As Awesome As An Army With Banners

This story in Ezekiel, is also in Hosea, and is further developed in Isaiah, Jeremiah, Lamentations, and Ezekiel. Both Jesus and John the Baptist used this language to describe their relationship, like two good friends enjoying each other in the back of a church together before a ceremony. In Matthew 9: 15 “Jesus said to them, ‘Can the wedding guests be sad while the groom is with them?’” John spoke of his relationship with Jesus with wedding imagery: “He who has the bride is the bridegroom; but the friend of the bridegroom, who stands and hears him, rejoices greatly because of the bridegroom's voice. So this joy of mine has been made full” (John 3:29). Paul carries the idea through his letters and of course Revelation describes the wedding supper of the Lamb when Christ comes to claim His bride.

This allegory reveals the deepest truths about the potential for human relationship, and our desire for love, commitment, and sacrifice. For thousands of years people have been getting married, and it was very unclear as to why. The reason, humans instinctively covenant with one another, is a mystery only revealed since Christ walked on earth. The mystery of marriage is that it shows us how Christ and the Church are in relationship with one another: “For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and shall be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh. This mystery is great; but I am speaking with reference to Christ and the church” (Ephesians 5:31-32). Ultimately, the very reason God gave us hearts that needed relationship was not so we could relate and love humans, but so that we could love Him. We are sexual so we can begin to understand the level of intimacy God desires from us. Sexual imagery is able to articulate what it looks like to long for Him, to pursue and take hold of His love and promises, as well as what it looks like to turn from him and embrace other idols. Even in the healthiest marriages, “there are deep places within your heart and within the heart of your husband that are only for the Lord. That is the heart of modesty in singleness and in marriage. ‘The deeps call only to God’”. (Elizabeth Elliot. Let Me Be A Woman. P86)

When interpreting analogies in Scripture, the simple truth must be kept in mind that the “invisible attributes” can be better “understood through what has been made” (Rom 1:20), meaning that the seen reveals the unseen. The writers of Scripture use the tangible things of this world to help others peer into the mysteries of the deeper spiritual reality that is separated by the densest curtain—only easily pulled away only by one with eyes of faith. The Bride of Christ is only one of about seven images used to describe the New Testament Church. Though many are pictures of living things like a body, or a vine, the church is also depicted in a masculine way when it is spoken of as a victorious army conquering evil. The church is feminine in her responsiveness and submission to Christ, and yet militantly aggressive in their encounters with those who oppose the Kingdom of God. When Jesus spoke of constructing His church, He said of it that even “the gates of Hades will not overpower it (Matthew 16:18).” The writer of Song of Solomon describes his own bride this way: “Who is this that grows like the dawn, as beautiful as the full moon, as pure as the sun, as awesome as an army with banners” (6:10)?