God's Bride

revmattchoo.com · House Cat Joined: 02 Sep 2003 Posts: 165

I started reading Jeremiah recently. I came across the “marriage” analogies that God used sometimes when speaking of His relationship with Israel. God did that quite a bit in the prophetic literature (of which does not have to be foretelling, but most of the time is rather a lot of forthtelling; ie. telling the people to shape up or God will ship them out. The foretelling usually is more along the lines of hope, that God will not forget His people but still has wonderful plans for them.) As I was thinking about the “marriage” analogies, it came to my mind that the Messiah has been spoken of in the New Testament as being the groom and the church as being His bride. The thought that ran through my mind is this: Could the church as the Messiah’s bride be God bringing Israel back to being His wife once again? Jesus is God from what I understand. If that is the case, could this be a reference to the church being faithful Israel, even with Gentiles mixed in?

Of course, this thought is in it’s primitive stages and has not been thoroughly examined. If anyone has any thoughts on this, I’d be interested to know what they are.

Zathrus · Posted: Tue May 20, 2008 8:19 am Post subject:

Sounds right to me!

In fact I noticed what you said about the church as Christ's bride being God bringing Israel back to be His wife again. That's beautiful. I had heard it preached that God forsook national Israel, divorced her, and married another wife, the church. There may or may not be something to that, but it makes it sound like God just abandoned Israel and replace her. More and more, I'm learning that God never abandoned Israel, but that the redemptive work of Christ and His building the church is the fulfillment of all things He promised Israel. I think that would include His taking her a His faithful wife.

MoJo · Posted: Tue May 20, 2008 6:38 pm Post subject:

Any converts whether Jew or Gentile are the church. However, the first were Israelites. Jesus came to the lost sheep of Israel first. Interestingly though, he did not choose his disciples from the Jews (Judah) but from the region of Galilee which hearkens back to the ten tribes of Israel who were cast out after Solomon.

When Jesus died, the wife became a widow, free to re-marry. That is how you get the new bride (new creature)

Very Happy

lone-traveler · Posted: Wed May 21, 2008 5:08 am Post subject:

Was Canaan a tribe of Israel?

Because one of the disciples of the twelve is simon a canaanite.. Question

Mat 10:2 Now the names of the twelve apostles are these; The first, Simon, who is called Peter, and Andrew his brother; James the son of Zebedee, and John his brother;
Mat 10:3 Philip, and Bartholomew; Thomas, and Matthew the publican; James the son of Alphaeus, and Lebbaeus, whose surname was Thaddaeus;
Mat 10:4 Simon the Canaanite, and Judas Iscariot, who also betrayed him.

Was this a sign that Gentiles would be accepted as his own?

thinking...

lone-traveler · Posted: Wed May 21, 2008 5:11 am Post subject:

maybe not:

Simon
The abbreviated form of Simeon.
(1.) One of the twelve apostles, called the Canaanite (Mat_10:4; Mar_3:18). This word “Canaanite” does not mean a native of Canaan, but is derived from the Syriac word Kanean or Kaneniah, which was the name of a Jewish sect. The Revised Version has “Cananaean;” marg., “or Zealot” He is also called “Zelotes” (Luk_6:15; Act_1:13; R.V., “the Zealot”), because previous to his call to the apostleship he had been a member of the fanatical sect of the Zealots. There is no record regarding him.

45degreeN · Posted: Wed May 21, 2008 6:27 am Post subject:

We must use care to keep separate the Jews and the Israelites they are not the same peoples. The two sons of Joseph, Manasseh and Ephraim, were given the name/ title Israel in Genesis 48 and from that time onward their peoples were separate.

In about 600 BC those Israelites were taken captive by the Assyrians and never came back (as a nation) to the area of their brothers in Judah. It was at that time when they were first called "Jews."

According to the apostle Paul God still has plans for His people the Jews so don't count them out yet. Even though the "Israelites" were scattered to the winds of history, God's promises to them cannot be summarily dismissed or given to the "church." Those promises were given to the people not some organization and God certainly knows exactly where they are and can still fulfill them.