Monday: The Beautiful Bride
Daily Lesson for Monday 14th of April 2025
Ezekiel 16:1-63 shows us an astonishing picture of God’s regard for His people. He describes the nation of Israel as an abandoned baby, left in a field to die. He takes her home, cleans her up, and when she is fully grown, he marries her. It is a powerful picture of an unlikely marriage.
Read Ezekiel 16:4-14. What do the details about this bride’s exaltation teach us about God’s intentions toward us?
Image © The Classic Bible Art Collection – Formerly Standard Publishing at Goodsalt.com
God told Israel that, under His care, she grew “ ‘exceedingly beautiful’ ” (Ezekiel 16:13, NKJV). When God first found her, nobody found her beautiful; she was a reject among other children, cast aside in the hopes that she would die. But as God showered His attention on her, she became more and more beautiful, until she was the talk of the world. In the earliest days of the Hebrew kings, under David and Solomon, this was particularly true. The queen of Sheba even made a special trip in order to see the splendor of Israel for herself!
Israel’s beauty, however, was entirely the gift of God. She was beautiful—the talk of the nations—precisely because she was His bride. God says that her beauty “ ‘was perfect through My splendor which I had bestowed on you’ ” (Ezekiel 16:14, NKJV).
This is a recurrent theme in the Bible: God’s bride is beautiful, not because of anything she has done but because God has showered His favor on her and made her that way. In a similar way, believers appear beautiful in the estimate of heaven, not because of anything we have done to earn it but because of the favor of God, the salvation that He has showered on us. We are beautiful because we are covered in His righteousness, the “righteousness of God” Himself (2 Corinthians 5:21).
All was good, however, until the next verse in Ezekiel: “ ‘But you trusted in your own beauty, played the harlot because of your fame, and poured out your harlotry on everyone passing by who would have it’ ” (Ezekiel 16:15).
We were created to reflect the goodness and glory of God. When God’s creations assume that their beauty is their own, that beauty is cheapened, and trouble awaits.
|
What are the dangers of us trusting in our “own beauty”? That is, how might we think that there is anything in and of ourselves that gives us merit with God or makes us deserving of His love? How can we always guard against spiritual pride? |
(11)
I find the lessons for Monday and Tuesday to be greatly encouraging! What a vivid picture of how much God loves us, and how patient He is.
Re the thought question; There can never be any merit in ourselves. The beauty of the bride of Christ exists only because of Christs' merit.
God uses the metaphor of a bride to demonstrate how personal and immense He loves His people. God use this imagery to illustrate how God feels about His people. In the ordinary meaning who is a bride? A bride is a woman who is about to enter a lifelong marriage relationship with her husband. This is a woman who is entering into a union of love and lifelong commitment to her husband. This union has got deep emotions of joy, love, happiness, purity and sacrifice. This is a new chapter in one’s life which is characterised by new aspirations, hopes, and experiences. A bride represents the deepest emotional and spiritual aspects of humanity. Before sin polluted marriage, the bride was the epicenter of beauty, joy, happiness, purity, hope, faithfulness, identity, and oneness. God has got a heartfelt, tender and beautiful feelings towards His people. Just reflect on the following few examples in New Living Translation.
1. "Your children will commit themselves to you, O Jerusalem, just as a young man commits himself to his bride. Then God will rejoice over you as a bridegroom rejoices over his bride." - Isaiah 62:5
2. "I will make you my wife forever, showing you righteousness and justice, unfailing love and compassion. I will be faithful to you and make you mine, and you will finally know me as the Lord."- Hosea 2:19-20
3. "For I am jealous for you with the jealousy of God himself. I promised you as a pure bride to one husband—Christ." - 2 Corinthians 11:2
4. "And I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven like a bride beautifully dressed for her husband." - Revelation 21:2
A while back, when I was reading through the Bible, when I came to Song of Solomon, I asked myself if I really needed to continue. After all some people wonder why such a book as Song of Solomon is even in the Bible. It’s a love story that some think gets a little too personal. Nonetheless, I reminded myself that all Scripture is inspired by God and profitable, so I prayed for the Holy Spirit to teach this book to me and I dove in. What I found was a beautiful ending to an ugly story I had already read in Revelation 3:14-21.
About 17 years ago I woke up in the middle of the night and could not get back to sleep. Lying there half awake and half asleep, I realized that if I left the house now, I could make it to Daytona Beach to see the sunrise. I jumped in my car and started listening to the book of Revelation as I drove. I listened as the narrator gave Jesus’ account of how wretched, poor, blind, miserable and naked His last-day church is. After such a discouraging message Jesus really woke me up when I heard Him say,
To him who overcomes I will grant to sit with Me on My throne, as I also overcame and sat down with My Father on His throne. Revelation 3:21 NKJV
What? Is Jesus talking about the same church He called wretched, poor, blind, miserable and naked one day overcoming just as He overcame? Wow, Jesus just never gives up!
