COMING SOON (DON’T MISS IT) …
The next event in God’s prophetic program is for Him to come for us, His Bride – the church. In order for us to clearly understand how this will happen it is important for us to understand how marriages in Bible times were established. There is an exact parallel between a Palestinian groom coming for his bride and Jesus coming for us.
In Bible times, when a man wanted to marry he would go to her home and make a life-long commitment to her. He would pay a bride price for her and the father decided if the price paid was sufficient. If accepted, the groom would offer a drink to the woman. If she was willing to marry, she accepted the cup and drank. Now they were legally married, but did not live together yet. The husband returned home and built a home for his bride. Meanwhile she prepared for his coming. She prepared herself and kept herself pure.
When the time was right, the groom’s father told his son to get his bride. He took friends, with horns blowing, to her home and brought her back to his newly prepared home. There was a seven-day wedding feast and the couple spent the rest of their lives together.
This explains how it will be when Jesus comes for us as well. Jesus left heaven to come to our home, earth, as one of us. He made a commitment to us to pay for our sins so we could be with him forever. The bride price He paid for us was His suffering and death on the cross. God the Father brought Jesus back to life, showing He accepted the price as sufficient for the sins of us, Jesus’ Bride. He offers His salvation to us as a groom offered the cup to the woman he loved. If we accept His cup, the work on the cross for us, then we are united to Him and are legally His Bride.
But we aren’t living with Him yet. Jesus left earth to go back to heaven to prepare dwellings for us, as we read in John 14. He is preparing a place for us even now. Meanwhile we, like the new bride, are to spend our time getting ready for His return. We are to be faithful and true to Him, not serving any other gods or being unfaithful. We are legally His forever even though we aren’t with Him yet, just as was true of the Palestinian bride awaiting her husband to take her to her new home to be with him.
Only the groom’s father knew when he would tell his son to go for his bride, and only God the Father knows when He will send Jesus for us. With trumpets blowing, Jesus and His attendants, the angels, will come for us. This is called the Rapture and is detailed in 2 Thessalonians 4:13-18. Jesus will take us back to His home, heaven, and there will be a great 7-year celebration. This event is called the Marriage Feast of the Lamb. We will be Christ’s Bride from then on and forever more, ruling and reigning with Him for all eternity.
This is the next event on God’s timeline, and it could happen any time. We are His already because we have accepted His gift of salvation. Now we await His return to take us to be with Him forever. We don’t know when He will be back for us so we must always be ready.
One day there was a schoolgirl who had a very messy desk, it was dirty and papers were everywhere. A man came to school and told the class when he returned he would bring a prize for everyone who had a neat desk. The girl really wanted one of the prizes so she decided every Monday morning she would clean her desk. But what if the man came on Thursday or Friday? So she started cleaning her desk every morning, but by the end of the day it was very messy again. She thought perhaps he might come at the end of the day when her desk was no longer neat. So she realized if she was going to get a prize she better keep her desk neat and clean at all times.
That’s how we live as we wait for Jesus to come back for us- faithful, pure, yielded to Him
Revelation 22:20 He who testifies to these things says, “Yes, I am coming soon.” Amen. Come, Lord Jesus.
Are you always ready for His return? What if He came today? He might you know. One day He WILL.