The Hebrew Love Story
Part Eight
The Marriage Supper of The Lamb!
The Hebrew Love Story is comprised of several articles all having a common thread, that being the thread of covenant. The opinions expressed throughout the series are outside the box but thoroughly Scriptural, I don’t know of anyone saying the things I’ll be saying in this article as well as the other articles I’ve written in this series. In my mind, when it’s all tied together via this series of articles it makes for a thoroughly amazing panorama of the Scriptural message, a love letter from YHWH you can actually understand! The Hebrew Love Story consists of…
The Hebrew Love Story ~ The Introduction
Part One - Abram the Hebrew
Part Two - The Book of the Covenant ~ Mount Sinai
Part Three - The Divorcement of Israel ~ Numbers 14 ~ The Sefer Keritut
Part Four - The Book of the Covenant ~ Mount Sinai Amended!
Part Five - THE NEW COVENANT ~ What Is It?
Part Six - THE MASTER’S TABLE ~ The Entry Rite Into THE NEW COVENANT!
Part Seven - Yom Kippur ~ The Consummation
Part Eight - The Marriage Supper of The Lamb!
The stage has been set… it is the final scene yet to unfold, the understated climax of the ages; it is the culmination of the drama that has played out through the 6,000 year long history of mankind. The very purpose of creation is realizing its fulfillment at this very moment as Yeshua, The Messiah, the Creator and Redeemer is taking His Bride to be His Wife! It is… The Marriage Supper of The Lamb!
Then I heard what seemed to be the voice of a great multitude, like the sound of many waters and like the sound of mighty thunderpeals, crying out, “Hallelujah! For the Lord our God the Almighty reigns. Let us rejoice and exult and give him the glory, for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and his bride has made herself ready; to her it has been granted to be clothed with fine linen, bright and pure” – for the fine linen is the righteous deeds of the saints.
And the angel said to me, “Write this: Blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb.” And he said to me, “These are true words of God.” Then I fell down at his feet to worship him, but he said to me, “You must not do that! I am a fellow servant with you and your comrades who hold the testimony of Jesus. Worship God! For the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.”
Then I saw heaven opened, and there was a white horse! Its rider is called Faithful and True, and in righteousness he judges and makes war. His eyes are like a flame of fire, and on his head are many diadems; and he has a name inscribed that no one knows but himself. He is clothed in a robe dipped in blood, and his name is called The Word of God. And the armies of heaven, wearing fine linen, white and pure, were following him on white horses. From his mouth comes a sharp sword with which to strike down the nations, and he will rule them with a rod of iron; he will tread the wine press of the fury of the wrath of God the Almighty. On his robe and on his thigh he has a name inscribed, King of kings and Lord of lords.”
Then I saw an angel standing in the sun, and with a loud voice he called to all the birds that fly in the midheaven, “Come, gather for the great supper of God, to eat the flesh of kings, the flesh of captains, the flesh of the mighty, the flesh of horses and their riders-flesh of all, both free and slave, both small and great.” Then I saw the beast and the kings of the earth with their armies gathered to make war against the rider on the horse and against his army. And the beast was captured, and with it the false prophet who had performed in its presence the signs by which he deceived those who had received the mark of the beast and those who worshipped its image. These two were thrown alive into the lake of fire that burns with sulfur. And the rest were killed by the sword of the rider on the horse, the sword that came from his mouth; and all the birds were gorged with their flesh.
Then I saw an angel coming down from heaven, holding in his hand the key to the bottomless pit and a great chain. He seized the dragon, that ancient serpent, who is the Devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years, and threw him into the pit, and locked and sealed it over him, so that he would deceive the nations no more, until the thousand years were ended. After that he must be let out for a little while.
Then I saw thrones, and those seated on them were given authority to judge. I also saw the souls of those who had been beheaded for their testimony to Jesus and for the word of God. They had not worshiped the beast or its image and had not received its mark on their foreheads or their hands. They came to life and reigned with Christ a thousand years. (The rest of the dead did not come to life until the thousand years were ended.) This is the first resurrection. Blessed and holy are those who share in the first resurrection. Over these the second death has no power, but they will be priests of God and of Christ, and they will reign with him a thousand years. (Revelation 19:6 - 20:6 NRSV)
This is the first resurrection! These are the elect of The Almighty, those chosen of the Father, indwelt with the Spirit; they are the few who have walked the narrow path that leads to life! They are the Elect; they are those who have labored to overcome the deception of HaSatan and sought a better resurrection!
In a classic Universal Restoration text proclaiming the salvation of ALL MANKIND the Apostle Paul speaks of this first resurrection.
