This Part 2 is the continuation and conclusion to “Wedding Pattern in Bible Holydays (1)”. Part 1 should be read first. Most of the symbolic material in Part 1 won’t be repeated here in Part 2.
This two-part topic is tying ancient Israel’s traditional wedding pattern for betrothal & marriage to the sequence of the Lord’s Old Testament (OT) holydays, and to New Testament (NT) writings. We’re discussing their wedding customs, and typing them to Christ and His church.
In the NT, Jesus portrays Himself figuratively as a Groom or bridegroom (Mk.2:20), and the church is His Bride. In 2Co.11:2, Paul the apostle figuratively betroths the church/Bride to Christ. (I’ll capitalize the words Groom and Bride when they refer to Christ marrying His church.)
There were seven annual God-ordained holy occasions for Israel. Here’s a list of the Lord’s annual days and the time of year in which they occurred, from Leviticus 23:
Their sacred year began near the spring equinox of March 20. Le.23:5 Passover was 14 days later, in early April. v.6 Passover began the seven Days of Unleavened Bread. v.15-16, 21 Pentecost/Shavúot occurred 50 days later, near June 1. v.24 the Day of Trumpets/Shouting, Rosh Hashánah (“Beginning of the [civil] Year”, Ezk.40:1a), occurs near the autumnal equinox of September 21. v.26-28 the Day of Atonement or Yom Kíppur fast is ten days later, around October 1. v.33-36a the 7-day Feast of Tabernacles (FOT)/Sukkót/Booths began in October, five days after Yom Kippur. v.36b the Last Great Day 8, called Shémini Atzerét, culminated the FOT. (also see the topics “Days Israel Observed – God-Ordained” and “Feasts of the Lord and the Jews”.)
So far, in Part 1 we tied the traditional Jewish wedding pattern only to the OT sequence of Passover, Days of Unleavened Bread, Pentecost/Shavuot. A shared cup of wine, to seal the betrothal or érusin, linked to Passover. After the prospective groom went away to “prepare a place” for his betrothed at or near his father’s house (Jn.14:1-3), she would begin purifying herself. That loosely ties to the Days of Unleavened Bread. While the groom was away, he would send gifts to her. That custom is reflected in Pentecost, when the gift of the Holy Spirit (HS) was given to the church/Bride, Ac.2:38 etc. see Part 1.
However, the betrothed groom & bride didn’t know the date of the actual wedding or nisúin. It was for the father of the groom to decide when his son had the wedding chamber (húppah Strongs h2646, Hebrew) and house sufficiently prepared for her. Only the father knows the time for his son/groom to come back for her! Jesus said of His return in Mk.13:26, 32 “No one knows the day or hour, but My Father only”.
{Sidelight: Paul said he was taught by Christ’s revelation (Ga.1:12). Did Paul ever ask or wonder, ‘When are you coming back, Lord’? If Paul did, he wasn’t told the date. For that matter, none of the apostles knew the date. Though in 2Pe.1:14, Peter knew he himself would soon die. Mk.13:32 Jesus Himself didn’t know an exact date for His return; only Father God knows! After Jesus’ resurrection, He told His disciples in Ac.1:5-7…it’s in His Father’s authority. Those verses indicate that the date of Jesus’ coming was something He did not then know. Israelites and saints, such as Peter, have kept fulfilling the number of their given days on earth, Ex.23:26b. (However, as Jesus prophesied in Mk.13, Jerusalem & the temple were destroyed in 70 AD when Jesus ‘came’ as Judge, Ja.5:9b.)}
The betrothed Jewish bride would wait in faith that her groom will return and take her to the place he’d prepared. He.11:1 “Faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the evidence of things unseen.” Though he was absent, she trusted that he would come for her! We in the church too must maintain faith.
It’s said that ‘absence makes the heart grow fonder’. She may not have known him all that well. Peter wrote of Jesus in 1Pe.1:8. “Though you have not seen Him, you love Him, and though you don’t see Him now, you believe in Him.” The betrothed bride believed her groom would return to take her away.
Customarily the groom came at midnight! Mt.25:1, 5-6 “In the middle of the night there was a shout, ‘Behold the groom! Come out to meet him.” The shout would identify that her groom wasn’t a real thief stealthily intruding. Mt.25:10-13 “Watch therefore, for you do not know the day or the hour.” Lk.12:40 “Be you also ready, for the Son of Man comes at an hour when you think not.” The groom usually would return at a late night-time hour. But leading up to his return….
