· Jewish Wedding Customs – A Wedding on Earth and a Wedding in Heaven – Material from “Christ the Bridegroom and Jewish Wedding Customs” by Polly Perkins, Jewish Christian Ministries, l989.
Within the ancient and traditional Hebrew religious and civil ceremonies are prophecies revealing God to the world (Eph 5:32). Because the Day of the Lord involves the wedding of The King, the traditional Hebrew wedding ceremony is important to us and reveals much about Jesus’ wedding.
o The Engagement
A male Jew becomes a man at the age of 13 (Bar Mitzvah) and is often married between 13 and 20 years of age. Marriages were arranged by the father (Jud 14:1-10), an agent (Gen 24), or the man himself (Gen 29:15-30). Often marriages were arranged when the participants were infants. The marriage between Jesus and the church was arranged "before the earth began" (Rom. 8:29).
The "arranger" goes to the home of the bride-to-be with a dowry (Mohar), a contract; and a skin of wine. Jesus came to earth with a dowry, His Life and a contract. The contract was the New Covenant. The ‘skin of wine’ that Jesus brought was His blood. The contract or proposal is discussed with the girl's father and older brothers. The transfiguration incident (Matt. 17:2-3; Mark 9:2) could be seen as this activity. A glass of wine is poured. If the father approves, the girl is called in. If she accepts the proposal, she would drink the wine. In Jewish tradition SHAVUOT is associated with the betrothal between Israel and the Lord. The FIRST TRUMP announced the betrothal.
God the Father arranged the marriage of Jesus and His Bride, the Church before the foundation of the earth were even laid. The Holy Spirit woos the Church and Jesus himself came and paid the "price". We are bought with a price (1 Cor. 6:20; 7:23), Jesus’ life. We accept Jesus' proposal of marriage (Luke 22:17-18; Mark 14:23-25; Matt. 26:27-29) when we become Christians. We renew the acceptance of His proposal and our commitment to our Bridegroom every time we drink the cup of wine during communion. Just as the Jewish bride commits herself with the drinking of the wine we commit ourselves to the Lord. The couple is called husband and wife and are legally betrothed, but not fully married, from this point on. The union can only be dissolved by a Rabbi with a decree of divorce from this point on. We the Church are legally betrothed to the Lord now, yet all creation waits for the perfection and revealing of The Bride (Rom. 8:19-23). During this period the girl is called a ‘virgin bride’ because although she is legally married, the marriage has not been consummated. Likewise we the church are legally married in this church age, we have the ‘down payment’ of our inheritance, the Holy Spirit, but the consummation of our marriage, our fully becoming one with Him awaits His second coming and the wedding in heaven.
o The Preparation Time
After the girl drinks the wine, the man would say; "I go to my father's house and prepare a place for you (The Chadar)". Jesus tells us that He has gone to His Father's house to prepare a place for us (John 14:2-3; 1 Cor. 6:29; Luke 22:17-18; Mark 14:23-25; Matt. 26:27-29).
After this the girl spent all of her time preparing herself to live as a wife and mother and learning how to please her husband. The Church is being prepared to live as the Lord's Bride and learning how to please our Lord, to be like Him, in preparation for His coming Himself for us at the LAST TRUMP (Rom. 8:29; 1 Cor. 15:52). It is the Holy Spirit’s job to prepare the bride. This is what is church age is all about. It is the time of the gathering and preparation of the church, the bride of Christ.
At this time, the bridegroom returned to his father's home to prepare the Chadar (The Bridal Chamber). It is the place where they will retire for one week following the wedding ceremony to consummate the marriage. It is AFTER this period 7-day period that the wedding feast occurs. Jesus is now in Heaven at the Father's right hand preparing our "Chadar" and interceding for us (praying for us). While on earth, the Holy Spirit is empowering us, teaching us, and changing us into the likeness of Jesus. If the man was asked during this period, when the day of his wedding will be, he was to reply; “No man knows except my father”. It was the responsibility of the father to give him permission to go and get his bride after all the preparations had been made to his satisfaction. Remember how Jesus responded when He was asked this question? He replied, "No man knows except my father" (Mark 13:32).
o The Wedding
In the traditional Jewish wedding at a time not known to the townspeople, but prearranged with the bride, the bridegroom and his friends go at night in a torchlight procession to the gates of the girl's village. With a shout and with a blast of a shofar, he calls her to come out and go with him. She is ready, all packed, with her friends (attendants) and she goes out at his shout. As she goes out to meet him, he enters into the village meeting her in the village. She then returns with him to his father's house for the marriage ceremony. We don't know the exact hour of the Lord's coming for us (if evening, midnight, or morning, Mark 13:33-35). But, as to the times or season, we are not in the dark (1 Thes. 5:1-10). He will come for us with a shout (1 Thes. 4:16), at the blast of the LAST TRUMP (Rosh haShanah, the Feast of the LAST TRUMP) and we will be taken to the Father’s house for the wedding and a 7-year ‘honeymoon’.
Two close friends are assigned to assist the groom through out this process. They are known as “the friends of the groom”. They function as the two witnesses required for a Jewish wedding. One assists the bride and assists in leading her to the ceremony. The other assists the groom.
