Imagine
that your wedding is three weeks away. Your life-long
dream —
your "Desire" — will finally come. You will be
married. But
this
will be no ordinary wedding—this will be a Royal wedding!
But
now you realize you are in a dilemma. You have not prepared
for
the wedding. Nothing is ready. What do you do?
Your
personal affairs have not been taken care of. Your wedding
clothes have not been selected, nor attended to. You are now
in a
state of shock, as you realise just what there is yet to be done, to
prepare or your wedding. You then ask yourself, "What steps
should I take to prepare for the wedding?
You
know
that this
wedding is a very special wedding. You then begin to realise that you
will be taken away to a Far Country, so there can be no "loose ends"
when you leave with the Bridegroom. You then sit down hurriedly, and
scribble out a crude check-list, a "To-Do" List. You must have
everything done at the proper time. You then understand that each item
on your List is 'prophetic' of a
certain characteristic describing the readiness of all who would be a
part of the Bride company.
You pick up a
tablet, and a pen, and begin your list. It might look something like
this:
My
Wedding Preparation
To-Do List
The
Bride's Personal Preparation1.
Pay off Monetary Debts
2. Pay off Unforgiveness Debts
3.
Make Restoration where needed.
4. Be up-to-date on tithes
5.
Give away imprudent excess to the poor
6. Make out a will
The
Bride's Wedding Preparation1.
Wash the Body
2. Pick out the Clothes
3. Wash the
Clothes
4. Iron the Clothes
5. Put on the Clothes
6.
Put on the Belt
7. Put on the Bridal Veil
8. Be Ready
and "Watching" You then begin to put down
details on your list. Now Your list looks something like this:
My Wedding Preparation
—
DetailsPersonal Preparation
Details1. Pay Off all 'monetary'
debts.
Owe no man anything,
but to love one another (Romans 13:8). 2.
Get all 'unforgiveness' debts taken care of.
Therefore
if thou bring thy gift to the altar, and there rememberest that thy
brother hath ought against thee; 24 Leave there thy gift before the
altar, and go thy way; first be reconciled to thy brother, and then
come and offer thy gift. 25 Agree with thine adversary quickly, whiles
thou art in the way with him; lest at any time the adversary deliver
thee to the judge, and the judge deliver thee to the officer, and thou
be cast into prison. 26 Verily I say unto thee, Thou shalt by no means
come out thence, till thou hast paid the uttermost farthing
(Matthew 5:23-26). 3.
Make restoration where needed. Give to the Poor.
And
Zacchaeus stood, and said unto the Lord, Behold, Lord, the half of my
goods I give to the poor; and if I have taken any thing from any man by
false accusation, I restore him fourfold (Luke 19:8) 4.
Be up-to-date on the tithe, which is Yahuweh's portion.
Bring
ye all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be meat in mine
house, and prove me now herewith, saith the LORD of hosts, if I will
not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that
there shall not be room enough to receive it (Malachi 3:10). 5.
Sell all that you have, and give to the Poor.
Yet
lackest thou one thing: sell all that thou hast, and distribute unto
the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come, follow me
(Luke 18:22). 6. Make out a will.
Good stewardship requires that the rest of the Father's house be
provided for.
A good man
leaveth an inheritance to his children's children...(Proverbs
13:22). Wedding
Preparation Details1. The Bride Washes
Her Bodya.
The first part of the Bride's preparation is the washing of the
body. Notice the command is for "you" to do the washing:
Wash
you, make you clean; put away the evil of
your doings from before mine
eyes; cease to do evil; Learn to do
well; seek judgment, relieve the
oppressed, judge the fatherless, plead
for the widow. Come now, and let
us reason together, saith the LORD: though your sins be as scarlet,
they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they
shall be as wool. (Isaiah 1:16-18) We
see above that the washing of our body speaks of 'cleaning
up' our
doings, our daily walk. However, the cleaning is done from inside-out.
The cleaning must first come to our innermost
being — our
'heart.' But we then realise we ourselves cannot do this
cleaning.
Only by the Blood of the Covenant, sealed by Yahushua's Blood, can we
be cleansed within (1John 1:7; Psalms 51:7; Exodus 12:22).
b.
We then realize that we must cry out to Yahuweh to do the washing, the
cleansing. He will do so when we acknowledge our sin.
