The Bride
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Let's pray together:
Father,
Your prophetic Word describes a glorious wedding which will take place at the end of time.
Please continue to enlighten us through Your Spirit, while we study the subject of the
bride, the Lamb's wife.
In Jesus Christ we pray.
Amen.
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Revelation 21:9
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.»
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In our last lesson, we have seen that, in the heavenly great wedding, the
bridegroom will be Jesus Christ Himself, the Lamb of God.
Today, we will try to discover the identity of the bride.
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Revelation 21:2,9,10
Then I, John, saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming
down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. (...)
«Come, I will show you the bride, the Lamb's wife.»
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.
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According to Bible prophecy, the Lamb's wife is the New Jerusalem.
The architecture of this city will be the subject of a future lesson.
For the moment, let's see how a city can be called «the Lamb's
wife».
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Zechariah 8:2,3
Thus says the Lord of hosts:
«I am zealous for Zion with great zeal; with great fervor I am zealous for her.»
Thus says the Lord:
«I will return to Zion, and dwell in the midst of Jerusalem. Jerusalem shall be called
the City of Truth, the Mountain of the Lord of hosts, the Holy Mountain.»
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By designating the New Jerusalem as the bride, prophecy does not speak of the
city walls, but rather of its inhabitants, God's redeemed people.
In fact, the city is given the qualifiers which fall to its inhabitants: if the
inhabitants are true and holy, the city is then called true and holy.
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Isaiah 1:21
How the faithful city has become a harlot!
It was full of justice; righteousness lodged in it, but now murderers.
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Revelation 17:1,18
Come, I will show you the judgment of the great harlot
who sits on many waters. (...)
The woman whom you saw is that great city which reigns over the kings of the earth.
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Conversely, if the inhabitants are unfaithful to God, the city is then called a
«harlot».
It is the case with Babylon, the great apostate city.
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Ephesians 5:25
Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the
church and gave Himself for it.
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Isaiah 62:4,5
The Lord delights in you, and to Him your land will be
married.
For as a young man marries a virgin, so your sons will marry you; and as the bridegroom
rejoices over the bride, so your God will rejoice over you.
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So the bride, the Lamb's wife, is really God's faithful Church, grouping
together all the faithful believers redeemed by Jesus' blood.
Soon, this Church will dwell in the holy city of God, the New Jerusalem.
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Hosea 2:19,20
I will betroth you to Me forever; yes, I will betroth you
to Me in righteousness and justice, in lovingkindness and mercy; I will betroth you to Me
in faithfulness, and you shall know the Lord.
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Among the people of Israel, breaking the engagement commitment was as grave as
breaking the wedding commitment.
So God, being engaged or betrothed to His Church, has concluded an eternal covenant with
her, and thus promises her love and faithfulness.
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Deuteronomy 4:23,24
Take heed to yourselves, lest you forget the covenant of
the Lord your God which He made with you, and make for yourselves a carved image in the
form of anything which the Lord your God has forbidden you.
For the Lord your God is a consuming fire, a jealous God.
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Of course, God expects His wife to show the same faithfulness towards Him, and
this is why He is «a jealous God».
This jealousy has nothing in common with the human feeling clothed in distrust and desire
of possession.
This jealousy is rather the expression of exclusiveness, for God knows that He is the only
source of life, and that being unfaithful to Him leads only to tears, death and loss.
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Joel 2:16,18 (New International Version)
Let the bridegroom leave his room and the bride her
chamber. (...)
Then the Lord will be jealous for His land and take pity on His people.
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Isaiah 26:20
Come, my people, enter your chambers, and shut your doors
behind you; hide yourself, as it were, for a little moment, until the indignation is past.
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This same divine jealousy, the burning love of God for His people, will allow
the faithful believers to be protected when the seven last plagues of God's wrath strike
the world.
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2 Corinthians 11:2,3
For I am jealous for you with godly jealousy. For I have
betrothed you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ.
But I fear, lest somehow, as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, so your minds may
be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ.
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However, even if God's jealousy reminds us that only He can grant eternal life,
the Church is often tempted to succumb to the enemy's deceptions, and to forsake her
faithful husband.
