The Jewish Wedding - Fulfillment in First and Second Comings of the Messiah

This is the final installment in the summary of "Here Comes the Bride" by Richard Booker. I have quoted him exactly in places.

Yeshua (Jesus) fulfilled around 333 prophecies in the Tanach (Old Testament) concerning the Messiah in His First Coming. There are yet many prophecies to be fulfilled in His Second Coming from both Old and New Testaments. (My own words)

Just to think that the baby whom Joseph and Mary dedicated at the temple in Jerusalem was God in the flesh! He is called "Immanuel," which means "God is with us" (Matt. 1:23). God, in the person of Yeshua, came to the house of His bride (eretz Yisrael, the land of Israel) to present His marriage contract, the new covenant that Jeremiah foretold (Jer. 31:31). Yochanan the Immerser (John the Baptist) was the herald of the Messiah. Some people said he was the Messiah, but John said that he was not, but he was "the friend of the bridegroom" (John 3:28-29).

John introduced Yeshua as the bridegroom, the Lamb of God. Yeshua was willing to pay the bride price of His own blood as the atonement (really, the propitiation) for sin for both Israel and the Gentiles (I Pet. 1:18-19). God had chosen for His Son a bride, Israel and all Gentiles who accepted Jesus as their personal Redeemer. Yeshua would drink the cup to show He was willing to pay the price. This was done at the final Passover meal with His disciples (today celebrated in the church as The Lord's Supper - Matthew 26:26-28).

Isaiah foretold Yeshua's blood sacrifice, as well as His resurrection, in chapter 53. Isaiah said that Yeshua would "prolong His days" (53:8-10), and it was fulfilled three days after His crucifixion when He rose from the dead! Then Yeshua spent 40 days with His bride, the Messianic Jews who had believed in Him. He had told them He would "go to prepare a place" for them and would come back and get them (John 14:2-3). The New Jerusalem in heaven was to be the wedding chamber, their eternal chuppah (Rev. 21:2, 9-10)!

The disciples asked when Yeshua would return - "Tell us, when will these things be? And what will be the sign of your coming, and of the end of the age" (Matt. 24:3)? Yeshua gave them signs to look for but told them that only the Father knew the exact day and hour (Matt. 24:36). Like the betrothed Jewish bride in waiting, we will also know the times and seasons, but not the exact moment the Messiah will return.

After Yeshua returned to heaven, he sent a matchmaker, the Holy Spirit, to find all Jews and Gentiles who would be a part of His bride (John 14: 16-17, 25-26)! This happened on the Day of Pentecost (Shavuot), a Jewish feast day, when Jews came to Jerusalem from far and wide. In Acts 2, we read of the thousands of Jews who acknowledged Yeshua as Messiah and formed the first church, but the powerful religious leaders rejected Yeshua as their Messiah. Jesus had used many parables to foretell this (Matt. 8:11; 22:1-13). Only a remnant of the Jews, God's chosen people, would be saved, but God has promised that at the end of the age He will woo them back and join the Gentiles to them to become His one glorious bride (Psalm 102:13-16; Rom. 11:26-27).

God has been calling the Jewish people back to their ancient land, and the return increased during World War II, out of the ashes of the Holocaust. God is bringing them back to the land, and then He will bring them back to Himself!

About ten years after the Pentecost of Acts 2, God sent His matchmaker, the Holy Spirit, to the Gentiles, when Peter took the gospel to Cornelius and his family and friends (Acts 10:44-45). These were the first Gentile believers. They believed the good news and were saved. (Nancy: I also believed the gospel of Jesus Christ approx. 1,935 years later and was saved! Glory!)

Paul (Shaul) considered the church to be the bride of Christ (Eph 5:22-32; II Cor. 11:2), but he knew that God did not have two brides, one Jew and the other Gentile. He did not believe that the church had replaced Israel as God's bride. "Messianic Jews would not become part of the bride by joining the Gentile church. To the contrary, Gentile believers would become part of the bride by joining themselves to the Messianic community (See Romans 11)."  (Exact quote)

Shaul wrote, "There is neither Jew not Greek ... slave nor free, ... male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus" (Gal. 3:28). This doesn't mean there is no difference between Jew and Gentile. There is still a difference between them, as well as a difference between male and female, but we can be ONE in Messiah Yeshua.

We, as the betrothed of Yeshua, after we have said yes to His proposal, make ourselves ready (Rev. 19:7-8) for the marriage by drinking the cup of acceptance at the new covenant meal of Communion and also by being baptized (I Cor. 11:23-26; Acts. 10:48). We use the gifts He has given us through the Holy Spirit (I Cor. 12; Rom. 12; Eph. 4:11). We keep ourselves holy, and we keep oil in our lamps, being full of His Word and His Holy Spirit. We wait and watch for Him eagerly (parable of the wise and foolish virgins, Matt. 25: 1-13). Paul describes that day when the Lord will descend from heaven with a shout, and we will rise to meet Him in the air (I Thess. 4:16-5:1).

