The first wedding ceremony was performed by God Himself in a beautiful garden, called the Garden of Eden. Since Adam was created before Eve, there was not found a helper meet for him fit to be his wife. God however, performed an astounding act to make this happen. He caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam; and while he slept, He took one of his ribs or a part of his side and closed up the flesh. And the rib or part of his side which the Lord God had taken from the man, He built up and made into a woman, and He brought her to the man. Then 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 a man. (Gen. 2:21-23). Adam’s rib constituted a covenant that united the two to be one. They were one in the flesh, one in body in God’s plans for them. The beauty of this union is very significant for today’s confusing life style, for God didn’t create two women, or two men to unite them as husbands and wives, but one male and one female in order to procreate and fill the earth. Constituted by God, the first wedding was sealed by Him, saying, therefore, a man shall leave his father and his mother and shall become united and cleave to his wife, and they shall become one flesh (Gen. 2:24). Adam woke up from surgery pleasantly surprised seeing what God had brought him out of his own body. He then called her Woman, for she was taken from him. She was created for him to be a help mate. Life was complete for Adam. In perfect harmony Adam and Eve lived happily in that beautiful garden, until sin entered into their souls. And their lives became what we experience today.
In the New Testament, John chapter 2, the story is told that YAHSHUA was invited to a wedding, perhaps his mother’s family. The incarnated God, Who performed the first wedding in a garden, was now performing His first sign at the beginning of His ministry by participating in the celebration of the wedding, when providing a new wine at the end of the old one, – an ample supply of one hundred eighty gallons! (John 2:6) It was not just a wine as usual at a wedding celebration; It was a wine that symbolized the new covenant- the covenant of blood, which was to be made reality at the shedding of His blood for our redemption. It was the new covenant when Jews and gentiles would be as one in the sight of God, in His purpose of their salvation. As the bridegroom of His church, YAHSHUA was going to pay for His bride’s redemption with His own blood. But it is necessary for His bride to be a willing bride, as it was in the case of Rebecca, who was willing to leave family behind to be Isaac’s bride. YAHSHUA became the bridegroom of whosoever will accept His gift of redemption. When the time comes, He will come back to fetch His sanctified bride as she is now being sanctified by the Holy Spirit; She will be presented to Him blameless and holy. Indwelt by the Holy Spirit, He constitutes the guarantee of her salvation. As a ring guarantees the bride of her bridegroom’s commitment to her, so, the Holy Spirit seals us with the engagement ring guaranteeing our salvation. Revelation registers the future wedding of YAHSHUA with His bride by saying, Let us rejoice and shout for joy; let us celebrate and ascribe to Him glory and honor, for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and His bride has prepared herself. She has been permitted to dress in fine linen, dazzling and white- for the fine linen is the righteousness of the saints. That was the result of the Holy Spirit’s work of sanctification. Now glorified, the bride of Christ became as He is in holiness (Rev. 19:7-8).
Light from the Word 