God has been graciously pleased to bring His saints into different relationships with Christ, His own dear Son, relationships which manifest the wonderful favour and blessings lavished upon men, and which unfold distinctive features of the divine grace and glory. The Lord Jesus speaks of His own as "My sheep." "My friends," and "My brethren;" and after His ascension the saints are viewed as His body and His bride. Israel's blessing, in the Millennium, will bring to God the joy of the bridegroom over the bride (Isaiah 62:5); and the nuptial joy of Christ over His earthly people is touchingly and charmingly described in the Song of Songs, but the portion of "The Bride, the Lamb's wife," with its closest intimacy, and deep, heavenly affection, has been reserved for the church.
Eve.
Lovely types of Christ and the church are found in the Old Testament Scriptures, giving some of the beautiful features belonging to Christ's Bride, or the traits distinguishing the saints who compose the Bride, the great prototype, Adam and Eve, being expressly mentioned in Ephesians 5. This precious picture of the blessed relationship of the church to Christ existed before the entrance of sin into the world, and before death's dark sentence cast its shadow upon fair Eden to mar its joys. Eve was formed to share with Adam the delights of a sinless, deathless paradise, where the man was head and centre, but where all was speedily and irrecoverably ruined by the fall. But the church will share with Christ the unbroken joys of the heavenly Paradise of God, where neither death nor sin can enter, and where, for eternity, she shall be Christ's blest companion, and the vessel in which the glory of God shall be displayed.
When God said "It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him an help meet for him" (Gen. 2:18). He not only disclosed His providential care for Adam, but let out what was in His mind and counsels for Christ and the church. God desired for His Son, the Man of His counsels, a counterpart, His like, one who could enter into His thoughts and feelings, and respond to His affections. The lower animals, God formed from the ground; but Adam's wife was derived from him: she was part of himself; she was built by God from Adam's rib, taken from him in his deep sleep. Similarly, while Christ slept in death, and during the time of His absence from this world, God has procured from Him and for Him, that which is of Himself, to be His companion. She belongs to Christ, yet is she the workmanship of God; and being bone of His bone and flesh of His flesh, is suitable to be united to Him.
Rebekah and Leah.
Rebekah, the bride of Isaac, and Leah, the bride of Jacob, both belonged to the same country and to the same kindred as their husbands, a very express charge being given in each case that a daughter of Canaan must not be taken as wife (Gen. 24:3; Gen. 28:1). Thus also must the bride of the Lamb belong to His country and His kindred: she is not only heavenly in destiny, but heavenly in origin — Jerusalem above is our Mother (Gal. 4:26); and we are not of the world, even as He is not of the world. Hebrews 2:11 shows that we are of His kindred.
If Rebekah and Leah have features in common they also have complementary features. Rebekah was united to him who prefigured the risen Christ (Gen. 22:12; Heb. 11:19), but Leah was bride to one who foreshadowed Christ as a sufferer, who restored that which he took not away, who was consumed in unwearied toil, and who laboured while others slept (see Gen. 31:39-40; Luke 6:12). Rebekah was procured for Isaac, and brought to him to share in all his Father gave to him; but Jacob went for Leah and secured her at the cost of rigorous service, and she first shared with him the days of toil before having part with him in the wealth and glory which he acquired. Like Rebekah, the church leaves all connected with country and father's house here, to share all that the Father has given to the Son in His House and heavenly country: and like Leah, the church is called to share a path of toil and suffering before having her eternal portion with Christ, to share the wealth and glory acquired while absent from His Father's House. (Rachel typifies Israel, Christ's earthly bride. Jacob first sought Rachel, but received Leah: so Christ came first to Israel, but being rejected He first received the church. Leah, like the church, is the fruitful one; and after loved Rachel passes off the scene, like Israel after the Millennium, Leah remains as Jacob's companion in the land of promise.)
Asenath and Zipporah.
