For the Love of His Bride

For The Love Of His Bride

For_the_Love_of_His_Bride3Before the foundations of earth were formed Abba, Father knew and loved me so much that He devised such an intricate plan for my redemption that even the angels (and Satan) couldn't fathom it's depths.1 We can only begin to comprehend the meaning of true love as we gain a greater realization of the depths of His love and the intricacy of His plan for the sons (and daughters) of faith. I was recently touched by a greater insight of His love that I had never realized before. Through this teaching, I will share the wonder of His love and a deeper understanding of why Jesus, Yeshua, our Messiah had to die that we might fulfill the original purposes of our heavenly Father. My hope is that you may you also receive a deeper revelation and wonderment at the love of the Creator of the Universe, your Abba.

1 But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, even the hidden wisdom, which God ordained before the world unto our glory: Which none of the princes (rulers) of this world knew: for had they known it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. (1 Cor 2:7,8)

For The Love Of His Bride

Hereby perceive we the love of God, because he laid down his life for us: and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. 1 John 3:16

My wife and I were filled with excitement when we learned of the conception of each of our children. Oh, so many things to accomplish, even before their birth. There was so much joyful anticipation and planning to be ready for each of their arrivals. There was clearing the space, painting the room, buying the necessities, and preparing the siblings and ourselves for this life changing event. Why, there was even the long range planning consideration for buying savings bonds to begin a college fund. (That rather "dates" me, doesn't it?) All of these events were fueled by the sparks of love God was creating in us before our children's first breath was drawn.

I can't help think that our heavenly Father was even more excited as He considered our ends even from our beginnings. I suspect that His love, which is His very essence, resonated with the joy of His heart as He called out faithful Abraham from among pagan worshippers of Ur in anticipation of birthing a nation of the faithful called Israel. And yet, even before the first breath of the chosen ones was drawn, Yahweh2 had a purpose of union in the most intimate of relationships - marriage.

He called forth a people of faith, like Abraham, and a nation that would be a tree of righteousness planted by the river3 of Yahweh. But even as the prophet Jeremiah declared immediately after stating this beautiful allegory, Yahweh knew that, "The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?"(Jer 17:9). Thus many branches of the called out Israel would have to be cut off (and others grafted in) the root stalk of that tree. The book of Hebrews records4 that many fell in the wilderness for their unfaithfulness and lack of belief. The book of Romans also records, ".. For they are not all Israel, which are of Israel." But it is Israel and Judah for whom was given the new covenant: Heb 8:8 But God found fault with the people and said : "The time is coming, declares the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah. Thus we, the believers in Yeshua, are to understand that we are Israel by our faith.

Even though Yahweh knew the heart of man, He loved His betrothed so much that He brought her out of Egypt unto Mt. Sinai and proposed His marriage covenant saying:

Now therefore, if ye will obey my voice indeed, and keep my covenant, then ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto me above all people: for all the earth is mine: And ye shall be unto me a kingdom of priests, and an holy nation... (Exo 19:5,6)

And the bride responded "I do," saying:

And all the people answered together, and said, All that the LORD hath spoken we will do. (Exo 19:8)

She then reaffirmed this pledge again as recorded in Exodus 24:35 and finalized the covenant in writing and consummated it in blood:

And Moses wrote all the words of the LORD, and rose up early in the morning, and builded an altar under the hill, and twelve pillars, according to the twelve tribes of Israel. And he sent young men of the children of Israel, which offered burnt offerings, and sacrificed peace offerings of oxen unto the LORD. And Moses took half of the blood, and put it in basins; and half of the blood he sprinkled on the altar. And he took the book of the covenant, and read in the audience of the people: and they said, All that the LORD hath said will we do, and be obedient. And Moses took the blood, and sprinkled it on the people, and said, Behold the blood of the covenant, which the LORD hath made with you concerning all these words. (Exo 24:4-8)

However, unlike us earthly fathers who really didn't know if all our children would even make it to college, Yahweh knew every step that Israel would take. He knew that she would accept His marriage covenant at Mount Sinai only to become a harlot once He gave her the Promised Land. Do you recall that He had Moses prophesy her harlotry in song before they ever entered the land?

