The title chosen for this article
is significant.
The Lord Jesus Christ, who is the
Bridegroom, is now making ready a Bride to
be received of Him when He comes (see Matt.
25:10, Rev. 19:7, Acts 15:14). But HOW is He
making ready this Bride? To say that He is
doing so by His Word and Spirit does not
fully answer the question. Behold the
pattern! Jesus came in the flesh some 1900
years ago, and at that time was to be
presented to fleshly Israel as the
Bridegroom. Israel was the Bride who was to
be made ready for her Husband, Jehovah God.
The "marriage covenant" had come into being
many years previous at Mt. Sinai; but since
God was Spirit and not flesh, it was
impossible for Him to factually dwell with
Israel in person, fully consummating the
"marriage" relationship. For this purpose
the invisible God had to incarnate Himself
in a "garment" of flesh, so that He could be
joined to a people of flesh.
We see this prophetically declared
in Isa. 61:10, where the promised Messiah
declares: "I will greatly rejoice in the
Lord, my soul shall be joyful in my God; for
He has clothed me with the GARMENTS
of salvation (His physical body which would
be given for our salvation), he has
covered me with the ROBE of righteousness
(the sinless righteousness of His inner or
soul garment), AS A BRIDEGROOM decks
himself with ornaments" (the literal Hebrew
says "decks as a priest," for He was
clothed with human flesh to fulfill the
ministry of the High Priest). That the Bride
was also to be made ready at that time is
indicated by the concluding words of verse
10: "and as a BRIDE adorns herself
with her JEWELS" (noble character traits
acceptable to her Bridegroom).
Natural Israel, however, was not
willing to be made ready at the time of the
Lord's coming in human flesh. She refused
to receive her Bridegroom, choosing rather
to continue her illicit affair with Rome,
who was living with her at that time. Jesus
symbolically alluded to this fact in His
discussion with the woman of Samaria at
Jacob's well (John 4:16-18). The woman
represented God's covenant people at that
time, Jacob-Israel. "Jesus said to
her, go, call your husband, and come
here. The woman answered and said, ‘I
have no husband.’ Jesus said to
her, you have well said, I
have no husband: for you have
had five husbands; and he whom you
now have is not your
husband." In the Greek language the word for
husband and man is the same.
Only the context can determine which
wording should be used. Jesus was not
saying she had been married to five
different husbands, but rather that she had
lived with five different men, and
the man now living with her was not
her man (husband). God had repeatedly
accused Israel of being unfaithful to Him
and having "affairs" with other nations and
their idol-gods, and such involvement
resulted in her captivity to those
nations, with whom she had to live
(see Ezek. 16:26, 28, 32; 23:5, 9, 14-17,
22-23, 30). Thus the five "men" which Jesus
accused Israel of "having" were Egypt,
Assyria, Babylon, Medo-Persia, and Greece,
and "the man" who was living with her at the
time of Jesus' ministry was Rome.
Israel's determination to "have"
Rome, instead of her true Bridegroom, Jesus
Christ, was expressed by the words of the
chief priests before Pilate: 'We have no
king but Caesar." Of Jesus
they said, "We will not have this
man to reign over us." (see John
19:15, Luke 19:14}. Therefore was Jesus
crucified. God's purpose, however, cannot be
thwarted. The occasion of the death of the
rejected Bridegroom was used to redeem all
of sinful humanity, and to put into force a
NEW marriage covenant (eliminating the one
made at Sinai), and this with a NEW
SPIRITUAL ISRAEL. Since the earthly Israel
Bride was not ready to receive her
Bridegroom, the marriage could not be consummated
at Jesus' first coming; therefore AN
EXTENDED PERIOD OF TIME was made necessary,
that from the new spiritual Israel of the
Gentiles, the Glorified Christ might "take
out of them a people for His name" (Acts
15:14). And as a Bride takes her husband's
name, so will a "new Israel Bride" out of
the "children of promise" (Rom.
4:13-16, 9:6-8, Gal. 3:16-22,29, 4:22-31) be
made ready to receive the Lord Jesus
at His coming AGAIN.
The consummation of the marriage
will be made possible, not by the Bridegroom
"lowering" Himself to the plane of human
flesh through incarnation as He did previously,
but by the process of "raising" the
physical bodies of the Bride company to the
plane of GLORIFIED LIFE, that the Bride
might DWELL with her Husband in bodies like
to His own glorious body (see Phil.
3:20-21). Jesus referred to this "raising
up" (through translation and glorification)
in John 6:39-40, 44; but His words can ALSO
apply to the LATER "raising up" through
resurrection of the dead bodies of the
saints. (NOTE: since we are dealing only
with that select group which will make up
the Bride in this article, we will not go
into the details of the resurrection of the
"dead in Christ" and the translation of the
living saints who will be "CALLED" to the
marriage supper at the close of the
tribulation (Rev. 19:9). They will also be
"raised up" to the plane of glorified life
as a part of the "Bridal retinue", both as
"maidens in waiting" to the Bride,
and as a part of the "government" of the
Great King.)
[John the Baptist: The
Role of the Friend of the Bridegroom]
With the foregoing factors in mind,
let us now get to the key point of the
pattern as it was portrayed in the life of
John the Baptist. John was a special
ministry raised up by God with a special
message to fulfill the role of the "friend
of the Bridegroom." In Bible times, when a
man desired the hand of a certain maiden in
marriage, he selected a close and trusted
friend as a "go-between." When consent was
secured from the maiden and her parents,
this friend continued to act on the behalf
of the Bridegroom throughout the period of
formal arrangements, the vows of espousal
and the marriage. When finally the
Bridegroom had "taken" His Bride and
escorted her to his home (or the home of his
father) for the marriage festival and the
marriage consummation, then was the joy of
the friend of the Bridegroom fulfilled
(John 3:29).
