God will scatter those who have made a covenant with Him. The people wanted to make the covenant with God, but when the reality hit of what this was going to cost them in the conduct of their lives, they no longer wanted it unless it was on their terms. When food got scarce and water was in short supply, they wanted to back out and accused their leaders and God. Their descendants in the land of the promise were unwilling to make the sacrifices necessary to make the marriage successful. God first scattered Israel, and then when Judah did not learn from Israel's experiences, God divorced them both as one nation that had made a covenant with Him. Those in a covenant with God are going to have to desire unity in the same way that God does. The hardships of the pilgrimage in the wilderness were a consequence of a choice that they made to enter into the agreement with God. The consequences of choices are all too frequently things that people do not want to think about. In regard to sin, people either ignore the consequences and take their chances or go into denial that the consequences are a reality that must be dealt with. Being free imposes choices and sacrifices that only the faithful are willing to make. In the end the Israelites were comfortable with slavery and died in the wilderness separated from the God who freed them. The church is receiving a very stern warning. God is not done with Israel yet, but He did scatter them, and that scattering is a warning. The reality is that the church was scattered, and people of every spiritual level are scattered through all the groups. The whole church is sick sin sick. The most important breach is the one between people and God. It is the loss of faith aided and abetted by a loss of devotion.

The material develops the theme of covenant and rejecting God by drawing on Israel's history to illustrate the consequences for those who enter covenant with Him yet turn aside. After making covenant at Sinai the Israelites murmured against Moses and Aaron, accusing their leaders of bringing them into the wilderness to die and longing for the fleshpots of Egypt, thereby rejecting both God's deliverance and the hardships that accompanied the liberty He had granted. This rebellion expressed itself further when they chided Moses for water and tested the Lord, showing an unwillingness to accept the conditions of the covenant relationship. The pattern deepened as they pursued the worship of other gods on high places and under green trees, committing spiritual harlotry. In response God declared that He had no pleasure in the death of the wicked but commanded them to turn from their evil ways; when they refused He put Israel away and gave her a bill of divorce. The same principle appears in Solomon's case: because his heart turned from the Lord to other gods after God had appeared to him twice and commanded him concerning the covenant, God determined to rend the kingdom from his son, though He preserved one tribe for David's sake and Jerusalem's sake. Rehoboam's subsequent hardness of heart, which God Himself caused, fulfilled that purpose and divided the nation. These accounts establish God's consistent pattern: He scatters covenant people who reject Him and His statutes, as explicitly warned in Leviticus, even while desiring unity on His terms rather than at any price. The same dynamic explains the present scattering of the church, whose members entered the New Covenant yet have followed analogous paths of departure, rendering excuses that shift responsibility elsewhere both self-righteous and contrary to the record of how God has always dealt with those who break covenant.