30 Marriage of the Lamb God's Purpose for Man

Chapter 30
The Marriage of the Lamb

Becoming the Bride of Christ

Jesus wants everyone to become "one" with Him.  Not everyone, however, chooses to become "one" with Him.  The Bible uses the analogy of a bridegroom and bride because, as believers in Jesus, we are His bride - betrothed to Him.  When we came to belief in Him, the Bible uses such phrases as  born-again, saved, converted - and as such, we enter into a marriage betrothal with Him.  When we accepted Jesus as our Lord and Savior, we entered into a new life in Him.  We became His bride, and Jesus became our bridegroom. 

Before Jesus left this earth after His death and resurrection, He promised to go to His Father's House (heaven) to prepare our eternal home with Him.  He then promised He would one day come back to bring us home to be with Him forever.  He will do that at the Rapture of the Church where we will consummate our marriage with Him as we receive our glorified bodies.  He will then escort us all into heaven to our eternal home to get ready for the Marriage Feast of the Lamb.

To understand our marriage union with Christ more fully, we need to examine a biblical Jewish wedding - a wedding that all 1st century Jewish believers, as part of their custom, were very familiar with. 

A typical Jewish wedding

Before and during the time when Jesus walked the earth, a typical Jewish wedding went something like this:

The choosing of the bride:
The bridegroom went to the house of the bride whom he, or his parents, had chosen. Depending on his age, determined whether the bridegroom was involved in the choosing of his bride.  A meeting was held with the intention of negotiating a price for the bride. A typical price could have been two camels and one ox – one very-well accepted price for a bride. 

The betrothal of marriage
When an agreement had taken place on the price and the conditions of the marriage, a document, in the form of a covenant, was given.  Covenants were serious agreements and binding. This covenant was then sealed with a betrothal cup of the fruit of the vine.  At that point, the bridegroom and bride were officially betrothed into marriage.  Today, in our western culture, the closest we can come to a betrothal is an engagement period between two consenting man and woman who plan on getting married. 

The fruit of the vine was grape juice. In many scripture verses, wine means the same thing. Most people today, however, think when wine is mentioned in scripture it is in its fermented stage. That may or may not be the case. Because of the lack of refrigeration, wine could mean grape juice or spoiled, rotted juice – which is fermented.

  • If the marriage covenant was done by an adult male, he would wait until he was ready to take on a bride.  At the drinking of the betrothal cup, he was officially betrothed to his bride, even though they were not fully married, which would happen at the consummation time when he returned to bring his bride back to their new home.. 
  • Set on preparing for his marriage union, his last drink would be at the time of the betrothal cup.  He would not drink any fruit of the vine again until after comsummation at the marriage feast.    
  • In the meantime, a lot of preparation needed to be done.  It could last months or even years.

The Bridegroom prepares the new home:
After the completion of the sealing of the marriage covenants, the groom left to prepare for the new home that he chose for his new bride.  In most cases, it would be adjoining his father’s house or nearby.  If a bridegroom did not have the price that was due for his bride, however, he may have had to work for the bride’s father for a period of time to pay for her. How long that period of time would be depended on the conditions of the contract and the amount of preparation time needed to prepare for his bride.

Example: Jacob, son of Isaac, had to work many years for his Uncle Laban to acquire Rachel for his bride

The Bride prepares herself for her bridegroom:
The bridegroom sent his best friend to his bride with gifts that she would need to prepare herself for her bridegroom. Her wardrobe was created - the finest her bridegroom could offer. Her body was cleansed and she was sprinkled in perfumes. She did everything necessary to make herself beautiful inside and out for her bridegroom. She needed to be without spot or blemish. She did not know how long her bridegroom would be gone, but she knew the time was short, and she had to be ready at any given time.

The Help of the virgin friends:
The bride gathered several of her unmarried girlfriends (virgins or handmaidens as they were called) to prepare her and her wardrobe.  It was a time of excitement and preparation. Day and night they worked to help prepare the bride for the bridegroom’s coming. All the oil lamps needed to be kept oiled at all times because Jewish weddings were always held at night – sometime after sundown. Only after the sun would go down would the bridegroom show up.  It could be early, or it could be late at night. It may even look like he is not going to show up, however, the bride knows she must be ready at all times for his coming.