Wash
me thoroughly from mine iniquity, and cleanse me
from my sin. For
I acknowledge my transgressions: and my sin is ever before
me. (Psalms 51:2-3)
Purge
me with hyssop, and I shall be clean: wash me,
and I shall be whiter than snow.(Psalms
51:7)
If
we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to
forgive us our sins,
and to cleanse us from all
unrighteousness. (1 John 1:9)
And
from Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness, and the first begotten
of the dead, and the prince of the kings of the earth. Unto
him that
loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood...
(Revelation 1:5) For everything
regarding the
bride's preparation must be by Yahuweh's Grace — by
his own power, by
the Holy Spirit, to accomplish.
c. We then
realize that we
have tried to wash under our own efforts, our "own works," but we have
not really accomplished the required washing.
There
is a generation that are pure in their own eyes,
and yet is not washed from their
filthiness. (Proverbs 30:12)
Not
by works of righteousness which we have done,
but according to his
mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and
renewing of the
Holy Ghost; (Titus 3:5) So
we see the
first step, of washing the body, is the Regeneration that occurs
initially, and is the Righteousness Yahuweh imparts to us by the Holy
Spirit.
d. Our "washing" must be accompanied with
prayer and fasting.
But
thou, when thou fastest, anoint thine head, and wash
thy face; (Matthew 6:17) e.
Our own "washing" includes allowing 'Messiah-in-you' to wash the feet
of others. It is in this way that we show the humbling of self:
And
he turned to the woman, and said unto Simon, Seest thou this woman? I
entered into thine house, thou gavest me no water for my feet: but she
hath washed my feet with tears, and wiped them with the hairs
of her
head. (Luke 7:44)
If I then,
your Lord and Master, have washed your feet; ye also ought to
wash one another's feet. John 13:14
...Verily
I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the
least of
these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.
(Matt 25:40) 2.
The Bride Chooses Her Clothes. After
washing the Body, the Bride must then choose the clothes, the
Garments she will wear. We are told much in
Scripture that
we must have clothing, and we must wash our clothes before coming into
the presence of the King:
And
the LORD said
unto Moses, Go unto the people, and sanctify them to day and to morrow,
and let them wash their clothes, And be ready
against the third day:
for the third day the LORD will come down in the sight of all the
people upon mount Sinai. (Exodus 19:10-11) In
the above passage we see a very important principle. We must
wash
our clothes, before we may come into the presence of Yahuweh, the
King. We are given a similar word in Ephesians:
Husbands,
love your wives, even 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. (Ephesians 5:25-27) Some
today have thought the only washing necessary is the washing of the
body—the Regeneration, and imparting of Righteousness, as
seen in
the
first section above. Thus many have heard that if they have been
Born-Again, they are 'ready.' Many have assumed that since a
white
robe
was first
given to them at salvation (See Isaiah 61:10), there is no
garment-washing
needed. When we were first redeemed, we were each given a Robe
that was white. However, over time we have all soiled,
spotted,
and dirtied our robes—and they must be washed, and made white
again.
There
is now much washing
needed for our
clothes. Our Garments have become full of spots, and wrinkles, and full
of blemishes. How has this happened?
"Who
can understand
his errors? cleanse thou me from secret faults. Keep back thy
servant also from presumptuous sins…" (Psalms
19:12,13). Every day we face the possibility of sinning, and
thereby "spotting"
our garments (See also Matthew 24:12 and James 3:2).
Our
garments need to be prepared. But in order to
wash our clothes, and prepare our garments, we must know and understand
just which clothes to wash. We must understand exactly what
our
wedding clothes—our garments, and our robe—really
are.
Let's look at these in Scripture.
What
are the Bride's Garments?Before
we look at washing the garments, we must first understand what our
garments are.
In
this section we will give a brief recap of what we saw clearly from
Scripture, in (Righteousness Sown, Righteousness
Harvested). We
found that that the Scriptural, prophetic meaning (the 'now' meaning
for us) of our garments, and our robe, is our works.
Garments,
Robes, and coverings in Scripture speak of many things. In general,
they speak of what we do. These 'works' consist of
two types
of
Garments:
a. Filthy Rags (Isaiah 64:6)
b.
