When Israel was at Mount Sinai, what happened there can be closely likened to a Jewish wedding ceremony. There was a canopy, a marriage contract, a wedding ring every male had to bring, and much more.
When did this happen? It happened shortly after the people of Israel passed through the Red Sea, being baptized in water, shortly after they became a nation, at Pentecost, when they were given the law. It happened at the beginning of their journey, not at the end.
Some things the bible says about marriage: A man will leave his mother and father and cleave to his wife. What God joined together, man shall not tear apart.
Well, Jesus left the Father when He came to earth and became man. He ultimately left the Father at the cross. He cried “Father, why have you forsaken me?”, while it was Him, sin laden, that left the Father, as it is with us. What for? To cleave to His wife.
He said that he would never leave us nor forsake us. Does this sound to you like “until death us part”, but there is no death any longer as it has been conquered?
At Pentecost He came to live with and in us. Sounds to me as if the wedding of the lamb has already taken place. Maybe that is why Jesus performed a miracle at a wedding as His first miracle – to show us that it would all start with His wedding.
In Ephesians Paul talks about marriage between man and woman, yet tells us that he really is talking about Jesus and the Church. Let us for a moment postpone the wedding to the future: We would still be in the engagement phase, courting each other. We know what this means: no intimacy.
Postponing the wedding of the Lamb to the future deprives us of intimacy with Him. Remember that the Song of Songs is in the Old Testament, which in my eyes was the engagement phase with the Messiah.
In Rev 12 we see the Church being pregnant with the man child, birthing the Christ in us. Wouldn’t this man child be a bastard, misbegotten during engagement?
Each of us takes part in this wedding when he or she becomes part of the Church. Each of us is cleansed and invited, ingrained into His Church, and He comes to live with him or her. In Passover and Pentecost lies the wedding.
In the life after lies the married life – becoming one more and more until we fully display and represent Him in Tabernacles.
We no longer are the bride of Christ, we are Mrs. Jesus Christ. Seated with Him in heavenly places, acting in His authority. Proclaiming and acting out His finished work.