Looking at more closely the words of the Lord Jesus as found in John's synoptic gospel chapter 17, which His Priestly Prayer and the revealing of GOD's plan and Propose otherwise known as His Will.
There are three areas yet to cover the first being fond in marriage the great mystery of its meaning and purpose, then there is our fellowship with Christ restored, and our Unity with Christ in GOD and GOD being Christ. But first to get us started I will look to Isaiah and his writing in chapter 54 where we find this statement in verses 4-8, dealing in figurative language with God's Union with His Church or Family.
Marriage, GOD's Union with the Church:
Isaiah 54:4-8 62:5, Jeremiah 3:14, and Hosea 2:19 "Fear not, for you will not be ashamed; be not confounded, for you will not be disgraced; for you will forget the shame of your youth, and the reproach of your widowhood you will remember no more. For your Maker is your husband, the LORD of hosts is His name; and the Holy One of Israel is your Redeemer, the God of the whole earth He is called. For the LORD has called you like a wife deserted and grieved in spirit, like a wife of youth when she is cast off, says your God. For a brief moment I deserted you, but with great compassion I will gather you. In overflowing anger for a moment I hid My face from you, but with everlasting love I will have compassion on you," says the LORD, your Redeemer."
Isaiah 62:1-5 "For Zion's sake I will not keep silent, and for Jerusalem's sake I will not be quiet, until her righteousness goes forth as brightness, and her salvation as a burning torch. The nations shall see your righteousness, and all the kings your glory, and you shall be called by a new name that the mouth of the LORD will give. You shall be a crown of beauty in the hand of the LORD, and a royal diadem in the hand of your God. You shall no more be termed Forsaken, and your land shall no more be termed Desolate, but you shall be called My Delight Is in Her, and your land Married; for the LORD delights in you, and your land shall be married. For as a young man marries a young woman, so shall Your sons marry You, and as the bridegroom rejoices over the bride, so shall your God rejoice over you."
Jeremiah 3:11-14 "The LORD said to me, "Faithless Israel has shown herself more righteous than treacherous Judah. Go, and proclaim these words toward the north, and say, "'Return, faithless Israel, declares the LORD. I will not look on you in anger, for I am merciful, declares the LORD; I will not be angry forever. Only acknowledge your guilt, that you rebelled against the LORD your God and scattered your favors among foreigners under every green tree, and that you have not obeyed My voice, declares the LORD. Return, O faithless children, declares the LORD; for I am your Master; I will take you, one from a city and two from a family, and I will bring you to Zion."
Hosea 2:14-20 "Therefore, behold, I will allure her, and bring her into the wilderness, and speak tenderly to her. And there I will give her her vineyards and make the Valley of Achor a door of hope. And there she shall answer as in the days of her youth, as at the time when she came out of the land of Egypt. "And in that day, declares the LORD, you will call Me 'My Husband,' and no longer will you call Me 'My Baal.' For I will remove the names of the Baals from her mouth, and they shall be remembered by name no more. And I will make for them a covenant on that day with the beasts of the field, the birds of the heavens, and the creeping things of the ground. And I will abolish the bow, the sword, and war from the land, and I will make you lie down in safety. 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."
Matthew 22:1-10, 25:10 and Revelation 19:7 "Again Jesus spoke to them in parables, saying, "The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who gave a wedding feast for his son, and sent his servants to call those who were invited to the wedding feast, but they would not come. Again he sent other servants, saying, 'Tell those who are invited, "See, I have prepared my dinner, my oxen and my fat calves have been slaughtered, and everything is ready. Come to the wedding feast."' But they paid no attention and went off, one to his farm, another to his business, while the rest seized his servants, treated them shamefully, and killed them. The king was angry, and he sent his troops and destroyed those murderers and burned their city. Then he said to his servants, 'The wedding feast is ready, but those invited were not worthy. Go therefore to the main roads and invite to the wedding feast as many as you find.' And those servants went out into the roads and gathered all whom they found, both bad and good. So the wedding hall was filled with guests."
