The Wedding Supper of the Lamb is first mentioned in Revelation 19:7-9 as Christ is returning in his victorious Second Coming. The analogy of Christ as the bridegroom and the church as the bride is a familiar theme in the Bible and that reference about the wedding supper ties up the theme nicely.
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Marriage is the highest of human relationships and is described as two people becoming one and so it is fitting that this example is employed to describe the oneness of Christ and his church (2 Corinthians 11:2). The Apostle Paul made the comparison stating that “just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word, and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless.… ‘For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh.’ This is a profound mystery—but I am talking about Christ and the church (Ephesians 5:25-27, 31-32).”
The church is composed of believers who fall within a certain dispensation, not all believers of all time. The church started on the day of Pentecost as recorded in Acts 2 and extends up to the day of the rapture. After the rapture, the church age saints will stand before the judgment seat of Christ in heaven and will be rewarded for things done while in the body, whether good or bad (2 Corinthians 5:10). The good we have done will last and will be rewarded; the rest will be removed, burned away like wood, hay or straw in a fire (1 Corinthians 3:12-15). The end result of this judgment is that the church will be made holy and will receive precious jewels and fine linen to wear as a pure and spotless bride.
The night of the Last Supper, shortly before Christ was crucified, John recorded Jesus as saying, “My Father’s house has many rooms; if that were not so, would I have told you that I am going there to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am (John 14:2-3).” He went on to say that in addition to what he had told them that he would send the Holy Spirit to reveal further details (John 14:25-26). Indeed, further revelation was given and the Apostle Paul recorded the rapture of the living and the dead believers who were “in Christ” and stated that they would be caught up together in the air to be with the Lord forever (1 Thessalonians 4:13-18). The qualifier of being “in Christ” refers to church age saints does not apply to Old Testament saints or believers who die after the rapture (tribulation saints). Apparently shortly after the rapture is when the judgment seat of Christ will take place in heaven. This will be the culmination of Christ’s work of purifying his church (Ephesians 5:25-27) so that they may be holy and adorned like a bride having fine linen and precious jewels to wear which is consistent with the rewards from Christ’s judgment. To complete this thread of the oneness of Christ and the church, an angel told John, “Write this: Blessed are those who are invited to the wedding supper of the Lamb!” And he added, ‘These are the true words of God’. John was told this as he was witnessing the vision of the Second Coming of Christ to the earth (Revelation 19:6-21).
A wedding supper in John’s day was the final step of a three stage marriage process. The first step was the betrothal. The second was when the groom went to escort his bride back to their home to consummate the marriage. The third step was the wedding supper or celebration. Some people in our modern world may jump to the conclusion that a betrothal is the equivalent of our modern day engagement, however, that is far from accurate. The difference was that once a couple was betrothed, they were legally married though they would not live together until later. If for some reason they didn’t want to follow through, a divorce would be required. Sometimes the parents would arrange for their children to be betrothed while they were still too young to be married and they would wait until they reached the appropriate age to proceed to the next step. In some cases, the bride and groom may have never even met. With these types of arranged marriages, love was expected to follow marriage instead of what we are used to where love precedes marriage. In the traditional arrangement, the bride would be leaving the clan of her father and joining the clan of her husband. Therefore, the father of the groom would pay a dowry price for the bride. In ancient times, this exchange was a way of making it a fair transaction for both families and the women were treated more like property. In John’s day, the culture towards women changed somewhat but the dowry was still paid in keeping with the tradition. The difference was that oftentimes all or part of it was then passed on to the bride herself as a wedding gift. Once the negotiation was finalized and the contract signed, the betrothed couple would wait for the betrothal period to end, traditionally about a year (Mary and Joseph were betrothed when she was found to be pregnant and Joseph considered divorcing her quietly, see Matthew 1:19. This extended waiting period was a common part of the tradition and was even true of couples who were old enough to be married. During this time period, the groom would prepare their quarters, typically an addition built on his father’s house, and the bride would take various steps to prepare for her new life as a wife. And though they would be legally married, they waited until the groom would come with some of his friends and officially and ceremoniously escorted her to their new home. It would be a surprise as to the exact day this would happen and he would announce his presence with a trumpet and she and her friends would join in a procession with the groom and his friends back to his father’s home. (This is the background behind the parable of the parable of the ten virgins and the oil, Matthew 25:1-13). After this procession there was not a typical wedding ceremony with an exchange of vows like we might expect because it wasn’t necessary since they were already legally married. Rather the bride and groom would retreat to their quarters and physically consummate the marriage. The last step in the marriage process was the wedding supper. Actually what they called a wedding supper was more of a grand celebration with eating and drinking that lasted several days (an example of this celebration is found in John 2:1-10 where Jesus turned the water into wine). All the friends of the bride and groom’s family were invited. It was a time of great honor and joy for all involved. Apparently it was their custom to dress up in special wedding clothes when attending the celebration. (Jesus told a parable and used the example of removing a wedding supper guest who was not clothed properly to drive home the fact that not everyone will be allowed to enter his kingdom, Matthew 22:1-14).