Fine linen, clean and white (Revelation 19:8)
We
saw that these garments can either be filthy rags —
works produced from our
own efforts — our own strength, in trying to keep
and observe Yahuweh's
Word. Or they can be clean and white garments —
works produced by the
leading and strength of Messiah-in-you, in obedience to all of His
Word.
We
saw also
that Scripture
shows a parallel example, in that the Fruit we produce is
likewise our
works, both
good and bad. The Fruit and the Garments are one and
the
same parable — to teach us that both garments and
fruit can be either good
or bad (Evil or 'wicked'). They are good if they are
works of Messiah-in-you, in obedience to Scripture. They are bad
if they are works done by our own initiative or ambition (See
1Corinthians 3:9-15, showing the contrast of good and bad works).
We
also concluded
that our clean garments are NOT the works of Titus
3:5:
"...not
by works of Righteousness, which WE have done..." (Titus 3:5) We
saw clearly that it was "not by works of Righteousness, which
WE have
done"
that we are saved. No, these works are merely filthy rags and barren
branches in the sight of Yahuweh, no matter how good, how
Righteous, noble or
sincere they may be.
We
saw that the Garments we are
to prepare, however, are the works of
Righteousness as seen in Isa 61:10:
I
will greatly rejoice in the LORD, my soul shall be joyful in my God;
for he hath clothed me with the garments of salvation, he
hath covered
me with the robe of righteousness..." (Isaiah
61:10) We
must make it absolutely clear, that what counts for our garments, or
works of Righteousness — is ONLY what Yahuweh
Himself has done, by His
grace, and not we ourselves.
We found
that the clean and white garments of our 'works' consist of two parts:
a.
The initial work of the Holy Spirit, "by the
washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost" (Titus 3:5).
b.
The ongoing life of "Messiah-in-you" to produce the
"Fruit of
Righteousness" in us, by His Life in us, and by His Grace to
accomplish. This occurs only
when we
allow Him to walk in us, in obedience — obedience to
the Father,
obedience to His Word, to His Holy Spirit, and obedience to His own
Commandments. We found that in order to identify which
Commandments He refers to, we need only imitate Messiah, and do what He
did when He was on earth 2,000 years ago. We then saw that
what He did was to simply obey the
"Torah" that He (as the Word of the Father) gave to
Moses — which He calls "My
Commandments"
(Romans 5:9-10; Colossians 1:27; 1John 2:7; 1John 5:2-3).
The
net
result is that both the initial work, as well
as the ongoing, daily life of Messiah-in-you, is
all by His Grace — His
power in us to accomplish and complete the work. We saw that
it is Messiah
Yahushua Himself — as both the Seed and the Tree
— who is our
Righteousness.
Likewise,
we
saw that what He produces in
us, becomes both the Fruit
of works, and the Garment, or Robe of
Works — of His Righteousness — of
His obedience in us, as He
lives in our bodies, and as He provides the Grace to
accomplish the works.
With this
understanding, we will go on to discuss the next step: the washing of
our clothes, our garments.
3. The Bride
Washes Her ClothesWe
have seen that our works — what we
do — are our Garments, our covering. So how do we
wash our Garments — our works? We saw
the answer
above, in Ephesians 5:25-27. It is by the 'washing of water
by
the Word.'
This washing of water by the Word is not
simply
'reading' the Bible. It is in reading, hearing, and in
particular, the doing
of
the
Word, that brings the cleansing of our garments —
our
works. However, again we must be warned, that even the
cleansing
of our garments
can NOT occur by our own efforts:
Not
by works of
righteousness which we have done, but
according to his mercy he saved
us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy
Ghost; (Titus 3:5)
How
much more shall the blood of
Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to
God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve
the living
God? (Hebrews 9:14) Notice
that any "works of
Righteousness, which WE have done..." can not, and will not, avail
anything—because these are 'dead works.' It is only what
'Messiah-in-you' does, that "serves the living Yahuweh." It is
only
the Holy Spirit in you, that can make your garments clean. We
are
told why this is true in the following passage:
But
we are all
as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses
are as filthy rags;
and we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, have
taken us away. (Isaiah 64:6) But
we are told which
righteousness does produce much:
Being
filled with the fruits of righteousness, which
are by Jesus Christ,
unto the glory and praise of God. (Philippians 1:11) Remember,
fruits of Righteousness are works; Garments
and Robes of
Righteousness are works.