It is not hard to see that this ‘groomsman’ who prepares the Bride for the wedding is non other than the Holy Spirit (Ex 19: 17; Jer. 2:2-3). The groom's "friend" or attendant has the duty to stand at the door of the Chadar until the bridegroom announces the consummation of the marriage to him. The friend then announces this to the wedding guests and great rejoicing brakes forth in a WEEK LONG celebration. John the Baptizer claimed to be the "groomsman" who stands by and listens, and rejoices greatly on account of the Bridegroom's voice (John 3:29). The marriage between Christ and His Church is consummated (completed), and then the friends of Christ begin a 7-day (or on earth, 7 years) celebration. The Bride is hidden in the bridal chamber or Chadar for 7 days (years by earth’s time).
The wedding ceremony itself was very elaborate. No expense was spared. It often required great sacrifice on the part of the families. Tradition says, that the bride and groom stood pure, without spot or blemish, their sins forgiven as they were united. The Church now only has the down payment (the Holy Spirit) of our redemption (Rom. 8:23). At the wedding we will stand pure and completely redeemed. He will present to Himself His Bride without spot or wrinkle (blemish) (Eph 5:26-27). Our salvation will be complete when He calls us out with the Last Trump (1 Cor. 15:50-54). When He calls us out with the shout of the archangel, the blast of the trumpet, at His coming for us where we will be caught up to meet Him in the air (1 Thes. 4:13-18) we will put off this body of death and put on the new, the imperishable. .
Following the wedding ceremony, the bride and groom enter the Chadar where the groom gives gifts to the bride. Jesus rewards His followers at the Judgment seat of Christ where their works are tried. This is the time of giving of gifts; really a great awards ceremony (Gen 34:12; 24:53; 2 Cor. 5:10; 1 Cor. 3:12-15; Mal 3:16-17). The bride and groom stay in the Chadar for 7 days (the week of the celebration). At the end of the week they emerge from the Chadar (or chupah - honeymoon bed or chamber) TO BEGIN the actual WEDDING FEAST. This is a mo’ed or rehearsal of the Church being hidden for one week (7 years) during the great tribulation on earth. At the end of the week, Jesus the Bridegroom, brings His Bride out of the chamber, presents her to His friends, and begins the wedding feast (Joel 2:15-16; Luke 12:35-37). This pictures the 7 years between Messiah's coronation and the wedding, and His second coming to earth WITH His Bride the Church.
Jesus and the Church come out of the Chupah in heaven at the blowing of the GREAT SHOFAR, the Shofar haGadol (Joel 2:15-16). This Shofar is blown during the last ceremony of Yom Kippur known as "Neilah," the “CLOSING OF THE GATE.” Believers on earth are crying out to God to come to their aid (Joel 2:17-2:17-18). Jesus comes as the early and as the later rain (Joel 2:23), the early rain or Pentecost, the feast of the first trump on the 1st month of the religious calendar to bring the Spirit; and the later rain or Yom Kippur, the feast of the Great Shofar on the 1st month of the civil calendar to usher in His reign or Kingdom on earth. At this time the elect (the believing remnant of Israel) of God are gathered from one end of the universe to the other to participate in the fulfillment of the last Holy Feast, Sukkot, where the WEDDING FEAST is a central theme (Joel 2:15-17, 23; Isa. 27:13; Zech. 14:16; Rev. 11:15). ANGELS gather the scattered believers to Jerusalem to participate in the Feast of Tabernacles. A central theme is the WEDDING FEAST that begins the time when God once again lives among and provides for His people on earth. "The marriage of the Lamb is come (has happened) " (Rev. 19:6-9; 11; 16-18). "Blessed are they which are called unto the marriage supper of the Lamb" (believers coming out of the tribulation period). "Blessed are those servants waiting when the Lord returns from the wedding" (Luke 12:35-37), those saved during the tribulation (Matt. 22:1-14).
o Summary
It does not take much imagination to see the prophetic significance of the Hebrew wedding ceremony. This beautiful ceremony is nothing less than another rehearsal or mo'ed of the Great Wedding of the King, King Jesus. Eph. chapter 5 tells us clearly who the Bride is; it is His Church, His body on earth. Like the Hebrew wedding, our wedding has been arranged for us; our Groom, Jesus, has brought a dowry, and a contract; we who are Christians have accepted His proposal with the drinking of the Wine; and now we are legally betrothed. Our Lord has gone to prepare a place for us; and we are now preparing ourselves to be His wife with the help of the Holy Spirit who Jesus has sent to be our helper. Now we are waiting expectantly for His shout, the blast of the Last Trump, with which He will call us out to join Him in the air, that we might go with Him to the Father's House to the place He has prepared for us. There we will exchange gifts with Him and in the Holiest sense, consummate the marriage. We will be hidden away with Him for 7 heaven days, and then will come forth to be revealed to the world as The Bride of Christ. Then, with the blast of the Great Shofar Christ and His Bride return to the earth for the final defeat of the enemies of the Lord, and for the wedding feast which initiates God's physical rule on earth through Jesus the King, where for 1000 years, Christ will rule and dwell with His people on earth; reestablishing the relationship between God and man as was in the garden of Eden.
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