Our homecoming includes a celebration. This devotional reading looks at how we will celebrate with the Bridegroom.
Nuggets
- A voice of roaring waters praises God.
- The marriage celebration will include praising God.
- The Lamb and the bride mutually choose each other.
- The bride of Christ will clothe herself with immortality and purity.
- Only those invited to the marriage supper will be blessed.
Throughout the Old Testament, God was considered Israel’s husband.
- “For your Maker is your husband, the Lord of hosts is his name; and the Holy One of Israel is your Redeemer, the God of the whole earth he is called” (Isa. 54: 5 ESV).
- “And I will betroth you to me forever. I will betroth you to me in righteousness and in justice, in steadfast love and in mercy” (Hos. 2: 19 ESV).
- “And in that day, declares the Lord, you will call me ‘My Husband,’ and no longer will you call me ‘My Baal’” (Hos. 2: 16 ESV).
- “Not like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, my covenant that they broke, though I was their husband, declares the Lord” (Jer. 31: 32 ESV).
- “Adulterous wife, who receives strangers instead of her husband!” (Ezek. 16: 32 ESV).
This theme is continued in Revelation. The Church is considered the bride of Christ.
One of the most familiar passages in Revelation is the marriage feast of the Lamb. Let’s take a look.
Let's Put It into Context #1
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Devotions in the Homecoming series
Let's Put It into Context #2
“And from the throne came a voice saying, ‘Praise our God, all you his servants, you who fear him, small and great’” (Rev. 19: 5 ESV)
In the last devotion, we decided this was the voice of the Lamb. Yes, the voice came from the throne, but it came from the Mediator – the Lamb on the throne.
I see that. Jesus was God’s biggest Champion. He always gave praise and honor to God.
The Voice
“Then I heard what seemed to be the voice of a great multitude, like the roar of many waters and like the sound of mighty peals of thunder, crying out, ...” (Rev. 19: 6 ESV)
A voice of roaring waters praises God.
John hears the voice from Heaven again. He has described it as sounding like roaring water before. “his feet were like burnished bronze, refined in a furnace, and his voice was like the roar of many waters” (Rev. 1: 15 ESV).
Others have also described a voice in this way.
- “After it his voice roars; he thunders with his majestic voice, and he does not restrain the lightnings when his voice is heard. God thunders wondrously with his voice; he does great things that we cannot comprehend” (Job 37: 4-5 ESV).
- “And behold, the glory of the God of Israel was coming from the east. And the sound of his coming was like the sound of many waters, and the earth shone with his glory” (Ezek. 43: 2 ESV).
The difference is that the voice and thunder was always associated with God in the past. Was John associating it with the multitude?
Thunder has also long been associated with the presence of God. “On the morning of the third day there were thunders and lightnings and a thick cloud on the mountain and a very loud trumpet blast, so that all the people in the camp trembled. Then Moses brought the people out of the camp to meet God, and they took their stand at the foot of the mountain. Now Mount Sinai was wrapped in smoke because the Lord had descended on it in fire. The smoke of it went up like the smoke of a kiln, and the whole mountain trembled greatly. And as the sound of the trumpet grew louder and louder, Moses spoke, and God answered him in thunder” (Ex. 19: 16-19 ESV).
Part of me says that is logical that it would be the multitude having this voice. When we are in Heaven, we are as Jesus is – Who has the same nature of God. Therefore, even though we don’t become God, we have His nature.
Whoever is raising the praise, their response was immediate after the call.
The Marriage Has Come
“‘... Hallelujah! For the Lord our God the Almighty reigns. Let us rejoice and exult and give him the glory, for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and his Bride has made herself ready; it was granted her to clothe herself with fine linen, bright and pure’ — for the fine linen is the righteous deeds of the saints” (Rev. 19: 6-8 ESV)
The marriage celebration will include praising God.
Rejoice, Exult, and Give Glory
I can see the multitude praising God. This praise is like the others we’ve already seen in Revelation – Hallelujah. The new nugget is that God reigns.
