The Jewish Wedding Custom Jesus our Bridegroom
The bible is a story on how Jesus found his true love and the price he was willing to pay for her. The ancient Jewish wedding is a picture of Jesus and his bride, who is the Church. I will go through the ancient Jewish marital custom first and then show you how it relates to Jesus and the Church. I will also show the connection between the rapture and our wedding to Jesus.
Matthew 22:2, The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who gave a wedding feast for his son. God will give a wedding feast for Jesus and his bride after the tribulation is over.
Becoming One
The bible says that when a man and woman marry they become one. It also says that when you believe in Jesus you become one with him.
Ephesians 5:31-32,“For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh.” This is a profound mystery but I am talking about Christ and the church.
When you trust in Jesus, you become one with him in spirit and body.
1 Corinthians 6:17, He who is joined to the Lord becomes one spirit with him.
Romans 12:5, So we, though many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another.
The Wedding Party
In the wedding party we have the Groom, the Bride and attendants. The wedding is a celebration of two lives uniting. The church is the bride and Jesus is the groom.
Isaiah 62:5, As a young man marries a young woman, so will your Builder marry you; as a bridegroom rejoices over his bride, so will your God rejoice over you.
The Ancient Jewish Wedding
In the marital custom the groom goes to the home of the one he wants to marry.
The Ketubah – Covenant
A covenant is a binding agreement. The groom offers a marriage covenant called a Ketubah. A Ketubah was done to protect the bride. The groom pays a price to the bride and her parents for the marriage. This ensures that he won’t take it lightly and run off leaving her divorced. Within the Ketubah it lists the price for the bride, the gifts he was willing to give her and what he is willing to provide for his wife during their marriage.
The Agreement
If the Ketubah is agreed upon by both parties the bride and groom each takes a drink of wine from the same cup to confirm they agree to the contract. They will drink from the same wine cup again at the wedding ceremony. They have entered a legal contract and are now betrothed in marriage. If they want to separate even though the marriage ceremony and the wedding night has not occurred they will need a divorce. We can see an example of this in Matthew 1:19. Joseph was betrothed to Mary, but they did not yet have their wedding ceremony or consummated their marriage. Matthew said Joseph thought about divorcing Mary when he found out she was pregnant.
The Groom’s Preparations
Once they are betrothed, the groom will then leave the home of the bride. He will go to his Father’s house and prepare a place for them called a wedding chamber. This was usually an attachment to the father's home. When it was finished, the Father would inspect the property to make sure it is good and then give his final ok to the son. He would then say, it is ready you may get your bride.
The Bride’s Preparations
While the groom is preparing a place for them the bride needs to make and prepare her wedding garment. She also needs to make sure she had enough oil for her lamp to take with her on the wedding night.
The Mikveh - Baptism
Before the wedding the bride and groom need to participate in a cleansing ceremony called the Mikveh. It is an immersion in a pool of water to become ritually clean.
The Return of the Groom for His Bride
The bride would know the approximate time of her grooms coming, but would not know the day nor the hour of his return. Once the groom gets the final ok from the father, he will gather his attendants. The attendants would run ahead to the bride’s home blowing trumpets and shouting the Bridegroom cometh. It was tradition that the groom would usually come in the middle of the night. When the groom would come there was no more time to get ready. The bride needed to be fully prepared for when he arrived.
Groom Carries Her Away to His Home
When the groom arrives, the bride would be lifted up and carried back to his father’s home. In the modern Jewish wedding, we still see the bride being lifted up in a chair by the groomsmen.
The Bridal Week
After the ceremony the bride and groom are hidden away for 7 days to consummate their union. This is called the bridal week.
The Wedding Supper
After the 7 days were up there was a big wedding feast.
Adoption
When you marry, you become a-part of a new family and you will call your in-laws Mom and Dad. You receive everything your spouse has including any inheritance that was passed down.
New Name
When a girl marries, she will take and use the name of her husband.
The Wedding of the Lamb
Now let me show you how the bible relates this custom to Jesus our bridegroom.
The Ketubah – Covenant
Jesus came from his home in heaven to our home on earth to find his bride. He paid a very high price for his bride on the cross. 1 Corinthians 6:20, for you were bought with a price. The Holy Spirit was the deposit for the bride. Ephesians 1:13-14, When you believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God’s possession.
The gifts usually listed in the Ketubah can be found in our covenant agreement called the Bible. Acts 2:38, calls the Holy Spirit a gift and 1 Corinthians 12:4 says there are a variety of gifts through the Holy Spirit.
The bible states what the groom is willing to provide for her. Philippians 4:19, And my God will supply all your needs according to His riches in Glory in Christ Jesus.
The Agreement
At the last supper Jesus spoke of his covenant with us. Jesus takes a drink of wine and passes it around the table and offers it to us. When we take communion, we are agreeing to the covenant and our betrothal to Jesus. 1 Corinthians 11:25, This cup is the new covenant in my blood.
Matthew 26:29, I tell you, I will not drink from this fruit of the vine from now on until that day when I drink it new with you in my Father's kingdom. At the wedding feast the bride and groom will once again drink from the same cup.
The Groom’s Preparations
The groom will go back to his Father’s house and prepare a place for them. Jesus tells us what he is going to do when he goes back to his Father's home. John 14:2-3, My Father’s house has many rooms; if that were not so, would I have told you that I am going there to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am.
