Many of Jesus’ parables regarding His return and the end of the age also are often intertwined with this wedding ceremony between Himself and His Bride, the Church at the end of the ages.
I’ve said repeatedly on my blog and in conversation to close friends that for me the book of Revelation is like the sequel to Song of Solomon. I don’t read it through a grid or lens of destruction and ‘end of the world’, but that of a Bridegroom coming back and getting His Bride and finally having their wedding ceremony.
Earthly wedding ceremonies and marriage are a natural reflection of this spiritual reality.
Remember in Matthew 25 the parable of the 10 virgins, five of whom had enough oil for their lamps, while the other five were foolish and didn’t have enough;
It was the Jewish custom for the groom’s father to have worked with the family of the bride details concerning the wedding arrangement, including the date of the wedding ceremony. Oftentimes women were betrothed in their teenage years, and the groom would go to his father’s house and build a place for himself and his bride to live, attached to his father’s house. Jesus said
“And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also.” (John 14:3)
The Bridegroom would not know when the day was, but sometime after building the house, the father would then tell “go, it’s time.”
At that time, the groom and his friends would leave his home and proceed to the home of the bride, where the marriage ceremony was conducted, often at night. Usually a servant was sent first some time ahead of the bridegroom, to ‘pave the way’ and awaken the bride and the virgins. Since the servant would not know which one was the bride, she would sleep in her wedding dress since the wedding ceremony would customarily be at night. After this the entire wedding party returned to the groom’s home for a celebratory feast. This engagement process could last any number of months, possibly a year or more if the bridegroom was preparing their place in a far distance away to travel to, and return from.
From my post Keep The Pure Fire Burning
There is no “secret snatching away” of the Bride or some kind of “double comeback” for her where he comes back once and then again some time frame later like a pre-tribulation rapture would espouse, even though I’ve heard some of the ways pre-tribbers explain this passage to somehow fit their grid.
Furthermore, I understand that in ancient Jewish wedding ceremonies they’d consummate the marriage on the first day and then celebrate for another seven more days. To this, some of my pre-tribulation rapture adherents would compare this to the seven years of tribulation that takes place on the earth while the Bride is in her wedding celebration, having followed the ‘consummation’ between them.
For many of those that hold the Pre-Tribulation rapture view, the majority consensus from what I’ve seen and read is that the great marriage feast of the Lamb (Jesus) will take place during the tribulation.
As my friend David Hepting wrote in a post on Fire Press some time ago;
Many also believe that people can still become Christians on the earth during that time. If all Christians are a part of the Church who is the Bride of Christ, then isn’t that kind of weird that His whole bride won’t even be there for the wedding?
and
I could still stand to be corrected about the views of those that hold the pre-trib rapture but all who I have talked to hold to the viewpoint that the wedding feast is during the tribulation. If the Bride of Christ is to be pure and spotless without blemish, I have a feeling that that means that she is all there.
From his post The Bride That Wasn’t All There
With the huge harvest the book of Revelation documents will come out of the Tribulation, Hepting makes a good and quirky point that it will be quite a wedding celebration if not all of the Bride will be there!
These are just some of my coffee thoughts for pondering today.
June 2024 Update: Check out this video my other friend Dave posted on another Wedding passage in Scripture related to the end times.
