The Bible with Nicky and Pippa Gumbel, Classic Version, 2016Sample

The Bride

I get very emotional at weddings. When I am conducting weddings as the Vicar, I sometimes find tears of emotion pouring down my face. When I was conducting the marriage of my goddaughter, her father said in his speech that when you are taking your daughter down the aisle you expect the Vicar to be ‘a rock’ but instead he found the Vicar was ‘a wreck’!

When it came to my own daughter’s wedding three years ago I was determined to hold it together. I was doing well until half an hour before the wedding! Then I went upstairs and saw her in her wedding dress. At that point I lost it.

The metaphor of the bride is one that is used to describe the church in the New Testament (Ephesians 5:22–32). It is also used in today’s New Testament passage of the church of the future, which comes down out of heaven from God ‘prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband’ (Revelation 21:2). This picture of the bride, the new Jerusalem, is prefigured in different ways in both our Old and New Testament passages.

Proverbs 31:21-31

1. The bride to be proud of

The writer of Proverbs continues his description of ‘the wife of noble character’. This is the model human bride. She keeps her family warm (v.21); she is well dressed (v.22b). Her husband is respected because of her (v.23a). Her business flourishes (v.24). She is clothed with strength and dignity (v.25a). She can laugh at the days to come (v.25b) – by which the writer means she can face the future with confidence and joy.

She speaks with ‘godly Wisdom, and on her tongue is the law of kindness’ (v.26, AMP). We all need to avoid words that are full of hatred, anger, resentment and distrust and only speak kind words: ‘When she speaks she has something worthwhile to say and she always says it kindly’ (v.26, MSG).

She watches over the affairs of her household and ‘does not eat the bread of idleness (gossip, discontent, and self-pity)’ (v.27, AMP).

Her children ‘arise and call her blessed’ (v.28a). Abraham Lincoln said, ‘No man is poor who has had a godly mother.’ The writer of Proverbs goes onto say, ‘Her husband also [calls her blessed], and he praises her: “Many women do noble things, but you surpass them all” ’ (vv.28b–29).

The last verses focus on all women. ‘Charm can mislead and beauty soon fades. The woman to be admired and praised is the woman who lives in the Fear-of-God. Give her everything she deserves! Festoon her life with praises!’ (vv.30–31, MSG).

As we read the characteristics of ‘the good wife’ (MSG) we need to realise that much of this applies not only to wives, or even to all women – as we are the bride of Christ it applies to us all – men and women, married and unmarried. This is what the church should be like – and through Jesus one day will be like.

Father, thank you for all the amazing women who fear the Lord. May we give them the reward they have earned. Thank you also for this picture of what the church should be like – the bride of Christ. Help us to be the kind of church which Jesus can be proud of.

Revelation 21:1-27

2. The bride prepared

What does the future hold? What will ‘heaven’ be like? The New Testament answer is it will not just be ‘heaven’ but ‘a new heaven and a new earth’ (v.1a). The new heaven and the new earth are very real and solid. Everything will be new (v.5).

In this new heaven and the new earth John sees the church – us, as we will be. He sees the ‘Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband’ (v.2). One of the angels says, ‘Come, I will show you the bride, the wife of the Lamb’ (v.9).

Jesus will satisfy our thirst for God. ‘Then he said, “It’s happened. I’m A to Z. I’m the Beginning, I’m the Conclusion (that means he is also everything in between). From Water-of-Life Well I give freely to the thirsty” ’ (v.6, MSG).

There will be a new relationship with God. We experience a foretaste of this today through the indwelling presence of God in the church by his Spirit. On this great day we are brought into a place of complete intimacy with Jesus. The writer says, in effect, take the most beautiful relationship you have ever seen, multiply it a million times and you will get some idea of the sheer beauty of the relationship we will experience with God in eternity.

The church will not just be in a perfect relationship with God, she will also be made perfect. The description of this ‘bride’ is also dazzlingly beautiful: ‘It shone with the glory of God, and its brilliance was like that of a very precious jewel, like a jasper, as clear as crystal’ (v.11).

This is the place for the completed church of both the Old Testament and the New Testament (the ‘twelve tribes of Israel’ and the ‘twelve apostles of the Lamb’, vv.12–14). The city is a perfect cube (vv.15–16). It is absolutely beautiful, peaceful and totally secure (vv.17–21).

