Preparing for the Wedding of Messiah!

By MMin. Ellen M.

A beautiful hymn I have come to love is called "The Sands of Time are Sinking" . The words of this hymn speak of a wedding, a bride and a Groom. Most of us have been to a wedding and inthese days all eyes seem to be on the beautiful bride as she makes her way down that aisle-many times she is in stunning white, with her hair arranged beautifully and flowers in her arms.However in this hymn I refer to the eyes are not on the bride but on the Groom. And her eyes areon HIM also!The bride eyes not her garments but her dear Bridegroom's faceI will not gaze at Glory but on my King of Grace!Not on the crown He giveth, but on His pierced handFor the Lamb is all the glory of Immanuel's land!What a day that will be when Yeshua comes to take us to be with Him forever. Gone will be thedays when we lamented over our sinfulness and the world's hopelessness. There will be nomore opportunities to invite others to be part of this wedding. There will be tears aplenty but HEwill wipe them all from our eyes when He comes in Glory.When I was engaged to my husband we were both living in the Caribbean and as missionariesthere was very little money. I was preparing to be a missionary's wife. And I made my ownwedding gown. I remember cutting it out, with trembling lest I make a mistake. There would beno going back to the US for more fabric! I hand sewed all the lace on the hem, on the sleeves,the bodice and the train. I crocheted tiny loops for the pearly buttons... dozens of them! And Idreamed. At the age of 30 I was all in white because I was a virgin bride and had looked forwardto wearing this floor length train and veil some day!When we are saved we are covered with the righteousness of Messiah. In one sense I seerighteousness in Scripture as something that is imputed to us by G-d Himself. We know thatAvraham believed G-d and it was accounted to him for righteousness. Galatians 3:6 andRomans 4 explain this process. In many places righteousness is also described as armour, suchas in 2 Corinthians 6:7- the armour of righteousness, in Ephesians 6:14- a breastplate of righteousness and in 2 Timothy 4:8- a crown of righteousness. While I don't want to negate thispowerful and wonderful gift of G-d to us for our belief and trust in Him, I don't know too manybrides who get married in armour.An interesting Scripture, then, is in Revelation 19:7 and 8- "Let us be glad and rejoice, and givehonour to him: for the marriage of the Lamb is come, and his wife has made herself ready. Andto her was granted that she should be arrayed in fine linen, clean and white: for the fine linen isthe righteousness of saints." Where does this purity, this whiteness come from? After thebeliever is redeemed by trusting in the salvation of Yeshua, righteousness of Messiah is imputedto him or her. But after this the Bride, the true Church, the redeemed ones, must make herself ready. Philippians 2:12 admonishes us to 'work out our own salvation with fear and trembling."That is, we work out what He has begun in us, by our lives and actions. Ephesians 2:10 saysthat we are HIS workmanship and this is so but we have to work it out ourselves; that is we mustbe obedient to the work of the Ruach HaKodesh (Holy Spirit) in our lives. He has ordained goodworks that "we should walk in them."In the ancient Jewish wedding, to which Yeshua so beautifully refers in John 14, there is first of all a betrothal. This was considered actually a part of being married, not a "test" engagementperiod. The prospective groom came to his intended's house with his father to make theproposal. He brought with him fine wine, goblets, and a contract, or ketubah. They sat down todiscuss the proposal. The bride-price was settled. It is a fascinating study and not one for thisarticle today, except to refer to it briefly. When these things were decided upon, the bride to bewas offered the cup. If she took the cup and drank the wine, she was accepting the proposal