When I have brought them into the land flowing with milk and honey, the land I promised on oath to their forefathers, and when they eat their fill and thrive, they will turn to other gods and worship them, rejecting me and breaking my covenant. (Deu 31:20)

As parents our hearts are grieved when we begin to see the heart of our children rebel in disobedience, follow after foolishness, sin, separate themselves from the ways we've taught them and abandon our council and fellowship. How much more must our Father's heart have been grieved to know from the beginning of His courtship that He would have to die to have a "bride" and loving wife! That's right, Yahweh's love was so great for us that He already purposed to die for us to have a wife! But that's getting ahead of myself and the story, so let's continue with this brief history.

After years and years of admonishments and pleas trying to woo Israel back into fidelity, Yahweh's intentions were made clear in the writings of Hosea. The book of Hosea was written in the 8th century B.C., more than a century before the exile of the Northern Kingdom of Ephraim (721 B.C.) and Judah (586 B.C.). In this allegorical account of our redeemer's love, Hosea's prophetic life announces Yahweh's intention to divorce the house of Israel6 and then to wed a people that were not his people7. It is the story of impending divorce and remarriage.

While Yahweh's long suffering character caused Him to endure the shame and pain of His harlot wife for many centuries, He finally rejected both the Northern Kingdom (Ephraim), Israel as well as Judah:

Ephraim

I gave faithless Israel her certificate of divorce and sent her away because of all her adulteries. Yet I saw that her unfaithful sister Judah had no fear; she also went out and committed adultery. Because Israel's immorality mattered so little to her, she defiled the land and committed adultery with stone and wood. (Jer 3:8,9)

Judah

Thus saith the LORD, Where is the bill of your mother's divorcement, whom I have put away? or which of my creditors is it to whom I have sold you? Behold, for your iniquities have ye sold yourselves, and for your transgressions is your mother put away. (Isa 50:1)

Now comes the good part of this story and the revelation of love I spoke about in the foreword. It is a love that overwhelms even the love of a parent who sacrifices everything to give their children a better life and greater opportunities than they had. We can understand a parent's sacrifice, but can we truly understand Yahweh's? Did He sacrifice His most beloved son and establish a renewed covenant (or New Covenant in Jesus' blood) because there wasn't opportunity in His mercy and grace for His creation to be saved, healed or dwell with Him under the old sacrificial system of temporary atonement through the blood sacrifice of bulls and goats?

Didn't Enoch, by faith, walk with I AM and even overcome death? Wasn't he translated to dwell with Yahweh?

By faith Enoch was translated that he should not see death; and was not found, because God had translated him: for before his translation he had this testimony, that he pleased God. (Heb 11:5)

Doesn't the Old Testament record Yahweh's healings time and time again? Weren't His healings evidenced among both Israel (Hezekiah, David, etc.) and the nations (Abimelech, Naaman, etc.)?

Finally, do not His faithful ones of old dwell with Him unto this day?

And, behold, there talked with him two men, which were Moses and Elias: Who appeared in glory, and spake of his decease which he should accomplish at Jerusalem. (Luke 9:30,31)

Although we rejoice in our Messiah's sacrifice, doesn't the forgoing question make you wonder WHY the Lord of Glory had to die? At the most basic level of understanding we comprehend that He took the curse of our sin upon the cross with Him because we couldn't overcome sin and keep Yahweh's covenant – at any point of our spiritual history. And yet when we comprehend a deeper mystery of Yahweh's love and persistent purpose to have the intimate fellowship of His bride, we see a deeper aspect of the riches of His mercy and love for us.

Why did our Lord have to die? The deeper revelation lies in the laws He gave to us through Moses. Remembering that Yahweh is holy and righteous and can not break His own Word, let's read:

If a man marries a woman who becomes displeasing to him because he finds something indecent about her, and he writes her a certificate of divorce, gives it to her and sends her from his house, and if after she leaves his house she becomes the wife of another man, and her second husband dislikes her and writes her a certificate of divorce, gives it to her and sends her from his house, or if he dies, then her first husband, who divorced her, is not allowed to marry her again after she has been defiled. That would be detestable in the eyes of the LORD... (Deu 24:1-4)

So here then is the dilemma and a mystery of the gospel. How does the Holy One, who can not break His own spiritual laws, make for himself a bride of Israel whom He once divorced and had married another? Faithless Israel was not only given a writ of divorcement, but joined herself to other gods through fornication with the world.8 Indeed, the question is, as Yahweh asked, "How shall I pardon thee for this?" It seems an impossible dilemma, doesn't it? But all things are possible with Yahweh9 and He determined to die for us that we might have everlasting life10 AND be able to become His bride, once again!