There are six notable absences:

• No more suffering
  ‘God shall personally be with them and be their God. God will wipe away every tear from their eyes’ (vv.3b–4a, AMP). There will be no more suffering, sickness or sadness.
• No more death
  ‘Death shall be no more, neither shall there be anguish (sorrow and mourning) nor grief nor pain any more’ (v.4b, AMP). There will be no more hospitals, no walking sticks, no funerals and no cemeteries.
• No need for a temple
  There is no sign of a temple, ‘because the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple’ (v.22).
• No need for the sun
  It does not need the sun or moon to shine, ‘for the glory of God gives it light, and the Lamb is its lamp’ (v.23). The nations will walk by its light and the kings of the earth will bring their splendour in to it.
• No night
  There is no night there: ‘On no day will its gates ever be shut, for there will be no night there’ (v.25).
• No impurity
  Those who choose to carry on living lives that destroy others have no place in this inheritance (vv.7–8). ‘Nothing impure will ever enter it, nor will anyone who does what is shameful or deceitful, but only those whose names are written in the Lamb’s book of life’ (v.27). Nothing will be ruined by sin. It will be totally perfect.

Are you going through a difficult time right now? One day your troubles will come to an end. In the meantime God is with you and will give you a foretaste of the future – his strength for today and hope for tomorrow.

This hope is a comfort and strength to those going through hardship and difficulty in the present (for instance Romans 8:18), and an inspiration to live holy lives in anticipation of what is to come (for instance 1 John 2:28).

St Augustine explains how we should respond to this hope for the future: ‘He who loves the coming of the Lord is not he who affirms that it is far off, nor is it he who says it is near, but rather he who, whether it be far off or near, awaits it with sincere faith, steadfast hope, and fervent love.’

Lord, thank you that you call me to be your bride. Thank you so much for the amazing hope for the future. Help me to wait for it with sincere faith, steadfast hope and fervent love.

Nehemiah 11:22-12:47

3. The bride prefigured

Celebrations are important. We celebrate birthdays and anniversaries. We have just celebrated Christmas. One day there will be a massive eternal celebration. In the meantime, it is important to celebrate often and give thanks to God for all that he has done for us. When the church comes together our celebration is an anticipation of the great celebration that is to come. All this is prefigured in the Old Testament.

As we have seen, ‘The bride, the wife of the Lamb’ is the Holy City, the new Jerusalem (Revelation 21:9–10). The city of Jerusalem anticipates and prefigures what is to come. The new Jerusalem is the church, glorified and triumphant, the bride, the wife of the Lamb.

Much attention is given to Jerusalem in the Old Testament. This is why there was such joy and celebration when Jerusalem was rebuilt in the days of Nehemiah.

In today’s passage, we read of the great celebration that took place with ‘thanksgiving hymns, songs, cymbals, harps, and lutes’ (Nehemiah 12:27, MSG).

The joy of the new Jerusalem is also anticipated in the great celebratory worship led by two large choirs (Nehemiah 12:31 onwards). ‘That day they offered great sacrifices, an exuberant celebration because God had filled them with great joy. The women and children raised their happy voices with all the rest. Jerusalem’s jubilation was heard far and wide’ (v.43, MSG).

Lord, thank you that the great joy, celebration and worship that came from the rebuilding of Jerusalem is only a foretaste of the great joy, worship and celebration that we will enjoy into all eternity in the new Jerusalem that will come down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband.

Pippa Adds

Proverbs 31:23

The ‘wife of noble character’ is extraordinarily busy doing everything. I am less impressed by her husband who ‘takes his seat among the elders of the land.’ It sounds like all talk and no action to me!

Notes:

Unless otherwise stated, Scripture quotations taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version Anglicised, Copyright © 1979, 1984, 2011 Biblica, formerly International Bible Society. Used by permission of Hodder & Stoughton Publishers, an Hachette UK company. All rights reserved. ‘NIV’ is a registered trademark of Biblica. UK trademark number 1448790.

Scripture quotations marked (AMP) taken from the Amplified® Bible, Copyright © 1954, 1958, 1962, 1964, 1965, 1987 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. (www.Lockman.org)

Scripture marked (MSG) taken from The Message. Copyright © 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2000, 2001, 2002. Used by permission of NavPress Publishing Group.