Bride of Christ

There’s something breath-taking about watching a bride, dressed in a brilliant white dress, as she glides up the aisle to join her groom on their wedding day. Despite being nervous, most brides are radiant with excitement and anticipation. The countdown is over. Their wedding day has arrived! The bride & groom are standing in the doorway of their happily ever after.

Wedding ceremonies are different now than they were in the OT prophet Isaiah’s day. Wedding imagery conveys the excitement and anticipation that God’s people had for the day they would return to Jerusalem. Isaiah’s words capture the yearning God’s people felt for the Promised Land, a home of their own. They long for a place to live with God as their God, where they can live as God’s beloved people.

At Crosspoint, daily Bible readings are available through the Bridge app and in print. Over the past week, we have traced God’s use of wedding imagery to describe his relationship with his people: Israelites in the OT and the Chr. Church in the NT.

Isaiah writes of a time when God’s people are held captive in Babylon, far from Jerusalem, far from the ruins of the temple of the Lord. They were conquered by the Babylonians b/c of their unfaithfulness to the Lord. Idolatry – worshipping idols – is compared adultery b/c God’s people are not faithful to their covenant with the Lord. Being in exile illustrates the distance, the separation between God and his people. But it’s not the end of the love story b/t God and his people.

God has a plan to bring his people back. He has a plan to purify his people – to vindicate them in the sight of all nations. That plan is mentioned in ch. 1 of Isaiah’s prophecies:

“Come now, let us settle the matter,” says the Lord.

“Though your sins are like scarlet,

they shall be as white as snow;

though they are red as crimson,

they shall be like wool. Isaiah 1:18 (NIV)

God’s word through the prophet points ahead to more than one event.

1. Return to Jerusalem

2. Return of Jesus Christ