The Marriage Covenant |

In our tabernacle analogy, the blood covenant gave us a place to dwell as servants near God’s tent. The salt covenant drew us into the tabernacle courtyard where we brought offerings to God as his friends and experienced the reality of what he sacrificed to bring us here. With the sandal covenant, we became sons of God, tending to his estate by ministering within the holy place of the tabernacle. With the marriage covenant, we become brides, standing at our Bridegroom’s right hand in God’s throne room—the Holy of Holies itself.

The End of Betrothal and Beginning of Marriage

The betrothed couple entered into the first three covenants through the cups of sanctification, bargaining, and redemption (or inheritance) which they drank at different stages of the process. After that third cup, there was a long pause before finalizing things in the marriage covenant. The bridegroom left his bride and began preparing a bridal chamber for them somewhere in his father’s house. Until he had satisfied his father he’d accomplished that purpose, he would drink no wine and see very little of his bride. But at his father’s word, the trumpets would sound and he would bring her to him with much fanfare.

When his bride approached, the bridegroom ushered her under a canopy called the chuppah. Each of them wore something like a crown signifying they served together as king and queen during their marriage week. She wore a circlet bearing the image of the city of Jerusalem. His crown was woven from myrtle branches interlaced with rose vines—reminding both of them that they would face both the sweetness and the pain of life together.

In Old Testament times, the chuppah above them was scarlet—a visible reminder of the servanthood relationship between them that began with that first Cup of Sanctification. As the ceremony continued, they shared a braided loaf of challah bread, dipping it in salt to honor the covenant of friendship they established after drinking the Cup of Bargaining. Then the bridegroom knelt to remove her sandals and replace them with new ones as a recognition of the inheritance they now shared and managed together.

At last, it was time for the fourth and final cup. This was the Cup of Praise which celebrated the completion of their union in the marriage covenant. After drinking, the bridegroom laid the emptied cup on the ground. The bride rested her foot on top of his and together they smashed the cup completely so that no one else would ever drink from it again. As a finishing motion, the new husband stretched out his tallit (his prayer shawl) to enclose her safely under his wings.

The Feasts and the Marriage Covenant

The marriage ceremony of human beings is only a shadow of a greater wedding to come—the marriage ceremony of the Lamb. These four covenants, along with the four cups, appear again and again in the feasts God established for his people to celebrate.

Passover not only illustrates the blood covenant but like the marriage ceremony, includes four cups in its rituals uncannily similar to those in the betrothal process. These cups reflect the four promises Yahweh gave Israel in Exodus 6:6–7 before they left Egypt. The precise names vary among translators, but they are generally rendered as:

the Cup of Sanctification,
the Cup of Deliverance,
the Cup of Redemption,
and the Cup of Praise.

When Yahweh promised “I will bring you out” he was talking about setting his people apart from all other people which is the essence of sanctification. Saying, “I will deliver you” would be a phrase any friend would declare for another friend. “I will redeem you” is all about buying back an inheritance (see previous post) and hence about sonship. And what could be more like a marriage vow than, “I will take you for My people”?

The Feast of Unleavened Bread with its ritual of clearing out old leaven is all about sanctification and separation like the blood covenant. The Feast of the Sheaf of Firstfruits celebrates the ultimate First Fruit and Friend who goes before, defends, and delivers us.

The Feast of Pentecost (or Shavuot) has themes of both friendship and sonship. The two loaves waved before the Lord are also shared with the priests (salt covenant). At the same time, the sandal covenant appears with the giving of the Holy Spirit to the sons of God as the “guarantee of our inheritance” (Ephesians 1:13).

The Feast of Trumpets was specifically directed toward gathering sons toward the sound of the shofar or groomsmen to the side of the bridegroom. And what could be more like a bride’s mikveh bath right before her marriage ceremony than the Feast of Atonement? All of it leads toward the Feast of Tabernacles as a final ingathering of wedding guests as the Lord finally returns to “marry” his people to himself, drawing them under his wings into the place he has prepared for them.

Progressing Through the Covenants

Each of us can enter the intimate relationships with the Lord these covenants promise. But they are progressive. We all begin as servants when we’re born again into the blood covenant. But we can grow into friends if we’re willing. And if friendship isn’t enough for us, we don’t have to stop there. He will hold the cup of sonship out to us when we’re ready.

The more intimacy is promised by each consecutive covenant the more sanctification will be required—a bit more letting go of this and separating from that. Additional responsibilities will be added to those of the covenants we entered before. We will always be God’s servants even if we advance to being his friends. And our responsibilities as his friends won’t stop just because we progress to sons and finally into the marriage covenant with him.