Wedding at Cana: 7 Wedding Feast of the Lamb
Revelation 19 v 6
Then I heard what sounded like a great multitude, like the roar of rushing waters and like loud peals of thunder, shouting: “Hallelujah! For our Lord God Almighty reigns. Let us rejoice and be glad and give him glory! For the wedding of the Lamb has come, and his bride has made herself ready. Fine linen, bright and clean, was given her to wear.” (Fine linen stands for the righteous acts of God’s holy people.)
Then the angel said to me, “Write this: Blessed are those who are invited to the wedding supper of the Lamb!” And he added, “These are the true words of God.”
At the end of the Bible, we see the Wedding Supper of the Lamb. How does the wedding ceremony fit within the symbolism of the Book of Revelation?
Two witnesses
Revelation 11 v 3-4
And I will appoint my two witnesses, and they will prophesy for 1,260 days, clothed in sackcloth.” They are “the two olive trees” and the two lampstands, and “they stand before the Lord of the earth.”
We see Revelation refer to Two Witnesses. In Jewish weddings, two witnesses must attest to the marriage.
These Two Witnesses in Revelation seem to have the ability to burn up those that attack them, cause droughts and bring plagues. They sound like Moses and Elijah. Elijah was taken bodily up to Heaven (2 Kings 2 v 11-12), while Moses’s body was never found (Deuteronomy 34 v 5-6).
The Book of Jude and fragments of the Assumption of Moses (1st Century AD extra-Biblical text) talk about a fight for the body of Moses and how he was taken up to Heaven.
Jude 9
But even the archangel Michael, when he was disputing with the devil about the body of Moses, did not himself dare to condemn him for slander but said, “The Lord rebuke you!”
Trumpets
In the Jewish wedding ceremony, when the bridegroom returns, he comes to the town with shouts and trumpets sounding. In Revelation, we hear several trumpet-blast throughout the book. All the mention of trumpets happen before the Wedding Supper of the Lamb, before the consummation of the marriage and the feasting. This fits into the progression of a wedding ceremony.
Rapture
Even though it is not explicitly mentioned, the Church being brought up to Heaven reminds me of when the bridegroom comes to take his bride to his father’s house. There are many discussions over the rapture, which I will not go into here, but I thought it was of interest to mention.
Who is the Lamb?
According to John the Baptist, it is Jesus. He is the Bridegroom.
John 1 v 29
The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him and said, “Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!
Who is the Bride?
This is more complicated as the Bible does not specifically say.
Revelation 19 v 7-8
Let us rejoice and be glaD and give him glory! For the wedding of the Lamb has come, and his bride has made herself ready. Fine linen, bright and clean, was given her to wear.” (Fine linen stands for the righteous acts of God’s holy people.)
However, in the above verse, we learn the Bride is clothed in bright, clean, fine linen. John goes on to say that this fine linen represents the righteous deeds of the saints.
The saints are anyone who has been set apart for Christ, e.g. the Church. The bride is therefore most likely the Church.
Revelation 21 says that after the Wedding Supper, the bride is the New Jerusalem coming down from Heaven.
Revelation 21 v 9-10
One of the seven angels who had the seven bowls full of the seven last plagues came and said to me, “Come, I will show you the bride, the wife of the Lamb.” And he carried me away in the Spirit to a mountain great and high, and showed me the Holy City, Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God.
The Church becomes a City. Cities generally get bad press in the Bible. For example, Lot chooses the city of Sodom and, in contrast, Abraham chose the countryside. One of Cain’s first deeds is to found a city.
Therefore, the idea of the city is redeemed through the New Jerusalem, the Bride, the Lamb’s wife, otherwise known as the Church.
Jesus is God’s King of Kings ruling the nations, the Church will be His Consort, and the Church will be His New Jerusalem.