As the months elapsed with the groom absent, the bride would lie awake watching for him night after night. Then she’d fall asleep! Paul wrote the church in 1Th.5:1-2, 10 “You know the day of the Lord comes as a thief in the night. That whether we are awake or asleep, we may live together with Him.”
At last…her groom would come and ‘steal’ her away! She’d been veiled since betrothal.
At betrothal, customarily the marriage contract or ketúbah was signed by two witnesses. cf. Re.11:3. John the Baptizer was a witness for the Groom, Jesus (Jn.1:6-7, 15, 32). Jn.3:26-29 John called himself the “friend of the Groom [bridegroom]”. At the groom’s return, one of the two witnesses or the groom himself would shout (Mt.25:6). Her family then knew he’s not a real thief on her father’s property!
1Th.4:16 “The Lord Himself [Jesus] will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and the dead in Christ shall rise first.” v.15 the saints who are alive shall not precede those who had “fallen asleep”. That is, the saints who’d died precede those who will read Paul’s letter. Jesus said in Jn.5:25, “An hour is coming and now is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear shall live”. Deceased saints, “fallen asleep”, are taken away by Jesus the Groom.
This coming of the groom was typed by the Day of Trumpets/Shouting. Le.23:24 Yom Téruah. This holyday occurs on the 1st day/new moon of the sacred 7th month, 1 Tíshri. They knew the season, but didn’t know whether the moon’s first visible crescent to mark the new month would appear on the 29th or 30th day of the old month. Our Ancient Days: Yom Teruah “The day and the hour that no man knows.” Jesus said in Mk.13:32, “But of that day and hour no one knows”. Only the Groom’s Father.
Ancient Israel would watch…then a new moon sighting traditionally had to be confirmed by two witnesses. The new moon is almost entirely dark. It’s just a thin sliver. cf. Mt.24:29-31 “…The moon will not give its light. Then they will see the Son of Man [Jesus] coming.” The Day of Trumpets/Shouting was also known as the ‘Day of the Concealed Moon’, Yom Kéhseh, the ‘hidden day’.
Mal.4:2 “For you who fear My name, the Sun of righteousness [Christ] will arise with healing in His wings, and you will go forth.” Jesus is here depicted by the Sun, and the moon’s first visible crescent too reflects the light of the Sun/Son! Benson Commentary Mal.4:2 “Christ, who is fitly compared to the sun. The church is described as ‘clothed with the sun’, Re.12:1, adorned with graces communicated to her from Christ.” Again, the groom while absent would send gifts to his betrothed bride. (see Part 1.)
{{Sidelight: The 1st day of the 7th month, Rosh HaShanah, was also known as the ‘Day of Remembrance’, Yom HaZíkaron (Le.23:24 memorial/zikarón h2146), as birthday of the world. And as Yom HaDín, the ‘Day of Judgment’. The sealing/execution of the judgment was then signified by Yom Kippur, ‘Day of Atonement’, occurring ten days later. see the topic “Day of Atonement (2)”. (Note: Also there are plural layers of meaning within the concept of Jesus’ Coming.)}}
It’s dark when the saints close their eyes in sleep or death! A symbolic Day of Trumpets/Shouting is typed in 1Co.15:51-52. “We will not all sleep…for the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised incorruptible.” Although it wasn’t known exactly when the first sliver of the moon will be visible, the very ill and those advanced in age know that death is near. (ref 2Pe.1:14 Peter, 2Ti.4:6 Paul.)
Again, the Groom comes in the night for His Bride. Then she will no longer reside in her father’s house. Ps.45:10-11 Septúagint “Hear, daughter. Forget your people and your father’s house. Because the King has desired your beauty.” When the Father of the Groom decided, He would send His Son to take the Bride from her childhood home (earth). Paul the aged said of himself in Php.1:23, “To depart and be with Christ is much better”. SSol.2:10 “Arise, My darling, come away with Me.” She is veiled.
With a procession, the bride was taken to the huppah bridal canopy, at/near his father’s house. The ketubah marriage contract was read at a night ceremony. Customarily included in the reading was Ps.118:26 (Mt.21:9). “Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.” The contract was given to the bride by the groom or by the two witnesses. (see Joel 2:16 for more groom/bride/huppah language.)
