The
marriage of the Lamb occurs after the fall of Babylon. This is clearly seen in the order of
events in Revelation 17-19. In chapter 17 Babylon
is portrayed as the great harlot, the counterfeit bride. In chapter 18 we see
the fall of Babylon
and the exposure of the counterfeit bride for who she really is. Then in
Revelation 19 we are told of the marriage of the Lamb in verses 7-9,
7 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. 8 And it was given to her to clothe herself in
fine linen, bright and clean; for the fine linen is the righteous acts of the
saints. 9 And he said to me, Write, Blessed are those who are invited
to the marriage supper of the Lamb. And he said to me, These are the
true words of God.
To understand these things
properly, we must break out of our Western Culture, where weddings take place
before the marriage supper (“the reception”). In biblical times it was the
other way around. The wedding feast, or marriage supper, was normally held for
one week.
The Example of
Jacob’s Marriage
When Jacob had completed his
seven-year labor (as a substitute for the dowry), he then asked Laban to give
him Rachel as his wife. Gen. 29:21 says,
21 Then Jacob said to Laban, “Give me my
wife, for my time is completed, that I may go in to her.” 22 And
Laban gathered all the men of the place, and made a feast.
How long was this feast? It
lasted one week, as we read in verses 27 and 28. In The New Manners and
Customs of the Bible, by James Freeman, page 58, we read,
“The usual duration of a wedding feast was a week. Thus,
‘Finish this daughter’s bridal week’ in Genesis 29:27 meant to complete the
week of festivities for the bride and groom.”
In this example, at the end of
the week, Laban gave Jacob Leah, rather than Rachel. Since she was probably
veiled, and the tent was dark, and Jacob was probably a bit dull from too much
wine, he did not know the difference until the following morning. But when he
discovered that his wife was “weak eyed,” or cross-eyed, then he knew it was
Leah, not Rachel.
Jacob, of course, was angry and
confronted Laban. Laban made the excuse that the older had to be married before
the younger and suggested that Jacob work for him another seven years for
Rachel.
27 Complete the week of this one, and
we will give you the other also for the service which you shall serve with me
for another seven years. 28 And Jacob did so and completed her
week, and he gave him his daughter Rachel as his wife.
In other words, they had
another week of feasting, and then Laban gave him Rachel as his wife as well.
But this obligated Jacob to work for Laban for another seven years.
The Example of
Samson’s Marriage
Another good example of a
biblical wedding feast is found in the story of Samson.
In Judges 14 we read how Samson
became engaged to marry a Philistine woman from the town of Timnah (14:2). His parents objected, of
course, saying in verse 3,
3. . . “Is there no woman among the
daughters of your relatives, or among all our people, that you go to take a
wife from the uncircumcised Philistines?” . . . 4 However, his
father and mother did not know that it was of the Lord, for He was seeking an
occasion against the Philistines. Now at that time the Philistines were ruling
over Israel.
God’s purpose was to judge the
Philistines for their deceitful ways. So God set them up by exposing their
injustice and deceit through Samson’s marriage plans. As the story goes, we
read in verse 10,
10 Then his father went down to the woman;
and Samson made a feast there, for the young men customarily did this.
Here we are given the added
detail that “the young men customarily did this.” It was customary that before
the man claimed his wife, he would get together with his friends and hold a
wedding feast for a week. Though modern Hebrew weddings bring the bride to the
wedding feast, this is probably due to the fact that today such feasts are
seldom a week-long festivity. It is the bride’s wedding day, not the wedding
week.
Yet even if the bride should
attend the wedding feast, she was to do so veiled. In that way, she was
actually kept separate from the groom until later. According to Smith’s
Bible Dictionary, under “Marriage,” we read,
“A friend sometimes did the whole business of selecting the
bride for the bridegroom; and in modern days the bridegroom seldom sees the
face of his wife until the actual moment of marriage, or until after the
ceremony.”
In Samson’s day it is plain
that the guests feasted for an entire week without the bride being given to the
groom. At the beginning of the week, Samson made a wager with his thirty
friends (her relatives) that if they could solve a riddle, he would give them
each a new robe. If they could not, then they would give him thirty robes.
At the end of the week, they
were able to solve the riddle, but only by cheating. They threatened to burn
the bride and her house with fire unless she told them the answer. To save her
own life, she was then forced to deceive Samson into telling her the answer, so
that she could tell the others. Thus, they gave him the correct answer “on the
seventh day” (Judg. 14:18). Samson then went out and killed thirty Philistines,
took their robes, and gave it to his “friends” to satisfy the wager.
20 But Samson’s wife was given to his
companion who had been his friend.
Plainly, the marriage had not
yet been consummated, even after seven days of feasting at the marriage supper.
This suggests that the marriage supper in Revelation 19 does not follow the
wedding, but precedes it.
The Location of the
Marriage Feast
Normally, a wedding feast was
held at the groom’s house, sponsored by his father. However, this was often
reversed (as in the case of Samson) when there was some distance between the
two houses. David says, “she is escorted
to the bridegroom’s house, where the marriage-feast is held.”
