Have you realized that the entire Bible is rooted in God’s frustrated desires to find and keep a faithful bride?
6 The Lord said to me, “Have you seen what faithless Israel has done? She has gone up on every high hill and under every spreading tree and has committed adultery there. 7 I thought that after she had done all this she would return to me but she did not, and her unfaithful sister Judah saw it. 8 I gave faithless Israel her certificate of divorce and sent her away because of all her adulteries. Yet I saw that her unfaithful sister Judah had no fear; she also went out and committed adultery. 9 Because Israel’s immorality mattered so little to her, she defiled the land and committed adultery with stone and wood. 10 In spite of all this, her unfaithful sister Judah did not return to me with all her heart, but only in pretense,” declares the Lord. 11 The Lord said to me, “Faithless Israel is more righteous than unfaithful Judah.
- Jeremiah 3:6-11
Why the Bible?
Why Israel?
Why the Law of Moses?
Why Jesus Christ?
Why Christianity?
“My people are destroyed from lack of knowledge.”
- Hosea 4:6
Whether a tool, an app on your phone, or the Bible, you will only benefit from something to the degree that you understand what it’s highest purpose is. If I gave a power tool, like a router, to someone living in a third world country without any explanation, I’m sure after several years of experimenting with it, they may find all kinds of interesting uses for it, and yet very likely they would still miss its highest purpose and benefit, because no one ever showed them a finished example of what it was designed to do.
I believe that is a good illustration of what happens to the majority of us who profess Christianity as our faith. We have found all kinds of interesting and satisfying uses for it, as a religion, but we are STILL missing God’s highest purpose for it. We still do not see and understand God’s ultimate end for it. To borrow from a phrase my wife Lisa says often, “We’ve lost the plot!”
As Christians, we must ask and trust God to show us, what is the very highest purpose of the Bible, of Jesus Christ, of Christianity, and even of our life?
Below the surface of all we’ve learned through tradition, or what we quickly see when reading the Bible, what is that main thing which God is really after?
Is the Bible just about revealing God’s character and His faithfulness to those who had faith in Him, and His harshness to those who didn’t? Is the Law of Moses just about creating the fear of God and Holiness in His people? Is Jesus Christ just about saving people from their sins, destroying the devil’s work, and teaching us humility before God? Is Christianity just about escaping God’s judgment and having the hope of eternal life?
Or, could it be that those things are all simply a means to a much greater end, and much higher purpose in the heart of God; a purpose which most of us, do not see or understand, and therefore suffer as a result?
"My people are fools; they do not know me. They are senseless children; they have no understanding.
-Jeremiah 4:22
“My people are destroyed from lack of knowledge.”
- Hosea 4:6
So again, we ask. Why the Bible? Why Israel? Why the Law of Moses? Why Jesus Christ? Why Christianity?
What a much more beautiful purpose God has had for the Bible and all that constitutes Christianity, than what most of us see and regularly focus on. He also had a much higher purpose for my faith and obedience to Him, than to just create another testimony of overcoming suffering. God’s ways are always much higher than we imagine.
We can see God’s highest purpose in the Bible, by reading what happens at the very end of all His design work. What is the main final event to wrap up all of what transpired previously in the Bible? It is a wedding!
Rev 19:7-9 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. (9) Then the angel said to me, "Write: 'Blessed are those who are invited to the wedding supper of the Lamb!'" And he added, "These are the true words of God."
Underneath all the Laws and commands of Moses, all the principles, all the stories told, and all the acts of Providence, God’s highest purpose throughout the whole Bible has been to find, secure, and keep for Himself a faithful bride.
(5) For your Maker is your husband— the LORD Almighty is his name— …(6) The LORD will call you back as if you were a wife deserted and distressed in spirit— a wife who married young, only to be rejected," says your God. - Isaiah 54:5-7
"'I remember the devotion of your youth, how as a bride you loved me and followed me through the desert, through a land not sown. - Jeremiah 2:2
I am jealous for you with a godly jealousy. I promised you to one husband, to Christ, so that I might present you as a pure virgin to him. - 2 Corinthians 11:2-3
"The kingdom of heaven is like a king who prepared a wedding banquet for his son. - Matthew 22:2
"But while they were on their way to buy the oil, the bridegroom arrived. The virgins who were ready went in with him to the wedding banquet. And the door was shut. - Matthew 25:10
Let us rejoice and be glad and give the glory to Him, for the marriage of the Lamb has come and His bride has made herself ready." - Revelation 19:7
When we can see that God’s Highest Purpose for all that is in the Bible, is to find a worthy and faithful Bride, we can then see our highest purpose, as His “would be” bride, is to make ourself and keep ourself ready (Rev 19:7)! That is our highest purpose and therefore should be our highest aim!
Now, let us show respect to God’s messages and thank Him for the mercy of His costly, real-life warnings and prophetic messages to us. They are for our good! Let us now think deeply and examine ourselves thoroughly against the examples, the warnings, and lessons of the Two Harlots and the Faithful Bride.
