New Jerusalem Garment

[DeanZF]

Greetings, Pastor Franca!



Good stuff, talking with pastors about the concept of wedding, especially if you're pursuing a scriptural view of the bride.



There are a couple of interesting books out there that have bits and pieces about Jewish weddings and the wedding imagery that's found in the Word. I found those images most enlightening as I prepared a teaching on the bride in light of the pilgrim feasts of the Lord. Powerful stuff.



We'd be interested in a preview or a postview of what you present. Always interested to hear such things. Scripture presents such a different view of weddings as a process. The meeting of the bride through "official channels," the arrangements between fathers, the striking of the bargain (traditionally met by the word "tetelestai" as I understand it; the word is more akin to "it's a deal" than it is finished, the completion of a transaction, making Jesus' words on the cross even more powerful, IMO), the gaze of the betrothed as the soon-to-be-groom looks as his beloved before departing and says something like, "I go to prepare a place for you. In my father's house there are many marvelous dwellings," the implication being that what he was going to prepare was going to be very, very special. The promise of return was open ended because he could not come back for his bride until such time as his parents agreed that the dwelling place was adequately prepared and stocked, and that the young man was ready to receive his bride, and that the bride herself was fully prepared for this momentous event. Just SO powerful!