A Wedding Meditation
Throughout the Bible, God’s teaching method is, first the natural, that is, the physical, and then the spiritual, that is, the Eternal. And I submit to you that His Grand Subject throughout Scripture is marriage, a very special marriage. Marriage is God’s idea and plan, not man’s!! Consider with me:
In the beginning, God created man for the purpose of covenanted, committed relationship. By the way, all that God does, depends upon His covenant and promise! To this end, God created man as male and female, as it says in Gen.1. As we see later, God’s creative plan was for man to leave father and mother, and be joined to his wife so that they become one flesh. We see that in this one flesh love bond, they were naked and not ashamed. I have a feeling that the nakedness spoken of here went way beyond just the physical. They were to live together as one in all things in dependence and relationship with the Creator God Who had given them everything they could possible need and entered into Covenant Care for them.
But in Genesis 3, we find that marriage, the most beautiful jewel of God’s creation, lost its luster through pride and its evil siblings, self centeredness and blame. The Image and purpose of God that was to be modeled there, was marred and disfigured, as was all of creation. Nothing from that point on manifests the Creator’s Beauty, His Glory as fully as in the original Design. And yet, in loving marriage, there is a glimmer!
But in Revelation 21, the Bible speaks of the culmination of God’s restoration of all of creation. It speaks of a newly created heavens and earth. But the bulk of this chapter deals with a most beautiful vision. Verse 2 reads, “I John, saw the Holy City, New Jerusalem, coming down from Heaven from God, (NOW NOTICE) prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband!!! Verse 9 gives us a closer look as the angel says to John, “Come, I will show you the bride, the Lamb’s wife.” The Lamb, of course is Jesus, and His wife, This New Jerusalem, is the spiritual bride, all those for whom He became the sacrificial Lamb. Jesus, the Lamb, is the second Adam, a Life Giving Spirit, the Restorer of all Creation.
And the Bride’s dress is described in terms of the radiance of precious jewels and the glorious beauty of pure gold. And this Bride, redeemed from the slavery of the Master of Evil by the Blood of the Lamb, this Bride is now seen in an inseparable Eternal Love Union with her Bridegroom in the Presence of the God Who is Good.
In between these two scenes, we see beautiful and not so beautiful stories of marriage, each one teaching something of redemption and restoration. We have Abraham’s faithful servant’s search for a bride for Isaac, Abraham and Sarah’s miracle son–teaching us of God’s Spirit searching out and finding those that become the Bride of Revelation 21. There is the beautiful story of Ruth, one from a pagan land, being joined to Boaz, the honorable man of the chosen race–teaching us that God’s Israel exceeds national boundaries through the Chosen One, Jesus Christ and His World Wide Love!!! And then there is David and Bathsheba, the tragic story of adultery and murder, the violating of God’s marriage covenant, and yet proclaiming redemption and forgiveness through the birth of Solomon, who is the object lesson of Jesus, our King of Peace, forgiveness and redemption.
I will give you only one more example out of many other marriage lessons in Scripture. This is one of the most important. I would remind you that Jesus’ first miracle was at the wedding feast of Cana. And there, Jesus turns plain old water into the best wine of the feast. I believe that this first of His Miracles points to that Greatest of All Wedding Feasts found in Revelation 19. This Wedding Feast is in Eternity and totally exceeds the plain water of the feasts of this dying world. This is truly the New Wine, the Best Wine. Listen carefully as I read Revelation 19:6-9, another of John’s incredible visions:
“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 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. And to her it was granted to be dressed 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 Feast of the Lamb!’” And He said to me, “These are the True Sayings of God.”
Ephesians 5 speaks of earthly marriage in this incredible Eternal Context. After Paul exhorts Christian wives to model Christian submission to their husbands, and Christian husbands to model that same submission to their wives, in the sacrificial dying unto their ego driven-ness, and macho independence, now notice–“just as Christ also loved the church, His bride, and gave Himself (on the cross) for her–that He might present her to Himself a glorious bride, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she should be holy without any stain.”
Remember the beautiful wedding dress of Revelation 21? Paul then sums up his words on human marriage with this, “This is a great mystery, but I speak concerning Christ and the Church, His Bride.” Human, Christian marriage, is to be a beautiful, mysterious object lesson of Christ and His Church, His Bride!