Filthy Garments (works of iniquity) will be removed, resulting in
nakedness (Isaiah 59:6; Rev 16:15). Fruit and Garments are one and the
same
parable.
We must fully understand that it is ONLY
'by works of
righteousness which HE has done' that will become clean garments for
us. You ask, "How does this happen?" It is only when
we
allow
'Messiah-in-you' to do the 'works' in us.
The
only
clean garments we can have, are the works of Righteousness which
'Messiah-in-you' has done, when we allow Him to walk in obedience,
in OUR body. This is the making of the clean
Garment. This is
the washing of water by the Word—by Messiah-in-you.
In
order for
you to wash our Garments — to produce
'good' works — we must Allow
'Messiah-in-you' to keep his own commandments today, while walking
around
in our body, in the same way he did when he walked around in
his own
body 2,000 years ago (Luke 4:16).
Therefore if we
want to wash our clothes, we must allow 'Messiah-in-you' to
wash our 'garments' —
to bring the 'doing' of His Word into our life and daily
practice. And that includes allowing 'Messiah-in-you' to
observe
His weekly and annual Sabbaths, while living in our body.
As was
said previously, when
we were first redeemed, we were each given a Robe that was white.
However, during the long waiting period, we have all soiled our robes,
and they must be made white again. Only Messiah-in-us can
clean the Robe.
But Messiah-in-us
will do only what
we allow Him to do. He will not force us to do obey His Word.
If our 'doctrines' prevent Him-in-us from walking in full
obedience to all of His Word, He will not force us to obey. It is in
this way that He knows who chooses to love Him, and who does not (John
14:15, 15:10; 1John 5:3).
What
is NOT
included in this washing instruction is the special Robe-washing that
will take place, for those Virgins that will come
later — who do not
ascend alive as the Company of the Bride. As a result, these Virgins
must
go through the furnace of testing, and perhaps physical death. This
washing may be seen in
(Rev 7:14).
After washing, the Garments are ready to
be ironed.
4. The Bride Irons Her Clothes.After
the clothes are thoroughly washed, to remove the spots, they must next
be ironed, to remove the wrinkles:
...not
having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it
should be holy and without blemish (Ephesians 5:27b)
For
our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh
for us a far
more exceeding and eternal weight of glory; While we look not
at the
things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen:
for the
things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen
are eternal. (2 Corinthians 4:17-18) The
heat and
pressures of the day are our "light affliction, which is but for a
moment" — and indeed it does "work for us a far more
exceeding and
eternal weight of glory. However, these afflictions do us
good
only on one condition. And that is ONLY "While we look not at
the
things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen...."
These
afflictions are our preparation and testing from Yahuweh, who is
unseen. If, in our afflictions, we lash out at the
affliction, or
at those around us who cause the afflictions — we then tend
to forget
that the affliction is from Yahuweh, for our good. The
final result of that affliction is, that the affliction does us no good
at all!
In this example the garment has not been
'changed.' It is still
'wrinkled,' because it did not respond to Yahuweh's heat-and-pressure
ironing of our garment. How we respond to the affliction makes
the difference. Notice the
result of patience (patient endurance) in the following passages:
Knowing
this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience.
But let patience
have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire,
wanting
nothing. (James 1:3-4) We
see above that the result of patience is
'perfection.' One of the hallmark goals of
the
Bride's preparation is the word perfect. The
Bride's main goal of preparation is seen as perfecting of Love (1John 2:5,
4:12, 4:17-18), and how she accomplishes this perfecting of Love is
revealed in her Garments.
With patient
endurance comes perfection (of love), and we thus see that the wrinkles
are
gone, because of how she responded to trials and afflictions
(See
Revelation 3:10; Revelation 14:12). The Bride may now
proceed beyond the ironing. She may now begin to put on her
Garments.
5. The Bride Puts On Her
ClothesThe
Scriptures are abundant in describing the putting on of the Garments
that are prepared for the Bride. In the first section
above we saw one overriding Truth. This is the Truth
that all
of
our Righteousness — both the washing of the Body
(Redemption by His Blood and regeneration of our spirit), and
the Washing of the Garments (our resulting works) — must be
done by "Messiah-in-you"
in order to avail anything.