Spurgeon made a good observation. The worship session takes place before the marriage itself.
This was a long time coming. The betrothal begins with our conversion. The marriage is occurring because of the gift of eternal life from the Father.
But this is the marriage day. It is when the Church will be perfected.
I love what Spurgeon said. He wrote, “I [cannot] tell you all it means, but certainly this marriage signifies that all who have believed in Him shall then enter into a bliss which shall never end; a bliss which no fear approacheth, or doubt becloudeth.”
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I can’t wait until that day!
I know. It is easy to think we aren’t good enough.
Look what Bradley said. He wrote, “We shall see our Lord, and see Him in a form in which we shall know Him; and shall have souls within us, that will for the first time feel large enough to love Him, and these souls shall be filled to overflowing with admiration of and delight in Him.”
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Read that again. “… that [we] will for the first time feel large enough to love Him …”
We won’t have love enough here in this life – and that is okay. We have to have faith and obedience.
Lamb and Bride
The Lamb and the bride mutually choose each other.
We may think it is a change. We’ve known Jesus as the Lamb. Now, we are learning of Him as the Bridegroom.
The focus should be on the fact that we will know Jesus as the Lamb and the Bridegroom.
This is a true marriage. We are the bride of Christ because we consciously choose to invite Jesus to be our Lord and Savior. Jesus also chooses to allow us to be saved.
By accepting the Plan of Salvation, we set aside our own will and embrace God’s Will for our lives. We take hold of God’s laws and commandments and make them our own by living them out daily.
We do exactly as Jesus said. “And he said to all, ‘If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me’” (Lk. 9: 23 ESV).
I know. It doesn’t make sense. Mankind is sinful and unholy.
- “Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me” (Ps. 51: 5 ESV).
- “And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience — among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body] and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind” (Eph. 2: 1-3 ESV).
- “And when the Lord smelled the pleasing aroma, the Lord said in his heart, “I will never again curse the ground because of man, for the intention of man’s heart is evil from his youth. Neither will I ever again strike down every living creature as I have done” (Gen. 8: 21 ESV).
- “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Rom. 3: 23 ESV).
- “Everyone who makes a practice of sinning also practices lawlessness; sin is lawlessness” (I Jn. 3: 4 ESV).
- “But whoever has doubts is condemned if he eats, because the eating is not from faith. For whatever does not proceed from faith is sin” (Rom. 14: 28 ESV).
- “So whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin” (Jas. 4: 17 ESV).
Jesus is pure and righteous.
- “He committed no sin, neither was deceit found in his mouth” (I Pet. 2: 22 ESV).
- “For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin” (Heb. 4: 15 ESV).
- “For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God” (II Cor. 5: 21 ESV).
- “You know that he appeared in order to take away sins, and in him there is no sin” (I Jn. 3: 5 ESV).
- “But with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot” (I Pet. 1: 19 ESV).
It doesn’t make sense that Jesus — the pure, righteous Son of God — would enter into a relationship with sinful, unholy mankind.
But He does.
When we choose Jesus as our Savior and Redeemer, He chooses to take the judgment for us.
We just have to know Jesus – a heart knowledge, not a head knowledge. That means we don’t just recognize Who He is. We submit our hearts to Him to obey.
Clothe Herself
The bride of Christ will clothe herself with immortality and purity.
Disciples will be clothed with several things. They are all wrapped up in the garments, which we’ve discussed before.
- “Around the throne were twenty-four thrones, and seated on the thrones were twenty-four elders, clothed in white garments, with golden crowns on their heads” (Rev. 4: 4 ESV).
- “I counsel you to buy from me gold refined by fire, so that you may be rich, and white garments so that you may clothe yourself and the shame of your nakedness may not be seen, and salve to anoint your eyes, so that you may see” (Rev. 3: 18 ESV).