According to A Dictionary of
the Bible, by John D. Davis,
“A feast was served at the house of the groom or of his
parents (Mat. xxii. 1-10; John ii. 1, 9); but if he lived at a great distance
the feast was spread in the house of the bride’s parents (Mat. xxv. 1), either
at their expense or the groom’s. . .”
What does this tell us about
the marriage supper of the Lamb? There is a “great distance” between heaven and
earth; therefore, the wedding feast is to be held at the bride’s house, but no
doubt at the groom’s expense. In other words, the wedding feast is held on
earth, not in heaven. Davis
then says,
“Having received his bride, deeply veiled, from her parents
with their blessing and the good wishes of friends (Gen. xxiv. 59; Ruth iv. 11;
Tob. vii. 13) he conducted the whole party back to his own or his own father’s
house with song, music, and dancing. . .”
So it is only AFTER THE WEDDING
FEAST that the groom brings the bride to his or his father’s house.
The Garments of the
Wedding Feast
The bride is given her white
robe at the beginning of the wedding feast, which represents the immortal body.
Paul says in 2 Cor. 5:1-4 that we long to be “clothed” with that tabernacle
from above, “in order that what is mortal
may be swallowed up by life.”
Isaiah 61:10 makes reference to
this as well:
10 I will rejoice greatly in the Lord, My
soul will exult in my God; for He has clothed me with garments of salvation,
He has wrapped me with a robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom
decks himself with a garland, and as a bride adorns herself with jewels.
While Revelation 19:8 speaks
only of the robe of righteousness, Isaiah speaks of garlands and jewels. Davis tells us more:
“After putting on her finest garments, around her waist was
wound a peculiar girdle (KISHURIM, the attire, Jer. ii. 32); and over her head
was thrown the veil or long shawl (Gen. xxix. 25), covering the whole figure;
while on her head was set a crown ornamented with jewels, or a chaplet of
leaves and flowers (KALLAH, chaplet, also bride). A pair of ornamented slippers
were a gift from the husband before marriage.”
The “peculiar girdle” is a
symbol of the belt of truth in Eph. 6:14 and forms part of our spiritual armor.
This tells us that truth is essential if one wants to be part of the bride.
The “veil or long shawl” is
also part of the wedding garment, because it signifies the authoritative
covering of the groom. The crown symbolized the walls of Jerusalem and also served as the “helmet of
salvation” in the armor of God (Eph. 6:17).
Isaiah 60:18 makes this connection:
18 Violence will not be heard again in your
land, nor devastation or destruction within your borders; but you will call
your walls salvation, and your gates praise.
Davis tells
us that the crown was “ornamented with jewels.” This custom is mentioned also
in Rev. 21:19 in the description of the walls of the New Jerusalem,
19 The foundation stones of the city wall
were adorned with every kind of precious stone.
These are the “foundation
stones” of the wall, even as the jewels at the base of the crown formed the
foundation of the crown.
Finally, Davis says that “a pair of ornamented
slippers were a gift from the husband before marriage.” In his discussion of
the spiritual armor, Paul tells us in Eph. 6:15,
15 and having shod your feet with the
preparation of the gospel of peace.
As we have shown in earlier
writings, God rejected the old Jerusalem,
because it had become “the bloody city” (Ez. 22:2; 24:6 and 9). Jerusalem literally means “the city of peace,” but it had
become so corrupt that God forsook Jerusalem
even as He had forsaken Shiloh a few centuries
earlier (Jer. 7:14).
The New Jerusalem is the true
city of peace. The New Jerusalem is composed of people who have their feet shod
with the preparation of the gospel of peace. For this reason, the book of
Revelation speaks of the New Jerusalem as the true bride, while the old Jerusalem is the
counterfeit bride. (See FFI #214.)
The Wedding Guests
In addition to these garments
of the bride, it was also customary for the more wealthy parents of the groom
to give special garments to the wedding guests. Davis says,
“The very wealthy prolong the feast several days, furnishing
garments for each guest, to be worn only during the time.”
In the marriage supper of the
Lamb, God gives each of the guests a new robe of righteousness. This is
apparently the custom behind Samson’s wager in which he offered new garments to
his friends. It is forms the background to Jesus’ parable in Matt. 22:2-14.
2 The
kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king, who gave a wedding feast for his
son. 3 And he sent out his slaves to call those who had been invited
to the wedding feast, and they were unwilling to come.
Wedding invitations were
normally sent out more than once. The first invitations were sent out far in
advance, so that the potential guests could begin to make plans. In this
parable, Jesus was referring to the fact that God had sent prophets to Judah for many
years, but the people had consistently refused the invitation.
4 Again
he sent out other slaves saying, ‘Tell those who have been invited, Behold, I
have prepared my dinner; my oxen and my fattened livestock are all butchered
and everything is ready; come to the wedding feast.” 5 But they paid
no attention and went their way, one to his own farm, another to his business.