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Deuteronomy 32:15,16
He forsook God who made him, and scornfully esteemed the
Rock of his salvation.
They provoked Him to jealousy with foreign gods.
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Hosea 3:1
Then the Lord said to me,
«Go again, love a woman who is loved by a lover and is committing adultery, just like the
love of the Lord for the children of Israel, who look to other gods.»
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When the Church, God's wife, chooses to devote herself to foreign doctrines and
gods, she breaks the precious covenant she had concluded with her husband, and then
becomes unfaithful, adulterous.
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By forsaking God and His will, the Church becomes guilty of adultery:
«Do not rejoice, O Israel, with exultation like the
nations! For you have played the harlot, forsaking your God.» (HOSEA 9:1 - NASV)
«Yet they would not listen to their judges, but they played the harlot with other gods,
and bowed down to them. They turned quickly from the way in which their fathers walked, in
obeying the commandments of the Lord; they did not do so.» (JUDGES 2:17)
«So Saul died for his unfaithfulness which he had committed against the Lord, because he
did not keep the word of the Lord, and also because he consulted a medium for guidance.»
(1 CHRONICLES 10:13)
«(...) lest you make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land, and they play the
harlot with their gods and make sacrifice to their gods, and one of them invites you and
you eat of his sacrifice.» (EXODUS 34:15)
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1 Corinthians 10:20-22
I do not want you to have fellowship with demons.
You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons; you cannot partake of the
Lord's table and of the table of demons.
Or do we provoke the Lord to jealousy?
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Yet, the Holy Scriptures often remind us that, in order to remain faithful to
God, we must give Him the absolute exclusiveness of our worship, and follow Him in
everything.
Here again, God's jealousy is still present, helping us to remember these important
things.
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Being the bridegroom, God requires the Church's exclusiveness:
«Adulterers and adulteresses! Do you not know that
friendship with the world is enmity with God? Whoever therefore wants to be a friend of
the world makes himself an enemy of God. Or do you think that the Scripture says in vain,
"The Spirit who dwells in us yearns jealously"?» (JAMES 4:4,5)
«Do not be unequally yoked together with unbelievers. For what fellowship has
righteousness with lawlessness? And what communion has light with darkness? And what
accord has Christ with Belial? Or what part has a believer with an unbeliever? (...)
Therefore "Come out from among them and be separate", says the Lord. "Do
not touch what is unclean, and I will receive you."» (2 CORINTHIANS 6:14,15,17)
«No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or
else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon.»
(MATTHEW 6:24)
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Jeremiah 3:6
The Lord said also to me in the days of Josiah the king:
«Have you seen what backsliding Israel has done? She has gone up on every high mountain
and under every green tree, and there played the harlot.»
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Jeremiah 3:20
«Surely, as a wife treacherously departs from her
husband, so have you dealt treacherously with Me, O house of Israel», says the Lord.
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Israel, under the Old Covenant, and the Church, under the New Covenant,
unfortunately often made themselves guilty of adultery against God.
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Jeremiah 3:1,2
«If a man divorces his wife, and she goes from him and
becomes another man's, may he return to her again? Would not that land be greatly
polluted? But you have played the harlot with many lovers; yet return to Me», says the
Lord.
«Lift up your eyes to the desolate heights and see: where have you not lain with men? By
the road you have sat for them like an Arabian in the wilderness; and you have polluted
the land with your harlotries and your wickedness.»
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And, too often, the unfaithfulness of the people of Israel and of the Church
has been almost beyond remedy.
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Jeremiah 3:12,13
«Return, backsliding Israel,» says the Lord, «and I
will not cause My anger to fall on you; for I am merciful,» says the Lord, «and I will
not remain angry forever.
Only acknowledge your iniquity, that you have transgressed against the Lord your God, and
have scattered your charms to alien deities under every green tree, and you have not
obeyed My voice», says the Lord.
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But God, with infinite patience and love, never stopped calling His unfaithful
wife, repeatedly inviting her to repent and return to Him.
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Jeremiah 2:2,3
I remember you, the kindness of your youth, the love of
your betrothal, when you went after Me in the wilderness, in a land that was not sown.
Israel was holiness to the Lord.
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Revelation 2:4,5
Nevertheless I have this against you, that you have left
your first love.
Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent and do the first works.
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God thus calls Israel to rediscover its first love for the Bridegroom.
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Jeremiah 3:22,23
«Return, you backsliding children, and I will heal your
backslidings.
- Indeed we do come to You, for You are the Lord our God. Truly, in vain is salvation
hoped for from the hills, and from the multitude of mountains; truly, in the Lord our God
is the salvation of Israel.»
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Hosea 2:14,16
«Therefore, behold, I will allure her, will bring her
into the wilderness, and speak comfort to her. (...) In that day,» says the Lord, «you
will call Me "My Husband".»
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Sometimes, unfaithful Israel responded to God's loving call.
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Jeremiah 2:25 (New International Version)
«Do not run until your feet are bare and your throat is
dry.
But you said, "It's no use! I love foreign gods, and I must go after them."»
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Hosea 11:7,8
My people are bent on backsliding from Me. Though they
call to the Most High, none at all exalt Him.
How can I give you up, Ephraim? How can I hand you over, Israel? (...) My heart churns
within Me; My sympathy is stirred.
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But sometimes, Israel's stubbornness led God to make painful decisions...
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Ezekiel 23:4,5,7,9
Their names: Oholah the elder and Oholibah her sister;
they were Mine, and they bore sons and daughters of one mother. As for their names,
Samaria is Oholah, and Jerusalem is Oholibah.
Oholah played the harlot even though she was Mine; and she lusted for her lovers, the
neighboring Assyrians. (...)
Thus she committed her harlotry with them, all of them choice men of Assyria; and with all
for whom she lusted, with all their idols, she defiled herself. (...)
Therefore I have delivered her into the hand of her lovers, into the hand of the
Assyrians, for whom she lusted.
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Sometimes, God had no choice but to abandon stubborn, unfaithful Israel to its
fate.
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Ezekiel 23:29,30,35
«They will deal hatefully with you, take away all you
have worked for, and leave you naked and bare. The nakedness of your harlotry shall be
uncovered, both your lewdness and your harlotry.
I will do these things to you because you have gone as a harlot after the Gentiles,
because you have become defiled by their idols.» (...)
Therefore thus says the Lord God:
«Because you have forgotten Me and cast Me behind your back, therefore you shall bear the
penalty of your lewdness and your harlotry.»
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In fact, God simply allowed Israel to reap the consequences of its choice.
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Abandoned by God, unfaithful Israel quickly realized its grave error:
«This people will rise and play the harlot with the gods
of the foreigners of the land, where they go to be among them, and they will forsake Me
and break My covenant which I have made with them. Then My anger shall be aroused against
them in that day, and I will forsake them, and I will hide My face from them, and they
shall be devoured. And many evils and troubles shall befall them, so that they will say in
that day, "Have not these evils come upon us because our God is not among us?"»
(DEUTERONOMY 31:16,17)
«Then those of you who escape will remember Me among the nations where they are carried
captive, because I was crushed by their adulterous heart which has departed from Me, and
by their eyes which play the harlot after their idols; they will loathe themselves for the
evils which they committed in all their abominations.» (EZEKIEL 6:9)
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Isaiah 54:5-7
«For your Maker is your husband, the Lord of hosts is
His name; and your Redeemer is the Holy One of Israel; He is called the God of the whole
earth.
For the Lord has called you like a woman forsaken and grieved in spirit, like a youthful
wife when you were refused», says your God.
«For a mere moment I have forsaken you, but with great mercies I will gather you.»
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God's greatest wish is that His unfaithful wife may repent of her sin, and
return to Him, in order to be forgiven.
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Ezekiel 16:8-10
«I spread My wing over you and covered your nakedness.
Yes, I swore an oath to you and entered into a covenant with you, and you became Mine»,
says the Lord God.
«Then I washed you in water; yes, I thoroughly washed off your blood, and I anointed you
with oil.
I clothed you in embroidered cloth and gave you sandals of badger skin; I clothed you with
fine linen.»
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God does not wish the death and loss of His unfaithful wife.
He wants to cleanse her from her sins through Jesus' blood, clothe her with Jesus' garment
of righteousness, anoint her with the Holy Spirit's oil, and help her to perform good
works, symbolized by fine linen (see Revelation 19:8).