Throughout the Bible, God’s teaching method is, first the natural, that is, the physical, and then the spiritual, that is, the Eternal. And I submit to you that His Grand Subject throughout Scripture is marriage, a very special marriage. Marriage is God’s idea and plan, not man’s!! Consider with me:
In the beginning, God created man for the purpose of covenanted, committed relationship. By the way, all that God does, depends upon His covenant and promise! To this end, God created man as male and female, as it says in Gen.1. As we see later, God’s creative plan was for man to leave father and mother, and be joined to his wife so that they become one flesh. We see that in this one flesh love bond, they were naked and not ashamed. I have a feeling that the nakedness spoken of here went way beyond just the physical. They were to live together as one in all things in dependence and relationship with the Creator God Who had given them everything they could possible need and entered into Covenant Care for them.
But in Genesis 3, we find that marriage, the most beautiful jewel of God’s creation, lost its luster through pride and its evil siblings, self centeredness and blame. The Image and purpose of God that was to be modeled there, was marred and disfigured, as was all of creation. Nothing from that point on manifests the Creator’s Beauty, His Glory as fully as in the original Design. And yet, in loving marriage, there is a glimmer!
But in Revelation 21, the Bible speaks of the culmination of God’s restoration of all of creation. It speaks of a newly created heavens and earth. But the bulk of this chapter deals with a most beautiful vision. Verse 2 reads, “I John, saw the Holy City, New Jerusalem, coming down from Heaven from God, (NOW NOTICE) prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband!!! Verse 9 gives us a closer look as the angel says to John, “Come, I will show you the bride, the Lamb’s wife.” The Lamb, of course is Jesus, and His wife, This New Jerusalem, is the spiritual bride, all those for whom He became the sacrificial Lamb. Jesus, the Lamb, is the second Adam, a Life Giving Spirit, the Restorer of all Creation.
And the Bride’s dress is described in terms of the radiance of precious jewels and the glorious beauty of pure gold. And this Bride, redeemed from the slavery of the Master of Evil by the Blood of the Lamb, this Bride is now seen in an inseparable Eternal Love Union with her Bridegroom in the Presence of the God Who is Good.
In between these two scenes, we see beautiful and not so beautiful stories of marriage, each one teaching something of redemption and restoration. We have Abraham’s faithful servant’s search for a bride for Isaac, Abraham and Sarah’s miracle son–teaching us of God’s Spirit searching out and finding those that become the Bride of Revelation 21. There is the beautiful story of Ruth, one from a pagan land, being joined to Boaz, the honorable man of the chosen race–teaching us that God’s Israel exceeds national boundaries through the Chosen One, Jesus Christ and His World Wide Love!!! And then there is David and Bathsheba, the tragic story of adultery and murder, the violating of God’s marriage covenant, and yet proclaiming redemption and forgiveness through the birth of Solomon, who is the object lesson of Jesus, our King of Peace, forgiveness and redemption.
I will give you only one more example out of many other marriage lessons in Scripture. This is one of the most important. I would remind you that Jesus’ first miracle was at the wedding feast of Cana. And there, Jesus turns plain old water into the best wine of the feast. I believe that this first of His Miracles points to that Greatest of All Wedding Feasts found in Revelation 19. This Wedding Feast is in Eternity and totally exceeds the plain water of the feasts of this dying world. This is truly the New Wine, the Best Wine. Listen carefully as I read Revelation 19:6-9, another of John’s incredible visions:
“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 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. And to her it was granted to be dressed 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 Feast of the Lamb!’” And He said to me, “These are the True Sayings of God.”
Ephesians 5 speaks of earthly marriage in this incredible Eternal Context. After Paul exhorts Christian wives to model Christian submission to their husbands, and Christian husbands to model that same submission to their wives, in the sacrificial dying unto their ego driven-ness, and macho independence, now notice–“just as Christ also loved the church, His bride, and gave Himself (on the cross) for her–that He might present her to Himself a glorious bride, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she should be holy without any stain.”
Remember the beautiful wedding dress of Revelation 21? Paul then sums up his words on human marriage with this, “This is a great mystery, but I speak concerning Christ and the Church, His Bride.” Human, Christian marriage, is to be a beautiful, mysterious object lesson of Christ and His Church, His Bride!