The apostle Paul explains this to us in Romans 7:1-6

Or do you not know, brethren (for I speak to those who know the law), that the law has dominion over a man as long as he lives? For the woman who has a husband is bound by the law to her husband as long as he lives. But if the husband dies, she is released from the law of her husband. So then if, while her husband lives, she marries another man, she will be called an adulteress; but if her husband dies, she is free from that law, so that she is no adulteress, though she has married another man. (Rom 7:1-3)

Listen with your spiritual ears so that you may understand the mystery of the ages that even escaped the wisdom of creation – both flesh and spiritual (or they wouldn't have crucified the Lord of glory). Christ was/is fully God (and fully man) and formerly our spiritual husband. When He died on the cross for our sins we were released from the law of marriage and were deemed to be no longer in adultery. Paul goes on to say:

Therefore, my brethren, you also have become dead to the (that) law through the body of Christ, that you may be married to another--to Him who was raised from the dead, that we should bear fruit to God (Rom 7:4)

Halleluiah! Ah, the mystery of it all and depths of God's love and determination! We, as the Israel of promise through faith, not only have been set free from our sin of adultery thru Abba's sacrifice of His Son, all our sins have been washed clean. Additionally, by this same faith in the risen savior (and last Adam) and firstfruits of the faithful who slept11 are now betrothed to Christ, our 'Elohiym and our King!

And so it is written, The first man Adam became a living being. The last Adam became a life-giving spirit. However, the spiritual is not first, but the natural, and afterward the spiritual. The first man was of the earth, made of dust; the second Man is the Lord from heaven. (1 Cor 15:45-47)

Think of it! Think of the depth of this mystery. The stirring in my spirit is like a fire compared to the warmth the Spirit of Love manifests when our own children actually make it through college – sometimes even with honors. The Word says that God knows the end from the beginning. He knows what is going to happen before it begins.

Remember the former things of old: for I am God, and there is none else; I am God, and there is none like me, declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times the things that are not yet done, saying, My counsel shall stand, and I will do all my pleasure: (Isa 46:9)

With such a revelation of the Word I am awed by the depths of Yahweh's love toward us and the lengths to which he had to go in order to accomplish the demonstration of that love. He knew that the forefathers of our faith would play the harlot and turn to other gods even before he breathed life into them. It is a love story and a yearning for His bride that transcends the dimensions of time and space so that we might begin to have a greater understanding of His love and mercy toward those who love Him and are called to be sanctified according to His purposes.

Yahweh, our husband, loved his wife, Israel (the church of the firstborn), and gave himself for it; That he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word, That he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish. (Eph 5:27)

Revelation 19:7-8 says, "Let us be glad and rejoice, and give honor to him: for the marriage of the Lamb is come, and his wife has made herself ready. 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." Let us be ready to fulfill our destiny in Him from the beginning of time.

Beloved Bride,

The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Ghost, be with you all. Amen. (2 Cor 13:14)

By His Grace & Abounding Love,

Randy

2 The proper name of Yehovah, 'Elohiym (LORD, God).

3 For he shall be as a tree planted by the waters, and that spreadeth out her roots by the river, and shall not see when heat cometh, but her leaf shall be green; and shall not be careful in the year of drought, neither shall cease from yielding fruit. (Psa 1:1-3, and

4 Jer 17:8)

5 Heb 3:15-18

6 And Moses came and told the people all the words of the LORD, and all the judgments: and all the people answered with one voice, and said, All the words which the LORD hath said will we do. (Exo 24:3)

7 Hosea 1:6 – Lo-ruhamah

8 Hosea 1:8,9 and Hosea 2:23

9 How shall I pardon thee for this? Thy children have forsaken me, and sworn by them that are no gods: when I had fed them to the full, they then committed adultery, and assembled themselves by troops in the harlots' houses. (Jer 5:7)

10But Jesus beheld them, and said unto them, With men this is impossible; but with God all things are possible. (Mat 19:26)

For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. (John 3:16)

11 But now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the firstfruits of them that slept. For since by man came death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive. (1 Cor 15:20)