The Bible is, from beginning to end, a love story. Not a sentimental one — but a fierce, costly, pursuing love that refuses to let go. This message looks at the marriage imagery woven through Scripture and what it reveals about God’s relationship with His people.
Rev 19:6 And I heard, as it were, the voice of a great multitude, as the sound of many waters and as the sound of mighty thunderings, saying, “Alleluia! For the Lord God Omnipotent reigns! Rev 19:7 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.” Rev 19:8 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.
And how great a celebration that will be. Reading on in Revelation 19 verse 9 is says
Rev 19:9 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.”
Turning to Ephesians 5: 23 -27, we see who Paul tells us who is this Bride of Christ.
Eph 5:23 For the husband is head of the wife, as also Christ is head of the church; and He is the Savior of the body. Eph 5:24 Therefore, just as the church is subject to Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands in everything. Eph 5:25 Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself for her, Eph 5:26 that He might sanctify and cleanse her with the washing of water by the word, Eph 5:27 that He might present her to Himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she should be holy and without blemish.
And again in II Corinthians:
2Co 11:2 For I am jealous for you with godly jealousy. For I have betrothed you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ.
Paul is clearly pointing to the bride, talked about in Revelations 19, being the Church.
So a great wedding feast will be coming and we as the Church of God will be the bride. We are called to prepare for this wedding ceremony and we do need to focus on that preparation but today want I want to look at is how Christ has prepared for His marriage feast.
Like most of the plan of God, it is very little about us and what we can do or are doing or are expected to do. The real focus is on God and Christ what they have planned, what they have done, what they are doing and what they will do. And the marriage between Christ and His Bride, the Church, is primarily about Christ and the Father and their great love for us and their desire to expand Their family.
Broadly we spend much focus on our role or what we get from the plan of God. And it is appropriate that we do but as mature Christians we need to step out of our focus on ourselves and look from the perspective of our Father and older Brother.
For me, I can often just think of them as these two powerful, perfect omniscient beings. A very impersonal view. But we see in the Bible that they are personal beings. Think about this, we know they have wants and desires just like us, yet do not sin, they are jealous and can get angry but it is righteous jealousy and anger.
They both when they decided to go down this path to layout the plan of God had wants and desires that are going to be fulfilled when their plan is fulfilled.
For me it is here when I step out of my perspective and try even if it is not perfect, try to look at the perspectives of our older Brother and our Father.
So today lets look at what Christ has done to make sure that the Wedding Feast will happen and will be a blessed event.
Lets go to the beginning of the Bible. Genesis 2:18.
Gen 2:18 And the LORD God said, “It is not good that man should be alone; I will make him a helper comparable to him.” Gen 2:19 Out of the ground the LORD God formed every beast of the field and every bird of the air, and brought them to Adam to see what he would call them. And whatever Adam called each living creature, that was its name. Gen 2:20 So Adam gave names to all cattle, to the birds of the air, and to every beast of the field. But for Adam there was not found a helper comparable to him.
When I read this, one of the things I wonder and look forward to asking God and Christ is if they had a similar conversation after they had created the angelic beings. As they made the Spiritual Realm and all the Angelic beings did Christ look around and not see a helper comparable to him. Did this lead to the physical creation and the plan of salvation that they put in place? The Bible doesn’t tell us but it is one of the many things I want to ask.
What we really learn from this is that like the first Adam, the last Adam is looking for a Helper that is comparable to Him. Christ has been and is still working towards a marriage relationship. Christ desires to have a wife. This is something he has planned for, prepared for and will ensure is brought to fruition. How long has this been his desire? We don’t know but we do know it was at least since the foundation of the earth.
Reading on in Genesis
Gen 2:21 And the LORD God caused a deep sleep to fall on Adam, and he slept; and He took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh in its place. Gen 2:22 Then the rib which the LORD God had taken from man He made into a woman, and He brought her to the man. Gen 2:23 And Adam said: “This is now bone of my bones And flesh of my flesh; She shall be called Woman, Because she was taken out of Man.”
My thought when I read this is how similar this is to the Days of Unleavened Bread. The symbolism of a deep sleep coming on Adam compared to Christ’s death and resurrection. We know several times that Christ himself compared death to sleep. Going on Adam in verse 23 says that Eve is bone of my bone and flesh of my flesh. This aligns to the symbols of Passover the bread and the wine. We read this every year in the pass over.
Mat 26:26 And 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.” Mat 26:27 Then He took the cup, and gave thanks, and gave it to them, saying, “Drink from it, all of you. Mat 26:28 For this is My blood of the new covenant, which is shed for many for the remission of sins.
