And Jesus said to them, “The attendants of the bridegroom cannot mourn as long as the bridegroom is with them, can they? But the days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them,… Matthew 9:15.
Preface
The tradition of marriage between man, woman, and Sinai according to Jewish thought is one of the same. The essence of marriage-the content, the bond, and the relationship is a covenant.
The covenant ceremony of marriage between man and woman was seen as a replica or reenactment of what happened at Sinai. Each marriage was to be a reminder of that basic covenant obligation that binds God to His people.
Today’s blog post intends to reveal God’s faithfulness to recover the covenantal breach between His people by Jesus as the renewed heavenly Bridegroom in this life and the eternal life to come.
The Bridegroom and His Bride
The Bible depicts God to a bridegroom and the Hebrew people to His bride (Isa. 54:5, 6; 62:5). The Lord says through Jeremiah that when His new covenant is established someday, “It will not be like the covenant I made with their forefathers when I took them by the hand to lead them out of Egypt, because they broke my covenant, though I was a husband to them” (Jer. 31:32). The Lord also says to His people that “you will call me ‘my husband‘” (Hos. 2:16).
Studying the term husband in Young’s Analytical Concordance of the Bible, it is defined: to rule, possess, have, and marry.
Marriage as Contract
The ketubah, “marriage contract,” is a document detailing the obligation and terms of the union, which is read to the bride before she is asked to make her final commitment to the bridegroom.
Jewish and Hebraic interpretations of the Scripture, point out that this act is biblically depicted when God on Sinai, declared to Israel, “Now if you obey Me fully and keep My covenant, then out of all nations you will be my treasured possession” (Exod. 19:5).
The Scripture then says, “So Moses went back and summoned the elders of the people and set before them all the words the Lord had commanded him to speak. The people all responded together, ‘We will do everything the Lord has said” (Exod. 19:7-8). Just as the ketubah stipulated the fundamental expectations and conditions for the marriage, the binding on Sinai detailed the divine stipulations in the covenant formula.
Note: Even though the Holy Scriptures does not specifically mention the marriage contract in connection with Jewish weddings tradition, there is historical evidence of its existence as early as the fifth century B.C. may be found in contracts of this type coming from Elephantine in Egypt (cf. also Tob. 7:12-15).
Set apart unto the Other
Within the earliest rabbinic literature, the first part of the marriage ceremony which contractually sets the couple aside in betrothal is known as kiddushin, properly an act of “sanctification” or “consecration.” The basic meaning behind the term is to be set apart, to be holy. From this perspective, marriage is a sacred bond, a holy relationship, an act of being set apart unto God and each other.
Jewish thought has long pointed to this very concept of sanctification as central to the covenant at Sinai. Before the Law was even given, the Lord said to Moses, “Go to the people and consecrate them, (Exod. 19:10). In this way, Israel is to be separated or consecrated to God to prepare for entering His holy presence and for being committed to His service. Israel’s calling was to be a holy nation [goy qadosh], (Exod. 19:6).
A Time for Preparation
Each participant must prepare for marriage by giving it a serious commitment of time and reflection. The betrothal period was set aside as the time of preparation (cf. Deut. 20:7; 22:23ff.). Only later was the relationship fully consummated. Israel made specific preparation to ready herself to receive the covenant (Exod. 19:10-11).
Covenants of God are Permanent
Unlike our human weakness and unfaithfulness in keeping loyal, God’s covenants are permanent. His covenant with Israel is everlasting (Gen. 17:7); to Israel, He said, “I will betroth you to Me forever” (Hos. 2:19). God engraves Israel on the palms of His hands (Isa. 49:16) and pledges that His covenant loyalty will be as constant as the shining of the sun, moon, and stars (Jer. 31:35-36).
In Hebrew, “to make a covenant” is literally “to cut a covenant” (karat berit). Biblical covenants were at times sanctified by cutting animals in two. The shedding of blood dramatically ratified and sealed the covenant (see Gen. 15:9ff.; Jer. 34:18-20). If one attempted to break the covenant, the blood served as a powerful visual lesson that one’s blood would be shed. In brief, it was a solemn oath to be kept on pain of death. It was thus inviolable and irrevocable.
[This segment of our presentation was made possible by my study of the book, Our Father Abraham: Jewish Roots of the Christian Faith, Marvin R. Wilson, Part IV Jewish Heritage, and the Church: Marriage and Sinai: Two Covenants Compared.]
Jesus as the New Husband
And Jesus said to them, “The attendants of the bridegroom cannot mourn as long as the bridegroom is with them, can they? But the days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them,… Matthew 9:15
The Matthew 9:14-17 passage communicates many important spiritual truths such as problems of fasting, religious traditions, and the continuous prophetic fulfillment of God’s promises. Jesus is the major focal point in that while using a parable, He indicates that God of Abraham, Issac, and Jacob, now has appointed Him to have authority over the previous traditions.