John the Baptist appeared on the
scene shortly before Jesus began His
ministry. John's ministry was to "turn the
hearts of the fathers to the children, and
the disobedient to the wisdom of the just;
TO MAKE READY A PEOPLE PREPARED FOR THE
LORD." (Luke 1:17). He was to "prepare the
way" (Matt. 3:3) for the Lord to be fully
united in marriage to His select Bride.
Since natural Israel rejected her
Bridegroom, the TRANSFERENCE took place as
previously explained, and a new covenant was
instituted (Matt. 21:43, 26:28). Now the
close of another era is near, and before
long the Bridegroom will come again to claim
His spiritual Bride; this time to be
received by her with joy. Should we not then
see the pattern fulfilled in our day
that special ministries with a special
message be raised up by God to fulfill the
role of the "friend of the Bridegroom?" John
the Baptist was not of the ordinary
priesthood of his day. Even so has the Lord
raised up special messengers in our day who
are not of the
ordinary "priesthood" of the organized
church world. They have been prepared, as
was John, in a special "wilderness "of
testing and proving. And they have a special
commission to be as the "friend of the
Bridegroom, which stands and HEARS
him; rejoicing greatly because of the
Bridegroom's VOICE." (John 3:29).
We read that "the WORD OF GOD came
to John the son of Zacharias in the
WILDERNESS." (Luke 3:2). He was "set apart"
from traditional religion, so that he might
receive a fresh revelation of the Lord's
purpose. Even so in our day, it is taking a
special ministry and message to prepare the
Bride, for the Bride will be received of the
Lord FIRST, when He comes at the midnight
hour (Matt. 25:6, 10). The Bride is not the
whole church, but a SELECT GROUP out of the
church, pictured by the "manchild"
(indicating SPIRIT preparedness) of Rev.
12:5, and the 144,000 firstfruits (the FIRST
(unveiled to be ready) of Rev. 14:1. The
Bride company will be THE FIRST OF THE SONS
OF GOD TO BE TRANSLATED INTO GLORIFIED LIFE
without the experience of death. Shortly
after they receive their glorified bodies,
they will be MANIFESTED or revealed, see
Rom. 8:19) by APPEARING (as Jesus did after
He was glorified—see Luke 24:13-43) to
multiplied thousands of Christians on the
earth.
[Martha & Mary: The
Bride and Those Who Remain]
The truth of the above is
beautifully portrayed in symbolic drama in
the 11th chapter of John. Martha (who
typifies the BRIDE of Christ) "as soon as
she heard that Jesus was COMING, WENT and
MET him" (John 11:20), while Mary REMAINED
where she was. Mary represents the
Christians who will be left behind when the
Bride is taken. But notice the words in John
11:28. After Martha had met the Lord outside
the city (symbolic of meeting the Lord
"in the air"), she RETURNED, "and called
Mary her sister secretly, saying, "The
Master is come, and calls for you."
Such will be the "messenger service" of the
glorified sons of the Bride company to the
church that remains on earth during the
tribulation period. They will thus "feed the
church in the wilderness" (Rev. 12:6). Since
Martha went back and spoke to Mary SECRETLY,
it shows that the ministry of the Bride
company will be to Christians only—and not
to the people of the world. However, because
of their "manifestation," by which they
shall nourish, uphold, protect and guide the
remaining church in its ministry to the
world, these glorified sons will certainly
be the means by which multitudes shall be
"delivered from the bondage of corruption
into the glorious liberty of the children of
God." (Rom. 8:21).
In light of the symbolism of Martha
and Mary in John chapter 11, I would like
to make a few remarks on Luke 10:38-42. We
have always been told that this passage
shows that Mary was the spiritual one and
Martha was not. Nothing could be further
from the truth. It was Martha who received
Jesus (and His disciples) into HER HOUSE
(Luke 10:38), symbolic of the church, which
is the household of God (Ephes. 2:19).
Martha was evidently the older of the two
and head of the house, thus being SYMBOLIC
of those Christians who are more MATURE in
the faith. The name "Martha" means SOBRIETY
(that of a deep and serious nature). It is
sometimes translated as "lady." The way that
Martha addressed Jesus in Luke 10:40, shows
that she KNEW Him well and evidently had
been His follower for some time. Her
implicit faith is seen in John 11:27.
When Jesus and His hungry disciples
were received into Martha's house, it was
her responsibility to prepare for their
needs and to "serve" them. She would have
been grossly negligent if she had done
otherwise. She was doing what she was
supposed to, in order to fulfill the
symbolism of those who are mature enough in
their Christian faith and experience to be
"up serving" the Master. Martha was rebuked
by Jesus, not because of her "serving," but
because she was fretful about her need of
help and because she was critical of Mary.
Jesus made it clear that Mary had a need,
and had chosen that which would not be taken
from her (Luke 10:42). The name "Mary" means
BITTERNESS or SORROW, and in the symbolic
picture she represents the repentant soul
whose need of salvation has led her (or him)
to the "feet of Jesus" to receive that which
will "not be taken away." This can only be a
reference to the "born again" experience and
the GIFT of eternal life (Rom. 6:23) which
is not to be repented of (Rom. 11:29), or
taken back by God. Thus the symbolic picture
here fits that which is portrayed in John
11, showing Martha as the "elect lady."