Matthew 25:1-13 "Then the kingdom of heaven will be like ten virgins who took their lamps and went to meet the bridegroom. Five of them were foolish, and five were wise. For when the foolish took their lamps, they took no oil with them, but the wise took flasks of oil (symbolic of the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Christ, see my note at the end) with their lamps. As the bridegroom was delayed, they all became drowsy and slept. But at midnight there was a cry, 'Here is the bridegroom! Come out to meet him.' Then all those virgins rose and trimmed their lamps. And the foolish said to the wise, 'Give us some of your oil, for our lamps are going out.' But the wise answered, saying, 'Since there will not be enough for us and for you, go rather to the dealers and buy for yourselves.' And while they were going to buy, the bridegroom came, and those who were ready went in with him to the marriage feast, and the door was shut. Afterward the other virgins came also, saying, 'Lord, lord, open to us.' But he answered, 'Truly, I say to you, I do not know you.' Watch therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour."
Revelation 19:1-8, 9-10 "After this I heard what seemed to be the loud voice of a great multitude in heaven, crying out,
"Hallelujah! Salvation and glory and power belong to our God, for His judgments are true and just; for He has judged the great prostitute who corrupted the earth with her immorality, and has avenged on her the blood of his servants." Once more they cried out, "Hallelujah! The smoke from her goes up forever and ever." And the twenty-four elders and the four living creatures fell down and worshiped God who was seated on the throne, saying, "Amen. Hallelujah!" And from the throne came a voice saying,
"Give praise our God, all you His servants, you who fear Him, small and great." 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.
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." Then I fell down at his feet to worship him, but he said to me, "You must not do that! I am a fellow servant with you and your brothers who hold to the testimony of Jesus. Worship God." For the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy."
Now comes my note: The first has to do with the earliest Passover of record and then when it took place just before the Lord Jesus' crucifixion. It dealing with the bread as it was supplied for Israel's wonderings and then in our becoming One with the living bread which is again spoken by Paul in 1Corinthians 10 and 11, where we find that we become by the eating of the Lord's Passover or marriage meal as the bread and wine are the central parts or elements. The bread and wine are absorbed into our body becoming part of it. The second has to do with the fire that did not consume the bush and the column of fire and smoke that lead Israel for forty years. And spoken of in Hebrews 12:29 which states this; "for our God is a consuming fire." And then this is John 1 when John calls Him "the light of men." Here is the relationship, Light is produced by fire. Fire consumes, light blesses, and yet the light is a product of the fire because there is death in the fire to give light. The fire consumes to let out the light. So light comes out of a burning sun by a death when hydrogen atoms are consumed giving off heat and light. There is then a death in the sun when it dies to its original consistency of the one form of atom to another form of atom and releases that which becomes light to us. Fire only dies to itself and produces light for others. When fire remains in itself, it consumes itself. That is why the Bible says we have hell inside of us. James says that if you have an evil tongue, your tongue is set on fire of hell. An angry tongue is a hellish tongue, so hell is there. Therefore a self lived to itself consumes and that is the fire (Gods wrath is firey and consuming it also purifies that which is burned or destroyed). When our self is given up, through Christ, for others, it becomes light, a blessing. This is what God is. So if we are on the wrong side of God, we are a consuming fire. If we are back in the relationship to God which is being fulfilled to us through Christ, we will become a light which is a blessing to us and a blessing to the world.
Now here is my point, the whole occupation of the chapters of Exodus, Leviticus and Deuteronomy is the out pouring of God's grace presented in the tabernacle. It is only in the first few chapters of Exodus that He gives the Ten Commandments and the dietary and social laws are given. It appears that all comes from God and so it does where it be positive or negative all is from God is a sense. Law is not in GOD's nature whatsoever. Just as there is no wrath, there is no judgment, only love. The wrath and judgment is what appears to us when we are on the wrong side of GOD. This is the same with the family.
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