This blog carries on from last week, so if you haven’t already done so, it would make sense to read last weeks blog first.
We are looking at the Church as the Bride of Christ, and since we are all individual parts of the Body that makes the Church, whatever applies to the whole Church applies to you and me. The whole Church is every Jesus follower alive on earth now, plus every other Jesus follower who has ever lived over the last two millennia. The Church, as someone famously said, is the only organisation that never loses a member through death!
One thing to point out straight away is that one day Jesus will return for His Bride, the Church; and on that day, the Bride that He marries will be One Church, with One focus, on the One she loves – Jesus. In fact any non believer will recognise us straight away because of two glaringly obvious things – we love each other unreservedly and we love Jesus unreservedly.
The second thing to say is that part of God’s eternal purpose is to find and prepare a Bride fit for His Son.
There are three places in the Bible which shed light on all of this. Two of them are amazing accounts from history, and the third is a poem.
The first one is in Genesis chapter 24. It tells how Abraham set about finding a wife for his son Isaac. He asked his oldest servant, the one who had charge over the household, to take Isaac back to the land where his family came from, and find a bride for Isaac there. The lady who became Isaac’s bride was Rebekah. This is a true historical account but at the same time, each person represents someone else. Abraham, the father represents Father God. Isaac represents Jesus the Son. The Nameless Servant represents Holy Spirit (who never attracts attention to Himself but always brings glory to Father God and Jesus the Son). Rebekah the Bride represents us, the Church. Now, read the story with that in mind.
There are a few things that we can learn from this.
- The bride, Rebekah, was strong and active. Not some passive little flower sitting polishing her nails. She pulled up water from a well to satisfy ten thirsty camels without batting an eyelid. She was not afraid to work or to get her hands dirty.
- The Father and the Son trusted the servant (Holy Spirit) absolutely with the task of finding and preparing the bride. It pays for us to make friends with Holy Spirit!
- The Nameless Servant gives gifts to the bride, to adorn her. Holy Spirit gives gifts to us….
- The bride, Rebekah, is quite happy to leave her home and her past to go with the Nameless Servant and be married to the son Isaac. She left everything behind to be with the Son.
- The story finishes with Isaac out one evening “meditating in the fields”. As he looks up he sees the Servant bringing his bride to him. A picture of our future meeting with Jesus.
Read the whole chapter 24 and see if you can see anything else that God has hidden in there for you to find.
The next passage is the account of Esther, the girl who was chosen to be the bride of the King. Read the book of Esther and discover this story for yourself. No doubt you will find lots of hidden gems there. Here’s a few:
- Again we see that the bride puts a lot of effort into getting herself ready. She is not passive about this. She is active. Revelation 19 v 7 says “the wedding of the Lamb has come, and the bride has made herself ready”.
- There is a point in the story where Esther risks death in an attempt to save her people from annihilation. Her comment is simply “if I die, I die”. The true bride has courage and is not even afraid of death.
The final passage is the whole of the book called Song of Songs. Read it. It will challenge you. It will help you understand the relationship between the bride and the bridegroom:
- “I am His beloved, and He is mine”
- “He leads me to the banquet hall, and His banner over me is love”
- Interestingly the bride here is ‘dark skinned’ from having been out in the sun all day tending the sheep and looking after the vineyard. This lady is a worker! So is the Church.
Isaiah says this in Chapter 48:
“See, I have refined you, though not as silver; I have tested you in the furnace of affliction. For my own sake, for my own sake, I do this. How can I let myself be defamed? I will not yield my glory to another”.
As we saw last week, some of our preparation to make us a fitting bride for Jesus will come as Father God allows us to face problems and adversity. (We tend not to grow too much in times of blessing and plenty). This verse explains that God does this for His own sake. He even repeats Himself to emphasise this: “for my own sake, for my own sake”….. The Bride that is fit for Jesus is going to be the Bride that is formed, fashioned and prepared by God Himself – and He will rightly deserve the praise and glory for what He has done. “He has done everything well” (Mark 7 v 37). The alternative would be a bride that can boast, “I got here by my own efforts. I made myself so attractive even Jesus could not resist me”.
We go back to Revelation 19 v 7….the Bride has made herself ready…..and as we read the end of that verse we find out how. “Fine linen, bright and clean, was given to her to wear”. The Bride lets God dress and adorn her, and that’s how she gets to share in His glory.
Church is out there 