The brides of Joseph and Moses were the daughters of priests, they were both Gentiles, and both were given to their husbands while rejected by their brethren. Those who compose the church belong to a priestly family (1 Peter 2:5), they are "all of one" with Christ, and are therefore suited for His companionship. Although the church is composed of Jews and Gentiles, it is characteristically Gentile, in the sense that it is largely composed of Gentiles: even as we read, "God … did visit the Gentiles, to take out of them a people for His Name" (Acts 15:14); and again "Christ in you, (Gentiles) the hope of glory" (Col. 1:37). That Christ has the church while rejected by His earthly brethren needs little emphasis. In this connection, it is interesting to observe that Stephen, in Acts 7, presents Joseph and Moses as types of the rejected Christ.
These brides have also complementary features: Asenath shares with Joseph his exaltation and glory, but Zipporah has part with Moses in his place of strangership and rejection. Moreover, Asenath is united to him who is raised from the lowest to the highest place in Egypt, but Zipporah is the wife of the one who forsook Egypt with its kingdom and glory; who chose the path of suffering and affliction. When on earth, Christ refused the kingdom from the Satan and from men, but He shall have it from the hand of His Father; then shall the church share His kingdom and glory.
Ruth, and Abigail.
The brides of Boaz and his descendant David were both widows, women who had known bereavement and sorrow before finding happiness with their royal husbands. They were also women of distinctive grace: Ruth, a lovely character, marked by devotion and fidelity, of whom Boaz said "All the city of my people doth know that thou art a virtuous woman" (Ruth 3:11): and of Abigail the Scripture says, "She was a woman of good understanding, and of a beautiful countenance" (1 Sam. 25:3). Abigail's action in preventing David from taking vengeance manifests her wisdom and judgment. Thus the church is composed of those who had a previous history in this world before being livingly united to Christ by the Holy Spirit, a history that came to an end by death, so that we should be married to another, even to Christ. Spite of all the failure of the church, there are manifested in the saints the beautiful features of Christ; and when the church is seen in her linen garment, pure and bright, there will be set forth all that has given Him pleasure during her earthly sojourn. And it is to Him who is of the royal line that the church is united. Not only is Christ of David's line, according to the flesh, but He is God's King, the King of Kings, and Lord of lords.
As to their complementary features; Ruth was a Moabitess, a stranger, whom the law excluded from the congregation of Israel (Deut. 23:3), but in God's sovereign mercy and grace she was brought into divine blessing and favour. But Abigail was of Israel, and probably of the tribe of Judah. So that Ruth tells of those who were afar off but have been brought nigh, while Abigail again shows the bride as belonging to Christ's kindred and country. Ruth, who was poor, left her poverty to share the substance of the "mighty man of wealth;" but Abigail left the house of the man that "was very great" with his "three thousand sheep and a thousand goats," to share the rejection, poverty, and wanderings of David. While the church leaves her poverty in this world to have part in the glorious inheritance possessed "in Christ" (Eph. 1:11), it is also her privilege to forsake this world with its proffered wealth and glory, so as to share Christ's outside place; not to he rich where He was poor.
"Christ also loved the Church."
From the epistle to the Ephesians, which opens out the counsels of God, we learn that the church is to be Christ's companion in the coming ages. To give point and force to the practical exhortations for husbands and wives, the Spirit of God, in Ephesians 5, presents the relationship of the church to Christ, and His wonderful love for the church. This great love has been measured by the giving of Himself. The man of Matthew 13 sold all he had to obtain the treasure; and the merchantman impoverished himself to secure the pearl of great price; but Christ not only emptied Himself of the form of God and relinquished all connected with His earthly kingdom, but in love gave Himself. Christ's is a love which passeth knowledge; its measure and character expressed in His death. But Christ gave Himself, not only to procure the church, but to present it to Himself, "glorious, having no spot or wrinkle, or any of such things; but that it might be holy and blameless." In Isaiah 49:5, Christ is "glorious in the eyes of the Lord," and He will have the church like Himself, even as Eve was "the like" of Adam. Nor will there be a trace of wilderness defilement upon the bride, nor mark of age; for Christ is at present engaged in purifying her "by the washing of water by the word." Having claimed her by His death, and prepared her in His present ministry, He will present her to Himself, perfectly suitable for His companionship and for the display of His glory.
