The Jewish Wedding.
We are finally coming to an end of our Corona lockdown (I hope) and I hope you are not too stressed by it all. I love this story coming out of it. A young policeman radioed his station saying” I have an old lady in her apartment that has just shot her husband dead because he walked on the floor she had just mopped. So they radioed back “Have you arrested her yet?
He replied: “No the floors still wet”!............. Corona stress does strange things-wise man!
A few weeks ago we looked at Daniel 2, Daniel 7 and Daniel 9. As you may remember in Daniel was given insight by the angel Gabriel into a period of time we know as the “Seventy sevens” which ends in the 2nd coming of Jesus. We also saw that the “sevens” were periods of years and thus covered a time of 490yrs.This period of 70 sevens was divided into 4 parts:
The initial period of 7 sevens with the timeline starting when there was a decree to restore and rebuild Jerusalem and this was the period allocated to restore Jerusalem. This start date is seen in Nehemiah 2:1-5 and can be determined as 14 March 445BC (2465yrs ago )
A second period of 62 sevens ends when Jesus comes into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday (69x7x360=173880 days which brings us to exactly 6 April 32AD) and the “Anointed One is cut off” i.e. crucified a week later
Then there was a gap until the final period- an unknown period of time sometimes called the Church Age which ends at the beginning of the final 7 year period
The final 7 year period- also known as the Tribulation. In the bible it is also called the “day of the Lord”
2 Peter 3:10 (NIV)10 But the day of the Lord will come like a thief. The heavens will disappear with a roar; the elements will be destroyed by fire, and the earth and everything done in it will be laid bare.[a]
It is divided into two parts of 3.5 yrs and ends with the 2nd coming of our Lord to earth
That sets the scene for the time periods I am going to be looking at, just before the crucifixion of Jesus and then the time immediately before the final 7 year tribulation period, i.e. the very end of the Church Age.
Let’s go to the time of Jesus’ crucifixion. Jesus and His disciples had gathered together in the upper room just a few hours before He was to be crucified and Simon Peter is clearly concerned,
John 13:36-14:4 (NIV)36 Simon Peter asked him, “Lord, where are you going?”
Jesus replied, “Where I am going, you cannot follow now, but you will follow later.”
14 “Do not let your hearts be troubled. You trust in God[a]; trust also in me. In my Father’s house are many rooms; if that were not so, I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you.3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am. 4 You know the way to the place where I am going.”
To really understand what Jesus is saying here in Chapter 14, we need to have a look at a Jewish wedding
Jewish Wedding: Often the Father would find a bride for the son- remember the story of Isaac and Rebekah in Genesis 24? If the family agrees to the marriage request, a price was paid for the bride to be, not because this was some kind of cattle trade, but because of the great worth of the bride and the loss of one so precious to the family. The bride was now betrothed to her future husband to be, but she did not leave her parents’ house. Neither were there any marital relationships in this time. She was sanctified or set apart for her husband to be. As a symbol of the marriage relationship, the bride and groom would drink a glass of wine and the deal was sealed. The groom then returned to his father’s house and built a room/place for them to stay at his father’s house. This would last by tradition about 12 months and he would remain separate from his bride to be. After his father’s approval for the preparations and after the 12 month period he would set out to get his bride. This normally took place at night, and with his best man and other male friends they set out with torches or lanterns. Although the bride was expecting her groom to come for her, she did not know the exact time of his coming and so the groom's arrival would be preceded by a shout. This shout would warn the bride to be prepared for the coming of the groom. It was a festive time
The bride together with her female companions would then together with the groom and all his friends go back to the groom’s father’s house, where the celebrations began
Shortly after arrival the bride and groom would be escorted by the other members of the wedding party to the room prepared by the groom called the huppah After the marriage was consummated, the groom would announce the consummation to the other members of the wedding party waiting outside the chamber (John 3:29). At this news the wedding guests would party for the next seven days. During the seven days of the wedding festivities, which were sometimes called "the seven days of the huppah", the bride would remain in the bridal chamber and only came out after 7 days, unveiled, so that all could see the bride. What a honeymoon!
