Husband and Bride

Of all the pictures that illustrate God's love for His children, I find that of a husband with his bride to be the most fascinating. Not only do I believe this to be the comparison that most fully reflects the nature of the relationship between God and the believer, but I also believe that God invented marriage (with His guidelines for what it should be like) so that He would have as insightful a picture as possible to illustrate His relationship with Christians.

Nowhere else in Scripture is this relationship so intensely illustrated as in the Song of Solomon. While the book gives an example of the passionate love that ought to exist between a man and his wife, on a larger scale it reveals God's love for His bride, the believer. The story line mimics the interactions between God and a believer, and the statements of the bridegroom echo the love God has for His chosen. Deep love is expressed through statements like the following.

"Like a lily among the thorns, so is my darling among the maidens" (2:2). "Arise, my darling, my beautiful one, and come along" (2:10). "How beautiful you are, my darling, how beautiful you are!" (4:1). "You are altogether beautiful, my darling, and there is no blemish in you" (4:7). "You have made my heart beat faster, my sister, my bride; you have made my heart beat faster with a single glance of your eyes" (4:9). "How beautiful and how delightful you are, my love, with all your charms!" (7:6). "Many waters cannot quench love, nor will rivers overflow it; if a man were to give all the riches of his house for love, it would be utterly despised" (8:7).

Throughout the Bible, God gives instructions about the institution of marriage that He ordained. It is important that these guidelines designed by God be followed in order to present a true picture of God's love for believers. Without question, God Himself follows the pattern that He established. With that in mind, the Bible contains some interesting insights about God's love expressed through the picture of marriage.

Salvation itself is compared to the excitement and extravagant preparations of the wedding day. "I will rejoice greatly in the LORD, . . . for He has clothed me with garments of salvation, He has wrapped me with a robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom decks himself with a garland, and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels" (Isaiah 61:10).

God rejoices over His bride. "As the bridegroom rejoices over the bride, so your God will rejoice over you" (Isaiah 62:5). While this verse refers specifically to Israel, other parts of the Bible reveal that the Gentile church is also included as the bride.

The husband is admonished to faithfulness to his bride, and to be always satisfied with her, desiring no one else. "Rejoice in the wife of your youth. . . . Be exhilarated always with her love" (Proverbs 5:18-19).

Marriage is such a positive thing that it is to be viewed as a reward. "Enjoy life with the woman whom you love all the days of your fleeting life which He has given to you under the sun; for this is your reward in life" (Ecclesiastes 9:9).

A loving husband wants his wife to be fruitful and sees this fruitfulness as a blessing. "Your wife shall be like a fruitful vine within your house" (Psalm 128:3). This is also a common theme found in Song of Solomon.

A loving husband is interested in pleasing his wife, and he gives diligent effort to doing good things for her. "But one who is married is concerned with the things of the world, how he may please his wife" (I Corinthians 7:33).

A loving husband understands his wife, especially in the aspect of recognizing and being sensitive to her weaknesses. "You husbands in the same way, live with your wives in an understanding way, as with someone weaker, since she is a woman" (I Peter 3:7)

God chose His bride while she was imperfect and hurting. He accepted someone whom others had rejected. "For your husband is your Maker, . . .  For the LORD has called you, like a wife forsaken and grieved in spirit, even like a wife of one's youth when she is rejected" (Isaiah 54:5-6).

Even when believers are unfaithful to God, He remains faithful. In spite of His bride's defilement, He invites her to come back to Him. "God says, 'If a husband divorces his wife and she goes from him and belongs to another man, will he still return to her? Will not that land be completely polluted? But you are a harlot with many lovers; yet you turn to Me,' declares the LORD" (Jeremiah 3:1). The story of Hosea was designed to show this undying love of God in spite of the bride's gross violation of the marriage vows. "Then the LORD said to me, 'Go again, love a woman who is loved by her husband, yet an adulteress, even as the LORD loves the sons of Israel, though they turn to other gods and love raisin cakes'" (Hosea 3:1).

God will never put away the bride He has taken. "'Let no one deal treacherously against the wife of your youth. For I hate divorce,' says the LORD" (Malachi 2:15-16).

Marriage is for life. "A wife is bound as long as her husband lives; but if her husband is dead, she is free to be married to whom she wishes, only in the Lord" (I Corinthians 7:39). Since God is eternal, and since He gives His children eternal life, there is no end to this marriage.

A husband and his wife become one. Believers are joined inseparably to God. "For this reason a man shall leave his father and his mother, and be joined to his wife; and they shall become one flesh" (Genesis 2:24). Because the believer is one with Christ, the bride can never be separated from God or His love.

What is probably the Bible's most famous passage regarding husbands describes the extent of love. "Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself up for her, so that He might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, that He might present to Himself the church in all her glory, having no spot or wrinkle or any such thing; but that she would be holy and blameless. So husbands ought also to love their own wives as their own bodies. He who loves his own wife loves himself; for no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ also does the church, because we are members of His body. . . .This mystery is great; but I am speaking with reference to Christ and the church" (Ephesians 5: 25-30,32).

God as the husband loves the wife as if she were His own body (which, in fact, she is), and He showed that love when Jesus actually sacrificed His own life for her. God nourishes and cherishes His bride. He also has a great objective for her; He wants to cleanse her, to help her improve and develop to the point that there is no longer the least bit of spot or impurity in her. With His intervention, she will become someone infinitely more beautiful than she ever could have become on her own. The above passage closes by revealing the God-intended picture of His love as seen through the institution of marriage.

"Let us rejoice and be glad and give the glory to Him, for the marriage of the Lamb has come and His bride has made herself ready." Revelation 19:7 (NASB)

 

This study was prompted by and partially based upon the final sermon in a series about knowing God that can be ordered here.