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Isaiah 61:10
I will greatly rejoice in the Lord, my soul shall be
joyful in my God; for He has clothed me with the garments of salvation, He has covered me
with the robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom decks himself with ornaments, and as a
bride adorns herself with her jewels.
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Isaiah 63:8
[The Lord] said, «Surely they are My people, children
who will not lie.»
So He became their Savior.
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God's bride is offered the garment of salvation, symbolizing the perfect
justice of Jesus Christ which gives access to eternal life.
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Revelation 12:1,13,17
Now a great sign appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with
the sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head a garland of twelve stars. (...)
Now when the dragon saw that he had been cast to the earth, he persecuted the woman (...).
And the dragon was enraged with the woman, and he went to make war with the rest of her
offspring, who keep the commandments of God and have the testimony of Jesus Christ.
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In our lesson «The Pure Woman», we
studied such a faithful wife, clothed with Jesus' righteousness, and having suffered
Satan's severe attacks.
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Revelation 17:1,2,5
Come, I will show you the judgment of the great harlot
who sits on many waters, with whom the kings of the earth committed fornication, and the
inhabitants of the earth were made drunk with the wine of her fornication. (...)
And on her forehead a name was written: «Mystery, Babylon the great, the mother of
harlots and of the abominations of the earth.»
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Conversely, in our lesson «The Great
Harlot», we studied a Church which sank into apostasy and chose to remain apostate,
in spite of all God's calls to repentance.
Because of its stubborn rebellion, this Church became a religio-political apostate system:
Babylon the great harlot.
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Numbers 15:39,40
And you shall have the tassel, that you may look upon it
and remember all the commandments of the Lord and do them, and that you may not follow the
harlotry to which your own heart and your own eyes are inclined, and that you may remember
and do all My commandments, and be holy for your God.
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God invites us not to follow the example of Babylon, the great harlot.
He calls us, rather, to join His Church, His faithful wife, clothed with Jesus Christ's
perfect robe of righteousness, and to keep all His commandments.
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1 Corinthians 4:1,2
Let a man so consider us, as servants of Christ and
stewards of the mysteries of God.
Moreover it is required in stewards that one be found faithful.
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In addition to joining God's faithful Church, each one of us, individually,
must make sure to always remain faithful to God in everything, and to reserve for Him his
exclusive adoration.
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Revelation 14:1,4
Then I looked, and behold, a Lamb standing on Mount Zion,
and with Him one hundred and forty-four thousand, having His Father's name written on
their foreheads. (...)
These are the ones who were not defiled with women, for they are virgins.
These are the ones who follow the Lamb wherever He goes.
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By remaining faithful to God, we will join the group of the 144,000, that is,
the servants of God in the last days.
These people keep themselves «virgin»: they do not defile
themselves with other Churches which do not teach the truth, in order to be entirely pure
at the coming great wedding.
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Ephesians 5:25-27
Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the
church and gave Himself for it, that He might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of
water by the word, that He might present it to Himself a glorious church, not having spot
or wrinkle or any such thing, but that it should be holy and without blemish.
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As we look forward to this wedding, let's allow God to prepare our hearts.
Through the sacrifice of His Son, He will purify us.
Through the work of His Spirit within us, He will sanctify us.
And soon, He will glorify us.
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Revelation 19:6,7
And I heard, as it were, the voice of a great multitude,
as the sound of many waters and as the sound of mighty thunderings, saying,
«Alleluia! For the Lord God Omnipotent reigns!
Let us be glad and rejoice and give Him glory, for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and
His wife has made herself ready.»
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The great wedding of God - the bridegroom - and His Church - the bride - is
drawing near.
So let's invest all our time and efforts in God's mission, so that we may all be ready for
this glorious event!
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Let's thank God:
Lord,
We really want to join Your people, Your Bride.
Please help us to seriously prepare ourselves for the great day of the coming of the
Bridegroom.
Please purify us by the blood of Your Son, and sanctify us through the work of Your Spirit
within us. Do not let us be unfaithful to You, but keep us always close to You.
In the precious name of Jesus Christ we pray.
Amen.
The test of Lesson 91 is waiting for you!