Paul said to the 'Church at Corinth,
'I am jealous over you with Godly jealousy; for I have espoused you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste VIRGIN to Christ.' 2 Cor. 11:2
In Christ's day an espousal was as sacred as a marriage.
The First Adam had his Bride, and the Second or Last Adam must have His Bride.
In Gen. 2: 18,21-24, we are told how the First Adam got his Bride.
'The Lord of God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam and he slept; and He took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh instead thereof; and with the rib, which the Lord God had taken from man, made (builded).He a woman, and brought her unto the man. And 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 man.
Now Jesus during His life on the earth as a man, abode alone, but a deep sleep--the sleep of death--fell on Him, and out of His wounded side, as the result of the Atonement.
He made on the Cross, there came that from which the Church was formed and to which the HS gave life on the Day of Pentecost; so that, as Adam said of Eve--"This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh," so we can say of the Church--"
JesusWe are members of His body, of His flesh,and of His Bones. Eph. 5: 29-33
Thank you, Jesus~the Woman was brought to Adam and presented to him, but Christ will present the Church to Himself, Eph. 5: 27
LordThat Eve was married to Adam is indicated in Gen. 2:24 and referred to in Matt. 19:4,5,and Eph. 5:31
We have a beautiful illustration of how Christ is gathering out His Bride, the Church, in the story of how Isaac got his bride.
In the Scriptures~
Rebekah is a type of the Church.
Keturah a type of Israel Restored.
Remember when the time came to Isaac to have a wife, his father Abraham did not want him to marry a Canaanitish woman, and so he sent his servant Elizer over to Padan Aram to get one for him from among Abraham's kindered.
When Eliezer reached Padan Aramto get one for him from among Abraham's kindered.
When Eliezer reached Padan Aram he was divinely directed to the home of Laban, a grandnephew of Abraham, whose sister Rebekah God had chosen to be the wife of Isaac. Gen. 24: 12-14
Rebekah consented to become the wife of a man she had never seen solely on the representations of Eliezer, and she departed with him, leaving her kinsfolk behind.
As the caravan neared the home of Abraham we read that 'Isaac went out to meditate in the field at the Eventide" and saw the camels of his father returning, and Rebekah alighted from off her camel and introduced by Elizer to Isaac and she became his wife.
So God has sent the HS into this world in this Age to get a wife for His Son, Jesus, and when the full number of the Church is complete, the HS will take her back with Him to the Father's home, and Jesus, whose Bride she is to be, will come out into the midair at the'Eventide' of this age to meet her. 1 Thess. 4: 15-17
Sweet Jesus~Some hold that because Isaac's bride was taken from his own kin, that, therefore, to complete the type, Jesus' Bride must be Israel, His own kin, and not the Church composed mainly of Gentiles.
But we must not forget that while Abraham was the first Hebrew his kin were Gentiles.
Abraham was no, strictly speaking, a Jew, for the Jews are the decendants of Judah, the fourth son of Jacob or Israel.
So we see that Rebekah was not an Israelite, but a Gentile, so the type holds good.
We must not forget that there are 'Two Brides' mentioned in the Scriptures.
One in the OT,and the other in the NT.
The one in the OT is Israel, the bride of Jehovah; the one in the NT is the Church, the Bride of Christ.
Of Israel it is said--'Thy Maker is thine husband.' Isa. 54:5-8.
Israel is a cast off wife, but God, her husband, promises to take her back when she ceases from her adulteries. Jer. 3:1-18; Ex, 16:1-63; Hosea 2:1-23, 3:1-5.
Sarah is a type of Israel before her fall,and Keturah of Israel when God shall take her back again.
She will not be taken back as a Virgin, but as a Wife.
But it is a Virgin that the Lamb (Church) will reside in the New Jerusalem.
These distinctions make it clear that Israel cannot be the 'Bride' of Christ.
As the Church being both the 'Body' and the 'Bride' of Christ, we have the type of Eve who was of the 'body' of Adam before she was his 'bride.'
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Pray for Israel,and for the Lord to come soon for His Bride~