Is.61:10 the groom decks himself with ornaments and the bride is adorned with jewels. Gill Exposition Is.61:10 “A bridegroom puts on the best clothes he has on his wedding day.”
Now her veil is removed. At the wedding nisuin…the bride and groom finally stand face-to-face!
Ge.32:24, 29-30 “Jacob said, ‘I have seen God face to face, yet I am still alive.” Traditionally, Jacob saw the face of Christ the Messenger of YHVH on Yom Kipper. ltradio.org “Face-to-face’ is an idiom for the Day of Atonement.” Only once a year, on the Day of Atonement, did Israel’s High Priest dimly come face-to-face with the mercy seat of Christ (Le.16:2), amid smoke in the Most Holy Place.
The typological Day of Atonement (At-One-ment) holyday was the 10th day of the 7th month, 10 Tishri. (It follows Rosh HaShanah.) Ge.2:24 a husband and wife become one flesh; they become figuratively as one. Paul wrote of the espoused church/Bride in 1Co.13:12, “Now we see dimly, as in a mirror, but then face to face. Now I know in part, but then I will know fully, as I am fully known.” When the Bride is face-to-face with Jesus, she then really gets to know the Groom!
David wrote in Ps.17:15, “I shall behold Thy face in righteousness”. Behold the face of the Lord. The disciple John wrote in 1Jn.3:2b, “We will see Him as He really is”. The Groom/Son of God. SSol.6:3 “I am my beloved’s and my beloved is mine.” v.3-9 represents a type of Christ and His gifted Bride(s).
After the wedding, the bride and groom would spend 7 days in the wedding chamber or booth. Only then was the marriage consummated! (They’d been apart from the betrothal date until he came for her.) Laban spoke of his daughter to his son-in-law Jacob in Ge.29:27, “Complete the week of this one”. Jdg.14:17 Samson was with his new bride for 7 days.
Weddings were often held either in June or near the 7-day Feast of Booths in the 7th month, after the Day of Atonement. The 7 days in the canopied huppah or chamber is typed by the FOT/Booths.
A wedding was a big celebration! Mt.22:9-11 guests were expected to wear attire customarily suitable. A wedding feast was held (cf. Ge.29:21-22, Jdg.14:12).
The marriage feast for Jesus and His Bride(s) culminates at His Father’s house in heaven. Re.19:1, 7-9 “I heard a loud voice of a multitude in heaven. The marriage of the Lamb [Jesus] has come and His Bride has made herself ready. Blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb.”
After the celebratory wedding feast, the couple would go to their new home, usually built at/near the house of the groom’s father. They hope to live ‘happily ever after’.
The 8th Day Shemini Atzeret was the next day (22 Tishri), immediately following the FOT. That ends God’s sacred holydays for the year. That day is thought to foreshadow the new heaven and the new earth. (Note: There were some traditional variations in wedding custom details and typologies.)
After Christ’s marriage feast of Re.19…Re.21:1 “I saw a new heaven and a new earth.” The Bride(s) will live forever with her/(their) Husband, the Lord Christ. (see “Polygyny – Lawful in God’s Eyes?”.)
And for those presently alive on this earth, Re.22:17 “The Spirit and the Bride say come”. All should believe in Jesus for salvation!
Few of us know in advance the total number of our days/years. But elderly saints and the terminally ill are closer to completing their days here. Then they, and eventually we too, will close our eyes for the last time, as have all the saints who went before.
We anticipate then becoming part of that great cloud of witnesses who preceded us! He.12:1, 22-24 “We have a great cloud of witnesses. The general assembly and church of the firstborn enrolled in heaven, the spirits of righteous men made perfect, and Jesus.” cf. Ec.12:7. (1Co.15:44 we too will have a spiritual body. see “Life and Death – for Saints” and “Rebirth to Physical Life”.)
In OT times, the Lord was the figurative Husband of ancient Israel, Je.3:14. (see “Jesus Was the Old Testament God”.) His name YHVH was engraved upon the mitre plate on the high priest’s forehead, Ex.28:36-38. Re.22:4 then we shall see His face and His name shall be in our foreheads. A bride is given the name of her husband.
The ancient wedding typology presents a beautiful and meaningful picture! Only Father God knows when to say to His Son, ‘The hour has come, go get your Bride’. At the time we take our final breath, may each of us be ready.
Bible Topic Exposition 