After the 7 days they returned to visit the parents’ house for a second celebration and some time with her parents.
Now let’s look at that John 14 again
We know that the church is the bride of Christ, 2 Cor 11:2, Revelations 21:9-11 and others
We know that Jesus left His Father’s house and came to earth about 2000 years ago just as the Jewish groom left his father’s house to propose to his bride to be
Just as the groom made a covenant with the bride to be, so too did Jesus made a covenant , in fact he said “This is the cup of new covenant” in remembrance of the price he paid, the ultimate price, for all of us the church.
Just like the groom returned to his father’s house, so Jesus was crucified and went to His Father’s house.
In a similar way that the bride in a Jewish wedding was sanctified or set apart to keep herself pure until the groom arrives, we too as a church are to set ourselves apart and to be pure and holy until the coming of Jesus again
In the same way that the groom prepares a place for the bride, so too does Jesus. We see in John 14:2 In my Father’s house are many rooms; if that were not so, I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you.
In the same way as the groom came to take his bride to live with him at the end of the betrothal period, so Jesus will come to take His Church to live with Him at the end of His period of separation from the Church at the end of the Church Age
John 14:3- I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am.
We see in Thessalonians this exact moment when Jesus comes again and believers are “caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air”
1 Thessalonians 4:13-18 (NASB)
13 But we do not want you to be uninformed, brethren, about those who are asleep, so that you will not grieve as do the rest who have no hope. 14 For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with Him those who have fallen asleep [a]in Jesus. 15 For this we say to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive [b]and remain until the coming of the Lord, will not precede those who have fallen asleep. 16 For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a [c]shout, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. 17 Then we who are alive [d]and remain will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we shall always be with the Lord. 18 Therefore comfort one another with these words.
So now Jesus is describing that next period which is called the ”coming of the Lord” This in other words is the rapture. We see just as the groom gave a loud shout to warn the bride of his impending arrival, so will the coming of the Lord be preceded by a shout, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet of God
And then we see all the church together with the Holy Spirit, Jesus and the Father in the Throne room of God in heaven in Revelation 4, while the earth goes through 7 years of Tribulation. Just as the bride and groom were hidden for 7 days, so they are for the 7 years of the tribulation
At the end of the 7 day period the bride and groom emerge with the bride unveiled, so too at the end of the 7 years of tribulation Jesus will be revealed as Jesus brings His church out of heaven at the time of His second coming to Earth. That’s why in Colossians 3:4 its says Colossians 3:4 (NIV)
4 When Christ, who is your[a] life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.
So hopefully if you did not see the link between John 14 and the Jewish wedding, you have a greater insight into these verses and also of the “end time”
In conclusion, although we know the end time warning signs , we will never know when the Coming of the Lord will take place and hence the start of the “day of the Lord,"
1 Thessalonians 5 (NIV) The Day of the Lord 5 Now, brothers and sisters, about times and dates we do not need to write to you, 2 for you know very well that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night. 3 While people are saying, “Peace and safety,” destruction will come on them suddenly, as labour pains on a pregnant woman, and they will not escape.
But in regard to when Jesus finally returns at the end of tribulation, we know that it will take place 7 years after the start of this tribulation. And we know from Daniel that at this time there will be 10 leaders in the world, eventually to become 1 leader, who make agreements with “many” allowing the Jews to make sacrifices and offerings. So clearly we can say that while this final coming is not going to happen in the next 7 years, we cannot say when the coming of the Lord (the rapture) and the ensuing day of the Lord (the tribulation) is going to happen.
In light of what I have just shared and remembering the Jewish wedding, we called to keep our lamps burning and ensure that the church and all of us are holy , pure and worthy for when Jesus returns! So I encourage you at it says in Phil 2:12 to work out our faith with fear and trembling for the groom may appear at any day! Don’t lose heart, don’t lose hope!