A Bride and Bridegroom Intimacy
Relationships are important, whether we are Christian or non-Christian. They give us comfort when we feel alone. It is natural for us to think about friendships or our boyfriend/girlfriend/spouse, but how much do we consider our relationship with Christ?
When I was reading a book by Donald Miller, I felt like he pretty much killed the aspect of Jesus being the bridegroom and us as the bride; killed meaning he repeated it a million times. I wondered what he was trying to get at. I knew this relationship was important. I knew about trying to get to know Jesus, but did I truly understand to the extent of what type of relationship God wants to have with me?
In the Old Testament, God speaks of Israel and Jerusalem as a ‘she’ many times. In Ezekiel 16, God raises Jerusalem into a pure beautiful jewel, clothing her with garments, bathing her, pouring ointments on her, and providing for her with fine jewelry, flour, honey, and olive oil. God continues to speak to Jerusalem saying in verse 13, “you became very beautiful and rose to be a queen.” God reveals Jerusalem as His queen; and who else would be the king but God Himself. As beautiful as the story begins I’m pretty sure you can guess where it ends; she looks away from her King disregarding all He had done for her. She trusts in her beauty and uses her fame to become a prostitute (verse 15).
The message from this is simple isn’t it? Jerusalem is an adulterer taking her bridegroom for granted. She trusts in her beauty and looks elsewhere for her provisions instead of to her king. But aren’t we just as bad for relying on our own strength, courage, or knowledge instead of relying on God? Don’t we cheat on our Bridegroom just as much by relying on OUR beauty or OUR own abilities to get what WE want?
It’s so interesting how we tend to overlook God’s intimate nature. Over and over again through His word He tries to reveal how much He longs for a relationship with us, and not just any relationship, a marriage; yet we tend to compare Jesus with Santa Clause asking for gifts and pretending to be on the ‘nice’ list. Yet as much as our Bridegroom provides for us, and as much as He longs for us to look only to Him, to get to know Him, to be faithful to Him, to truly love and trust in Him, we separate ourselves further by asking for things that only supply us with a short satisfaction.
“Perhaps our formulas and bullet points and steps steal the sincerity with which we might engage God. Becoming Christian might look more like falling in love than baking cookies.” (Donald Miller) Day by day He provides for us waiting until we respond back to Him. When will we respond to our Bridegroom? When will we learn to take this relationship seriously and truly get to know the God who knows of our unfaithful nature yet loves us so much that He sent Himself (Jesus) to die for our sins in order that we get forgiven of our unfaithful/sinful nature and receive a second, third, fourth, fifth, millionth chance with Him?
In Hosea 2:16 He says “In that day…you will call me ‘my husband’; you will no longer call me ‘my master.’ ” (NIV)
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