CONCLUSION
John, the author of the book of Revelation, was given a stunning and almost indescribable vision of God’s reality. Twice in the opening lines of his writing, he refers to the One Who Is and Who Was and Who Is Coming (Revelation 1:4, 8). In the Gospel of John, this great and glorious One is described as being the Word, as well as the life and the light of humanity (John 1:4, 14). Both writers (if, indeed, they were different men) were declaring that God has no beginning and no end, and the Gospel writer was also communicating a truth that Israel desperately needed to grasp. Jesus was their God clothed in human flesh.
Remember that most of Israel wasn’t expecting a divine Messiah. They were expecting a man to be born who would rise from among his people just like David. They were expecting one to lead them to military and political victory. When the shepherds were told that the Messiah had been born, what they heard was, “the Anointed of the LORD” had been born, the long-awaited King who would deliver Israel from oppression. Very few were expecting their God to become a human being and physically dwell in their midst.
For much of Israel’s long and often heartbreaking history, the LORD used the imagery of marriage to describe His relationship with them (see Isaiah 54:5-8; Jeremiah 31:32). Israel’s rebellion against Him was frequently depicted in terms of adultery and prostitution (see Jeremiah 3:8-9; Jeremiah 5:7; Ezekiel 16; Hosea 2:2-5 or Hosea 2:4-7, JPS). Rather than remain faithful to the LORD as a wife should remain faithful to her husband, Israel ran after other lovers—meaning, of course, that they adopted and embraced the practices and habits of the nations around them. And so the LORD snatched them out of the land of promise as He had snatched them out of Egypt. He flung Israel into exile and stripped her of her finery (see Hosea 2:6-13 or Hosea 2:8-15. JPS).
But the chesed of the LORD—His love, mercy, compassion, grace, forgiveness—would not allow Him to leave Israel in that state. He made an extraordinary promise to His people, once more using the metaphor of marriage (Hosea 2:1-20 or Hosea 2:21-22, JPS). After all she had done to Him, after all she had made Him suffer, the LORD would once again woo Israel and speak tenderly to her, and she would respond with love and adoration and worship, as she had when He had snatched her out of Egypt (Hosea 2:14-18 or Hosea 2:16-20, JPS). The LORD and Israel would finally be joined together in an unbreakable bond.
In our culture, people often decide to get engaged or married during the Christmas season and as a result, Christmas is commonly viewed as a romantic holiday. I used to love Christmas movies and specials that included some kind of boy-meets-girl-boy-gets-girl storyline. The older I got, though, the more disillusioned I became when Christmas would roll around because I never experienced that kind of ridiculously sweet romance at Christmastime. But I don’t think Christmas being seen as a romantic season is purely a product of Hollywood imagination and deception. I would like to invite you to see the true romance of what occurred in Bethlehem over two thousand years ago.
The custom of marriage is far, far different in our culture than it was ancient Israel or even in first-century Israel. Marriages were usually arranged by fathers and were a sort of three-step process. One father would contact another with a statement of intent. He would declare that his son wanted to take the daughter of the other man as wife. A bride price was negotiated, and if both parties agreed, a betrothal occurred. After a period of time, usually six to twelve months, the bride was escorted in a grand procession to her husband and the wedding feast was held.
I want to look at each step of the marriage process since they are most likely unfamiliar to most of us. First, a statement of intent was made by a man’s father and the bride price was negotiated. I realize that our modern sensibilities make us cringe at the idea of a bride price (more commonly known to us as a dowry) because we think it merely speaks to a time when women were treated as nothing more than property. The way I see it, women were worth a great deal and they were not to be thrown around casually. In ancient times, most or all of the bride price was actually given to the bride and not kept by her family (see Genesis 24:53).
Next, the betrothal was more than what we think of today as being engaged. The state of betrothal was considered an actual but incomplete marriage. It was legally binding even though the bride did not immediately go to live with her new husband. Once a couple was betrothed, they couldn’t decide just to call the whole thing off without there being a legal certificate of divorce. Both families of the bride and bridegroom would come together with their friends to celebrate the new marriage and gifts would be exchanged between the bride and bridegroom.
The period of time in between the betrothal and the wedding ceremony was very important for both the bride and the bridegroom. The bride spent much of her time preparing herself for her new husband. She would work at making her complexion as fine as possible, also making sure that her hair glistened like marble. This was to be a day she would remember forever (see Jeremiah 2:32). While the bride was preparing herself, the bridegroom was busy building a room (or rooms) for his new bride. He wouldn’t build a separate structure, instead he would add a room to his father’s existing house, and only the father of the groom had the authority to determine when the new room was ready. Once the room was given the father’s blessing, the bridegroom would be granted permission to go and get his bride (do you see where we’re going with this???).
Wedding ceremonies in ancient and first century Israel (and even in some parts of the world today) were extravagant affairs. The bride would be summoned from her house with a cry that the bridegroom was coming. Some sources say that the blast of a shofar was all the warning a bride would receive before her bridegroom appeared to take her (if you’re not tracking with me by now, you might want to stop right here and go read the Gospels of Matthew and John immediately...). A grand procession was led through the streets of the city or village and the bride would be brought from her father’s house to the house of her new husband so they could begin their new life together.
When the LORD promised to espouse or betroth Israel to Him once more, He was referring not only to those of ethnic Israel, He was including all who would come to Him through belief in His Son, Jesus. He was going to woo Israel and through her, the entire world. To that end, the birth of Jesus was like His statement of intent that His Son was going to take a bride. Only the bride price wasn’t up for negotiation. It had already been decided before the dawn of creation itself. The bride price was going to be the life of the bridegroom. He would give Himself to betroth His beloved in righteousness, justice, chesed, mercy, and faithfulness.
Once the bride price had been paid, the betrothal celebration could occur. If Christmas was God’s statement of intent and the crucifixion was the payment of the bride price, then the resurrection of Jesus was the betrothal celebration. We are now bound to Jesus as His bride, but just as there was a time of waiting between the betrothal and the wedding in ancient and first-century Israel, we must also wait and prepare ourselves so that we will be ready and beautiful for our bridegroom. He is building our rooms in His Father’s house, and He has promised that He will appear and take us home (John 14:1-3).
Three times in the last few chapters of Revelation John writes of the bride and the wedding feast of the Lamb (Revelation 19:7, 9; Revelation 21:1-2, 9; Revelation 22:17). We are in a period of waiting for our bridegroom, but our wedding feast is coming. And such a feast it will be! Not only will it be a fantastic party, but Jesus Himself will serve us if we are found to be faithful to Him (Luke 12:35-38).
One of the things the LORD told Israel when He was preparing to deliver them from Egypt was that He would take them to be His people (Exodus 6:7). The word “take” can also be translated “marry, take a wife.” Just as He was taking Israel as His wife when He brought her out of Egypt, He took Israel and all nations as His wife when He delivered us from bondage to sin and death.
The true romance of Christmas is that God loudly and joyously declared His intent to take us as His bride on that day. He was in the process of wooing us and drawing us to Himself, speaking tenderly to us. And now He is building the rooms for His bride while He waits for her to be fully prepared for Him. He is not slow in keeping His promises, He desires for His bride to be pure and without blemish (2 Peter 3:9; Ephesians 5:25-27).
As you celebrate Christmas this year, my earnest prayer for you is that the grace and mercy of our great God and Savior would envelop you and that you would be fully immersed in His Spirit. Look back and remember the day He became a human so that He could pay your bride price, then look forward in eager anticipation of your wedding feast.
The Spirit and the bride say, “Come!”