Do you want to have relevance? Be righteous
The things done in awareness of God’s ways are the relevant things. They will last forever. A life optimized on the principles we are taught in the Holy Scriptures will be the most relevant life. To get there you must read your Bible, you must pray, and most importantly you must be saved. Once saved the Holy Spirit will come alongside you teaching you, leading you, making you relevant according to his notions of relevance. His notions are the best ones, but you have to learn that.
Entangled by a wedding
Being a bride? Now that is a thing I cannot easily get my arms around. Being a Jewish bride? Well that is a mental bridge too far to contemplate. Still Revelation 19 has this bit about a marriage feast, and I’m going to be there. Hallelujah?! Right? Well, maybe a sort of whimpered Hallelujah? Thing is this chapter is telling about a future that I can only imagine from the vantage point of the past that I can only imagine a little bit better. My own Gentile 21st Century experience has its own layers on the whole passage as well.
How to get disentangled? I sure needed to be. I went to Google and read a couple of entries none of which earth-shattered me or were of such the amazing character that I feel I need to redirect you off to them. They did help me get my arms around this, though, moving away from some odd sort of polygamous whatever that my first impressions stamped on my thoughts.
A quick flyover of a Jewish wedding
First…pause….big breath and let us get back down to what is being painted here. Ready? Read on.
So this wedding was being shown to John, a thoroughgoing Jewish man who had walked with Jesus. Installed into the God assembled Jewish system were their marriage traditions. One website pointed out to me three phases of a Jewish union. First, parents made arrangements for the marriage of their children. A dowry would be paid and the future set in place. Second, would be a torchlight parade when the Bridegroom would come to the Bride. She and her consorts would know he was coming, but not knowing when would would ready themselves and be on watch. The third phase wold be the celebration of the actual wedding when the anticipated family would become that new family. That was the wedding feast.
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