What are the difference between the Bride
of Scriptures (Bible) and the Bride of the Western culture?
Think about this for a while and ask
yourself; is there a difference between the two?
I just recently celebrated my wedding
anniversary and decided to surprise my wife by reading our original vow we made
to each other on our wedding day. The bigger surprise was when I read to her a
new vow which is similar to our original one except I added/modified the old
one, below is the original and new one I read to her.
That same night, I woke up thinking about
the vow I read out to my bride and then I thought about Messiah Yahusha (Jesus)
and Him preparing to meet His Bride.
I then realized that Messiah’s wedding sequence
of the engagement to the wedding day is not the same as our wedding sequence.
In fact it is completely different. I then studied the scripture to find what
the difference is! See if you can spot the difference!
Proposal
and engagement to the bride
Exodus 19: 3 – 12, and Mosheh (Moses) went up
to Elohim, and Yahuah called to him from the mountain, saying, “This is what
you are to say to the house of Jacob, and declare to the children of Israel: ‘You
have seen what I did to the Egyptians (Mitsrites), and how I bore you on
eagles’ wings and brought you to Myself. ‘And now, if you diligently obey My
voice, and shall guard My covenant, then you shall be My treasured possession above
all the peoples – for all the earth is Mine – ‘and you shall be to Me a reign
of priests and a set-apart nation.’ Those are the words which you are to
speak to the children of Israel.” And Mosheh came and called for the elders of
the people, and set before them all these words which Yahuah commanded him. And all the people answered together and
said, “All that Yahuah has spoken we shall do.” So Mosheh brought back
the words of the people to Yahuah. And Yahuah said to Mosheh, “See, I am coming
to you in the thick cloud, so that the people hear when I speak with you, and
believe you forever.” And Mosheh reported the words of the people to Yahuah. And
Yahuah said to Mosheh, “Go to the people and set them apart today and tomorrow.
And they shall wash their garments, and shall be prepared by the third day. For
on the third day Yahuah shall come down upon Mount Sinai before the eyes of all
the people. “And you shall make a border for the people all around, saying,
‘Take heed to yourselves that you do not go up to the mountain or touch the
border of it. Whoever touches the mountain shall certainly be put to death.
We need to obey His voice. We
see this same condition laid down in John. 3:36, our Messiah being the embodiment of His Father’s voice!
It is here that Yahuah proposed to Israel and they accepted, they
became engaged to Yahuah. Israel had to hear Yahuah’s voice and obey it. They
had the choice not to accept His voice but they accepted.
This is the same point as to when a man asks a woman if she will be
engaged to him and then she will accept or reject.
What about Yahusha Messiah: He has proposed
to us by His salvation and we can accept it or reject it! When you accept
Messiah you are engaged to Him. You heard His voice and obey it. Presently we
as believers are engaged to Messiah.
Next Yahuah instructs Israel to go and prepare for the wedding day
by getting cleaned and by washing their clothes and themselves.
The same with Messiah today; we are washed by His blood (repented) and
we are cleaning ourselves and keeping ourselves clean for the big day to come. The
bride (believers) is preparing to meet Messiah (Bridegroom). We, the believers must
be ready at all times making sure we do not miss that day when He comes to
fetch His bride.
As engaged couple (man and woman), they too
are preparing for the big day. The man (Bridegroom) goes and prepares his home
for his bride to be. He works long hours to get his home ready. The same with
the woman (Bride), she goes to cleanse herself by getting her body in perfect
shape to make (or buy) the perfect dress for the special day.
The
Wedding
Exodus 19:16-20, and it came to be, on the
third day in the morning, that there were thunders and lightnings, and a thick
cloud on the mountain. And the sound of the ram’s horn was very loud, and all
the people who were in the camp trembled. And Mosheh brought the people out of
the camp to meet with Elohim, and they stood at the foot of the mountain. And
Mount Sinai was in smoke, all of it, because Yahuah descended upon it in fire.
And its smoke went up like the smoke of a furnace, and all the mountain
trembled exceedingly. And when the blast of the ram’s horn sounded long and
became louder and louder, Mosheh spoke, and Elohim answered him by voice. And
Yahuah came down upon Mount Sinai, on the top of the mountain. And Yahuah
called Mosheh to the top of the mountain, and Mosheh went up.
And Yahuah spoke all the 10 Words (10 Commandments) the wedding gift
(The covenant) before Israel – Exodus 20:1-17.
