All Doves:

Last time I focused on the Bridegroom's Departure.  I incorrectly noted it as #11, when it should have been #12.  If you print these out or save them, note the correction.

In this post on "The Biblical Theme of The Bride" we will be focusing on the preparation of the Bride.  While the Bridegroom went to prepare a place for his new Bride, the Bride was consecrated, set apart, and kept herself ready for the Bridegroom's return.  During this period the Bride wore a veil as a means of indicating to others in her community she was betrothed.

If the Bride left the house while she was consecrated or betrothed, she would wear a veil so others would know she was betrothed.  Rebekah wore a veil, and covered herself where she first came into the presence of Isaac.  Our sins need to be "covered" by Jesus in order to stand in the presence of God.

Middle Eastern culture goes to great length to impose covering of the female in public.  The idea of the veil today is often replaced with the future bride wearing an engagement ring.

Genesis 24:64  - "And Rebekah lifted up her eyes, and when she saw Isaac, she lighted off the camel."

Genesis 24:65  - "For she had said unto the servant, What man is this that walketh in the field to meet us? And the servant had said, It is my master: therefore she took a vail, and covered herself."

Genesis 24:66  - "And the servant told Isaac all things that he had done."

Genesis 24:67  - "And Isaac brought her into his mother Sarah's tent, and took Rebekah, and she became his wife; and he loved her: and Isaac was comforted after his mother's death."

The veil for Christians is Jesus Christ Himself.

Hebrews 10:20  - "By a new and living way, which he hath consecrated for us, through the veil, that is to say, his flesh;"

Being "consecrated through the veil" of the flesh of Jesus Christ, is like being covered with His blood.

1 John 1:7  - "But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin."

Revelation 1:5  - "And from Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness, and the first begotten of the dead, and the prince of the kins of the earth.  Unto him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood."

Being covered by the blood of Jesus is also referred to in Scripture as the wearing of a wedding garment - which contains the veil."

Isaiah 1:18  - "Come now, and let us reason together, saith the LORD: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool."

Matthew 22:11  - "But when the king came in to look at the guests, he saw there a man who had no wedding garment;"

Matthew 22:12  - "And he said to him, 'Friend, how did you get in here without a wedding garment"  And he was speechless."

Matthew 22:13  - "Then the king said to the attendants, 'Bind him hand and foot, and cast him into the outer darkness, there men will weep and gnash heir teeth."

Matthew 22:14  - "For many are called, but few are chosen."

Revelation 7:14  - "And I said unto him, Sir, thou knowest.  And he said to me, These are they which came out of the great tribulation and have washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb."

Revelation 19:7  - "Let us be glad and rejoice, and give honour to him: for the marriage of the Lamb is come, and his wife hath made herself ready."

Revelation 19:8  - "And to her was granted that she should be arrayed in fine linen, clean and white: for the fine linen is the righteousness of saints."

The "righteousness of saints" is none other than our faith and belief in Christ Jesus.

Romans 3:22  - "Even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe: for there is no difference:"

Philippians 3:9  - "And be found in him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith:"

Romans 10:6  - "But the righteousness which is of faith speaketh on the wise, Say not in thine heart, Who shall ascend into heaven?  (That is, to bring Christ down from above.)

A veil also covered the "Holy of Holies" in the physical Temple in Jerusalem, which was destroyed when Jesus was killed.

Exodus 26:33  - "And thou shalt hang up the vail under the taches, that thou mayest bring in thither within the vail the ark of the testimony: and the vail shall divide unto you between the holy place and the most holy."

Mark 15:38  - "And the veil of the temple was rent in twain from the top to the bottom."

Moses wore a vail.  That Jesus Christ becomes our veil is repeated.

2nd Corinthians 3:13  - "And not as Moses, which put a vail over his face, that the children of Israel could not stedfastly look to the end of that which is abolished:"

2nd Corinthians 3:14  - "But their minds were blinded: for until this day remaineth the same vail untaken away in the reading of the Old Testament; which vail is done away in Christ."

2nd Corinthians 3:15  - "But even unto this day, when Moses is read, the vail is upon their heart."

2nd Corinthians 3:16  - "Nevertheless when it shall turn unto the Lord, the vail shall be taken away."

2nd Corinthians 3:17  - "Now the Lord is that Spirit: and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty."

2nd Corinthians 3:18  - "But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord."

Noah's ark, is another picture of the temple and heaven, was also covered, not with a veil, but with pitch.  The ark of the flood is also "typology" of the Pre-Tribulation Rapture.  Noah and his family were taken out before the flood event to destroy life as it was known.  I have noted in a previous post that the "Theme of Deliverance" is found in Scripture nearly two hundred times.

Genesis 6:14  - "Make thee an ark of gopher wood; rooms shalt thou make in the ark, and shalt pitch it within and without with pitch."

The meaning of both Hebrew words for pitch contain many suggestions of Jesus Christ' sacrificial deth, which covers our sins, and was the ransom sacrifice that cleanses us. 

["kaphar"] = atonement, purge, reconciliation, reconcile, forgive, purge away, pacify, merciful, cleansed, disannulled, appease, put off, pardon, pitch, to cover, make an atonement, make reconciliation, cover-over with pitch, to coat or cover with pitch, pacify, propitiation, to be covered over, make atonement for, to be covered, are just some of the definitions for the word "pitch".

["kepher"] = ransom, satisfaction, bribe, camphire, pitch, sum of money, village, price of life, ransom, bribe, asphalt, pitch (as a covering), the henna plant, name of a plant henna, village are definitions of the second of the two words used for "pitch". 

