Jesus and His Bride

In Genesis 24, Abraham sends his chief servant back to the land of his relatives to find a wife for his son, Isaac. When the servant gets to the land of Abraham’s relatives, he prays for God to lead him to the women who God would have for a wife for Isaac. God answers his prayer and leads him to encounter Rebekah.

The servant goes to stay in the home of Rebekah’s family. He shares with her family the reason for his visit and tells them that Rebekah is the one God has selected for Isaac’s wife.

Rebekah agrees to go back with the servant and become Isaac’s wife.

In this story we have a picture of God’s relationship to the church.

Three times in the book of Revelation, the church is referred to as the bride of Christ.

The comparison of Rebekah becoming Isaac’s bride and the church becoming Jesus’ bride reveal some truths about our relationship with Jesus.

The church was created by God to be the bride of Christ just as Rebekah was created by God to be Isaac’s bride.

Because we were created to be Jesus’ bride, that means that nothing else will satisfy us the way Jesus does.

We tend to look to things like:

People

Success

Possessions

Money

Comfort

Acceptance

Romance

Family

Power

A Cause

to give our lives meaning.

They can’t because none of those things are the bridegroom.

God planned for Isaac and Rebekah to marry each other and be used by Him to be part of the process that brought the Messiah into the world. God planned for the church to marry Jesus and be the instrument that He uses to change the world.

It is not just about finding the bridegroom; it is about marrying the bridegroom.

We marry Jesus by joining every part of our life with Him.

We join our:

Heart

Soul

Wounds

Longings

Desires

with Jesus.

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is joining all of your life to Jesus.

Abraham’s servant went and sought out the bride, Rebekah. The servant gave gifts to Rebekah and her family to draw her to Isaac.

God sought us out. God through His Spirit wooed us and drew us to Jesus.

The bridegroom seeks out the bride, and the bride simply opens herself up to the bridegroom.

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is us opening ourselves up to Jesus.

There was a waiting time between the betrothal period and the wedding ceremony. That was the time for the bride to prepare herself to be married to the bridegroom.

Rebekah had the trip to Canaan to prepare herself. We as the church have been betrothed or promised to the bridegroom, but the wedding ceremony has not taken place yet.

But we have been changed. Things around us may look the same and feel the same. We are in the world but not of the world. We no longer belong to our circumstances, or our past, or our sins, or our limitations. We now belong to Jesus.

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is about belonging to Jesus and being free.

When Abraham’s servant told Rebekah’s family it was time for him to take Rebekah to Isaac, they tried to delay his leaving. When they asked Rebekah, she was willing to go right then.

When we commit to marrying Jesus, open ourselves up to Him completely, and see ourselves as belong to Him, we then focus on Him and not what we are leaving behind.

Just as Rebekah left her family, we have to leave things and values of this world and take the things of God and what He values.

We are to no longer look on this world as our home but look to our eternal home with our bridegroom, Jesus.

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is focusing on Jesus and nothing else.

Genesis 24 gives us a beautiful picture of the bridegroom seeking His bride and of the bride saying yes and giving herself completely to the bridegroom.

As the Bride of Christ, Raising the Roof and Removing the Walls,

                                                  Joe