure it will have a spirituality which Judaism now has not (Romans 2:28-29). We do not easily divest ourselves of the prejudices of childhood. But the parents are to be left for the consort (Genesis 2:24); and all things are to be left for Christ (Matthew 10:37). Israel's present carnal Judaism is the great obstacle to her becoming Christ's. "Forget" significantly reminds Israel of the original call of God to Abraham (Genesis 12:1), "Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father's house." This call is now given afresh to Israel, as it was to their forefathers (cf. Isaiah 51:1). At the same time, it is not her heavenly Father whom she is told to "forget," but her "father's house;" for God, the heavenly King, is her Father, whence she is called "the King's daughter" (Psalms 45:13); but it is her earthly parentage, in whom Israel boasted herself, and therefore had rejected Messiah (cf. Matthew 3:9; John 8:33; John 8:39). She must cease to trust in the earthly father, and trust only in the heavenly Father, King, and Bridegroom.