The second step in the marriage was when, on the appointed day, the groom came with his friends to take the bride back to his home. This “taking” of the bride was usually done at night approximately one year after the betrothal. This led to the consummation of the marriage through physical union of the bride and groom on the first night at the groom’s house. Since this second step was the essence of the marriage ceremony, it was regarded as the wedding or marriage. Thus the actual “wedding” or “marriage” was not a ceremony at all — it was union! We constantly read in scripture of a man taking a wife unto himself. We get our attention, in modern marriage customs, fixed on the ceremony: forgetting that in the biblical pattern the real marriage is “this man taking unto him this woman” to be his wife in all that it means. The espousal only announces it; just as the wedding feast only celebrates it! The perfect picture of Christ taking His virgin church as His bride is seen in Genesis chapter twenty-four, where Abraham would “make a marriage for his son.” He sends Eliezar, his steward, to far away Mesopotamia, to find and woo Rebekah by showing her the “things,” that is, a sample of the wealth of Abraham and Isaac (as the Holy Spirit now shows us “the things” of Christ, the firstfruits of the Spirit); and eventually Rebekah says to Eliezar, “I will go.” And then, the journey over, the record states that when upon their camels Eliezar and Rebekah arrive in the land of Canaan, “Isaac took Rebekah (into his tent); and she became his wife; and he loved her.” The same scenario is repeated a number of times in the Old Testament and this second step corresponds precisely to the expression “marriage of the Lamb” in the book of Revelation. It signifies the ultimate completeness and fullness of UNION WITH OUR LORD!
Preston Eby
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