Glorious Bride Part 2
To the Virtuous Woman of God, scattered throughout the world, yet united in faith and love for the Lord, and who eagerly await the blessed appearing at His Coming, may you continue to grow in faith, hope and love, as His Spirit works in you, to sanctify you in preparation for His glorious return.
We continue today with part two of the Glorious Bride series. In these first few lessons, I want to lay a foundation of some important principles, that will help us to understand the second part of the series where I hope to present clearly the Glorious Bride, as revealed in Scripture. My reason for sharing these things are twofold. First that we may come into a greater understanding of the Bride, and therefore our own identity of who we are in Christ, and secondly that in knowing the Bride, we may understand more fully the eternal purpose of God and how future events will unfold. For I believe understanding the Bride is the key to understanding eschatology (or the doctrine of the future).
Last time, I shared the principle of dual realities, and explained how there are both primary and secondary realties. We could also say Heavenly and Earthly, or Spiritual and Natural. There are many examples of this, like the temple in Heaven, and the shadow or copy of the tabernacle upon the Earth as given to Moses. Heb 8:5, Another example is Jerusalem: for there is a Jerusalem in Heaven which Paul mentions in Gal 4:26 and a natural Jerusalem upon the earth which is the City of the Great King Ps 48:2. In each case one is primary and the other secondary, one is in Heaven the other on the Earth. But in our study of the Glorious Bride, we also identified and made comparison between the woman in Heaven, a sign of which was seen by John in Rev 12, and the woman upon the earth as in the Creation. Here’s our texts again:
“And there appeared a great wonder in heaven; a woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and upon her head a crown of twelve stars” Rev 12:1
“And Adam said, ‘This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh: she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man.’” Gen 2:23
The point I made last time, was that before there was a woman upon the earth, there was a woman in Heaven! She was depicted by the stars, the sun and the moon. She represents a key for us to unlock our understanding of the bride. When Adam and Eve were placed in the Garden, the Woman in Heaven was above them, and though she was visible, she was not yet revealed.
Today, I want to continue laying a foundation for the Glorious Bride and share another key principle, which is this: When we talk about the Bride, we are actually only talking about half of the reality of the woman. When we talk about the Bride, we are, in particular, referring to the relational aspect of the woman. Of how the Bride and Bridegroom relate to each other, two persons in union becoming one, or as the Bible says, “The two shall become one flesh” Gen 2:24. This is the relationship as expressed between Husband and Wife, and this union or “becoming one flesh” is what Paul describes for us in Eph 5:31, Jesus will leave His Father’s house and be united to His Bride. But I want to point out that in Creation, Adam gave two names to the person which came from his rib. Look again at our verse in Gen 2:23. The Bible tells us that Adam said, “she shall be called Woman”. The word used here is “Ishshah”, meaning “wife, or woman”. This is the Bride. The one who comes from the man and is joined back to him. The reason Adam called her “Ishshah” was “because she was taken out of man”. Ishshah came from out of Adam, so her name was relating her back to him. Her name connected her with him. She is his, so she has his name. This was the first name that Adam gave to his wife, he called her “Ishshah”, meaning woman or wife. But look at what happened next, for we know the story doesn’t end there, as we read in Gen 3:20
“And Adam called his wife’s name Eve; because she was the mother of all living.” Gen 3:20
Why did Adam call his wife Eve? That’s a good question, because he had already named her previously as Ishshah meaning woman. Here’s my answer: She was given her name Eve, not because she was Adam’s wife, but because she was a mother. Eve’s identity was not yet revealed at the point of marriage or of union, but her identity as Eve was revealed because she was a mother. The woman was fully revealed when she was seen as a wife and a mother, and the name given to her by her husband was the name Eve or “Chavvah” which means “life”, “to breathe”, “to give life”. The name Eve was not given because she was the bride of Adam, but because she was the mother of all living.
Eve is fertile. She is a fruitful vine. Together with her husband, they are blessed by God to “be fruitful and multiply, to fill the earth and subdue it” Gen 1:28 But more specifically there is a prophetic word given by God about the seed of the woman.
“And I will put enmity, between you and the woman, and between your seed and her Seed; He shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise His heel.” Gen 3:15
Just like Eve, the Bride is also a fertile Bride. She is a fruitful vine. She has a womb, and Satan fears the seed of the Bride, as he does the Seed of Eve.
Who is the Seed of Eve that will bruise the serpent’s head? Well, we can look at the woman in Heaven, or the primary reality, for our answer, this time in Rev 12:2,5
“And she being with child cried, travailing in birth, and pained to be delivered……. And she brought forth a man child, who was to rule all nations with a rod of iron: and her child was caught up unto God, and to his throne.” Rev 12:2,5
This is Jesus. The man child. Who is to rule all the nations with a rod of iron.
“Now out of His mouth goes a sharp sword, that with it He should strike the nations. And He Himself will rule them with a rod of iron. He Himself treads the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God.” Rev 19:15
So in closing, the foundation principle for us here, is that the woman is both a bride and a mother, and like Eve, she is only revealed or nameable, in her role as a mother. Next time we will see how the Bride is a fertile vine, and she shall manifest the glory of God upon the earth.
Until next time
Maranatha
Mike@Call2Come
