I know we are discussing many terms that may be foreign to you. If that is the case the best thing I could recommend for you to do is to go back to the beginning of this topic and read your way to this one.
In Jewish weddings today one thing that you will see is that when the veil is pulled back it is often the mother of the bride and the mother of the groom that pull back the veil. It is the groom that actually covers her before the ceremony. They do this in remembrance of Jacob and Rachel. Can you think of why that may be? Maybe if Jacob had done it himself, he wouldn’t have gotten fooled by Laban. Who knows? But if we go back a generation we see Isaac and Rebekah again. Rebekah veiled herself when she saw Isaac, we veil ourselves with our sin, don’t we? Who would have unveiled her? Isaac, her husband.
In II Corinthians 3:7-18 it says, “Now if the ministry that brought death, which was engraved in letters on stone, came with glory, so that the Israelites could not look steadily at the face of Moses because of its glory, fading though it was, will not the ministry of the Spirit be even more glorious? If the ministry that condemns men is glorious, how much more glorious is the ministry that brings righteousness! For what was glorious has no glory now in comparison with the surpassing glory. And if what was fading away came with glory, how much greater is the glory of that which lasts! Therefore, since we have such a hope, we are very bold. We are not like Moses, who would put a veil over his face to keep the Israelites from gazing at it while the radiance was fading away. But their minds were made dull, for to this day the same veil remains when the old covenant is read. It has not been removed, because only in Christ is it taken away. Even to this day when Moses is read, a veil covers their hearts. But whenever anyone turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away. Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. And we, who with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.”(NIV)
Tell me, what word do you see over and over again in this passage? “Glory”! Still many of the Jews today have not recognized the Bridegroom that the whole Covenant is talking about. They are reading their Ketubah and don’t even know the Bridegroom who gave it to them. That’s why their hearts are still veiled. We are unveiled when we come to Christ, to Messiah. The awesome thing to understand today is that many Jews are coming to faith in Messiah. Their veil is being pulled back by their Bridegroom. What a blessed day in which we live. Many in church history longed to see this day and that privilege is ours.
Let’s discuss that word “glory”. Glory means brightness, splendor, radiance, dignity, and honor. When we are unveiled we reveal His glory, splendor and radiance with ever increasing glory. When a bride is unveiled today everybody says, “Oh, look isn’t she so pretty, she’s so beautiful.” It’s all about her. But when we are unveiled it is not our glory we reflect, not our radiance. It is His. It is His glory, with ever increasing glory.
So now we share in His glory, the radiance of the Father. Now where did I get that? From Hebrews 1:2&3 which tells us that the Son is the very radiance of God. In John 17:5 Jesus talks about the glory (the radiance) He had before creation. Then in John 17:22 Jesus says, “I gave them the glory you gave me.”(NIV) Where did His glory come from that He gave to us? It came from the Father. Do you see that oneness, from the Father, to the Son, to the Bride? “I gave them the glory you gave me.” Romans 8:17 says we share in His glory.
You see only by the Lord Jesus the Messiah can the condemnation and the sentence of death announced by the law on the lawbreaker for breaking the Old Covenant be annulled and replaced by the free and life giving grace of the New Covenant in which He places His Covenant on our hearts and minds. We are unveiled by Him and are free to live life reflecting His glory. So let us live in the freedom of being unveiled and let His glory, His ever increasing glory, shine through us.
In His Unveiled Glory,
Vicky
I know we are discussing many terms that may be foreign to you. If that is the case the best thing I could recommend for you to do is to go back to the beginning of this topic and read your way to this one.
That leads us to step five. Here comes the Kiddush, the cup. Remember our Kiddushin consists of the Ketubah, the Kiddush (the cup), the Mohar, and the seal. This is the Kiddush. In I Corinthians 11:25 it says, “In the same way, after supper he took the cup, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood; do this, whenever you drink it, in remembrance of me.””(NIV) The blood of the New Covenant; that purchased us without money, this New Covenant is a Covenant of marriage.
I know we have already gone over it, but at this point we need to cover it again. Isaiah 54:10 says this, “Though the mountains be shaken and the hills be removed, yet my unfailing love for you will not be shaken nor my covenant of peace be removed,” says the LORD, who has compassion on you.”(NIV) Then in Isaiah 55:3b it says, “I will make an everlasting covenant with you, my faithful love promised to David.”(NIV)
I want to talk to you about that Covenant of Peace. The Hebrew word “shalom” means peace. It can also be translated wholeness or oneness. This is a covenant of oneness. “And a man shall leave his father and mother and cleave to his wife and the two will be one.” A covenant of oneness was always God’s plan. This is a covenant of marriage, a covenant of oneness with Him, which is true peace.
The Kiddush or cup not only speaks of the Mohar or the sacrifice He made, yes we are to remember His Mohar when we take the cup because that is what purchased us, but it is also the New Covenant or Marriage Covenant, His Covenant of Peace. Remember it’s the “New Covenant” in His blood. He says that first, He reminds us of the New Covenant first, of His Marriage Covenant first. Then He says, “Do this in remembrance of me.” So remember the price I paid for you. This is a covenant of marriage and I purchased you. So when you take that cup remember my purchase, remember my love for you.
John 17:19 says this, “For them I sanctify myself, that they too may be truly sanctified.”(NIV) If He is already holy then He is not making Himself more holy, so what is He saying? He is setting Himself apart for us. He is telling His Father, “For them Father I have set myself apart that they too may be truly set apart. I set myself apart for them so that they can truly be set apart for me.” And right after this prayer we see Him, that very night, being arrested and giving His life. Spilling the blood of the Mohar, the blood of the cup.
In taking the cup we are accepting once again His offer of marriage and declaring ourselves set apart specifically and only for Him. As we remember the price He purchased us with. We are once again accepting that offer and continually declaring ourselves set apart for Him. Maybe that’s one reason why we do this more than once. We have communion in our churches all the time, don’t we? After all, we don’t just do communion once and that’s it. It reminds us that we are set apart for Him because of the price He purchased us with.
And then of course there is the blessing of the cup. “Holy One of Blessing your presence fills creation forming the fruit of the vine.” This is the blood of the covenant. And then the Birakat Eurasim or the Betrothal Blessing “Praised are you Adonai, Ruler of the Universe, Who have made us holy through your commandments and commanded us (the warning to the men) concerning sexual propriety forbidding us women who are merely betrothed, but permitting to us women who are married to us through Huppah and Kiddushin. Blessed are you Adonai, who makes your people, Israel, holy through Huppah and Kiddushin.
This is His marriage ceremony and we live out every day, especially when we partake in communion. Of course, with the drinking of the cup the veil has to come back. We will talk about this next time.
Remembering His Covenant of Marriage,
Vicky
Esther's Legacy 