Part 5 The Millennium New Heaven & New Earth
Wedding Imagery
It is interesting to me that the imagery we are given in this Revelation 21 passage is more bride and bridegroom imagery.
2 Then I, John, saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.
Then we read further on:
9 Then one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls filled with the seven last plagues came to me and talked with me, saying, “Come, I will show you the bride, the Lamb’s wife.” 10 And he carried me away in the Spirit to a great and high mountain, and showed me the great city, the holy Jerusalem, descending out of heaven from God, 11 having the glory of God. Her light was like a most precious stone, like a jasper stone, clear as crystal. -Revelation 21:9-11
New Jerusalem is the Father's House with many rooms Jesus left to prepare. By way of reminder, the traditional time-line places this event One Thousand Years after the Second Coming. So this angel who had been the one with the seven bowls (I guess he’d been just sort of hanging around holding a bowl for a thousand years?) says to John, “Come, I will show you the bride, the Lamb’s wife.” Then the New Jerusalem is lowered to hover above the earth. It is our city and we, the bride of Christ, dwell within in glory. Therefore the city is identified with we, the bride, now wife.
So we have been hanging out in Heaven for a thousand years and we in our new dwelling place, this New Jerusalem, finally get to come down and join the party, now that it’s over? We are just now being presented? Do we not have sufficient scriptures that tell us we will return with Christ at his second coming? The conventional time-lines would have us believe this passage takes place a full thousand years later. See the problem? Let's look at a couple passages another way:
Note that Revelation 21 picks up the narrative from chapter 19, making chapter 20 a Parenthetical chapter. Revelation 20 is entirely about the end of the Millennial era and the Final Judgment. Why this parenthetic chapter here? Well, the narrative picking up at the end of chapter 19 is the disposition of the ungodly, the beast and false prophet, etc. It is logical that John would close out the discussion on what happens to all those evil folks and what happens with Satan at that point. In his commentary on Revelation Jack Kelley states:
“Having carried his description of Satan’s destiny and the resurrection of unbelievers to their conclusions in chapter 20, John now returns to the beginning of the Millennium to describe the new home of the Church in chapter 21 and the new Earth in chapter 22. We know this because the phrase “new heaven and new earth” also appears in Isaiah 65:17 at the beginning of a passage describing Israel during the Millennium.”
So how do we sort this out?
First, it is incumbent on me to revisit this ancient Jewish Wedding tradition and see what gems may lie there for us to apply. Since New Heaven and New Earth are linked using wedding idioms, it would behoove us to examine this tradition. Like so many institutions, feasts, traditions the Lord has set in motion thousands of years ago, there are numerous typologies of Christ offered from these earliest times. These are given as examples so that when Messiah would come, he would be recognized.
The Passover Lamb is one such example as a type of Christ. Moses himself was a type of Christ, even in the nature and surrounding events of his birth as a sort of foreshadowing of Jesus’ own birth. The temple and everything in it point to Christ. The ancient wedding traditions are something Jesus draws from on several occasions as a type of Christ. At least three occasions come to mind from the Olivet Discourse alone.
The Ancient Jewish Wedding
Jesus, before time to depart from his disciples, said:
“Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me. In my Father's house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also.”
−John 14:1-3
Those who live in the modern western world do not catch the full significance of Jesus' promise. This is due to the fact that in his promise Jesus was drawing an analogy from Jewish marriage customs in biblical times. Since this is so, those marriage customs must be examined if one is to grasp the significance of the promise. See how many similarities you can spot with respect to our relationship with Jesus. We pick up roughly in the middle:
The Bride’s Maids would alert the bride who is prepared for the coming of the groom. Meeting the bride “half-way” the groom received his bride together with her female attendants and the enlarged wedding party would return from the bride's home to the groom's father's house.
Upon arriving there, the wedding party would find that the wedding guests are already there. Shortly thereafter the bride and groom would be escorted by the other members of the wedding party to the bridal chamber (huppah). Interesting is the bride and bridegroom lifted up and pranced around meeting one another in the air. Prior to entering the chamber the bride remained veiled so that no one could see her face.
While the groomsmen and bridesmaids would wait outside, the bride and groom would enter the bridal chamber alone. There in the privacy of that place they enter into physical union for the first time, thereby consummating the marriage that had been covenanted by contract earlier. “For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known.” (1 Cor. 13:12). After the marriage is consummated, the groom announces the consummation to the other members of the wedding party waiting outside the chamber (John 3:29 “He who has the bride is the bridegroom; but the friend of the bridegroom, who stands and hears him, rejoices greatly because of the bridegroom’s voice. Therefore this joy of mine is fulfilled”). These people would pass on the news to the wedding guests.
Upon receiving this good news, the wedding guests would feast and make merry for the next seven days. *Note: Not 31/2 days (years) but a full week!
During the seven days of festivities, which were sometimes called "the seven days of the huppah," the bride remained hidden.
At the conclusion of these seven days the groom would bring his bride out publicly, now with her veil removed, and present her so that all could see who his bride is. “Behold the bride!” Thus would commence the public Marriage Supper with the Bridegroom and Bride, now Wife, in attendance.
But of all this, and as much a beautiful piece of poetry this is as a picture of Christ and his church (the bride of Christ) the above came to mind as I read Revelation 21. Notice that the bride is presented not 1,007 days (1,007 years) later, but she comes out of hiding, is unveiled and presented publicly seven days later. Seven days earlier she was “taken” as the bridegroom met her partway and she was escorted to the groom’s Father’s house for the official marriage ceremony. She is presented after that week of festivities. Then, there is the public Marriage Supper (they like to feast!). This will be the Marriage Supper of the Lamb. Certainly the bride is not presented and to partake in the Marriage Supper 1,000 years after it is over!
Next time we will see how Perspective Shifts back and forth between Earthly and Heavenly perspectives may inform parentheticals in the timeline.