Who is the Bride?
Question:
I do not fully understand the implications of the remarriage of Israel to the Father by way of the Son. Are we Yeshua's Bride or the Fathers? Can we be both?
This is a fantastic question. We learn in Jeremiah 3:8 that YHWH divorced the House of Israel and we also understand that the House of Israel will be brought back into covenant despite the divorce (i.e. Jeremiah 31:31-33; Ezekiel 36:26-27).
We cover this process in depth in the teaching “The Lost Sheep.”
It might be asked, if we are to be married to the Father, and to Yeshua, how does that work exactly?
The Father is the Word in the sense that He is the author and giver of the Word.
The Son is the Word in the sense that He is the perfect example or doer of the Word.
But, in the end, it is the Word that is the foundational component of the marriage covenant that we enter.
That is the important understanding that we are to gain through this metaphor.
We are to become “one” with the “Word.”
That is why the Father and the Son are exchangeable in the metaphorical usage of marriage.
The “Word” is the common denominator.
We have to remember that in Hebrew, many things are designed to be metaphorical teaching tools as a matter of function.
Many of these metaphors can be incompatible with each other if utilized outside of its intended scope.
For example, we are also called Sons of God in the end.
We are also to marry the Father.
It is actually against Torah to marry your own son.
Thus, we have to allow the teaching tools to teach us only the function intended.
If we attempt to hyper-literalize these concepts beyond their intent it can cause problems.
These metaphors must be considered in isolation as teaching tools, designed to offer us insight of how the spiritual order works for us now, and what is promised for us in the future.
The Father and Son metaphor is perfectly illustrated through Yeshua.
John 14:10
Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words that I say to you I do not speak on my own authority, but the Father who dwells in me does his works.
John 14:24
“He who does not love Me does not keep My words; and the word which you hear is not Mine, but the Father’s who sent Me.”
Thus, in this sense, both the Father and the Son are the Word of God. The Father is the source of the Word. The Son is the arm, or visible action of the Word.
This is why Yeshua and the Father are “one.”
John 10:30
“I and My Father are one.”
Yeshua could say that He was “one” with the Father because He did not sin. In essence, He was “one” with the Word.
He only spoke and did the Word, which did not come from Himself, but the Father.
We understand that the Father is the author of the Word, and thus the giver of instructions, or Torah. This is true in the Biblical concept of a family household as well, which is the source of the metaphor.
In addition, the Son obeys what the Father says. Thus, the Son is the physical observation of the Father’s instructions.
In the same way, when Scripture discusses us being brought into marriage, the key understanding is that we also are to be made one with the Word of God.
For the purpose of this “Question of the Week” we will briefly discuss how the concept of marriage works as it functionally relates to our relationship with the Creator.
In the beginning, we understand that marriage is when two become one.
Genesis 2:24
Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.
Currently we are not one with the Word because we still have our sinful nature that we fight daily.
Even though are not currently fully “married” or “one” with the Word, that is the end goal.
Come the resurrection, we will shed the body of flesh and put on incorruptible bodies that desires only to do the Word of God.
It is in that moment that we become “one” with the Word. We hear the Father’s instructions, and do them in their entirety for all eternity. We will fully sh’ma, hear and obey, the Word. In this, we have the picture of the Father and the Son.
This is the marriage with the Word that Scripture speaks of...when we are fully brought into the covenant that is founded on the Word of God...
We pray you have been blessed by this teaching. Remember, continue to test everything. Shalom!