In Chapter 6 we touched upon the topic of the Bride of Christ. Without repeating all that was discussed there, allow me to merely state that the Bride is of the Church, but the Bride is not the whole Church. The Church is comprised of all believers, but not all believers will be the Bride (Rev.21:9, 21:7 and 22:3). Similarly, all believers are in the group known as 'Overcomers'(I John 5:4), but not every believer overcomes in all realms as Jesus did (Rev.3:21). This is not to say that only the Bride is saved, or that only those who overcome in every realm are saved. All believers are 'saved', but we are talking about more than 'salvation' as that term is traditionally understood. These studies have as their purpose, the goal of helping believers along the road to maturity as set forth in Eph.4:13, the attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.
According to Eph.5:27, the earthly Church which is presented to Jesus is radiant, without stain or wrinkle, or any other blemish, ie. she is both holy and blameless. We have previously seen that the Bride is given "... fine linen, bright and clean to wear" (Rev.19:8). Note that the Bride is radiant and is wearing brilliant garments of righteousness. Now turn to Mk.9:2-3 which describes Jesus' appearance during the transfiguration. "...(T)here He was transfigured before them. His clothes became dazzling white, whiter than anyone in the world could bleach them." As we have seen numerous times during these studies, we are to be transformed (transfigured in body) by the renewing of our minds (Ro.10:12). I John 3:2 tells us that when He appears "we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is." As we have just seen, it is the mature sons (huios) of God that are to be revealed. As we shall now see, it is a mature, radiant, or revealed Bride that Jesus returns for.
The question might well be asked, "Has God ever said anything about taking an immature bride, one that is still spotted and full of wrinkles?" Not only has He addressed that topic, but He graphically shows us that at one time He did so, and will not do so again. Look at Jer.3:14 and see how God describes His relationship with Israel. "Return faithless people, declares the Lord, for I am YOUR HUSBAND..." (emphasis added). From our last study we saw that as of this time in history, those who sought the Lord had, taken as a whole, progressed from spiritual brephos (infants) to spiritual pais (young children). Spiritually then, it was a young and somewhat immature Israel that the Father considered to be His wife. By this I do not necessarily mean that the Father has a `wife' separate from the Bride of Christ.
According to Deut.22:23-24 and Matt.1:19 the parties to an engagement may be referred to as 'Husband & Wife' even though they were not formally married, nor did they cohabit. So also can the husband 'divorce' his betrothed, even though they were not yet married. This in fact was exactly what Joseph had in mind for Mary before the angel spoke to him (Matt.1:19). The point I am making is that the Father considered His relationship with Israel to be as solemn a one as husband to wife. However, the betrothed bride was immature and that led to problems. Notice that in Jer.3:14 the Father was calling for His 'faithless' bride to return. Indeed, vs.9 pointedly tells us that this bride had actually defiled the land and committed adultery by following false gods. Verse 20 continues by saying that "... like a woman unfaithful to her husband, so you have been unfaithful to Me O house of Israel, declares the Lord."
This is not the first time Israel's spiritual unfaithfulness was likened unto sexual promiscuity, nor would it be the last. In Lev.17:7 God tells us that Israel's worship of idols was the same as prostituting herself to them. Hosea 4:2 clearly states that it was a spirit of prostitution which caused them to be unfaithful to God. According to David's recounting of Israel's history, as she entered Canaan, she prostituted herself to the idols of the Canaanites (Ps.106:36&39).
Immature Israel did not heed God's direction to drive out all the inhabitants of the promised land. As a result, they taught Israel to serve other gods, all as foretold in Deut.7:4. Israel continued this adulterous activity under the leadership of the Judges and under the kings raised up to rule over her (Ju.2:17 & 8:27, II Chron.21:4). There are many other examples which can be found whereby her spiritual wanderings were equated with extramarital unfaithfulness. For this immature fiancée, the statement of Amos 5:2 was tragically all too true: "Fallen is virgin Israel."
Israel fell victim to an all too frequent problem in marriage. The adultery scene look very inviting She ignored the admonition of Prov.7:27 which makes the following statement concerning the adulteress, "Many are the victims she has brought down; her slain are a mighty throng, her house is a highway to the grave leading down to the chambers of death." How did the Father react to these continual episodes of unfaithfulness on the part of His immature wife? "I gave faithless Israel her certificate of divorce, and sent her away because of her adulteries." (Jer.3:8, see also I Chron.5:25-26 & I Ki.17:18). However, we are to rejoice, for this is not the end of God's relationship with His people, and now we are part of His people (Eph.3:6).
