For the LORD himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. 1After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the LORD in the air. And so we will be with the LORD forever. 18Therefore encourage one another with these words.
The summer is almost here! I did not get to go to even one wedding last year! Oh, there were weddings, but none close friends to me so I was not a guest, so I could not go. I so enjoy all of the beauty and pageantry of a wedding. The bride is always beautiful. The groom is always in awe as he gazes at her, as if for the first time. The solemnity of the vows spoken to each other, and the reminder of your own forever vows, if you are married. These two people pledge themselves to each other for forever on this earth! Their hopes are high, their expectations even higher. They have dreams and goals they believe they will achieve, and no matter what comes their way, together they will conquer it! This is the most important event in anyone’s life!
In the Bible Jesus spoke his first miracle at the wedding in Galilee. His disciples would have been very familiar with the unique traditions of weddings in Galilee, they are not like most other areas. All his disciples were from Galilee. In fact, Bible scholars are seeing the correlation between a Galilean wedding, and the Rapture of the church. Let’s look at it.
In the Bible Jesus is teaching his disciples, mostly fishermen, wonderful Heavenly truths. It makes sense that he would use references they were familiar with, and they were all Galilean, so of course the illustrations would be of that culture. As it would appear, there are several places that talk about these beautiful wedding tradition that can be reminders of our future!
First, Once the couple decide to marry there is a ‘betrothal.’ This is the period of time when the couple is ‘married’ but they will not be together. They live separately in their parents homes for over a year while the groom adds to his parents home and furnishes it for his bride.
John 14:1-3 1“Do not let your hearts be troubled. You believe in God; believe also in me. 2My Father’s house has many rooms; if that were not so, would I have told you that I am going there to prepare a place for you? 3And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am.
The couple, and everyone else in the village, meet at the city gates where the bride receives a dowry from the grooms father for her expenses, if the marriage dissolves for any reason. Then the groom pours a cup of wine for the bride. He timidly holds it out to her. She has the final say in this arrangement. If she takes the cup and drinks it, he has been accepted as her groom. If not, no wedding will take place.
They each return to their homes to await the wedding. When Jesus offered up the cup of wine in Communion he said; Matthew 26:29 29I tell you, I will not drink from this fruit of the vine from now on until that day when I drink it new with you in my Father’s kingdom.”
It has always been a confusing statement, until we realize that the bride and groom living in separate homes for a year or more, will not drink a cup together until they are together at their new home. Jesus would not be drinking with us after that night-until we are ‘raptured’ to Father God’s home!
After this ceremony, the groom begins his preparations for his brides home, the bride prepares as well. She must find the fabric for the perfect dress. Then make the dress, and finally her and her bridesmaids must always be prepared for this wedding, so, they even sleep in the dress! Since the wedding always takes place in the night, they must always have their oil lamps full of oil.
No one knows when the actual wedding will occur-except the grooms father! When he decides everything is ready, he wakes the sleeping groom and the festivities begin! Blowing the shofar all they way to the brides home he wakes her up, and all the guests. He helps her get into a ‘litter’ that will carry her to the marriage place. Finally, they are together and celebrate with a feast. There is a sad side, however. Some may not have been ready. They did not have enough oil for their lamps, or maybe they did not have wedding clothes. These people were left outside of the seven day wedding celebration!
I had not looked at those events in that way before. I have read and believed that the ‘church’ would be removed from the earth before God’s wrath would begin, I just did not see it through a Galilean wedding. Though the Rapture, as we call it, is not talked about much these days, it WILL occur! When the Father tells the Son-GO get your Bride, the church, Jesus will return. Only those who are prepared, having Jesus in their hearts, will be taken up to meet Him in the air! If you need more information about being ready, please reply in the area below the post.
If you would like to see this played out in a docu-lesson style, you can get the DVD on Amazon. “Before the Wrath” is the name of the movie. Kevin Sorbo narrates.
Please be ready!
Leave a Reply