When John recorded the announcement of the angel who proclaimed that those who are invited to the wedding supper are blessed (Revelation 19:9), it was inferred that the first two steps of the traditional wedding process were completed. Looking back, we can deduce that God the Father chose those who would compose the bride. The Bible often speaks of predestination and how believers were chosen to believe and be saved (Romans 8:29-30; Ephesians 1:11; 1 Peter 1:2) . This would correlate to an arranged marriage and the betrothal was negotiated before time began and is agreed upon when a believer does indeed exercise saving faith in the gospel. The dowry price, so to speak, was paid by God the Father who sent his son to earth to become human, to live a sinless life and die for our race. The death and resurrection of Jesus is key to the salvation of believers and is the just means for our redemption as sinners and it is because of his sacrifice that we are justified before God and can be made holy and receive our appropriate attire. Just before Jesus was crucified, he told his followers that he would go and prepare a place for them in his father’s house (John 14:2-3). That fits the tradition of the groom who would build an addition onto his fathers home during the betrothal period. The act of Jesus returning at the rapture correlates to the groom arriving to pick up his bride. The church saints are taken from our earthly home to heaven, to the place Christ prepared for us. Then we stand before the judgment seat of Christ where we are rewarded for our good works done while on earth. God has prepared good works for us to do while we are believers on earth (Ephesians 2:10) and if they are completed, we will be rewarded accordingly (2 Corinthians 5:10). This apparently equates to fine linen and a holy status as recorded by the Apostle John who recorded that the wedding of the Lamb has come, and his bride has made herself ready. Fine linen, bright and clean, was given her to wear (Revelation 19:5-7.) The passage goes on to explicitly explain that fine linen stands for the righteous acts of God’s holy people so the good works which God prepared for us and that we accomplish correlate to our holy status.
Given this theme unfolded in Scripture, by the time Christ returns to the earth to establish his Millennial Kingdom, the betrothal period was completed and the bride was taken to her new home and the wedding has been finalized. The remaining step in the process is for the wedding supper to begin with all the invited guests present and none of the unprepared guests allowed to participate (Matthew 22:11-14). The fact that the angel speaks of it in connection with the Second Coming of Christ to the earth, it is likely that he intended for us to conclude that the wedding supper would be taking place on earth, not in heaven.
In consulting various Scriptures related to the return of Christ, we can conclude that as Christ comes to earth and victoriously conquers his kingdom, several things take place. First of all Satan is captured and bound to the abyss (Revelation 21:1-3) and all non-believers are taken in death as judgment (Ezekiel 20:34-38 for Israel; Matthew 25:31-46 for Gentiles). Only true believers, either Jew or Gentile, will be allowed to become charter members of the Millennial Kingdom. Then he must raise the Old Testament saints (as prophesied in Job 19:25-27) and raise the tribulation saints from the dead (Revelation 20:4) if they hadn’t already been resurrected. Then the wedding feast would begin in the Millennial Kingdom on earth with all saints of all time either resurrected or still alive in Christ’s kingdom and celebrating his unique union with the Church age saints, his bride.
The three stages of the Jewish wedding in John’s day varied by family circumstances and social status and may have even evolved over time but the traditional three-step process was well known by all. Though the analogy generally fits the relationship of Christ and his church as described above, it breaks down if pressed too far. All the parables, metaphors and allegories used in the Bible are meant to be teaching aids. One or more elements of a commonly understood concept were used to emphasize a spiritual truth. However, they are never meant to be exact in every detail but have been employed to illustrate a difficult concept in a more familiar context to unlock the intended meaning of the more difficult concept. In this case, not much detail is given on exactly where and when this illustrative event would take place. Those details are not as important as the intended meaning of the metaphor. Christ will be one with his church and all believers of all time will participate in various roles in the Millennial Kingdom. Whether the wedding supper takes place in heaven or on earth, or any of the other minor details are not things to be dogmatic about, rather the truth revealed should prompt us to thank God that he made a way for us to participate in the celebration it represents.
[John the Baptist speaking] The bride belongs to the bridegroom. The friend who attends the bridegroom waits and listens for him, and is full of joy when he hears the bridegroom’s voice. That joy is mine, and it is now complete. He must become greater; I must become less.”
John 3:29-30
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