The Bride of Christ is the Temple of God today, not just the physical temple, or the ark.  Confusion over this point comes from an incorrect Biblical Hermeneutic wherein the Scriptures are "spiritualized" or understood as "allegorical".  Those missing the point of Dispensationalism tend to reject the fact that the Bible speaks to a rebuilding of both a third temple (the Antichrist temple) and later a fourth temple (God's Temple). 

1 Corinthians 6:19  -  "What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own.?"

Romans 12:1  - "I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service."

From my study, and those of others, we believe at the Rapture, the Sun will be darkened.  It is interesting at one of the mentions of the "veil" in Scripture to read:

Luke 23:45  - "And the sun was darkened, and the veil of the temple was rent in the midst."

When is the veil removed in the marriage ceremony?  Right as they become man and wife, and joined with a kiss.

As Christ Jesus is our covering, our vail, the veil of the Temple was rent in the midest as Jesus Christ gave up His Spirit at death.  Hebrews speaks in detail of the meaning of the vail being rent, in that now we need not a high priest to go behind the veil for us, but that Christ has become our high priest.

The word "consecrated" in Scripture is used 14 [7 x 2] times in the KJV Bible.  Consecration appears to mean to be set apart and made holy for the use of the Lord only.  Most times, the word for "consecrated" is "mawlay" (13 times).  Only once, the word for "consecrated" is "qodesh" which is usually translated as "holy" and also carries the meaning of being "set apart".

Joshua 6:19  - "But all the silver, and gold, and vessels of brass and iron, are consecrated unto the LORD: they shall come into the treasury of the LORD."

The vail is a symbol of the consecration, being set apart.  A betrothed woman wore the vail to show that she was not available for marriage.  This betrothal time period was also to make sure the virgin was not pregnant.  The waiting period before the marriage had to be at least one year, an assurance the bride was still a virgin.

A virgin bride was set apart, as Christians are to be apart from the world.

John 15:18  - "If the world hate you, ye know that it hated me before it hated you."

John 15:19  - "If ye were of the world, the world would love his own; but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore he world hateth you."

John 17:14  - "I have given them thy word; and the world hath hated them, because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world."

John 17:15  - "I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that thou shouldest keep them from the evil."

The verse John 17:15 is commonly used as an "anti Pre-Tribulation" verse.  Note the grammar.  Jesus is praying for the second phrase, not praying for the first.  Why?  The second term is greater than the first, and includes it.  The Tribulation of is evil, and those who are Raptured out will be kept from it as promised in Revelation 3:10.  It is a serious mistake of grammar to conclude that Jesus is actively praying to keep us in the world during the Tribulation - for that to be the case, the "not" would have to be placed after "shouldest" in the sentence.

The point is that we are separated from the world, like a bride is set apart when she is betrothed and consecrated and wears the veil of consecration. 

1st John 2:15  - "Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world.  If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him."

1st Corinthians 5:8  - "Therefore let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, neither with the leaven of malice and wickedness; but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth."

1st Corinthians 5:9  - "I wrote unto you in an epistle not to company with fornicators:"

1st Corinthians 5:10  - "Yet not altogether with the fornicators of this world, or with the covetous, or extortioners, or with idolaters; for then must ye needs go out of the world."

This is a very interesting point made here in 1st Corinthians 5, in that for us to be truly separate we would have to leave the world entirely because the world is so completely wicked.

The story of the ten virgins is a parable showing the importance of the bride keeping herself ready and prepared for the bridegroom.

Mathew 25:1  - "Then shall the kingdom of heaven be likened unto ten virgins, which took their lamps, and went forth to meet the bridegroom."

Matthew 25:2  - "And five of them were wise, and five were foolish."

Matthew 25:3  - "They that were foolish took their lamps, and took no oil with them:"

Matthew 25:4  - "But the wise took oil in their vessels with their lamps."

Matthew 25:5  - "While the bridegroom tarried, they all slumbered and slept."

Matthew 25:6  - "And at midnight there was a cry made, Behold, the bridegroom cometh; go ye out to meet him."

Matthew 25:7  - "Then all those virgins arose, and trimmed their lamps."

Matthew 25:8  - "And the foolish said unto the wise, Give us of your oil; for our lamps are gone out."

Matthew 25:9  - "But the wise answered, saying, Not so; lest there be not enough for us and you: but go ye rather to them that sell, and buy for yourselves."

Matthew 25:10  - "And while they went to buy, the bridegroom came; and they that were ready went in with him to the marriage; and the door was shut."

Matthew 25:11  - "Afterward came also the other virgins, saying, Lord, Lord, open to us."

Matthew 25:12  - "But he answered and said, Verily I say unto you, I know you not."

Matthew 25:13  - "Watch therefore, for ye know neither the day nor the hour wherein the Son of man cometh."

Mark 13:34  - "For the Son of Man is as a man taking a far journey, who left his house, and gave authority to his servants, and to every man his work, and commanded the porter to watch."

Mark 13:35  - "Watch ye therefore: for ye know not when the master of the house cometh, at even, or at midnight, or at the cockcrowing, or in the morning:"

Mark 13:36  - "Lest coming suddenly he find you sleeping."

Mark 13:37  - "And what I say unto you I say to all, Watch."

The implications here communicate a sense of urgency upon the need for Bible-beleivers to be alert, awake, and watching.  World events confirm that we cannot be too far from the moment when the world erupts into destruction and devastation.

Next time we will look at the Bridegroom coming for His Bride on the day or hour no men knows. 

God bless,

Pastor Bob