Scriptures: Isaiah 62:5, Hosea 2:14-23, John 14:1-3, Revelation 19:7-8, John 16:7-15
When God first drew Israel to himself out of Egypt, he proposed a covenant at Mount Sinai, inviting Israel to be his people as a bridegroom proposes to a bride (Jeremiah 31:32). The 10 Commandments were the marriage vows Israel agreed to, and God vowed to be their God and bless them in the land he’d promised to their ancestor, Abraham. After the giving of the law, 70 of Israel’s elders climbed the mountain to enjoy a covenant meal with God, just like a banquet follows a wedding. This giving of the law is celebrated in the Festival of Weeks or Pentecost, which is 7 weeks after the Festival of First Fruits. Like a renewal of wedding vows, every spring the festivals call Israel back to faithfulness and remembrance of God’s faithfulness to them. However, the Bible tells us that for centuries, Israel committed adultery by worshipping foreign gods.
In the book of Hosea, God describes how Israel prostituted herself with foreign gods and used the gifts given to her by her Husband to worship Baal, crediting Baal for the things God gave her. God would abandon Israel for her unfaithfulness, but in the future, God promised to woo her back. “Therefore I am now going to allure her; I will lead her into the wilderness and speak tenderly to her” (Hosea 2:14). In Isaiah 62:5 God promises that the land and people of Jerusalem would be married to God. “As a young man marries a young woman, so will your Builder marry you; as a bridegroom rejoices over his bride, so will your God rejoice over you.” God expands this proposal in Hosea, saying, “I will show my love to the one I called ‘Not my loved one.’ I will say to those called ‘Not my people,’ ‘You are my people’; and they will say, ‘You are my God’” (Hosea 2:23). Both abandoned Israel and the Gentile nations to which they had been scattered would be shown love and invited to the marriage covenant with God.
“In that day,” declares the Lord, “you will call me ‘my husband’; you will no longer call me ‘my master.’ 19 I will betroth you to me forever; I will betroth you in righteousness and justice, in love and compassion. 20 I will betroth you in faithfulness, and you will acknowledge the Lord” (Hosea 2:16, 19-20). Jesus came as the Bridegroom who would betroth us to God forever in righteousness and justice, in love and compassion. In ancient Judaism, a betrothal or engagement was considered a marriage, even though the couple did not yet live together, and required a divorce to break the contract. (This is why Joseph was going to divorce Mary, Jesus’ mother, when he found out she was pregnant, even though they were only engaged to be married.) On Passover, Jesus proposed a new covenant to betroth us to the Lord forever.
In ancient times, the betrothal process had its own ceremony. The match was arranged by the bride’s father, which is why Jesus tells us in John 6:65 that no one can come to him unless the Father brings them. Jesus proposed the new covenant during the Passover meal, then offered a covenant cup of wine representing his shed blood for our forgiveness, just as a bride and bridegroom would share a covenant cup of wine to seal the betrothal. We symbolically drink this cup in the sacrament of communion, which was originally the third cup of the Passover celebration, the cup of redemption. Jesus purchased our redemption with his blood. We legally belong to Jesus as a bride belonged to her husband.
The bridegroom then promises the bride that he will not drink wine until he returns to marry her. After sharing the cup of the new covenant with his disciples, Jesus says, “I tell you, I will not drink from this fruit of the vine from now on until that day when I drink it new with you in my Father’s kingdom” (Matthew 26:29). The fourth cup of Passover wine is the cup of the kingdom. When Jesus returns, we will drink this cup under the chuppah or canopy of God’s glory and sit down at the wedding supper of the Lamb (Isaiah 4:5). Jesus demonstrated at the Cana wedding that he saves the best wine for last!
After sharing the betrothal cup, the bridegroom then leaves to prepare a room for his bride to join him in his father’s house. On the night Jesus proposed the new covenant, he said, “My Father’s house has many rooms; if that were not so, would I have told you that I am going there to prepare a place for you? 3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am” (John 14:2-3). Jesus promised that when the engagement period is over, and he’s finished preparing a place for us in his Father’s house, he will return to take us to be with him.