But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who have died. For since death came through a human being, the resurrection of the dead has also come through a human being; for as all die in Adam, so all will be made alive in Christ. But each in his own order: Christ the first fruits, then at his coming those who belong to Christ. (1 Corinthians 15:20:22-23 NRSV)
The Apostle Paul addresses the first resurrection again in 1 Thessalonians 4.
But we do not want you to be uninformed, brothers and sisters, about those who have died, so that you may not grieve as others do who have no hope. For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have died. For this we declare to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will by no means precede those who have died. For the Lord himself, with a cry of command, with the archangel’s call and with the sound of God’s trumpet, will descend from heaven, and the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up in the clouds together with them to meet the Lord in the air; and so we will be with the Lord forever. Therefore encourage one another with these words. (1 Thessalonians 4:13-18 NRSV)
From here this article could go a hundred different directions, a book could easily be written! However it is not my purpose to write a book, my purpose is to complete ‘The Hebrew Love Story’ which is all about ‘covenant’, The Marriage Covenant of Messiah Yeshua and His Bride.
In studying the principle concepts of the marriage covenant that Scripture presents us with, as well as some Hebrew tradition, I developed an understanding of the exact moment a woman became ‘betrothed’ to a man in marriage via her drinking from the cup that was presented to her at a covenantal meal when she was proposed to, I came to understand the consummation of that betrothal period came ‘before’ the wedding supper and if there was an unfavorable judgment via the act of consummation the bridegroom could write a divorce decree to be given to the woman at that time which would free them both to marry again. Yet there was this vagueness as to how and when the betrothal phase of the marriage changes into the ‘bound phase’ of the marriage ‘after’ a favorable judgment via the consummation. When was the exact moment that a ‘bride’ becomes a ‘wife’? This was important to me since I had concluded that a woman of a bound marriage couldn’t legitimately be divorced. I had accepted the notion that if a man didn’t write a certificate of divorce after the consummation then the bride became his wife somewhat as a matter of default. But this wasn’t satisfying at all. I think intuitively, yet subconsciously, I knew something was wrong but swept it under the rug and kept on bulldozing! I instinctively knew I needed a line in the sand upon which a righteous judgment could be reached but I didn’t have one. If a legitimate divorce decree can only be written and executed during the ‘betrothal phase’ of the marriage covenant then the ‘betrothal phase’ must have extremely well defined boundaries. I accepted this undefined entry into the bound phase of the marriage covenant for a number of years until just before my oldest son was married. It was then that I remembered what Yeshua had told His disciples at The Master’s Table (The Lord’s Supper).
Then He took the cup, and gave thanks, and gave it to them, saying, “Drink from it, all of you. For this is My blood of the new covenant, which is shed for many for the remission of sins. But I say to you, I will not drink of this fruit of the vine from now on until that day when I drink it new with you in My Father’s kingdom.” (Matthew 26:27-29 NKJV Emphasis mine)
There is not a doubt in my mind that this is a reference to that day when Messiah Yeshua lifts the cup and drinks at The Marriage Supper of The Lamb! This for me became one of those special ‘AH HA!’ moments when you believe you’ve just received a download from above! I now had that defining moment in time when the ‘betrothal phase’ of the marriage instantly changes to the ‘bound phase’ of the marriage. The bridegroom accepts his bride as his wife and binds the marriage covenant when he drinks from the same cup of the covenant that the bride drank from when she accepted his marriage proposal and thereby entered into the ‘betrothal phase’ of the marriage covenant. It is at that exact moment in time when the bridegroom drinks from the cup of the covenant that the marriage covenant switches from the betrothal phase to the bound phase! From that moment on legitimate divorce is not an option. The cup of the covenant can be seen as two bookends of the marriage covenant! First she drinks from the cup of the covenant to initiate the covenant at The Master’s Table (The Lord’s Supper) and then he drinks from the cup of the covenant to ratify the covenant at The Marriage Supper of The Lamb! What a picture!
