The Beloved Disciple

by Beth Moore

  Guess who else has to sign it? Two witnesses sign with him. They are also obligating themselves. He said, "It's really more than simply standing there as a witness. The witnesses really obligate themselves in some ways to take on responsibility for the marriage." When my Jewish Tend said two witnesses, of course I'm thinking trinity thoughts.

  Arie said, "Then of course the rabbi would also sign." Well, Jesus is the Rabbi, so He is the one making that binding oath that has already been made for us. Arie went on to explain that during the ceremony the groom has to speak aloud to all the listeners his commitment to this woman and how sacred she is to him. The bride holds an important place in the wed­ding ceremony, but in preparation for it, she's got one thing on her mind. She's got to prepare herself for her groom.

  I couldn't help but think to myself of the words in Psalm 45:10: "Listen, 0 daughter, consider and give ear: / Forget your people and your father's house. / The king is enthralled by your beauty; / honor him, for he is your lord."

  Beloved, I want to say to you: "The king is enthralled with you." You see, as we grow in Christ, we become more and more beautiful to the One for whom we are preparing ourselves. Not only that, but the Word of God says in Ephesians 5 that He is presenting us without spot or wrinkle. The bride prepares herself.

  One of the prime priorities of the bride's preparation is this. She pre­pares herself in purity. It is very important that we are growing in purity. We are preparing for that wedding day. I want to tell you, this is great news to me and to all who have a difficult background or track record. Do you know we are being presented to our groom as pure virgins? (2 Cor. 11:2).

  I have to tell you a story I also shared in Breaking Free. As I was prepar­ing for our twentieth wedding anniversary, for the life of me I could not think of what I wanted to get my husband. He's a very sentimental man. You have to get him something sentimental because if he can afford it, he already owns anything he wants. So I just said, "God, you need to tell me what I can get my man. I need a really great idea." And I really prayed and prayed over it.

  God began suggesting something to my heart. He started bringing to my mind the early part of our marriage and the pain of my wedding day. It was an extremely hard day for me. I don't know how to explain it to you. I didn't understand it until many, many years later. I was feeling so much shame on my wedding day because it was a day I was supposed to feel beautiful. And I did not feel beautiful.

  I had even gone to a lot of trouble to make absolutely sure that I had an off-white dress instead of a white dress because I did not want to be a lie. Now some of you are already hurting because you know what I'm talking about. It's a horrible feeling. Nothing about that day seemed beautiful to me.

  When I was a little girl, I had pictured that when I got married I would have a huge wedding portrait, and it would hang over our blazing fireplace. The nearest to a fireplace we had was a heater in the bathroom. And I didn't even have money enough for a photographer. I just spent the bare mini­mum. I didn't even buy my dress; I just rented it. You know, it just was not the kind of day you picture.

  So as I contemplated our twentieth anniversary, the Lord began scratching that a little bit. He said, "You know, Beth," and of course He was speaking to my heart, "you never did get that picture made."

  "What picture?"

  "That wedding portrait."

  "Well, it is a little too late!"

  "Who said?"

  And the Lord put it on my heart that it was time. He said, "My darlin' we have done so much work. And I have restored you. And it is time for you to put on a white wedding gown and get your picture taken for your husband."

  I called a friend of mine who's a makeup artist in Houston, a godly, godly young woman. And I knew she would have a fit. She squealed on the phone and jumped up and down. I said, "You can't tell anyone Shannon. You cannot tell anyone. This is our secret." She said, "I'll set up every­thing." She said, "You show up and I'll have everything ready." And that's exactly what I did. And I'm going to tell you something. She hid me in a room and would not let me see a mirror. She had my dress sparkling white from head to toe. Zipped that thing up nice and tight. Did my makeup. Did my hair. Put on my veil. Then she pulled me out and brought me in front of the mirror. And I nearly died.

  I couldn't even recognize myself The photographer was so tender that his eyes were continually filled with tears. He said, "I've just got to be hon­est with you. I've never taken a picture of a bride this old." He said, "Now, that's not what I mean." He said, "I mean one that's been married for so long." Because this was a forty-one-year-old bride who had been married for twenty years.

  I had it framed in the most ornate gold frame, 20 x 24. Have you got the picture? Had one made for each of my daughters. I wrote the same let­ter to all three of them, explaining what the portrait meant to me.

  The night of our anniversary I had the girls stay with us, and I pre­sented Keith with that picture and then their pictures to them. And they all read their letters at the same time. My husband is a tall man, very hand­some, and he began to weep. He stood up with that picture, and he began walking all over the house, holding it up to places on the wall.

  He would stop at one place and shake his head no, then stop at another and shake his head no. Finally he walked right over to a particular part of the wall. The girls and I went, "uhh," and caught our breath because we knew what he was looking at. He set the picture down. He took a deep breath to gather the courage, and then he pulled his trophy deer off the wall.

  As I live and breathe, he had tears streaming down his cheeks, and I thought, "He's crying over the deer." He hung that picture up right there, and it still hangs there today. He stepped back, and he said, "That is the tro­phy of my life." That is a restored bride. And that is what every single one of us can be, fully restored, fully prepared. Are we going to believe God or not? I chose to believe Him because I was going to self-destruct if I did not.