The Bride’s Preparations
Her Garment
The bride who is the church will need to prepare her wedding garment while she waits for Jesus our groom to return. We are told what to put on and what the wedding garment is made out of.
Revelation 3:5, He who overcomes shall be clothed in white garments.
Galatians 3:27, says to put on Christ
Colossians 3:12-14, says to put on compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, patience, forgiveness but most importantly put on Love.
Revelation 19:7-8, The marriage of the Lamb has come, and His wife has made herself ready.” And to her it was granted to be arrayed in fine linen, clean and bright, for the fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints.
The wedding attire is important. Matthew 22, in the parable of the Banquet we see a man getting kicked out of the wedding because he did not have on the proper wedding clothes.
The Oil
The bride will need to make sure she has enough oil in her lamp for the trip to the groom’s home. We can see an example of this in the parable of the 10 virgins in Matthew 25. Half of the virgins in this parable were not able to make it to the wedding because they did not have enough oil in their lamps. Lamps and oil are both symbols of the Holy Spirit in the Bible.
Those who did not have on proper wedding attire and those who did not have enough oil were left out of the wedding. Ecclesiastes 9:8, Let your garments be always white. Let not oil be lacking on your head.
Lamps are a symbol of the Holy Spirit in Revelation 4:5. Oil is also a symbol of the Holy Spirit. They are used together throughout the Bible. When you lay hands on the sick, you anoint them with oil but it is the Holy Spirit that heals. When David was set apart as king, he was anointed with oil and the Holy Spirit came upon him. 1 Samuel 10:1-9.
The Mikveh - Baptism
When we say yes to Jesus, he then asks that we participate in the Mikveh. This is a full emersion in water, called baptism. We are baptized with water and the spirit.
Acts 2:38, And Peter said to them, “Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.
Acts 1:4-5, Wait for the gift the Father promised, which you have heard Me discuss. For John baptized with water, but in a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.”
The Return of the Groom for His Bride (The Rapture)
Symbolic of the Jewish wedding custom in Matthew 24 Jesus says to us that we will not know what day and hour the groom will come but we will know when the time is near.
The groom usually comes in the middle of the night when it is dark out.
Matthew 25:6, "At midnight the cry rang out: 'Here's the bridegroom! Come out to meet him!'
The groom’s friend is John the Baptist. He was not a-part of the bride since he died before Jesus. He is part of the old testament saints and refers to himself as the friend of the groom.
John the Baptist is speaking, in John 3:29, The bride belongs to the bridegroom. The friend who attends the bridegroom waits and listens for him, and is full of joy when he hears the bridegroom's voice. That joy is mine.
The groom’s return is announced with shouts and trumpets. This is the rapture of the Church.
1 Thessalonians 4:16-18, For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord. Therefore encourage one another with these words.
Groom carries his bride away to his home
The bride is then lifted up and carried to her groom and together they go to his father's house where she will live in her new home.
1 Thessalonians 4:17, Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord.
The Bridal Week
After the ceremony the bride and groom spend a week together in the wedding chamber. This is the place Jesus has prepared for us. The bridal week would be the 70th and final week of years Daniel spoke about in Daniel chapter 9. The church is hidden in the wedding chamber during the 7 year tribulation.
Isaiah 26:20, Come, my people, enter your chambers, And shut your doors behind you; Hide yourself, as it were, for a little moment, until the indignation is past.
The Wedding Supper
After the bridal week is over both the bride and groom emerge from their wedding chamber and have a big wedding feast. When the tribulation is over the Lord will separate the sheep from the goats. All the sheep, which are those that came to know Jesus during the tribulation will be invited to the marriage supper for a big celebration.
Revelation 19:9, Blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb.
Adoption
When you marry someone, their Dad becomes your Dad. It is through our relationship with Jesus that his Father adopts us as his very own.
Romans 8:15, you received the Spirit of adoption by whom we cry out, “Abba, Father.”
Ephesians 1:5, He predestined us for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will.
Marrying Jesus will also make us heirs to everything he has.
Romans 8:17, Now if we are children, then we are heirs, heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory.
New Name
As Jesus’ bride we take on his name. Jesus has given us authority to use his name. We can think of it like power of attorney. We can legally do things in his name when we belong to him.
Revelation 22:4, They will see His face, and His name will be on their foreheads.
Luke 10:17, The seventy-two rerturned with joy, saying, "Lord, even the demons are subject to us in your name!"
Mark 16:17-18, And these signs will accompany those who believe: in my name they will cast out demons; they will speak in new tongues; they will pick up serpents with their hands; and if they drink any deadly poison, it will not hurt them; they will lay their hands on the sick, and they will recover.” See also Luke 9:1 Luke 10:19
Jesus has all authority (Matthew 28:18) and he has given us the keys to his house with authority to run the household.
Matthew 16:19, I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven."
Acts 4:12, And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.
When we choose to marry the King of Kings we will be a-part of the biggest and grandest wedding ever. My prayer is that you may you come to know and love Jesus, so this wonderful wedding celebration will be yours.
If you want more information about this topic, I would recommend highly the movie Before The Wrath. It goes through the Jewish wedding custom and relates the marriage to the rapture of the church. Before The Wrath If the link doesn't work the movie can be found on Vimeo.
The spacing is messed up in some areas but it looks correct in the edit mode. Sorry, about that!