Matt 25:1-13 Then the kingdom of heaven shall be likened to ten virgins who took their lamps and went out to meet the bridegroom. Now five of them were wise and five were foolish. Those who were foolish took their lamps and took no oil with them, but the wise took oil in their vessels with their lamps. And the foolish said to the wise, “give us some of your oil, for our lamps are going out.” But the wise answered, saying “No, lest thee should not be enough for us and you, but to rather to those who seek and buy for yourselves. And while they went to buy, the bridegroom came, and those who were ready went in with him to the wedding; and the door was shut. Afterward, the other virgins came also saying, Lord, Lord, open to us! But he answered and said, Assuredly, I say to you, I do not know you. Watch, therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour in which the Son of Man is coming.”

When the bridegroom completed the preparation for the home of him and his bride, he set out to come for his bride.  It would be a big procession.  Several torches were lit and trumpets sounded as they drew close to his home where his bride dwelt. As the procession got closer to the house, the noise could be heard and torches seen from a distance. These were the signs of his coming.  The virgins who were helping the bride, excitedly hearing and seeing the procession off in the background, finished the last minute details to get the bride ready. Their lamps had to be well oiled, because the bridegroom was ready to take his bride away.

The Arrival of the Bridegroom For His Bride:
The bridegroom finally arrived outside the home, shouting with a loud voice – “COME!” The bride then went outside to join her bridegroom and off the two traveled to their new home.  The marriage feast was prepared and the guests waited as the marriage was consummated.  As soon as the consummation takes place, the wedding feast began.  The wedding celebration of music, dancing and food opened up and lasted for seven days. 

Preparing For Our Bridegroom

Matt 22:2-14 The kingdom of heaven is like a certain king who arranged a marriage for his son, and sent out his servants to call those who were invited to the wedding; and they were not willing to come. Again, he sent out other servants, saying, “Tell those who are invited, see I have prepared my dinner, my oxen and fattened cattle are killed, and all things are ready. Come to the wedding. But they made light of it and went their ways, one to his own farm, another to his business. And the rest seized his servants, treated them spitefully, and killed them. But when the king heard about it, he was furious. And he sent out his armies, destroyed those murderers, and burned up their city. Then he said to his servants, “The wedding is ready, but those who were invited were not worthy. Therefore, go into the highways, and as many as you find invite to the wedding. So those servants went out into the highways and gathered together all whom they found, both bad and good. And the wedding hall was filled with guests. But when the king came in to see the guests, he saw a man there who did not have on a wedding garment. So he said to him, friend, how did you come in here without a wedding garment? And he was speechless. Then the king said to the servants, bind him hand and foot, take him away, and cast him into outer darkness, tere will be weeping and gnasing of teeth. For many are called, but few are chosen.

Let's now compare a Jewish wedding where Jesus, as the bridegroom, is looking for His bride:

For those of us who accepted the invitation of Jesus to be "one" wih Him, we are now betrothed to Jesus.  It began the moment we accepted Him in our lives. A covenant was made between Him and us.  Jesus became our bridegroom.

Jesus's choosing of His bride:  It has always been God's desire that all men be saved and come to the knowledge of His truth (1 Tim 2:4).  So much so, that He sent His Son into the world to save the sins of mankind.  Jesus left His Father's house in heaven to search for His bride.  Jesus paid a price for us - His price was far greater than two camels and an ox. His price was His blood, which was shed for us on the cross of Calvary. This was His covenant to us.  All the bride has to do is accept Him.  In other words, all who would believe in Him will not perish to hell for an eternity, but will spend eternity with Christ as His bride in our heavenly home.   God did, however, create mankind with a free will to choose whom he would believe in and serve.  God has called you to come to Jesus - will you choose Him in return?  Will you become His bride?

The betrothal of our marriage to Jesus Christ: When we accept Christ - believing and trusting our lives over to Him, Jesus does a miracle on the inside of us by activating His Holy Spirit in our lives to accomplish His mighty works.  A covenant has been written up, which is told to us in God's Word.  

Rom 10:9-10 that if you will confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and will believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart man believes unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.

2 Corinthians 5:17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!

Jesus prepares our new home in heaven:
Before Jesus went to the cross, He sat down with His disciples and drank the fruit of the vine to seal the covenant of our becoming "one" with Him.  There He set up the terms with them of His covenant, stating that His blood paid the price.  It was sealed, bought, and paid for.

Matt 26:26-29 As as they were eating, Jesus took bread, blessed and broke it, and gave it to the disciples and said, “Take, eat; this is My body.” Then He took the cup and gave thanks, and gave it to them, saying, “Drink from it all of you. For this is My blood of the new covenant, which is shed for many for the remission of sins. But I say to you, I will not drink of this fruit of the vine from now on until that day when I drink it new with you in My Father’s kingdom.