This was the second and final
invitation given by John the Baptist, who, in John 3:29, called himself “the
friend of the bridegroom. The duty of the bridegroom’s friend was to send out
the invitations and prepare for the wedding. In fact, to quote Davis again,
“A friend sometimes did the
whole business of selecting the bride for the bridegroom.”
This sheds more light on the
role of John the Baptist. Those who received him and his baptism of repentance
were the ones being prepared for the wedding of the Son. Therefore, when John
was beheaded by King Herod, it signified the official rejection of John and his
invitation. Though many of the individual people accepted John, and even Herod
was reluctant to execute John, even so, the religious leaders of the people had
rejected him (Luke 20:1-8). In rejecting him, they set the spiritual forces
into motion that would make his execution inevitable.
Further, in rejecting John,
they had rejected Jesus as well. Of course, individuals who accepted both John
and Jesus were exempted from the liability of their rulers, but those who
submitted to the authority of those rulers also took upon themselves their
liability. That is a spiritual law.
6 And
the rest seized his slaves and mistreated them and killed them. 7
But the king was enraged and sent his armies, and destroyed those murderers,
and set their city on fire.
This speaks of the fact that
all the prophets until John were rejected and persecuted and even killed. As I
showed in FFI #214, Jesus attributed all liability for this to the city of Jerusalem (Matt.
23:29-37).
The consequences for this
rejection were seen in 70 A.D. with the destruction of Jerusalem at the hands of the Roman armies.
Jesus’ parable calls them the armies of the king, who is God Himself. In
effect, God raised up the Romans to destroy the city and its temple, much like
He raised up King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon
to do the same job in the days of Jeremiah. See Jer. 27:6 and 26:6.
8 Then
he said to his slaves, The wedding is ready, but those who were invited were
not worthy. 9 Go therefore to the main highways, and as many as you
find there, invite to the wedding feast. 10 And those slaves went
out into the streets and gathered together all they found, both evil and good;
and the wedding hall was filled with dinner guests.
This is equivalent to Jesus’
earlier statement in Matt. 21:43, saying,
43
Therefore I say to you, the kingdom
of God will be taken away
from you and be given to a nation producing the fruit of it.
What is most interesting is the
fact that the wedding guests were “both evil and good.” In other words, there
were both good and evil men who were to respond to the wedding invitation during
the Christian era. This would be consistent with the Pentecostal Age, since
Pentecost is a leavened feast (Lev. 23:17). So what will God do about it? The
parable in Matt. 22 continues,
11 But
when the king came in to look over the dinner guests, he saw there a man not
dressed in wedding clothes, 12 and he said to him, Friend, how did
you come in here without wedding clothes? And he was speechless.
Why did this man not have a
wedding garment? All of the guests (believers) were given wedding garments and
were expected to wear them. How strange that someone would actually refuse to
wear this wedding garment at the wedding! It was a deliberate refusal.
The garments of salvation
represent the righteousness of the saints. More than that, these garments
represent the glorified body that is given at the fulfillment of the Feast of
Tabernacles. This garment, Paul says in 2 Cor. 5:1, is “in the heavens,” and we
presently “groan, being burdened” in this current mortal body—that is, we are
still clothed with old garments representing mortality. The wedding guest in
the parable was given opportunity to dress properly, but refused to do so.
It is apparent that this man
represents a Christian who refused to go beyond Pentecost into Tabernacles. As
a believer, he responded to the invitation. He was justified by faith and maybe
even filled with the Spirit through Pentecost. But he was unwilling to go
beyond Pentecost into the Feast of Tabernacles.
Such people will go to the
wedding, but will not be allowed to participate in the festival, for the wedding feast is the seven-day Feast of
Tabernacles.
13 Then
the king said to his servants, Bind him hand and foot and cast him into the
outer darkness; in that place there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth. 14
For many are called, but few are chosen.
Only those who qualify for the
Feast of Tabernacles will be at this wedding feast. This does not mean that
other Christians “go to hell.” The “outer darkness” is not hell, as many teach.
It is simply an exclusion from the feast. The picture being painted here is the
well-lit hall where the wedding feast is prepared for the guests who are
properly attired, while outside it is dark.
I wrote about the distinction
between the believers and the overcomers in my book, The Purpose of Resurrection
and how there are two resurrections in Revelation 20. The first resurrection is
for those who are called to rule and reign with Christ during the Tabernacles
Age. The second resurrection is for everyone else—including the rest of the
believers. Jesus spoke of the second resurrection in John 5:28, 29, saying,
28 Do not
marvel at this, for an hour is coming, in which all who are in the tombs shall
hear His voice 29 and shall come forth; those who did the good deeds
to a resurrection of life, those who committed the evil deeds to a resurrection
of judgment.
There will be believers in the
general resurrection—the one that includes ALL who are in the tombs. This is
the second resurrection discussed at the end of Revelation 20. It is not the
first resurrection, which is limited to the few (Rev. 20:5). It is apparent
that the man without the wedding garment is a believer who was disqualified
from the first resurrection and the wedding feast (Tabernacles).
God’s
Kingdom Ministries
6201 University Ave.
Fridley, MN 55432 (USA)