This parable indicates that Jesus did not come to reform an old and worn-out system but to introduce something new (Heb. 8:13). Christ offered that if humanity would taste His new wine, no one after having tasted it, would not want the old.
One of the things about the history of Israel and all humanity is as much as God implored them/us to live in obedience and consecration, they/we struggled with this often turning away from God’s commands. Part of the reason was they/we could not change their/our hearts.
“The Lord your God will circumcise your hearts and the hearts of your descendants, so that you may love Him with all your heart and with all your soul, and live.” Deuteronomy 30:6
Jesus by “being about His Father’s work,” throughout proclaimed that “The kingdom of heaven is near” (Matt. 3:2; 4:12), is offering Himself to all who desire and believe, that He is the Messiah. The multifaced blessings as the progenitor of the New Covenant would enable His faithful followers the blessing of obtaining a “circumcision of the heart” that was initiated by God.
Such spiritual surgery will enable Christ’s New Wine to enter into New Wineskin.
Paul would later argue as Jesus did with the religious and other Jews who misused their physical circumcision as spiritual superiority of non-Jewish followers. Paul makes a clear distinction between religious tradition which doesn’t save, and circumcision of the heart does.
“A person is not a Jew who is one only outwardly, nor is circumcision merely outward and physical. No, a person is a Jew who is one inwardly; and circumcision is circumcision of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the written code. Such a person’s praise is not from other people, but God.” Romans 2:28-29
In addition to this miracle of spiritual circumcision of the inner life of humanity, God also imparts the Living Word within the heart. “This is the covenant I will make with them after that time, says the Lord. I will put my laws in their hearts, and I will write them on their minds.” Hebrews 10:16
Israel and those connected with her were thus God’s Bride, and it is important to understand that the One the Israelites knew as God in the Old Testament period was the One who is offering the New Wine into New Wineskins as Jesus Christ.
Within this new marriage agreement, Jesus establishes the inclusion of all nations as proclaimed by the Abraham covenant: See Genesis 12 and 15. In it, God promises Abraham a land, descendants, and blessing.
This blessing promised to Abraham would extend through him to all the peoples of the earth. Understanding the Abrahamic Covenant is paramount to understanding theological concepts like a Promised Land, election, the people of God, inheritance, and so on. It provides context for understanding practices like circumcision, conflicts with surrounding nations, and divisions between Jews and Gentiles.
Blood of the Renewed Covenant
God’s new arrangement with humanity was in His heart, mind, and plan before the Abrahamic, Mosaic, and the Davidic covenants. The implementation of the ceremony of Passover was throughout the ages, would become His ultimate plan toward eternally recovering, restoring, and redeeming His Bride in Jesus as the Passover Lamb of God.
While He was reclining, He took some bread, and after a blessing, He broke it and gave it to the disciples, and said, “Take, eat; this is My body.” And when He had taken a cup and given thanks, He gave it to them saying, “Drink from it, all of you; for this is My blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for forgiveness of sins.
But I say to you, I will not drink of this fruit of the vine from now on until that day when I drink it new with you in My Father’s Kingdom.” Matthew 26:26-29
Christ has through His death, burial, resurrection, and spiritual regeneration has separated God’s people, while we all are faithfully serving, and waiting for our Bridegroom to come for His Body at His Return.
Jesus compared God to a husbandman in John 15:1–2: “I am the true vine, and my Father is the husbandman. Every branch in me that beareth not fruit he taketh away: and every branch that beareth fruit, he purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit” (KJV).
A good husbandman works the earth, cultivates his plants, and naturally expects them to produce fruit commensurate with the amount of effort he has invested in them. Our heavenly Father, the divine Husbandman, seeks to produce fruit through us as we abide in Christ.
Just as God is a good husbandman, bringing forth fruitfulness in our lives, so should we be good husbandmen with the resources He has entrusted to us. [This section of John 15:1-2, was taken from Got Questions? https://www.gotquestions.org/husbandman-in-the-Bible.html].
“Let us rejoice and be glad and give the glory to Him, for the marriage of the Lamb has come and His bride has made herself ready.” And it was given to her to clothe herself in fine linen, bright and clean; for the fine linen is the righteous act of the saints.”
And he said to me, Write, Blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb! Revelation 19:7-9
Some of the additional study materials that was used in this blog post: The Words and Works of Jesus Christ, J. Wight Pentecost, 12. Christ’s Authority Over Tradition, 48, Matthew 9:14-17.