The symbol of bread is clearly flesh in both cases but even the bone and the blood is closer then it might appear at first glance. In the human body, the red blood cells are made in the marrow of bones. So just like Adam’s bone that was made into Eve and part of that bone was the bone marrow that provided for physical blood, Christ gives his Bride life giving blood but blood not that will give physical life but spiritual, eternal, life.
Then in verse 24 we read:
Gen 2:24 Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.
This last part was echo’ed in the later verses of Ephesians 5 some of which we read earlier
Eph 5:30 For we are members of His body, of His flesh and of His bones. Eph 5:31 “FOR THIS REASON A MAN SHALL LEAVE HIS FATHER AND MOTHER AND BE JOINED TO HIS WIFE, AND THE TWO SHALL BECOME ONE FLESH.” Eph 5:32 This is a great mystery, but I speak concerning Christ and the church.
Tying the relationship between Christ and his bride to the story of Adam and Eve.
Up until now you can look at the Christ and His Bride being similar to the story of Adam and Eve which makes sense given the analogy between the first Adam and the last Adam being Christ in 1 Corinthians.
Jumping down just a bit further to the story of the fall of Man we see the differences why through Adam all man will die but through Christ all will live.
I won’t read it since we know the story well but I want to look at a couple of differences between the Adam and Eve and Christ and the Church.
First we see that in the story of Adam and Eve, Adam wasn’t there to protect Eve from Satan’s temptation, but we see with Christ that he took the temptation of Satan head on. We know that Satan both times, in his temptation Eve and the temptation of Christ used similar techniques but in the case of Adam he didn’t step in and protect Eve. Christ on the other hand prepared for the temptation and took it on himself and defeated Satan.
Second, In Christ and Adam is that both Eve and the Church are sinners. But how Adam and Christ reach to that sinfulness is very different.
God tells us that Adam in:
Gen 3:17 Then to Adam He said, “Because you have heeded the voice of your wife, and have eaten from the tree of which I commanded you, saying, ‘You shall not eat of it’: “Cursed is the ground for your sake; In toil you shall eat of it All the days of your life.
Adam was not deceived liked Eve, but he again sidestepped his leadership role and heeded the voice of his wife leading himself to sin as well. You could easily see that after not finding a helping comparable to him that he didn’t want to be without Eve and didn’t have the faith in God to seek a Godly solution.
Christ was also put in this situation. Christ was originally given the nation of Israel as a bride but we know what happened:
Jer 3:6 The LORD said also to me in the days of Josiah the king: “Have you seen what backsliding Israel has done? She has gone up on every high mountain and under every green tree, and there played the harlot. Jer 3:7 And I said, after she had done all these things, ‘Return to Me.’ But she did not return. And her treacherous sister Judah saw it. Jer 3:8 Then I saw that for all the causes for which backsliding Israel had committed adultery, I had put her away and given her a certificate of divorce; yet her treacherous sister Judah did not fear, but went and played the harlot also. Jer 3:9 So it came to pass, through her casual harlotry, that she defiled the land and committed adultery with stones and trees. Jer 3:10 And yet for all this her treacherous sister Judah has not turned to Me with her whole heart, but in pretense,” says the LORD. Jer 3:11 Then the LORD said to me, “Backsliding Israel has shown herself more righteous than treacherous Judah. Jer 3:12 Go and proclaim these words toward the north, and say: ‘Return, backsliding Israel,’ says the LORD; ‘I will not cause My anger to fall on you. For I am merciful,’ says the LORD; ‘I will not remain angry forever. Jer 3:13 Only acknowledge your iniquity, That you have transgressed against the LORD your God, And have scattered your charms To alien deities under every green tree, And you have not obeyed My voice,’ says the LORD. Jer 3:14 “Return, O backsliding children,” says the LORD; “for I am married to you. I will take you, one from a city and two from a family, and I will bring you to Zion.
And Christ like Adam was tempted by Satan and given the opportunity to be King over all the earth. While it is not an exact match the similarities are there. Christ had the opportunity to go be King over His sinful bride for a period of time. But Christ had faith in The Father and their plan. He knew there was a path to redemption for His Bride and that there would be a great wedding feast.
Matthew 4:1-11
Christ instead was prepared to lead his Bride away from her sinful ways. First with his blood as a sacrifice to cover her sins, our sins, and second with the giving of the Holy Spirit to lead her towards God’s way.
In this Genesis account we can see both how much Christ desires a bride, how much he is looking for a helper comparable to him but prepared a way for his bride to come out of sin.