With this said, we will
now look at
the 'putting on' of these garments. Let us first be reminded
that
it is not merely 'Garments' that are to be put on, but proper 'Wedding
Garments' as we see in this passage:
And
Jesus answered and spake unto them again by parables, and
said, The kingdom of heaven is like unto a certain king, which
made a marriage for his son... And
when the king came in to see the guests, he saw there a man which had
not on a wedding garment: And he saith unto him, Friend, how
camest
thou in hither not having a wedding garment? And he
was speechless.
Then said the king to the servants, Bind him hand and foot, and take
him away, and cast him into outer darkness; there
shall be weeping and
gnashing of teeth. For many are called, but few
chosen.
(Matthew 22:1-2; 22:11-14) In this
parable for the Bride, we see
the importance of the 'Wedding' Garments. These are not just
any
Garments; these Garments are not just 'Good Works' that one may
perform. We will look at the Scriptures, to confirm what the
Bride has
chosen, and to give us a further clue of what else she is to put
on. First we will list the Scriptures, then note what we see
in
the Scriptures:
I put
on righteousness, and it clothed me: my judgment
was as a robe and a diadem. (Job 29:14)
Awake,
awake, put on strength, O arm of the LORD; awake,
as in the ancient
days, in the generations of old. Art thou not it that hath cut Rahab,
and wounded the dragon? (Isaiah 51:9)
Awake,
awake; put on thy strength, O Zion; put
on thy beautiful garments, O
Jerusalem, the holy city: for henceforth there shall no more come into
thee the uncircumcised and the unclean. (Isaiah
52:1)
The
night is far spent, the day is at hand: let us therefore cast
off the
works of darkness, and let us put on the armour of
light.
(Romans 13:12)
Behold,
I shew
you a mystery; We shall not all
sleep, but we shall all be changed, In a moment, in the twinkling of an
eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall
be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. For this corruptible
must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put
on immortality. So
when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal
shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying
that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory.
(1 Corinthians 15:51-54)
For
as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on
Christ. (Galatians 3:27)
And
that ye put on the new man, which after God is
created in righteousness and true holiness.
(Ephesians 4:24)
Put
on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand
against the wiles of the devil. (Ephesians 6:11)
And
have put on the new man, which is renewed
in knowledge after the image
of him that created him: (Colossians 3:10)
Put
on
therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, bowels of
mercies,
kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, longsuffering; Forbearing one
another, and forgiving one another, if any man have a quarrel
against
any: even as Christ forgave you, so also do ye.
(Colossians
3:12-13)
But let us, who are of
the day, be sober, putting on
the breastplate of faith and love; and for an
helmet, the hope of
salvation.
(1 Thessalonians 5:8)
Likewise,
ye younger,
submit yourselves unto the elder. Yea, all of you
be subject one to
another, and be clothed with humility: for God
resisteth the proud, and
giveth grace to the humble. (1 Peter 5:5) In
the
above passages we see many things that the we are to "put on." As
Bride-Candidates, we should investigate each aspect of the above
passages diligently. The one central idea is that we are to
put
on Messiah Himself. When this occurs, His
attributes begin
to shine forth, through our own individual personality, as seen in the
above
passages.
First we see 'Righteousness,'
as the male
noun, in the passage in Job 29:14. As we saw in
(Righteousness Sown,
Righteousness Harvested), the Hebrew word for Righteousness,
Strongs
number <06664>, is the noun of the male gender,
telling
us that
this is the "Seed" of Righteousness, the living Word from Yahuweh
Himself. We are then told in the above passage in Job, "It
(Righteousness) clothed me."
Indeed,
this is just as we
saw, that the
male Seed of Righteousness (Yahushua) sprouts, and brings
forth the female tree, which produces
the female fruit of Righteousness, which is our works, and our
garments — with the result that 'He' clothed
me. Again,
it is 'our'
Righteousness, and 'our' Garments — ONLY to the extent
that
'Messiah-in-us' has done the producing!!
But let
us be warned at this point. It is the many 'Good' works
produced by self,
that could find us clothed in filthy rags.
With
this
understanding, we can see the many attributes expressed in the
remaining verses — the 'one new man' that is
Messiah-in-us; the attributes of
righteousness, holiness, mercy, forgiveness, and
love — are all
attributes Messiah-in-us desires to express, while living out His life
in
our bodies. It is these attributes that are produced by
Messiah-in-us, that become the 'Wedding Garments' that clothe
us.
Let us now proceed to the Girdle, or
Belt.