The Marriage Supper of The Lamb… what comes to your mind when you read those words? The thought that enters my head is that ‘The Marriage Supper’ is all about Him! It’s not about the Bride… it’s about Him! It’s not called ‘The Marriage Supper of The Bride, how far removed from that model have we wandered in our Western practices? It seems to me that weddings today are all about the bride, she is the one who fusses over every last detail and then cries when things don’t turn out ‘just so’. It’s more about her and the wedding ceremony than it is about the bridegroom. What is it that should make a wedding day special to a bride, is it the wedding ceremony or the man to whom she is being taken as a wife? Today’s bride will get caught up in selecting the church, the wedding dress, the flowers, the cake, the dozen bridesmaids she had to have and the right photographer to capture it all; today it’s all about her. She doesn’t care about daddy having to spend $10,000 to pull the day off; it’s all about her. Today the bridegroom’s responsibility doesn’t go much beyond getting fitted for a tux that she probably picked out and showing up at the church on time on the wedding day and that is evidently just fine with him. As is so often the case we’ve lost our focus. Men have not studied marriage, our fathers have not passed down truths regarding marriage, we men are for all intents and purposes ignorant of our rights and responsibilities and seemingly could care less. We need to get back to what a wedding day is, a man taking a woman to himself as a wife; it is not about the bride! It’s all about him! Her only decision in this process of marriage is whether or not she chooses to submit to the terms of his marriage proposal. Beyond that it is all about him, the proposal is his, the marriage covenant is his, the judgment at consummation is his, the wedding supper is his, whereas she is invited to his wedding supper, she takes his name, she will live in his house, he provides and protects as she bears his children called by his name, it’s all about him. Of course I’m generalizing here and I certainly don’t mean to condemn all men and women but I do see things going in a wrong direction in this society we live in today and it would be good to get back to basics! The focus should be on him and all honor be directed to him!
A logical question to ask is when does The Marriage Supper of The Lamb take place? Let’s consider the answer to the question from two different perspectives,
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What time of the year does The Marriage Supper of The Lamb take place?
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What year does The Marriage Supper of The Lamb take place?
In answering the 1st question it is good to have an understanding of the Feasts of YHWH. Messiah Yeshua fulfilled the Spring and Summer Feasts of YHWH, i.e. Passover, Feast of Unleavened Bread, First Fruits and Shavuot, in His first coming. Messiah Yeshua was the sinless Unleavened Passover Lamb of God who became the First Fruits of Creation’s harvest and then provided the promised Spirit of YHWH to His disciples at Shavuot. There can be no doubt that Messiah Yeshua will also fulfill the Fall Feasts of YHWH, i.e. Yom Teruah, Yom Kippur and The Feast of Tabernacles, when He returns for His Bride.
With that said we can expect Messiah Yeshua to touch down on Yom Teruah, the Day of Trumpets.
For the Lord himself, with a cry of command, with the archangel’s call and with the sound of God’s trumpet, will descend from heaven, and the dead in Christ will rise first. (1 Thessalonians 4:16 NRSV)
Yom Teruah, the Day of Trumpets, is the 1st Day of the 7th Month, which is reckoned according to the phase of The New Moon. I observe The Full Moon as Rosh Chodesh (Head of Month – New Moon); there are other people who have different beliefs which are more ‘traditional’ in regard to New Moon. You may as well throw that Roman Catholic Gregorian calendar hanging on your wall away, it’s useless! The first 10 Days of the 7th Month are known as ‘The Days of Awe!’ My guess is when they are completed at Messiah’s return we’ll have a better understanding as to why!
Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, is the 10th Day of the 7th Month. I believe this is the day of consummation when Yeshua causes all those who esteem to be The Bride and have returned to The Promised Land via The Greater Exodus to pass under the rod in a judgment that purges all the rebels from the camp of the righteous (Ezekiel 20:33-38 and Matthew 7:21-23). Has the resurrection of ‘the dead in Messiah’ taken place already? I hve no doubt it has not. Once the judgment of the living has taken place I would think that it would then be logical for ‘the dead in Messiah’ to be raised followed immediately by the resurrection of ‘the living in Messiah’.
Sukkot, The Feast of Tabernacles, begins on the 15th Day of the 7th Month. It has long been held that this feast portrays the future Marriage Supper of The Lamb. It is a 7-Day festival and the Hebrew tradition gives us a glimpse of extended wedding celebrations, sometimes a weeklong. It is at this final festival of the year that Yeshua will take His Bride and return to His Father’s house for The Marriage Supper of The Lamb! Messiah Yeshua speaks of this at The Master’s Table (The Lord’s Supper) the night He was betrayed.
“Do not let your hearts be troubled. Believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father’s house there are many dwelling places. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, so that where I am, there you may be also. And you know the way to the place where I am going.” (John 14:1-4 NRSV Emphasis mine)
To ‘dwell’ is to ‘tabernacle’, which is what a husband and wife do together in his home. This is the beginning of the Bride, now the Wife, of Messiah ruling and reigning with Messiah Yeshua for a thousand years. A quick read of Revelation 19:6 - 20:6 quoted at the beginning of this article makes it clear that The Marriage Supper of The Lamb takes place in heaven which will obviously make it beyond human comprehension! The Marriage Supper of The Lamb will continue for the duration of The Feast of Tabernacles and then it looks like Messiah’s Wife gets to work immediately by returning with Messiah, dressed in fine, white linen on white horses to begin The Millennial Reign!