I remember years ago when I was working at UPS, I made a mistake and my supervisor got really upset and chewed me out. He ended his lecture by saying, “You may think I am making a big deal out of this by being so angry and upset, but one day when you become a supervisor you will understand.” I walked away feeling rebuked and encouraged at the same time. My boss just chewed me out and told me I would be promoted one day all in the same breath. This is what Jesus was saying to His last day church. A dire warning that ended with a beautiful promise and hope.
Fast Forward to when I was reading Song of Solomon. Chapter 3 ends with a wedding. Chapter 4 is the groom describing his bride. Further study led me to conclude that this is also symbolic of Jesus describing His bride, the church. The church He once described as wretched, poor, miserable, blind and naked. After being redeemed read how Jesus describes His bride and church now.
You are beautiful, my darling,
beautiful beyond words.
Your eyes are like doves
behind your veil.
Your hair falls in waves,
like a flock of goats winding down the slopes of Gilead.
Your teeth are as white as sheep,
recently shorn and freshly washed.
Your smile is flawless,
each tooth matched with its twin.
Your lips are like scarlet ribbon;
your mouth is inviting.
Your cheeks are like rosy pomegranates
behind your veil.
Your neck is as beautiful as the tower of David,
jeweled with the shields of a thousand heroes.
Your breasts are like two fawns,
twin fawns of a gazelle grazing among the lilies.
Before the dawn breezes blow
and the night shadows flee,
I will hurry to the mountain of myrrh
and to the hill of frankincense. You are altogether beautiful, my darling,
beautiful in every way. Song of Solomon 4:1-7 NLT
The church Jesus once said was wretched, poor, miserable, blind and naked He has redeemed. Now as He inspects every part of her body He exclaims she is beautiful beyond words and beautiful in every way!
Just as the groom is inspecting every part of his bride’s body, so Jesus inspects every aspect of our lives. Some parts of our lives may be downright ugly right now. Just like there are parts of our body we don’t want people looking at, there are parts of our lives we really don’t want Jesus to see. We know what sin and ugliness He will find there. Here is the good news: Not just good news, it is beautifully wonderful news. We can turn those ugly parts of our lives over to Jesus. Let Him cleanse us and redeem us. Then the same Jesus who looked at us and said we are wretched, poor, miserable, blind and naked, will inspect every aspect of our being and go on and on about how beautiful we are. Beautiful beyond words. Beautiful in every way!
Jesus is the Faithful and True Witness. He is being honest when He tells me how ugly my sins are. Now that He is redeeming me I can’t wait to hear Him say how beautiful I am. And when Jesus raves on and on about how beautiful we are – even too beautiful for words and beautiful in every way-He will still be just as honest, faithful and true as He has ever been!
The book of Ezekiel 16:1-14 gives an account of a vision Ezekiel was shown as to how God found an abandoned baby girl (Israel); gave her life; helped her grow; made a marriage covenant with her; and she became a beautiful queen admired by all.
This sums up the love story between God and the people of Israel from their departure from Egypt to the prosperous reign of David and Solomon, when Israel was admired by all nations. (1 Kings 10:1.) But Israel forgot that her beauty was a gift from God, a reflection of divine beauty and she turned away from her husband, prostituting herself after other gods (Ezekiel 16:15-17.) We were created and saved to reflect God's goodness and glory. When we assume that our goodness is a product of ourselves, problems begin.
I don't see many active people in God's work without problems. Unfortunately (or not), God's people face issues so they can grow spiritually. Humans seem to stagnate without tests and perhaps even go backwards regarding talents.
Ezekiel 16:8, 14 – “…Yes, I swore an oath to you and entered into a covenant with you, and you became Mine,” says the Lord GOD.
“Your fame spread among the nations because of your beauty, for it was perfect through My splendor, which I had bestowed on you,” says the Lord GOD.
These two verses powerfully reveal the depth of God’s Love for His chosen people — and, by extension, for all humanity. The blessings described are available to anyone who enters into a loving, faithful covenant relationship with Him.
Yet, Ezekiel 16:15 offers a sobering reminder of our fallen nature and our struggle to remain wholly devoted to God. Sadly, the temptations of the flesh can easily weaken our relationship with Him. Still, it doesn't have to be this way. We received all the help from God through the Holy Spirit who strengthens us to remain faithful, regardless of the challenges and temptations we face - 1 Cor.10:13; Phil 4:13; Heb.4:15; James 1:13.
Ezekiel 16 is one of those passages that are challenging to those of us from a Western worldview. We generally don't look kindly on someone entering into a romantic relationship with a person he raised from infancy. To me, it feels incestous and icky. Or we might call it grooming. I suppose I shouldn't say that about a passage in the Bible, but that's always my inital reaction. But I guess the Jewish people of Ezekiel's time would have seen it differently.