Lament for a Bride

The book of Lamentations mourns.

Lamentations mourns a wedding.

“What can I say for you, to what compare you, O daughter of Jerusalem? What can I liken to you, that I may comfort you, O virgin daughter of Zion? For your ruin is vast as the sea; who can heal you?” (Lam. 2:13).

Virgin Israel was promised to the Son! From the beginning, the Father created a people for his Son. Creation was bedecked in garlands of hibiscus, arbors of red roses, trails of white lilies to be a temple/church where the wedding would occur. Adam and Eve, their perfect marriage foreshadowing the perfect wedding and the perfect intimacy that was to come.

But fall.

Mount Sinai—God comes down and many scholars see marriage metaphors in the giving of the Ten Commandments at Sinai. Israel was to be a wife to the Hidden-Triune-God. The prophets are replete with images of adultery as Israel fell.

Fell. And Lamentations mourns the heartbreak of a bridegroom. Lamentations is the lament of God—“My people, my people, why have you forsaken me?”

But Lamentations shows two sides of the lament. Not only is God mourning over the affliction and suffering Israel has brought on by her rebellion, but it also shows God’s zealous love for his Son. God the Father will not stop short of giving to his Son the inheritance that is worthy of him. The Father is not willing to give his Son anything less.

The Son who is crowned with glory and honor. The Son who has the wealth of the nations, who rules over kings. The Son who is worshipped by angels. The perfect obedient Son with a perfect love who was so committed to glorifying his Father even unto death. The Son who is the bright morning star. The Son whose eyes are like burning fire, bronze, seated at the right hand, who dwells in unapproachable light. Whose wedding psalm (Ps. 45) sings, grace is poured upon his lips, blessed forever, mighty one, splendor, majesty, victory, robes fragrant with myrrh and cassia.

Worthy, worthy, worthy is he.

And how dare we slander his bride, for we slander him.

How dare we settle for our little excuses for lax holiness.

How dare we compromise with the culture.

The bride must be worthy of this Spotless One!

The Father is zealous.

And in the Father’s zeal is great hope. Great fear—for he will crush his people, refine, until she be a bride worthy.

Great hope—for he will make a bride for his Son. He is the God of promise, the God who creates, the God whose purpose will stand. He WILL make a bride. Nothing, nothing will separate us from our bride. Nothing will ultimately stall the presentation of a beautiful bride to his Son. No power of hell, no scheme of man, no hard-hearted heart, no sin.

In this is great love. The Father loves the bride so much he will not let her be less than she is called to be. Full beauty. Full love. Full worthiness. Not one ounce of shame left. Would a deep love leave a bride in rags, leave her in the gutters, leave her with shame? A fierce love, but oh, a great love.  

“I will greatly rejoice in the Lord;

    my soul shall exult in my God,

for he has clothed me with the garments of salvation;

    he has covered me with the robe of righteousness,

as a bridegroom decks himself like a priest with a beautiful headdress,

    and as a bride adorns herself with her jewel” (Isa. 62:10).

Our presentation to King Jesus is promised. Fixed. Firm. Have no doubt.

“And I will betroth you to me forever. I will betroth you to me in righteousness and in justice, in steadfast love and in mercy. I will betroth you to me in faithfulness. And you shall know the Lord” (Hos. 2:19-20).

“…so that he [Christ] might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish” (Eph. 5:27).

The Father’s zeal for both his Son and his Son’s bride is echoed by Paul, “For I feel a divine jealousy for you, since I betrothed you to one husband, to present you as a pure virgin to Christ” (2 Cor. 11:2). Will we join? Will we burn with the Father’s heart? Will we envision the bride? Will we see what the church, we, can become?

Will we commit ourselves to each other to lovingly purify ourselves, even as he is pure (1 Jn. 3:3)? Will we hold each other accountable? Will we paint visions in verses, hymns, songs, words of the beauty that God is unlocking in us and calling us to? Our daily interactions with one another are chances to prepare beauty, chances to make ourselves ready. Our Sunday mornings with coffee and cookies are not mere chit chats. They are a beauty parlor of refining fire. They are where the great scopes of God’s eternal zeal touch down in a tangible, concrete way.

Will we cry out with a divine jealousy? Will we see holiness? Will we cease to excuse “little sins”? Will we see our Bridegroom in all his splendor and holiness?

Great love. Great hope. Lamentations is ultimately answered by Christ, by the joyous wedding of Revelation. Our Bridegroom himself became bone of our bone, flesh of our flesh (Gen. 2:23), taking on human form. He stooped to serve his bride, picking her up from the gutter. Reclaiming her for himself.

This is our God. This is our Bridegroom. This is our calling. May this be our cry.

“Then I heard what seemed to be the voice of a great multitude, like the roar of many waters and like the sound of mighty peals of thunder, crying out,

‘Hallelujah!

For the Lord our God

    the Almighty reigns.

Let us rejoice and exult

    and give him the glory,

for the marriage of the Lamb has come,

    and his Bride has made herself ready;

it was granted her to clothe herself

    with fine linen, bright and pure’—

for the fine linen is the righteous deeds of the saints.

And the angel said to me, ‘Write this: Blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb.” And he said to me, ‘These are the true words of God’” (Rev. 19:6-9).