The next area, I want to look at are marriage customs of Christ’s day. There are many good books that detail the marriage customs of Christ’s time. I would encourage you to read some as I will only quickly cover them. These customs are very different then we have today.
The process would normally start with the Father picking a bride for his son. Not a common practice in the western world today. We can see the parallel with God the Father chose us as we see in:
Eph 1:3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, Eph 1:4 just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love,
Joh 6:37 All that the Father gives Me will come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I will by no means cast out. Joh 6:38 For I have come down from heaven, not to do My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me.
We see this first step following the custom. God the Father has chosen each of us specifically for his son. We have nothing to do the picking, it is God who is choosing who will marry His Son.
Next, the brideprice would be agreed on. This concept is very different then what we think today. I am not sure it would go over well if you went today to a woman’s father and offer to pay for his daughter to marry you. But it is an interesting because in that day, you had to be willing to say how much this woman you were going to marry was worth to you.
Again we see this being followed by God the Father and Jesus Christ. The bride price that The Father set for Christ was his life.
We see in 1 Corinthians this concept of being bought for a price
1Co 6:19 Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own? 1Co 6:20 For you were bought at a price; therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God’s.
That price being the shed blood of Jesus Christ. So a very expensive Bride Price indeed did Christ pay for us but a price he willingly paid because of his great live and desire for us.
Once the bride price was set the potential bridegroom and the bride and the brides father would come to seal a contract that would include the bride prices and other terms. This would be a legal contract between the two parties. For this marriage the contract was laid out in Jeremiah:
Jer 31:31 “Behold, the days are coming, says the LORD, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah— Jer 31:32 not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt, My covenant which they broke, though I was a husband to them, says the LORD. Jer 31:33 But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the LORD: I will put My law in their minds, and write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people. Jer 31:34 No more shall every man teach his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, ‘Know the LORD,’ for they all shall know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them, says the LORD. For I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more.”
So this new marriage covenant was needed because the original marriage covenant was broken, These terms were very generous. Here Christ is bringing everything, a steep bride price, and the willingness to forgive the sins of his bride before their wedding.
After the terms of the contract were made clear the bridegroom would offer the bride a cup of wine to see the contract. If she accepted the wine and drank from the cup it would become a binding legal agreement. So even though the marriage was not consummated legally they could not break the engagement.
This ceremony we do every year at the Passover.
Mat 26:27 Then He took the cup, and gave thanks, and gave it to them, saying, “Drink from it, all of you. Mat 26:28 For this is My blood of the new covenant, which is shed for many for the remission of sins. Mat 26:29 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.”
So every time we take the Passover are acknowledging the bride price that Christ paid for us and agreeing to the covenant that he gave us .
Next the bridegroom would pay the bride price which we know Christ did with his crucifixion the very same day.
After the bride price was paid then came a period of waiting. In Christ’s day they didn’t have a fixed date for the wedding. The bridegroom would go back to his father’s house and would start to prepare a place to live. We see Christ reassuring the Apostles about this very thing
Joh 14:2 In My Father’s house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. Joh 14:3 And 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.
And before the bridegroom could come to take the bride he had to build out this place to the father’s approval. A typical period would be about a year. So only once the father approved could the bride groom return. This aligns with Christ statement that only the Father knows when he will return because the Father has to approve of the readiness of what Christ is preparing.
You can imagine the bridegroom excitement as they would get closer to finishing.
Now once that approval was given, the bridegroom would go off to collect his bride. Many times this would be in the middle of the night and the bride for that whole year would be prepared with a lamp ready to for the bridegroom to appear at any time.
And so we come back to Revelations 19 where we started
Rev 19:6 And I heard, as it were, the voice of a great multitude, as the sound of many waters and as the sound of mighty thunderings, saying, “Alleluia! For the Lord God Omnipotent reigns! Rev 19:7 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.” Rev 19:8 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. Rev 19:9 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.”
This though is only the end of the beginning. While we don’t know as much about what will happen in the future as we know what has already been done. We know that after the wedding feast there is a time that we will reign together with Christ on this earth. Beyond that God ordained that marriage is to last forever and this marriage between Christ and the Church will be unbreakable.
Brethren, as we have just come out of a reminder of their plan and waiting to be reminded once again let us think on these things. Christ desires a helper comparable to himself and has prepared and is preparing for HIS wedding feast. I can only imagine as the yearly cycle of the Holy Days, especially these fall feasts, comes again the excitement that Christ has builds. He knows he is getting closer to the time that he will come back to this earth not only to rule as King of Kings and Lord of Lords but he is coming back to the greatest wedding feast of all time. He can see His Bride preparing herself for him.