| The Marriage and the Marriage Feast continued: The Gospel of Luke records a wedding parable of Jesus that refers to the 'third Second Coming' of the Lord, sometime after the above ceremony has taken place: And ye yourselves [be] 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. Blessed are those servants, whom the lord when he cometh shall find watching: verily I say unto you, that he shall gird himself, and make them to sit down to meat, and will come forth and serve them. . . Be ye therefore ready also: for the Son of man cometh at an hour when ye think not. Luke 12:36-37,40 First of all, it is evident that this parable refers to a time after the heavenly marriage of the Lamb, "when he will return from the wedding." Now, the key phrase in the passage is "he shall gird himself, and make them to sit down to meat, and will come forth and serve them." The fulfillment of this coming forth of the Lord is best shown in Revelation 19. That chapter starts by reminding us that Christ had come before the throne to obtain his kingdom and power: Alleluia; Salvation, and glory, and honor, and power, unto the Lord our God. . . Revleation 19:1 -- then reviews his ensuing judgment of Mystery Babylon: . . .he judged [past tense (2)] the great whore, which did corrupt the earth with her fornication. . .and her smoke goes up for ever and ever. 19:2,3 -- then reviews his heavenly marriage: Let us be glad and rejoice, and give honor to him: for the marriage of the Lamb came [past tense (2)], and his wife prepared [past tense (2)] herself. And to her was granted that she should be arrayed in fine linen, clean and white. . . 19:7, 8 [Cf. Rev. 6:11; 7:9,14; and Esther 2:13,15, all cited in chapter 6.] Now after this point, Revelation 19 shifts to the future tense, and speaks of the 'third Second Coming" of Christ, when he will return to Earth: And I saw heaven opened, and behold a white horse; and he that sat upon him was called Faithful and True, and in righteousness doth he judge and make war. . . And he was clothed with a vesture dipped in blood [i.e., girded for war]; and his name is called The Word of God. And the armies which were in heaven followed him . . . An angel. . .cried with a loud voice, saying to all the fowls that fly in the midst of heaven, come and gather yourselves together unto the supper of the great God: that ye may eat the flesh of kings, and the flesh of cap-tains, [etc.]. . . And I saw the beast, and the kings of the earth, and their armies, gathered together to make war against him that sat on the horse, and against his army. And the beast was taken, and with him the false prophet . . .these both were cast alive into a lake of fire. . . And the remnant were slain with the sword of him that sat upon the horse, which sword proceeded out of his mouth: and all the fowls were filled with their flesh. 19:9,11,13-14,17,19-21 This supper of God represents a number of different things. First of all, on page 115 we saw that this Armageddon-day battle is prophesied in Ezekiel 38-39. One passage therein has many of the same words quoted above: Speak unto every feathered fowl. . . Assemble yourselves, and come. . .to my sacrifice that I do sacrifice for you. . . Ye shall eat the flesh of the mighty, and drink the blood of the princes of the earth, [etc.]. . . Ezekiel 39:17-18 Secondly, Revelation 19's "supper of the great God" also clearly represents the time mentioned in the Luke 12 parable, when the lord of the house "returns from the [heavenly] wedding." In both cases, the Lord is the one doing the serving. Revelation 19 has a third dimension, which had its origin at the Last Supper, the archetypal kiddushin/ covenant ceremony. That was yet another dual-fulfillment event: it established both a spiritual marriage with the Church, and a natural marriage with the race of Israel. The spiritual consummation/nissu'in of the marriage to the church takes place in heaven after the Rapture. But the fulfillment of the natural nissu'in/consummation must of course take place on Earth. It comes to pass during the commencement of the Messianic Age, for which the Jews have ever long-awaited and endured. This climactic union is spoken of in the book of Isaiah: Sing, O barren, thou that didst not bear. . .for more are the children of the desolate than the children of the married wife, saith the LORD. . . . [F]or thou shalt forget the shame of thy youth, and shalt not remember the reproach of thy widowhood any more. For thy Maker is thine husband; The LORD of hosts is his name; and thy Redeemer the Holy One of Israel; The God of the whole earth shall he be called. For the LORD hath called thee as a woman forsaken and grieved in Spirit, and a wife of youth, when thou wast refused, saith thy God. . . . For Zion's sake will I not hold my peace, and for Jerusalem's sake I will not rest, until the righteousness thereof go forth as brightness, and the salvation thereof as a lamp that burneth. And the Gentiles shall see thy righteousness, and all kings thy glory: and thou shalt be called by a new name, which the mouth of the LORD shall name. . . . Thou shalt no more be termed Forsaken; neither shall thy land any more be termed Desolate: but thou shalt be called Hephzibah [My Delight], and thy land Beulah [Married]: for the LORD delighteth in thee, and thy land shall be married. For as a young man marrieth a virgin, so shall thy sons marry thee: and as the bridegroom rejoiceth over the bride, so shall thy God rejoice over thee. Isaiah 54:1,4-6; 62:1-2,4-5 Endnotes Return to Index Return to previous page |