"The Marriage of the Lamb."
After all Christ's care and preparation of the church, it is not surprising that the day of His espousals is celebrated with great joy and glory. In Revelation 19:7 it is written, "Let us rejoice and exult, and give Him glory; for the marriage of the Lamb is come, and His wife has made herself ready." Revelation 18 is mainly occupied with the detailed destruction of the great world system: the introductory part of chapter 19 with acclaiming God's vengeance on the corrupt system of religion, which falsified before men the character of the bride of Christ, and arrayed herself in the glory of the world. The false bride seeking a great place in man's world usurped worldly power, which brought her destruction; but the true bride waited in patience for the heavenly acclamation "Hallelujah, for the Lord our God the Almighty has taken to Himself kingly power," and then she finds her place with Christ where He is honoured and glorified. If Christ has been preparing for this day, the church has also been engaged in preparing her garment. Through the long ages of the church's sojourn on earth, the saints have been weaving and ornamenting in divine grace the shining garment composed of their righteousnesses. This garment is not the fruit of brilliant oratory, nor is its texture spun from the fibre of human wisdom; but it is the result of communion with Christ; in acts, mostly hidden from human sight, but wrought in meekness and lowliness under Christ's eye. Much that has been forgotten, by those who have lived for Christ, will be found in that day, in the garment pure and bright.
"The Bride, the Lamb's Wife."
If, in Revelation 19, the church is viewed at the marriage of the Lamb in the garment of righteousnesses; in Revelation 21 she is displaying the garment of glory that God has given her. Heaven is her home, God is her source, and glory her adorning. Like a heavenly luminary with radiating beams, in the effulgence of God's own glory, she appears like a most precious stone, as a crystal like jasper stone. She is characterised by holiness, for the church is "The holy city, Jerusalem;" and this is emphasised in the "wall, great and high." No evil can enter the divine centre, from which God will govern the world to come, and from which the light of His glory and knowledge will emanate, to enlighten and bless the nations of the earth. The glorious and glistering foundations of the city reveal that the administration of the millennium is founded upon the moral features and principles of God's own nature and character: the pure gold of the street tells that the heavenly saints will walk together in new creation glory, with nothing to impair the outshining of the scene.The gates, with their names, show that Israel has a special place in the world to come in connection with the heavenly administration. God dwells there, without a shrine, for every whit is holy; and its illumination is only from God's glory, which proceeds from Christ as the Lamb. It is the divine centre to which the tribute of the nations is brought: there the throne of God and the Lamb is, from which the river of God flows: and there the tree of life yields its precious fruits, and produces its healing leaves for the nations. In this blissful centre the servants of God serve Him in nearness, bearing His features; Himself beaming upon them, and they reigning for evermore.
"A Bride Adorned for her Husband."
When the first heaven and the first earth passes away, a new heaven and a new earth will be brought into being. Then the church is seen as "The holy city, new Jerusalem." Although the church will display God's glory in the eternal day, which has now dawned, her adornment is not presented here as a display for others, but she is viewed in her beauty to the eye of Christ. Indeed, this almost suggests, that the display of the eternal state rather shows to those who have part in it, what the church is to the heart of Christ. She displayed His glory in the millennium to the nations, now she displays what she is to Him. But, in her God dwells with men. During the millennium He dwelt in the city, for it was every whit holy: now that there is a new earth, through the church He can dwell with men. Men are brought into blessed relationship with God, and He Himself shall remove every trace of the sorrow through which they have passed; and in the glorious rest, where God makes all things new, none of the things that have brought distress and sorrow to men will exist any more. To this wonderful inheritance, God has called us; but He has meanwhile left us here to be overcomers, before entering into our full heavenly portion.
Wm. C. Reid.