6.
The Bride Puts On the BeltThe
next item the Bride is to put on is the Belt, or Girdle. The
Girdle is an outer belt, or band, used to secure the clothing, and to
hold it in place during various activities. Like the
clothing,
the Girdle has many prophetic qualities very similar to those of the
Garments. The one special quality we may
see related to the
Girdle is that of 'perfection' — perfection
indicating wholeness, completeness, ripeness or finality of
preparation.
Again, we will show a few
of the Scripture
passages, with highlighting, and then make a few observations. Let's
look at the following passages:
And
when Abram was ninety years
old and nine, the LORD appeared to Abram, and said unto him, I am the
Almighty God; walk before me, and be thou perfect.
(Genesis
17:1)
And the curious
girdle of the ephod, which is upon it,
shall be of the same, according to the work thereof;
even of gold, of
blue, and purple, and scarlet, and fine twined linen.
(Exodus 28:8)
And thou shalt
embroider the coat of fine linen,
and thou shalt make the mitre of fine linen, and
thou shalt make the
girdle of needlework. (Exodus
28:39)
He shall put
on
the holy linen coat, and he shall have the linen
breeches upon his
flesh, and shall be girded with a linen girdle,
and with the linen
mitre shall he be attired: these are holy garments;
therefore shall he
wash his flesh in water, and so put them
on. (Leviticus 16:4)
Thou
shalt be
perfect with the LORD thy God.
(Deuteronomy 18:13)
Let
your heart therefore be perfect with the LORD our
God, to walk in his
statutes, and to keep his commandments, as at this
day. (1
Kings 8:61)
It is God that girdeth
me with strength, and maketh my way perfect.
(Psalms 18:32)
And righteousness
shall be the girdle of his loins, and faithfulness
the girdle of his reins. (Isaiah 11:5)
Be
ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven
is perfect. (Matthew 5:48)
Jesus
said unto him, If thou wilt be perfect, go and sell
that thou hast, and
give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come and
follow me. (Matthew 19:21)
And
that which fell among
thorns are they, which, when they have heard, go forth, and are choked
with cares and riches and pleasures of this life, and bring
no fruit to
perfection. (Luke 8:14)
Finally,
brethren, farewell.
Be perfect, be of good comfort, be of one mind, live
in peace; and the
God of love and peace shall be with you.
(2
Corinthians
13:11)
Stand therefore, having
your loins girt about with truth,
and having on the breastplate of righteousness;
(Ephesians
6:14)
Let us therefore, as many
as be perfect, be thus minded:
and if in any thing ye be otherwise minded, God shall reveal even this
unto you. (Philippians 3:15)
And
above all these things put on charity (love), which is the
bond of perfectness. (Colossians 3:14)
That
the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished
unto all good works. (2 Timothy
3:17)
Make
you perfect in every good work to do his
will, working in you that
which is wellpleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ;
to whom be
glory for ever and ever. Amen. (Hebrews 13:21)
Seest
thou how faith wrought with his works, and by works was faith
made perfect? (James 2:22)
Wherefore
gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and hope
to the end for the
grace that is to be brought unto you at the revelation of Jesus
Christ; (1 Peter 1:13)
But
whoso keepeth his word,
in him verily is the love of God perfected: hereby
know we that we are
in him. (1 John 2:5)
No
man hath seen God at any
time. If we love one another, God dwelleth in us,
and his love is
perfected in us. (1 John 4:12)
Herein
is our love
made perfect, that we may have boldness in the day of
judgment: because
as he is, so are we in this world. There
is no fear in love; but
perfect love casteth out fear: because fear hath torment. He
that
feareth is not made perfect in love. (1
John 4:17-18)
And
in the midst of the seven candlesticks one like unto the Son of man,
clothed with a garment down to the foot, and girt about the
paps with a
golden girdle. (Revelation 1:13)
Be
watchful, and
strengthen the things which remain, that are ready to die: for I have
not found thy works perfect before
God.
(Revelation 3:2) As
we look at the passages above, we can begin to notice several
things. First, the prophetic items that make up the Girdle
appear
to be similar to the items we saw as Garments in the
previous
section. Like the Garments, these qualities appear as both fruit and works, and
include such attributes as Righteousness, Faith, Love, and Perfection
(maturity and completion).