While the bridegroom is away preparing a home for his bride, the bride prepares her wedding clothes, which Jesus says we must have to enter the wedding celebration. In Matthew 22 Jesus tells a parable about a wedding in which everyone is invited but only those who have the proper wedding clothes are admitted. What are our wedding clothes? Revelation 7:14 tells us that God’s people who come out of the great tribulation have “washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.” Revelation 19:7-8 tells us that the wedding clothes of the bride are the good deeds we do in Christ. “Let us rejoice and be glad and give him glory! For the wedding of the Lamb has come, and his bride has made herself ready. 8 Fine linen, bright and clean, was given her to wear. (Fine linen stands for the righteous acts of God’s holy people.)”
The prophecy that Jesus quoted to describe his mission as the Anointed One of Isaiah 61 ends with a description of bridal clothing. “I delight greatly in the Lord; my soul rejoices in my God. For he has clothed me with garments of salvation and arrayed me in a robe of his righteousness, as a bridegroom adorns his head like a priest, and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels” (Isaiah 61:10). How do we get our wedding clothes? Jesus, our High Priest and Bridegroom, provides the way for God to robe us in the righteousness of Jesus with a garment of salvation, adorned with the good works we do by his Spirit in us.
The final act of the bridegroom at the betrothal is to give a covenant gift to the bride. On the night Jesus proposed the new covenant, he promised to send a gift, the Holy Spirit. “It is best for you that I go away, because if I don’t, the Advocate won’t come. If I do go away, then I will send him to you” (John 16:7). The Holy Spirit is the deposit of our future inheritance, the seal or wedding ring of the new covenant. The good works or fruit of the Holy Spirit in us is the outward sign of our betrothal to Jesus, just like a wedding ring tells people I belong to my husband.
Jesus described what the Spirit would do for us while we wait for Jesus to return. “When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all truth. He will not speak on his own but will tell you what he has heard. He will tell you about the future. 14 He will bring me glory by telling you whatever he receives from me” (John 16:13-14). It is the Holy Spirit who helps us make our wedding clothes by clothing us in power to continue the good works of Jesus. For as Jesus promised his disciples, “I am going to send you what my Father has promised; but stay in the city until you have been clothed with power from on high” (Luke 24:49).
This clothing of power came at Pentecost, the Festival of Weeks. While the Jews were celebrating the giving of God’s first covenant on fiery Mount Sinai through the giving of the law, the gift of the new covenant was poured out on believers as tongues of fire. For God had promised in the new covenant he would make with Israel, “I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people” (Jeremiah 31:33). The Holy Spirit writes God’s law in our minds and hearts, keeping us holy and set apart as a pure bride while we wait for the Bridegroom to return. When the law was first given, the people committed adultery by worshipping the golden calf and 3000 people were killed. When the Holy Spirit was given, 3000 people were saved as Peter stood up to preach, filled with the Spirit.
On Pentecost, two loaves of bread are waved before the Lord made with new yeast that has formed in the unleavened bread from the Festival of Unleavened Bread, a symbol of the yeast of the kingdom rising. These loaves foreshadowed the two groups that would come from the new batch of dough, the Bread from Heaven: Jew and Gentile believers. A sign that the new covenant would include Gentiles was Jewish believers speaking in various Gentile languages at Pentecost through the gift of tongues. Just as fire fell from heaven on the first sacrifice in the tabernacle and in Solomon’s temple, tongues of fire came down from heaven on God’s new temple, his bride. This was Jesus launching his global covenant proposal in fulfillment of Hosea 2:23: “say to those called ‘Not my people,’ ‘You are my people.’”
Our betrothal to Jesus was sealed with the giving of the Spirit who readies us for the return of our Bridegroom. “For your Maker is your husband – the Lord Almighty is his name – the Holy One of Israel is your Redeemer; he is called the God of all the earth” (Isaiah 54:5).
Response:
Thank you, Jesus, for betrothing me to you forever. Thank you for making a place for me to be with you forever. Thank you for the gift of the Spirit who helps me remain loyal to you and clothes me as a bride.
(The picture above is my wedding ring hand touching the mezuzah scroll on one of the gateways into the city of Jerusalem. Jews affix this special scroll containing the Shema and other scriptures from Deuteronomy 6 and 11 to their right doorframe. This is in fulfillment of God’s command in Deuteronomy 11:20 to write his commands “on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates” so we will always remember his words. Jews kiss or touch the mezuzah as they walk by as a sign of love for God and his law. The mezuzah is a picture of the Holy Spirit who helps us remember God’s laws. As we listen to him and obey him, we are reaching out in love to the third Person of the Trinity, touching the very heart of God.)