- “Yet you have still a few names in Sardis, people who have not soiled their garments, and they will walk with me in white, for they are worthy. The one who conquers will be clothed thus in white garments, and I will never blot his name out of the book of life. I will confess his name before my Father and before his angels” (Rev. 3: 4-5 ESV).
The white garment is a symbol of the righteousness we are given at salvation. We are putting on saintliness.
We cover our nakedness by believing our sins are covered by Jesus’ blood. Because He covers our sins, we have white garments of righteousness.
Our journey through life is characterized by a walk. The white garments symbolize our character. They show our sins being washed and purified until they are the color of white.
Holiness has to be more than experience. It has to be our character.
It is interesting that the King James Version calls the Church wife. The English Standard Version calls her the bride.
“Let us be glad and rejoice, and give [honor] to him: for the marriage of the Lamb is come, and his wife hath made herself ready” (Rev. 19: 7 KJV).
I can see the difference. Bride, to me, means that we haven’t been changed yet. Wife means we have – we have put on the garments of righteousness.
Don’t ever gloss over the fact that righteousness was granted to the wife. “‘it was granted her to clothe herself with fine linen, bright and pure’ — for the fine linen is the righteous deeds of the saints” (Rev. 19: 8 ESV).
Nothing we are or do could earn us salvation. We only gain it through the grace and mercy of God when we submit to His authority.
That also means that, as we navigate the Sanctification Road, there is nothing we can do to earn salvation. Sanctification is only to make our character more like His.
This sanctification – along with our faithfulness – is the preparation we need for the marriage ceremony.
I had to go back and read things again because of something Vaughan pointed out. These verses talk about the marriage itself.
The next verse talks about the marriage supper.
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The marriage is when we are united with Christ by conversion. The supper is the celebration of that union.
That means we can rejoice now. It means we must begin preparations now.
The Marriage Blessing
“And the angel said to me, ‘Write this: 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’” (Rev. 19: 9 ESV)
Only those invited to the marriage supper will be blessed.
The angel tour guide returned. He gave John the direction to write down a blessing.
This is the third of six blessings in Revelation.
We know that blessed does not mean happy. It means perfect.
It is more like Isaiah said. “You shall no more be termed Forsaken, and your land shall no more be termed Desolate, but you shall be called My Delight Is in Her, and your land Married; for the Lord delights in you, and your land shall be married. For as a young man marries a young woman, so shall your sons marry you, and as the bridegroom rejoices over the bride, so shall your God rejoice over you” (Isa. 62: 4-5 ESV).
We won’t be forsaken – sinful. We will truly be redeemed.
The blessing brings joy and happiness.
The verse ends with the confirmation that these are truly God’s words.
The angel may have been talking only about the words in Revelation 19. But this proclamation is true for all the words in the Old and New Testaments.
God’s Word is true. It is infallibly inspired.
Making the Connections #1
Spurgeon helped us to put things in a timeline. He says that the marriage feast occurs after the destruction of what he calls the harlot church. He wrote, “Everything which sets up itself in opposition to the sacrifice of Christ is to be hurled down, and made to sink like a millstone in the flood.”
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That makes it appear that the marriage feast will happen after Judgment Day.
That seems logical. Take care of business, then celebrate.
Making the Connections #2
What makes a good marriage? Well, both parties have to love each other. If we don’t love God and Jesus, we won’t get anywhere.
It has to be a union. We have to be in agreement with Jesus, Who is in agreement with God.
In other words, we have to live for God.
Making the Connections #3
Can’t you see Jesus waiting for the marriage supper? As many times as it says watch and wait in God’s Word, we know He is also waiting.
Isn’t that comforting? Jesus wants this day to come as much as we do.
How Do We Apply This?
- Long for God’s nature to increase our love for Him.
- Understand that we will be lacking here in this life – but we won’t be in eternal life.
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Father God. We can’t wait until we sit with You for the marriage supper. We understand that can only happen when the marriage – our conversion and faithfulness – take place in this life. Help us stand firm to watch and wait for this day. Amen.
What do you think?
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