One
great illustration of the "Divine Commentary" aspect of the New
Testament can be seen in two companion verses above. Notice
that
one of the items of priestly Garments was the "Curious Girdle" of
Exodus 28:8. The name for this garment in Hebrew is chesheb,
Strongs number <02805>, from <02803>
meaning "devise,
think, imagine, consider, purpose." This definition reveals
the
importance of our thoughts, and our motives — how we
think, and purpose
in our minds. The Apostle Peter tells us we are to "gird up
the
loins of your mind..."
(1 Peter 1:13a).
We then see
in Exodus
28:8 that the 'Curious Girdle' shall be the "same work
thereof — even
of gold, of blue, and purple, and scarlet, and fine twined
linen." These items are regarded by all as very costly or
valuable, and are items to be guarded and treasured. The
meaning
thus portrayed is that for a priest
('Believer'), his thoughts
and works are to be the same.
They are to be
of 'gold, of blue, and
purple, and scarlet, and fine twined linen'— all of
which are prophetic terms, each of
which speaks of one particular, treasured aspect of the
working of
'Messiah-in-you' within our heart and
mind (our thoughts), and our actions.
The
one
additional quality we see over and over in
the above passages is that of 'perfection.' This implies to
us
that the putting on of the "Girdle" is the bringing to
perfection — bringing
to completion — of
the Bride-Candidate’s Garments. She is now ready to
put on her veil.
7.
The Bride Puts on Her VeilThe
Bride is the Glory of the Husband (1Co 11:7). As such, the Bride has a
covering that represents her submission to her Husband, and also gives her a hidden quality with regard to the rest of the
Virgins. And so there are several things we must know about the Bride's
veil. First we will notice the following about the Bride:
She
maketh herself coverings of tapestry; her clothing is silk
and purple. (Proverbs 31:22) This
covering is first of all, of her own making. But in other
passages, we have seen that the Bride's covering is given to her
(Hosea 2:9; 1Co 11:15). So again we must conclude that the
Bride's covering veil is the result of a co-operative effort between
the Bride- Candidate and the Holy Spirit.
The Bride's
covering veil is a
sign, a token or indicator of one who is a Bride-Candidate. In this
regard we must be warned: the Bride's covering veil, the token
of her
Bride-Candidacy, may at times be in jeopardy. Notice the
following passage:
The watchmen
that went about the city found
me, they smote me, they wounded me; the keepers of the walls took
away
my veil from me. (Song of Songs 5:7) As
we saw in The
Bride-as Seen In Chavah (Eve),
it is the 'Watchmen' — the
Church
Leaders — those that are charged with keeping of the 'Walls
of
Salvation' in the lives of the people — that smite the Bride.
These 'Watchmen' going about the City are 'Shepherds' in name only, and
they do not really guard the welfare of the Sheep (See Eze
34:1-10). The goal of satan is to use these well-meaning
Leaders
to remove the Bride qualities from the Bride, through the Leaders'
ignorance of Scripture and their eventual persecution of the Bride.
The Bride is hereby
warned, that it is
only by studying Scriptures for oneself, that will allow one to break
free of the 'paradigms' that the Doctrines of Men have
created. We must trust that we can hear from the Holy Spirit, who
promises to
lead us into all Truth (Psa 25:5; Psa 119:104,128; John 16:13; 1John
2:27).
Additional insights into the Bride's
covering may be
seen in "Covering Principles for the Bride".
As a finish to the
preparation of the Bride's Clothing, we will list the final verses of
Proverbs 31, without comment. Notice the great number of
'Bride attributes' that can be seen:
17
She girdeth her loins with strength, and strengtheneth her
arms. 18 She
perceiveth that her merchandise is good: her candle goeth not out by
night. 19 She
layeth her hands to the spindle, and her hands hold the
distaff. 20 She
stretcheth out her hand to the poor; yea, she reacheth forth her hands
to the needy. 21
She is not afraid of the snow for her household: for all her household
are clothed with scarlet. 22
She maketh herself coverings of tapestry; her clothing is silk and
purple. 23 Her
husband is known in the gates, when he sitteth among the elders of the
land. 24 She maketh
fine linen, and selleth it; and delivereth girdles unto the
merchant. 25
Strength and honour are her clothing; and she shall rejoice in time to
come. 26 She
openeth her mouth with wisdom; and in her tongue is the law of
kindness. 27 She
looketh well to the ways of her household, and eateth not the bread of
idleness. 28 Her
children arise up, and call her blessed; her husband also, and he
praiseth her. 29
Many daughters have done virtuously, but thou excellest them
all. 30 Favour is
deceitful, and beauty is vain: but a woman that feareth the LORD, she
shall be praised. 31
Give her of the fruit of her hands; and let her own works praise her in
the gates.