  Another part of the Jewish bride's preparation in purity involved a spe­cial bath of clean water and fragrant oil. Arie tells me that it's called the mikveh, the ritual bath. I was reading him all my notes, and he said, "Actually, Beth, it's not just clean water. It's living water." I went, "Ah-ha! Do tell."

  I also found out that the bride chose fine jewelry to wear on her wed­ding day. It was a very important part of the process. The Dictionary of Biblical Imagery says, "A bride's jewelry represents her readiness for the groom. And often this jewelry was given by the groom and his family."

  I want you to see the scriptural references so that you know we're not just making this up out of customs. Their ancient customs came from the Word. Jeremiah 2:32 says, "Does a maiden forget her jewelry, / a bride her wedding ornaments?" You see, it's telling us she wore her best jewelry as part of her wedding attire.

  I want to suggest what that jewelry may represent in the fulfillment of our particular new covenant. The apostle Paul wrote about the judgment seat of Christ. You and I are not going to have any kind of condemnation at our judgment. We will not stand at the great white throne pictured in Revelation. Believers will stand at the judgment seat of Christ where we will either receive reward or loss of reward. But there will be no condem­nation. Nobody showing a videotape of your worst moments. That's not going to happen.

  I want you to hear something from 1 Corinthians 3:12-16: "If any man builds on this foundation"-talking about the foundation of Jesus Christ "using gold, silver, costly stones, wood, hay, or straw, his work will be shown for what it is, because the Day will bring it to light. It will be revealed with fire, and the fire will test the quality of each man's work. If what he has built survives, he will receive his reward. If it is burned up, he will suffer loss; he himself will be saved, but only as one escaping through the flames."

  In other words, we'll stand before the judgment seat of Christ. And everything that we did in this lifetime that was building on the foundation of Jesus Christ-out of pure motive, out of attitude to glorify Him and not se
lf-will become as gold, silver, and costly stones. The rest of the things that we do-all the effort, all the energy that we might pour out, that does not build on the foundation of Christ-will just burn up like wood, hay, and stubble.

  So, when judgment comes after that fire of judgment has come, not to burn us up, but to decide which works stand the test of judgment, what will be left? The gold, the silver, and the precious stones. Now I believe those are the jewels that we will be wearing when we come to our wedding.

  So we've seen the various parts of the preparation for the Jewish wed­ding. Now we turn to the ceremony itself. During the ceremony held under the wedding canopy, or huppah, the Jewish bride traditionally circled the groom, which according to some traditionalists, originated with Jeremiah 31:22: "A woman will surround a man."

  When I asked Arie about this, he said, "You may not like this one."

  I responded, "Well, try me on it."

  He explained, "Well, there are differing views about it, but the chau­vinist view is that she is circling around him because she will be serving him."

  I said, "In other words, she'll be running circles around him."

  He smiled, "Now I didn't say that; you said that."

  But I said, "You know, Arie, really that won't matter to us." Because in Revelation 7 it said that we will serve Him before His throne, day and night. In serving Christ we have dignity. He gives us joy, energized by the Holy Spirit. That'll be fine with me.

  Seven blessings were pronounced during the ceremony. That may be a little bit familiar to you. Now these seven blessings, I learned from Arie, would come from the dignitaries at the wedding. Usually the rabbi would begin it. And then maybe a father-in-law, maybe an uncle, maybe an older brother. But there would be seven blessings spoken. Now the seventh bless­ing is always the blessing over Jerusalem. I found this to be very intriguing. It's always. about Jerusalem. The blessing would go something like this: "Bless You, Lord, the Builder of Jerusalem, who will rebuild the temple one day.

  Then what do you suppose they do? What is the part you and I prob­ably know the best? They break the glass. Now he said, "There are some who think that the broken glass just begins the great ceremony, but that is not what it's about." He said, "The breaking of the glass is to bring them to a very sober time of thinking that in the midst of great celebration we must remember"-and I'm quoting his exact words-"that our joy is incomplete."

  I said, "OK, Arie. What makes our joy incomplete?" (Remember all the times that Christ said, "Make My joy complete"?) "What makes our joy incomplete, Arie?"

  He said, "Two things. The first thing is that we have loved ones miss­ing from the wedding that have already died. The second one is because there is no temple for now in Jerusalem."

  For us as New Testament believers, both of those things have been sat­isfied. Regarding our loved ones: those in Christ will be present at the wed­ding supper of the Lamb.

  In reference to the temple we read in Revelation 21:1-3, "Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea. I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, `Now the dwelling of God is with men, and he will live with them."' Verse 22-23 of the same chapter says, "I did not see a temple in the city, because the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple. The city does not need the sun or the moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light."

  Is that enormous? Do you understand that our joy gets to be complete? Our loved ones will be present, and God and Christ are the temple.

  This joy is pictured in the Jewish wedding. Although deep repentance and personal cleansing took place in preparation, the actual wedding day was marked by great gladness of heart. In fact, no mourning was allowed. If you were in mourning, you just couldn't come to a wedding.

