Jewish weddings and marriage customs in Biblical times can give us a stunning picture of the Bride of Christ and her wedding to Him.
In today’s marriages, who usually chooses the bride? The groom does. In Biblical times that was not the case. The father of the groom chose the bride. Jesus is the church’s bridegroom, and God is His Father. If you are a believer, God chose you in Christ before the foundation of the world. Ephesians 1:4 God the Father chose those that would come into the church. God the Father chose the bride for His Son, Jesus Christ. Think about the gravity of this. You have been chosen to be the bride of the Son of the Creator. Wow!
When the father chose the bride, a binding wedding agreement took place. Two cups of wine were sipped while the bride and bridegroom’s arms were intertwined with one another. The obvious picture was two becoming one!
The closest thing we have to this agreement would be an engagement. The groom gives the bride an engagement ring after she accepts his proposal. Our engagements, however, are not entirely binding. Either party of the engagement can break it. In biblical times, however, to be betrothed or engaged was almost as serious as the covenant agreement of marriage. To be released from it would require a bill of divorcement. One had to be divorced legally from a betrothal.
Paul betrothed the church at Corinth to Christ as a pure virgin. In the context of a wedding, Paul is saying that the marriage has not been consummated yet, and in the meantime, they need to be completely devoted to Christ. He was afraid they might slip away and have an affair with the world. 2 Corinthians 11:2-15
You, as a Christian, are betrothed to Christ right now! But you have a time period in which you are waiting for your bridegroom to come and get you. It is during this time period that false teachers, false apostles and dark angels disguised as angels of light will come in and teach and preach false doctrine and a false gospel to get you to turn away from your devotion to Christ.
As Christians, the world and its ways are “under the ban” to us. We belong to Christ! There is much temptation during our wait. If we are friends of the world, we are adulteresses. James 4:4 The Greek word points to the feminine gender. That is because, in God’s eyes, whether we are male or female, we are the bride (feminine gender) of Christ, our bridegroom (masculine gender). If a believer becomes friends with the world we are adulteresses, whether we are a man or a woman!
Paul said in 2 Corinthians 11 that it was he who betrothed the Corinthians to Christ. This made complete sense to the Jews of that day. Many times, after the father would choose the bride for his son, he would send a trusted servant to go and offer his agreement of marriage. That was Paul’s job. Paul was the Master’s servant! He came and offered those in Corinth an agreement and they accepted!
Usually there were witnesses present to make the agreement binding. We follow this practice in present day wedding ceremonies. States require witnesses to sign marriage certificates. But, do you realize what the invited guests are at a wedding? They are witnesses of the binding agreement that the couple enters into. Do you realize that every time you go to a wedding it makes you a witness before God?
That means that when you hear that the couple is having marital problems, possibly one is thinking of leaving, you don’t have the option to hide your head in the sand! You are a witness and you are obligated to hold that couple accountable to the vows they took before God in your presence! It doesn’t even matter if they are believers or not. Marriage is an institution for believers and unbelievers. It is a sign of what God’s family relationship is like. It is a picture of what God offers us. When you go to a wedding, remember, you are a witness before the Lord and you have a responsibility!
Promises were made at the betrothal. We make promises at the wedding ceremony itself. Perhaps we don’t think our commitment becomes serious until the wedding. Just like many so-called Christians don’t think their time here on earth is all that serious. They don’t consider their actions as being adultery against Jesus. The Jews realized their commitment was serious beginning with the betrothal!
There was a token given at the betrothal. We still do that today by giving a ring as a token of our intention to eventually wed. These tokens weren’t always given to the bride. Sometimes they were from family to family.
Usually there was at least one year between the betrothal and the wedding. The reason was that both the bride and the bridegroom had preparations to make.
The bride had to prepare herself for her bridegroom. She worked on her hair, her skin, her nails and her skills. She accumulated her dowry from her relatives. And she worked on her wedding garment with her family. She would sew it and prepare it so that when the bridegroom came to get her, she would be ready! And guess what? She didn’t know when he would come! Do we know when our bridegroom will come to get us?
So how do we prepare our wedding garment? How can we, as the bride, ready ourselves for His coming? Revelation 19:7-8 He has told us what to do. It has been given to us to clothe ourselves in righteous acts. As saints, holy ones, those set apart unto Christ, we are to do the will of the Father, which will result in our being clothed in fine linen, bright and clean. The fine linen is woven of righteous deeds.
When we consider that our wedding garment will be made out of our righteous deeds and that all of our worthless deeds will be burned, we gain insight into what God means when He warns us to not be found naked!
The bridegroom prepared a place for his bride in his father’s house. John 14:2-3 Since he would be adding to the family that would dwell in the home, he would build an addition on to his father’s existing home. There he and his bride would dwell as part of the father’s family. The son was the one who would construct the addition, not the father. Yet, the father would oversee the work, and it was he who would determine when it was time for the son to go get his bride. When the bride came home to be part of the father’s house, she was his child, as well.
Even Jesus doesn’t know the time or hour when He will return to get us. Matthew 24:36; Mark 13:32 Only His Father does. God will tell Jesus when to come and get us. In the meantime, Jesus is preparing a mansion for us in His Father’s house!
At the father’s appointed time, he would send his son to the home of the bride. The bridegroom and his attendants or friends would go to the house of the bride where she and her attendants were waiting. We still have attendants in present day wedding ceremonies. The bride and her wedding garment needed to be ready because she didn’t know when he was coming. It usually took place near midnight. This is why the virgins in the parable needed lamps! The virgins in the parable were the attendants of the bride.
The bridegroom would not knock on the door. He would stand outside of the bride’s yard. Guess how she would know he was out there? He announced with a trumpet that he was there! He was calling her to come and be with him! When she heard the trumpet, she and her attendants ran out to meet him outside of her home. Are you beginning to see the wonderful ceremony that will bring so much Glory to the family of God? Jesus is going to come in the clouds with the voice of the archangel and the sound of the trumpet and call us to meet Him in the air! And we will be raised up and meet Him there! 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18
Once the groom called his bride to be with him, the ceremonies would continue with the wedding procession. Then the groom would take all the guests to his home through the streets of the city. On the way home, people joined in the celebration and there was jubilation and instruments and shouts and dancing in the streets. The procession literally became a parade.
The bride and groom would be placed under a canopy where that most important part of the ceremony, the joining of the couple, would take place. When does that take place for the church? Where will our “canopy” be? Jesus will take us with Him in the cloud back to heaven to the Father’s mansion. Most likely, our actual wedding to Jesus will take place there!
After the wedding ceremony, guests were invited to the marriage supper, or feast. It usually lasted three to seven days, becoming more jubilant and vibrant as the days went on. The marriage supper was the bringing home of an already accredited bride to her husband with whom she had entered into covenant. Blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb! Revelation 19:9
Adapted from HIStory—From Event To Event The Bible Is One Story