There is a reunion. Isaiah 54:5-7 says,
"For your Maker is your Husband, the Lord Almighty is His name, the Holy One of Israel is your Redeemer; He is called God of all the earth. The Lord will call you back as if you were a wife deserted and distressed in spirit. A wife who married young only to be rejected says your God, for a brief moment I abandoned you, but with deep compassion I will bring you back." (emphasis added)
This promise is also shown in Hosea 2:19 wherein God says, "I will betroth you to Me forever; I will betroth you in faithfulness, and you will acknowledge the Lord."
While that is comforting, notice the difference between this future relationship and the one that had just culminated with the Father writing Israel a bill of divorcement. This time we see that God has said, "I will betroth you in faithfulness." There will be no more adultery. For that to be true, one of the parties to this relationship must change their attitude. Either God must redefine adultery, or the betrothed must be completely faithful. We know that God does not change (Mal.3:6 & Heb.1:12), particularly in the area of who is the worshipper and who is the worshiped (Deut.5:8 & Mk.12 30). Needless to say, that leaves the Bride as the one who will undergo the change.
An interesting parallel to this concept of recalling the betrothed is shown in Hosea 1:2. God told the prophet "... go take yourself an adulterous wife and children of unfaithfulness because the land is guilty of the vilest adultery in departing from the Lord." (Remember that Jer.3:9 mentioned the same relationship between adultery in the spiritual sense and the defiling of the land.) Later in Hosea 3:1 God tells Hosea,
"Go show your love to your wife again though she is loved by another and is an adulteress. Love her as the Lord loves the Israelites ... I told her you are to live with me many days; you must not be a prostitute or be intimate with any man, and I will live with you..."
To show the future nature of this prophecy God then says that in the last days the Israelites will come trembling to Him and to His blessings.
In a sense God told Hosea to do that which He had already done; that is, marry an adulterous wife. By directing Hosea to return to her, God was showing us again that, with deep compassion, He also would bring back His betrothed. However, the condition for this reunion was clearly established. NO MORE INFIDELITY! In any subsequent relationship the bride will not commit adultery. Indeed, the Bride will be incapable of adultery because her love for the Bridegroom will be so total and so complete, that there will be nothing an adulterous situation could even begin to offer which would compare with the joy that the Bride feels in the presence of the Groom. The Bride will be towards the Groom as the Beloved is towards the Lover in the Song of Solomon, and vice versa. From all this, I believe that we are being shown that the marriage of the Lamb will not take place until this required stage of maturity and devotion is reached on the part of the Bride.
Genesis chapter 24 tells a story which illustrates and sets the pattern for the timing of this future marriage. You will notice in 24:4 that it was Abraham, the father of the groom, who sets into motion the marriage process. The father, in this case through his servant, chose the Bride for the son. Just as importantly though, it was the father who determined when the time was right. We know that the timing of the Lord's return is a secret known only to the Father (Mk.13:32-33). We also have indications that the wedding of the Lamb will come about after this time (Rev.19: 6-7 & 11:17). It would therefore appear that the timing of the wedding is under the direct control of the Father. What is He waiting for? For the Bride to make herself ready! (Rev.19:7) This wedding will not take place until the Bride has been purified to the extent that she will no longer even consider spiritual adultery or prostitution. It will not be necessary for God to again write His betrothed a bill of divorcement.
Return for a moment to Jer.3:9 and Isaiah 54:5-7. Therein notice that Israel's adultery caused the land itself to become defiled, and she became deserted. As we have said before, we know that this condition will not remain forever. Isa.62:4-5 gives us a glorious prophecy that is without a doubt future in nature.
"No longer will they call you deserted or your land desolate. But you will be called Hephzibah (My delight is in her) and your land will be called Beulah (married) for the Lord will delight in you... as a bridegroom rejoices over His bride, so will God rejoice over you" (parenthesis added)
However, there are a series of events which must take place before the condition of being defiled totally changes to one of total purity.