  Revelation 19:7 says, "Let us rejoice and be glad / and give him glory! / For the wedding of the Lamb has come." Let us rejoice! Rejoice means about what you think it does. But glad takes it a step further. It is the word, agalliao, in the original Greek language, which means "to exult." Rejoice with exuberance. Often to leap for joy. Show one's joy by leaping, skipping, or dancing. Denoting excessive joy.

  Do you just love that idea? Excessive or ecstatic joy and delight. This is going to be some kind of wedding. We're talking leaping, skipping, exu­berant joy, dancing.

  I want you to also picture with me the chairs lifted up. Because that's also a picture we might have of a Jewish wedding. The Lord brought two verses to my mind. Ephesians 1:20: God has raised Christ "from the dead and seated"-there's our key word-"him at his right hand in the heavenly realms, far above all rule and authority, power and dominion." Then guess what Ephesians 2:6 says? "And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms." I want to tell you, if that's not two chairs lifted up, I don't know what it is!

  We've seen so much in Scripture about the wedding, but I want you to see Isaiah 62:5. It says, "As a bridegroom rejoices over his bride, / so will your God rejoice over you." Do you understand that your God is going to rejoice over you, and your King is going to be enthralled by your beauty? Isaiah described the event:

  On this mountain the LORD Almighty will prepare

  a feast of rich food for all peoples,

  a banquet of aged wine-­

  the best of meats and the finest of wines.

  On this mountain he will destroy

  the shroud that enfolds all peoples,

  the sheet that covers all nations;

  he will swallow up death forever.

  The Sovereign LORD will wipe away the tears

  from all faces;

  he will remove the disgrace of his people

  from all the earth.

  The LORD has spoken.

  In that day they will say,

  "Surely this is our God;

  we trusted in him, and he saved us.

  This is the LORD, we trusted in him;

  let us rejoice and be glad in his salvation." (Isa. 25:6-9)

  Do you see what those verses say? After all that's been so challenging and so difficult for us on this earth, do you realize that when everything is said and done, all that will matter is that we trusted in Him? That we'd be able to say, when we see Him face-to-face, "There is my God, and I trusted in Him."

  I want to conclude our chapter with another creative writing, just to get your mind going. When I first wrote this a couple of years ago, I really thought I understood from Revelation 19 that the wedding supper would precede Jesus' second coming. But now that I look at the text, I'm not sure of that. It could be that it comes after the second coming. I don't know for sure, but I wrote this with the first understanding. But it's just a fictional writing anyway. And I pray that it blesses you as we try to picture it to the best of our imagination.

  Never in the history of heaven or earth had there been such festivities. Unimaginable flowers of textures and colors no human eye has ever seen crowned each table. The smell of food permeated the banquet hall. Bread of heaven, freshly baked. Ladles of honey, creamery butter. Fruits and vegetables unique to the menus of heaven. Goblets of silver and gold filled with the fruit of the vine. The Groom had not lifted His cup since He gathered with His beloved twelve in the upper room. A dozen-less-one who had gathered around His table that fateful night had, brief centuries later, turned into ten thousand upon ten thousand.

  John the Baptizer stood to his feet as the friend of the bride­groom, and offered the toast: "To the Lamb of God, who took away the sins of the world, and to His beautiful virgin bride."

  "Hallelujah, our Lord reigns!" the crowd responded, as all held up the cup of gathering and drank. Laugher and joyous fellowship filled the hall, new saints celebrated with the old. Peter and John, inseparable as usual, laughed with Spurgeon, Tozer, and Chambers. Paul sat back and smiled like a father as Timothy capti
vated all of his table with the old, old stories. Corrie was there. Close by were those who had met the Savior in her prison camp. They were now covered with garments of salvation and ate to their fill. Amy Carmichael broke bread and passed generous portions around her table as beautiful brown, Indian hands reached out to receive. Zacchaeus, who had only seen slices of life from the branch of a tree, asked endless questions of a man named Graham, who had traveled the seven seas.

  Instruments played the songs of the ages with glorious fanfare. Many danced with tambourines. Voices sang in seven-part har­mony. The Groom sat at the head of the table captivated by His bride. To everyone He talked, He touched and gave them His utmost attention. Intently listening to a story passionately told, His concentration was broken by the overwhelming sense that His Father's eyes were on Him. He squeezed the hand of the one tes­tifying as if to explain His change in focus. Then He turned His face toward His Father's throne. No words were necessary. He knew what His expression meant. The Groom nodded and gazed upon His bride.

  The sound of His chair sliding back on the floor silenced every voice in heaven. The angels froze. The guests shuddered. The bride's eyes grew wide. Nobody moved but the Groom. He rose to His feet. As if suddenly awakened from a trance, an order of angels disappeared from sight, returning seconds later with countless crowns. No one moved, yet all could see. The royal vestiges were visible from every angle of the hall. Yet when the order of angels had placed the final crown upon His head, they stepped back while saints caught their breath. Though the crowns were many, they wrapped around His head as one diadem. All dominion belonged unto the Lamb upon His throne.