Jesus then made two promises:

  1. He would go back to His Father's house to prepare a home in heaven for His bride.  When it is complete, He will come again to pick up His bride to bring her to their new home in heaven.
  2. He promised that He would not touch the fruit of the vine again until His bride joined Him in heaven – at the marriage feast of the Lamb. 

John 14:2-3 In My Father's house are many dwelling places; if it were not so, I would have told you; for I go to prepare a place for you. If I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself, that where I am, there you may be also. NASV

For 2000 years Jesus has been preparing our eternal home with all of its blessings. They are waiting for us to enjoy – more than we can ever think possible.  He is ready to come back to bring us to our heavenly home - just waiting upon the Father to give the go-ahead.  The Rapture of the Church is ready to happen.

The Bride prepares herself for her bridegroom:
In an ancient Jewish wedding, the bridegroom sent gifts to his bride to help her prepare for His return.  The bride also had her virgin friends to assist her.  Comparing that to our betrothal to Jesus, He sent us His Holy Spirit (which is a part of Himself) ahead of time to give us the gifts we need to prepare us for His coming. These gifts are there to help us become holy as Christ is holy. These gifts will help us be obedient to the things of the Lord. 

Eph 4:8…And He gave gifts unto men…

Eph 4:11-12 And He Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ till we all come to the unity of the faith and the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ.

We, as Jesus’ betrothal, need to prepare ourselves as much as we can here on earth because what we don’t fulfill in our preparation on earth, we will have to complete in heaven.  If we don’t prepare ourselves with the gifts he left for us on earth, we will not only lose out on our blessings in this life, but will lose out on even more blessings when we face Jesus at the Judgement Seat of Christ.  While heaven will be our eternal home, the rewards will be few if we don’t prepare ourselves as the Lord set down for us in His Word. Obedience to His Word and blessings run hand in hand. We can’t have one without the other.

Rev 19:.7 ...“Alleluia! For the Lord God Omnipotent reigns! Let us be glad and rejoice and give Him glory, for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and His wife has made herself ready.”

The Arrival of the Jesus For His Bride:
When Jesus completes our eternal home in heaven, and at the time of the Father's decision, He will come again to receive His bride unto Himself.  He will not, however, come down to earth, but will meet us in the air.  Suddenly, as the trumpet of God sounds, in a twinkling of an eye, the dead in Christ will arise from the graves to meet Jesus in the air.  At the same time, those believers left alive upon the earth will suddenly be caught up in the air to also meet Jesus in the clouds.  Our mortal bodies will instantly be changed to receive our glorified resurrected bodies as well.  All in a moment of time (I Cor 15:51-55).  As we receive our glorified bodies, we suddenly will be without spot or blemish, holy, without sin.

Eph 5:27 that He wants to present His bride to Himself glorious, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she should be holy and without blemish

Jesus will then escort His Bride to our eternal home in heaven (John 14:2-3) to spend the next seven years celebrating and preparing to return to earth with Christ at His 2nd coming to rule and reign with Him for 1000 years. 

The Marriage Feast of the Lamb

The Bible gives only three consecutive verses regarding the Marriage Feast of the Lamb.  We do, however, have other scripture verses or passages that may give reference, to give us enough insite of our future seven years in heaven following the Rapture of the Church to the 2nd coming of Christ. 

Rev 19:7-9 Let us be glad and rejoice and give Him glory, for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and His wife has made herself ready. And to her it was granted to be arrayed in fine linen, clean and bright, for the fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints. Then he said to me, “Write, blessed are those who are called to the marriage supper of the Lamb!” And he said to me, “These are the true sayings of God.”

Like a Jewish wedding ceremony, there will be fine food, laughter, dancing and celebration at our Marriage Feast of the Lamb.  Together with Jesus we will celebrate our marriage to Him. 

The Bible tells us that our numbers will look like a sea of glass – we will number in the myriads of myriads and thousands upon thousands.  Our worship to our bridegroom will be worship like you have never worshipped before.  Imagine millions of saints, as the bride of Christ, worshipping Jesus as the King of Kings and the Lord of Lord.  How a wonderous sight to behold and look forward to.  Hallelujah!

Rev 4:6 Before the throne there was a sea of glass, like crystal…

Rev 5:11 And I looked, and I heard the voice of many angels around the throne and the living creatures and the elders; and the number of them was myriads of myriads, and thousands of thousands. NAS

Click here to view Chapter #31 Second Return of Christ & Armageddon

 

 

Written by Pastor Joyce A. Erickson

Believers Bible School, Founder https://believersbibleschool.com/