Exodus 20:22, and Yahuah said to Mosheh, “Say this to the children of Israel:
‘You yourselves have seen that I have spoken to you from the heavens. Verse 23 – 26 and Exodus Chapter 21, 22 & 23,
is the covenant instructions for His bride to obey.
What did the people answer to this Covenant (marriage contract): Exodus 24:3, and Mosheh
came and related to the people all the Words of Yahuah and all the
right-rulings. And all the people answered with one voice and said, “All the Words which Yahuah has spoken
we shall do.”
The marriage contract (Covenant) was agreed
upon and signed off! Yahuah married His bride.
Was this marriage Covenant conditional or
unconditional? The Covenant had conditions to it. The love was conditional.
When a man and a woman get married after a
period of been engaged, they make a marriage vow to each other and sign a register
which is witnessed by two people.
But our human marriage is slightly
different to Father Yahuah’s wedding to Israel as He had conditions to His
Covenant. The love was conditional.
The human marriage does not have conditions
to it; in fact we are taught that love is unconditional.
We find no unconditional love in scripture;
love is conditionally according to Yahuah. Salvation given by Messiah is
unconditional but not love.
Why then do we humans not include
conditions in our marriage vow? I believe if we have conditions in our marriage
contract there would be less confusion and divorces.
Think about how it would be if two people
getting married had conditions in there vow to each other, example the
Bridegroom may say: My conditions of my love to you my bride is: Be honest, be
true to me, do not be a drunk, do not take drugs, be faithful and so on. The Bride
may say: My conditions of my love to you my husband are all of Yahuah’s Torah
(Instructions). This marriage has conditions to it and both bridegroom and
bride agree to them on their wedding day.
This will be the same when the Messiah
comes for His Bride, there will also be conditions. In fact there is conditions
even now for been engaged to Messiah Yahusha. Think about it!
We accept Messiah’s proposal to be engaged
to Him, when we repent, be baptize in water and believe in Him – we are engaged
to Him.
Is there a condition to this engagement?
Yes, it is conditional love! Messiah says, “If you love me, keep My commands.” This
engagement is conditional!
The Bridegroom (Yahusha Messiah) has set
engagement conditions and He is away preparing the house for His bride.
What is His bride (the believers) doing in
the meantime? We are busy preparing ourselves to be ready for when He comes? We
are busy getting ourselves ready by ensuring we live clean lives removing all uncleanness
from our past life style. We are getting to know Him better through studying
His word and doing His work. How do we do this? Our Scripture (Bible) is our
guideline. The Bridegroom will only accept those who abided to His conditions
(Commands).
Remember the parable of the 10 virgins!
Only 5 were ready to enter with the Bridegroom, they stuck to the conditions
Messiah told them to follow, but the other 5 He told to leave because they were
not ready as they thought they had unconditional love and could do what they
wanted.
What I have realized while writing this
down is the following;
In our western culture all the attention is placed on the bride,
from the day of the engagement right down to the day of the wedding. We also
see that the Bridegroom waits at the altar for the Bride to come in. The Bride
decides when to come to the Bridegroom.
We see after the wedding that the attention
to the bride slowly but surely fades away.
According to the scripture, all the attention is on the Bridegroom,
right from the engagement till the day of the wedding, all about the
Bridegroom. Also the bride waits for the Bridegroom. The Bridegroom decides
when to come to the bride.
What happens after the marriage: all
attention goes to the bride. After the marriage between Elohim and Israel at Mt
Sinai, Father (Bridegroom) gave all His attention to Israel (Bride) by leading
them, feeding them, protecting them and fighting for them. This will be the
same when Messiah comes for His Bride, He will give all His attention to His
bride and it will never fade away.
Why is there a difference?
We got the whole sequence the wrong way
round and also we are taught that love is unconditional.
That is why we are struggling to keep our focus
on Messiah the Bridegroom, it is because we are under the impression that no
matter what we do the Bridegroom will take us for His Bride one day.
The day we realize Messiah Yahusha has
conditions to His love that is the day all our attention will be turned to Him!
His love for us has conditions and if we
proclaim to love Him, we need to abide to His conditional love.
How about our human marriage: let’s set conditions to our marriage!
Let’s change the sequence of the roles between the bridegroom and the bride
(engagement to wedding)!
Let’s set our standard of the conditions and sequence of the
bridegroom/bride according to the word of Yahuah.
If we love each other, then we would also
abide by each other’s conditions.
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