Deut.7:4 promised that the Lord's anger would burn against those who seek after other gods. As we have said earlier, God's attitude has not changed. If anything, it is even more settled than ever. In Acts 17:30 God clearly commands all people everywhere to repent from their spiritual adultery. Indeed, Col.3:5-6 tells us that because of sexual immorality, impurity lust, evil desires, and greed WHICH IS IDOLATRY, the wrath of God is going to come on the earth. Those were all the things that the Israelites did in their adulterous moods, and they were exiled because of them (II Ki.18:11-12). There is still a great deal of spiritual prostitution going on today, and Col.3:6 tells us that as a direct result of this, God's wrath will again come on the land and its people. At the same time, there are those who are truly seeking the face of the Lord, and are turning from former ways. They are seeking to be spiritual virgins (II Cor.11:2), and not spiritual harlots (Isa.1:21).
It is this very situation which prompts some Christians to hang on to a pre-tribulation rapture theory as the only means by which the Bride could escape all that is about to happen. They reason that God does not want to beat up the Bride prior to the wedding, and the Bride must therefore be removed from the scene. With the first part of that I would totally agree. God's Bride will not be beaten up by Him or anyone else prior to the wedding. However, the protection the Bride receives does not come about from being taken up or out. It will be directly related to her maturity.
I realize that we are not meant to suffer God's wrath (I Thes.5:9). However, it cannot be said that those who accept Jesus as their Lord and Savior during the tribulation period, and who actually seek Him, are any less members of the Body of Christ than are those who have known Him for years, but have done little with that relationship prior to the great tribulation. There is no Scriptural basis for saying that God's promises of protection apply only to pre-tribulation believers and not to those who go through it.
The questions of who goes first and the Israelites/Gentiles now being one in the Lord were covered in detail another study, and I do not wish to reiterate all that here. The point is, the Bride, ie. the mature bride composed of mature believers, as opposed to those who have refused to "grow up into Him who is the Head" (Eph.4:15), will be protected. The same amount of protection is offered to all believers; however, not all are aware of the promises He does make. And as we have said before, lack of knowledge can be deadly (Hosea 4:6&14). Remember, the amount of time that transpires from spiritual infancy to spiritual maturity, is more closely related to the amount of your mind (soul) that you turn over to Christ, then it is to the length of time that has expired since you first accepted Him as the Lord of your life (Heb.5:12 & Ro.12:2).
Isaiah 26:20-21 promises protection. "Go my people, enter your rooms and shut the door behind you: hide yourselves for a little while until His wrath has passed by. See, the Lord is coming out of His dwelling to punish the people of the earth for their sins..." This offers a tremendous parallel to the type of protection granted to God's first betrothed (Israel) during the first Passover (Ex.12:23). Both speak of protection, and both speak of protection here.
What is the knowledge that the mature Bride will have that many believers who have preceded her have not had revealed to them, or have failed to grasp on to, or understand? The mature Bride will know the nature of the Most High God. This is her protection. In Ps.50:14-15 the Most High promises to deliver those who call upon Him in the day of trouble. The mature Bride will truly know of God's love for her.
She will not doubt for one moment the Groom's promise of protection. She will have mediated upon the love letter the Groom wrote her (the Bible) until it is so ingrained in her that she could not possibly doubt His protection (Joshua 1:8). We see in Ps. 9:10 that "those who KNOW YOUR NAME WILL TRUST IN YOU for You O Lord have NEVER FORSAKEN THOSE WHO SEEK YOU." (emphasis added) What is the name (ie. nature) of God that brings this trust? Verse 2 shows us again that it is the name of the MOST HIGH GOD. Daniel knew the nature of the Most High God (Dan.4:2,17,24 & 25; 5:18,22 & 25) and we see that "... when Daniel was lifted from the den, no wound was found on him BECAUSE HE HAD TRUSTED IN HIS GOD." (emphasis added, see Dan.6:23) Protection followed trust!
Isaiah 26:20 told us to enter our rooms wherein we will be protected. Where is your room? The mature Bride will know where to go. "If you make the MOST HIGH YOUR DWELLING, even the Lord who is my refuge, THAN no harm will befall you, no disaster will come near your tent." (emphasis added Ps.91:9). Verse 14 of that same Psalm tells us that the Most High will protect those who acknowledge His name. If you will remember, Hosea 2:19 told us that in the last days the Bride will acknowledge her God, and as we shall see in the next two chapters, Hosea was aware of the nature of God known as El Elyon, the Most High (Hosea 7:16). The Bride's understanding of His love, and her knowledge of His name as the Most High, will instill within her the trust which will see her through.