Our wedding feast will be "the marriage supper of the Lamb" on the earth (Rev. 19:7-9), and we will reign with Him for a thousand years.

"Until He comes, our holy lives are the veils that separate us from the world. We are in the world but not of the world. We belong to Yeshua. We keep ourselves pure for Him. Although the world may not recognize us today as the bride of Yeshua, they will when we appear with Him at His coming for we shall be like Him (Phil. 3:20-21). When we appear with Him as His unveiled bride, the whole world will know who we are and proclaim, 'Here comes the bride.'" (Paragraph is an exact quote.)

This book, Here Comes the Bride, by Richard Booker, is filled with Scripture. It includes some historical events that have fulfilled Scripture, and it is very well written. You can order this booklet here. I have taught several courses from his series of booklets, written in the 1990s. I recommend this as an excellent source for Bible studies.

Jewish Wedding - Yahweh and Israel

The following teaching is a continuation of my last blog, taken from Richard Booker's booklet, Here Comes the Bride.

God was His own matchmaker (shadkhan) and acquired Israel as His bride. In the exodus from Egypt, Yahweh said, "... I will take you as My people, and I will be your God" (Ex. 6:6-7). The words, "take you," indicate marriage. Isaiah said, "For your Maker is your husband ... the Holy One of Israel" (Isa. 54:5-6).

God gave Israel a formal, written marriage contract or covenant. He spells out the terms of the marriage covenant, (Ketubah) in the Torah, the first five books of the Bible. Israel had to forsake all other gods (first term in the Ten Commandments) and love God "with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength" (Deut. 6:4-5). Yahweh would be jealous over His new bride (Deut. 4:24). If the Israelites went back to worshiping other gods, that would be spiritual adultery, a breach of the marriage contract. She would suffer God's curses and be scattered from her land and miss her Messiah.

Yahweh had offered His own bride price, the blood of the Passover lamb! The blood on the doorposts of their homes was the means of their rescue, their redemption from slavery. If the Hebrews accepted the terms of the covenant, they would be His "special treasure" (segulah) above all people (Ex. 19:5).

Israel accepted God's marriage covenant. She would drink the cup of wine at the Passover covenant meal to show this. In modern times the Jewish people drink four cups of wine at the Passover meal. When they drink the fourth cup, they are saying "yes" to God's marriage proposal, even if they don't know it.

Yahweh promised many gifts and blessings to His betrothed people - "a land flowing with milk and honey," making her the head of the nations, and making a new covenant with her through the Messiah, the Promised Seed of Abraham. God would be faithful to His covenant.

The bride made herself ready by cleansing herself in a mikveh. This cleansing happened before the Israelites met with God at Mt. Sinai. God gave her instructions for worship and serving Him. He provided a Tabernacle, the priesthood, sacrifices, and moral and civil instructions, so she could be the bride He wanted. He gave her a veil, the Torah. This set her apart from the pagan world. Israel was to be holy, as Yahweh was holy (Lev. 11:45).

Yahweh prepared a wedding chamber, the Sabbath, for the Israelites. God's bride was to shut herself in with Him and enjoy Him as the bridegroom and bride come to know each other in the wedding chamber.

The wedding celebrations were the feasts of the Lord. Three times a year the males were required to go to Jerusalem for a big celebration of their marriage covenant with God.

The marriage was a tragedy right after the betrothal! Israel made a golden calf and worshiped it! Her punishment was to wander forty years in the wilderness. God still had mercy on His wife and brought her into the Promised Land through Joshua. Israel was a faithful bride under Samuel and King David, but most of the time she played the harlot. God sent many prophets to warn His people. He pled with them to return to Him. Finally, God had to issue Israel a certificate of divorce! (Jer. 3:8-10). Yahweh showed His great mercy through His prophet, Hosea. Israel was scattered from her land as a result of her continual idolatry, but, finally, she would repent and return to her land and her God (Hos. 3:4-5). Yahweh would betroth her to him forever! (Hos. 2:16, 19-20)

Jeremiah explained this would be a new covenant marriage (Jer. 31:31-34). Until this marriage is renewed in the latter times, God would call a people from among the Gentiles (goyim) who would become part of the bride with Israel.

THE MESSIAH BRIDEGROOM - Yeshua (Jesus) would be the fulfillment of the promise of a new covenant to the Jewish people and a light to the Gentiles - the Jewish Redeemer and Savior of the Gentiles.

NEXT BLOG: Although the parallels with Jesus and the nation of Israel as the Bride of Messiah are obvious for one who understands the gospel, I will write about the ultimate fulfillment pictured in the Jewish wedding in the next blog. This will complete the summary of the booklet, Here Comes the Bride, by Richard Booker, Copyright 1995 by Sounds of the Trumpet, Inc. You can visit his ministry site at rbooker.com.