In answering the 2nd question, ‘What year?’ we have to admit, we’ve lost track of time! In Scripture we’re told a day is as a thousand years and a thousand years is as a day.
But do not ignore this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord one day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like one day. (2 Peter 3:8 NRSV)
Note: That verse is a reference to Psalm 90:4 where we’re told a thousand years in YHWH’s sight are like yesterday when it is past. The Psalm begins with, “Lord, you have been our dwelling place in all generations.”
The context of 2 Peter 3:8 is that of a coming judgment in the last days. Does the plan of YHWH for man unfold over the course of a week, each day representing a thousand years? Six days of labor (6,000 years) overcoming the deception of HaSatan followed by a day of rest (1,000 years) when HaSatan is bound in the pit. I don’t think there is any doubt this is what YHWH has in mind. Although we’ve lost track of the years since the creation of all material things we can look around and know we must be close to the end of the 6,000 year period. My guess is we’re somewhere in the 120th Jubilee cycle, the problem is knowing where!
We’re also told that YHWH will contend with man for only so long.
Then the LORD said, “My spirit shall not abide in mortals forever, for they are flesh; their days shall be one hundred twenty years.” (Genesis 6:3 NRSV)
Most understand the verse above to mean that the lifetime of a man will be limited to 120 years of age even though men continued to live longer than that after YHWH proclaimed it. The more likely scenario is that the years spoken of in the verse are Jubilee years, which are every 50th year, “their days” then refers to the age, era, epoch of time with which YHWH will contend with mankind. If you multiply 50 by 120 you get 6,000 years!
As I look toward the signposts proclaiming the end I’m looking for a celestial event of cataclysmic proportions that restores the 360-day year and consistent 30-day months. My expectation is that this event will be the source cause of the Great Earthquake of the 6th Seal mentioned in Revelation 6:12. If you didn’t realize you were approaching the Great Tribulation period at that time you’ll know it for sure afterwards. I have to believe for those who have their heads up knowing the time to ‘get outta Dodge’ will be like reading billboard signs on the highway, it will be obvious to them even as the masses remain clueless! If the Great Tribulation and therefore The Greater Exodus end with the Feasts of the Seventh Month then it begins at Passover 3.5 years earlier. Just as the Hebrew bridegroom sends messengers ahead of him to announce his coming so too, if I am so blessed to be invited to The Marriage Supper of The Lamb, I expect one day that one of the 144,000 will tap me on my shoulder and say, “It’s time to go!” and I’ll be gone! This is ‘The Hebrew Love Story!’
My purpose in writing ‘The Hebrew Love Story’ has been to help prepare those who earnestly desire to become the Bride and Wife of Messiah Yeshua. Although this will be the end of the series it certainly is not the end of ‘The Hebrew Love Story’. Our Father Abraham, the 1st Hebrew, was promised ALL NATIONS would be blessed through him and the Everlasting Covenant, which YHWH drew Him into. I am convinced Brothers and Sisters that before it’s all said and done ALL MANKIND will be saved. Through the course of the Millennial Reign it will be the privileged legacy of the Wife of Messiah to help restore these people to a saving, Torah obedient faith, they will never be the Bride of Messiah but they will have their names written in The Lamb’s Book of Life. At the end of the Millennial Reign every man, woman and child that has ever known life will be resurrected back to life and along with those who have lived during the Millennial Reign and are yet living at the end of the Millennial Reign who do not have their names written in The Lamb’s Book of Life are to be cast into The Lake of Fire, which I am absolutely certain is the refining fire of Messiah Yeshua. In The Lake of Fire they will be cleansed of their rebellion, purified like a precious metal. They will become righteous sons and daughters of the Most High. A thorough reading of Revelation 14 will reveal a harvest of the earth compared to that of a grape harvest...
“Use your sharp sickle and gather the clusters of the vine of the earth, for its grapes are ripe.” (Revelation 14:18b NRSV)
This is not the slaughter of a rebellious humanity that it is most often portrayed as. This harvest is a wonderful harvest of men’s souls and it reveals the true character and plan of our endlessly merciful Father in Heaven!
Turn to me and be saved, all the ends of the earth! For I am God, and there is no other. By myself I have sworn, from my mouth has gone forth in righteousness a word that shall not return: “To me every knee shall bow, every tongue swear.” (Isaiah 45:22-23 NRSV)
This is the end of ‘The Hebrew Love Story’ series but even after The Marriage Supper of The Lamb when Messiah Yeshua takes His Bride to be His Wife ‘The Hebrew Love Story’ itself, has only just begun!
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