(Proverbs 31:17-31) 8.
Now Ready — Watching and WaitingAfter
going through the long process of preparation, the Bride is finally
prepared. She hopes she is Ready for the Bridegroom's knock, but
still she can not be sure. The Apostle Paul was not sure that he would
make the First Resurrection Company, so how much less can we be
sure? The only thing left to do is to watch, and to keep our
Garments (Rev 16:15). We must keep our Garments to prevent them from
becoming spotted, or soiled. And so we must "Watch."
How
does the Bride "Watch?" Let's look at a few passages, then
comment on what we see.
Bind
up the testimony, seal the law ("Torah") among my disciples.
And I will
wait upon the LORD, that hideth his face from the
house of Jacob, and I
will look for him. (Isaiah 8:16-17)
Therefore
be ye also ready: for in such an hour as ye think not the Son
of man cometh. (Matthew 24:44)
For
the Son of man is as a man taking a far journey, who left his house,
and gave authority to his servants, and to every man his work, and
commanded the porter to watch. Watch ye therefore: for ye know not when
the master of the house cometh, at even, or at midnight, or at the
cockcrowing, or in the morning: Lest coming suddenly he find you
sleeping. And what I say unto you, I say unto all: 'Watch'.
(Mark 13:34-37)
And he shall go
before him in the spirit and
power of Elias, to turn the hearts of the fathers
to the children, and
the disobedient to the wisdom of the just; to make
ready a people
prepared for the Lord. (Luke 1:17)
And
ye yourselves
like unto men that wait for their lord, when he will return
from the
wedding; that when he cometh and knocketh, they may open unto him
immediately. (Luke 12:36)
Be
ye therefore ready also: for the Son of man cometh at an hour
when ye think not. (Luke 12:40)
The
lord of that servant will come in a day when he looketh not
for him,
and at an hour when he is not aware, and will cut him in sunder, and
will appoint him his portion with the unbelievers.
(Luke
12:46)
So Christ was once
offered to bear the sins of many; and
unto them that look for him shall he appear the
second time without sin
unto salvation. (Hebrews 9:28)
It is
apparent from the above passages that the Bride is to Watch. This is a process that involves seeking, waiting, making
ready, and
looking for His appearing. Above all, it includes the command
to 'Watch' in the Hebrew sense of the word.
For example, the Hebrew word tsapha, Strong's number <06822>, meaning 'Watchman,
watch,
behold, and look,' occurs 37 times. From Prophetic Numbers in
Scripture, we
understand that the number '37' speaks of the Word of Yahuweh. Thus
we see the word tsapha refers to watching, beholding, looking, and doing, the Word of Yahuweh.
A similar Hebrew
word for 'Watch' is shamar, Strong's number <08104>, meaning
"observe,
watch,
beware, Watchman, heed, and keep." The BDB Hebrew Lexicon sheds more
light: "to observe; celebrate; keep sabbath or covenant or
commands;
perform a vow."
From these and
similar words for Watch, we see that the 'Watchmen' are those who choose to observe,
to keep,
and to heed all the Words of Yahuweh, and are watchful to keep all His Covenant
Commandments, His Sabbaths, indeed all
of the Covenant provisions of the Marriage Covenant He made
with His Bride at Mount Horeb. (For insight into this covenant see
The Two Witnesses of Devarim by Brick Parrish.)
And so this is our primary work, to 'Watch' as we wait, and look
for
the Bridegroom. Again, our watching is simply to allow 'Messiah-in-you'
to
do the work of preparation, insofar as we allow Him to do so.
And
so the Bride-Candidate has prepared herself. She has made her
check-lists, and has taken great care to carry out all of her
preparations. It has been a long and difficult road, but the
(Bridegroom living within the) Bride has made herself ready.
Let us be glad and rejoice,
and give honour to him:
for the marriage of the Lamb is come,
and
his wife hath made herself ready.
(Revelation 19:7)
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