Gift to the Bridegroom

Isaiah 62:5 “Then God will rejoice over you as a bridegroom rejoices over his bride.”

Read Isaiah 62:1-5

Imagine: You are engaged to be married! Every waking hour, you are daydreaming about your fiancé. Anybody? Can you relate?

The closer the wedding gets, the more you yearn to be with him. And he yearns to be with you.

Christ yearns for that day too – that day when He shall be united with His Bride and live forever. Happily ever after.

There will be no “till death do us part” and only “for as long as we both shall live”; for, sisters, that will be eternity, amen?

Being that He is Royalty, the Son of the Almighty, All-Sufficient God. What on earth are we to offer as a gift to our Groom?

He only wants one thing.

You.

Beautiful, precious, redeemed you.

Isaiah 62:1a “Because I love Zion,    I will not keep still.Because my heart yearns for Jerusalem,    I cannot remain silent.”

He can’t even hold still He wants you so badly. He loves you, Dear One.

2 “The nations will see your righteousness.    World leaders will be blinded by your glory.And you will be given a new name    by the Lord’s own mouth.3 The Lord will hold you in his hand for all to see—    a splendid crown in the hand of God.”

He yearns for you to take His name and wear His diamond ring of His glory, the one He fitted just for you so all the world will know we belong to Him and no one else.

4b “Your new name will be “The City of God’s Delight”    and “The Bride of God,”for the Lord delights in you    and will claim you as his bride.”

Your new name will be the Bride of God. You bring Him such delight!

He claims you.

Bask in that sweet acceptance for a moment. It is wonderful!

Now, I do have an exhortation for you: Act like it. You are spoken for. You are wearing His ring. Be a faithful Bride.

Read Romans 7:1-4.

Now hone in on verse 4 where it says

"And now you are united with the one who was raised from the dead."

We are bound to Him (and thank Goodness, for (Romans 6:21) without Him we could only be united with eternal doom), and so to let our allegiance stray, or to desire another is adultery. We are married to Christ for life. Eternal life.

Stay with me here. The gift He asks of us

is us.

He wants our heart, and doesn’t want us to give that heart to anything else – sin, greed, pride, selfishness.

Let’s bring it even closer to home: job, money, friendships, clothes, hobbies, family relationships… [fill in the blank]. He doesn’t forbid these things, but He does want our whole heart. As a faithful Bride, love Him with all your heart, soul, strength, and mind.

Matthew 22:37 “Jesus replied, “‘You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind.’”

Luke 10:27 “The man answered, “‘You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your strength, and all your mind.’ And, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’”

Deuteronomy 6:5 “And you must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your strength.”

You are His greatest gift.

Isaiah 62:11-12 “The Lord has sent this message to every land:    “Tell the people of Israel,[a]‘Look, your Savior is coming.    See, he brings his reward with him as he comes.’”12 They will be called “The Holy People”    and “The People Redeemed by the Lord.”And Jerusalem will be known as “The Desirable Place”    and “The City No Longer Forsaken.””

He is committed to you

Isaiah 62:5 “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.”

Commit yourself to Him, that he may rejoice over His faithful Bride.

Bride of Christ

You are bursting with the news.

You are going to be a bride! And your groom is simply wonderful! You were made for each other!

But. Why does there always have to be a but?

You have no idea when the wedding will be. And it’s out of your hands.

Rather discouraging, don’t you think? And it makes it that much harder to prepare yourself for the big day, when you have no idea when it is going to happen.

If it’s going to happen.

You feel forgotten.

This is the emotion we find in Isaiah 49.

Read Isaiah 49:1-14

I find such sweetness every time I read a verse like verse 7, especially the last phrase.

⁷ The Lord, the Redeemer and Holy One of Israel, says to the one who is despised and rejected by the nations,  to the one who is the servant of rulers:“Kings will stand at attention when you pass by.    Princes will also bow low because of the Lord, the faithful one,    the Holy One of Israel, who has chosen you.” NLT

Ladies, He has chosen you. This verse was spoken to His people Israel, but is applicable because God has chosen us as His bride, too.

Continue reading, and you will see the promise of love, honor and protection. Even provision of a Beautiful Land. What more could a girl ask for? (Or, nation, rather.)

But then after all these sweet vows, what does the bride do? She sticks out her lips in a pout, and says,

¹⁴ Yet Jerusalem says, “The Lord has deserted us;    the Lord has forgotten us.” NLT

Really?

But then, haven’t we all done that? How many times (per day?) do we see some hardship, or something that doesn’t go our way, and we automatically jump to the conclusion that God must not care about us, or He wouldn’t have let that happen.
Perhaps He’s trying to mold His bride into who she needs to be.

Look at verse 8 before we move on.

⁸ “At just the right time, I will respond to you.” NLT

Other versions say ‘I will hear and answer you.’ God knows what just the right time is; to answer our prayers and to act on our behalf. Trust Him, sweet thing. He will not leave you hanging.

Read verses 15-21, looking especially at 15-16 for now.

¹⁵ “Never! Can a mother forget her nursing child?    Can she feel no love for the child she has borne?But even if that were possible,    I would not forget you!¹⁶ See, I have written your name on the palms of my hands.    Always in my mind is a picture of Jerusalem’s walls in ruins.” NLT

I love these. I will not forget you! See I have written your name on the palms of My hands. One version compares this to a tattoo. I also really like verse 16 in the King James Version,

¹⁶ "Behold, I have graven thee upon the palms of My hands" KJV emphasis mine.

This isn't even just your name, but a whole picture of you! I don’t know about you, but I’m feeling pretty foolish at this point for ever even thinking that God may have forgotten me. Because isn't this what His love looks like when we are graven on His hands?

For the last part of verse 16, read this from a commentary by David Guzik source

Your walls are continually before Me: The walls refer to the walls of the city of Jerusalem, which figuratively speak of the health, the strength, the prosperity, and the security of God’s people. God is always mindful of the condition of His people, despite the objections of a doubting Zion.

God is always always mindful of your condition. He knows that your heart is breaking. He knows what you’re going through. He even knows that you might still be miffed about spilling your coffee. He cares about you so much, dear one.

See verses 17-21 God is telling His people of how extensively He vows to fulfill His promise. He is promising to bring His people back from exile, and says, in effect, ‘There will be so many of you you’re not going to have room for everyone!’

It reminds me of Malachi 3:10

“…I will open the windows of heaven for you. I will pour out a blessing so great you won’t have enough room to take it in…” NLT

In verse 21 it tells us Israel will say to herself, ‘but God had abandoned me… so where did all these people come from?’

Sister, we know the answer. God did not abandon Israel like they thought. God has not abandoned you. He was there all along.

Verses 23 and 26 tell us why.

^23b “…Then you will know that I am the Lord.    Those who trust in me will never be put to shame.”^26b “…All the world will know that I, the Lord,    am your Savior and your Redeemer,    the Mighty One of Israel.”

That all the world may know that He is LORD.

Amen!