Three Weddings In The Bible

Feature 1 – May 2024 – Grace & Truth Magazine

Three Weddings In The Bible

In these changing and challenging times of weddings and marital relationships, we can have the assurance of healthy, holy and positive relationships by trusting in our unchanging God and His enduring Word (Mal. 3:6; Heb. 13:8; 1 Pet. 1:25).

Sadly, some are denying, doubting and defying God and His Word and are having weddings which exclude God. As a result, relationships fail because they are self-centered instead of being God/Christ centered, marrying in their way instead of God’s way. However, there is hope and help for all who would by faith repent and receive Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior.

Many weddings are recorded in the Bible. Let’s consider three of them.

The First Wedding Ceremony
God instituted marriage and conducted the first wedding ceremony. In the Bible He gave us the true guidelines for marital relationships and declared that it was not good for a man to be alone. He provided suitable help for Adam in the person of Eve, and God prepared Adam for the one He was preparing for him. “The rib which the Lord God had taken from man He made into a woman, and He brought her to the man. And Adam said: ‘This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called Woman because she was taken out of Man’” (Gen. 2:22-23 NKJV).

God gave Adam one wife: Eve. He established marriage to be heterosexual. The husband and wife are to be committed to God and to each other. “A man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and they shall become one flesh. And they were both naked, the man and his wife, and were not ashamed” (vv.24-25). Briefly, this means that their relationship involved a changed priority; they leave father and mother. The first priority is to God, then to each other. The couple is to have a commitment to permanence, joined together by God in His unfailing love, and may not be separated by any other (Mk. 10:7-9).

Confirmed purpose of unity even in the diversity of personality, they shall be one flesh – intimately, sexually and spiritually. Communication in purity without any hidden agenda – naked and not ashamed. It is vital to maintain open and honest communication with each other and God through prayer and reading His Word. Each one needs to obey His guidelines, including the wife submitting to her husband as head, not with the thought that he is superior, but because he was created by God before Eve (1 Cor. 11:8-9). The husband is to love his wife “just as Christ also loved the Church and gave Himself for her” (Eph. 5:25). A marriage ought to be a reflection of Christ and His Church.

The Wedding To Which Jesus Was Invited And Attended
John 2:2 tells us, “Both Jesus and His disciples were invited to the wedding.” Jesus would not have attended the wedding if He were not invited or if the marriage were not of God. His presence graced the marriage in that He sanctioned it because marriage is “honorable” to all (Heb. 13:4). He also sanctified marriage by taking it above worldly conceptions into the holy light of a God-given institution.

There can be failure in a marriage, but His presence makes the difference as He is all-sufficient for every situation. When, at the wedding in John 2, they ran out of wine, representing gladness, His mother told Him they had no wine. Jesus then told the servants to fill the waterpots with water. Once done, He instructed them to draw some out and take it to the master of the feast, and they took it. When the master drank it, he concluded, “You have kept the good wine until now” (Jn. 2:10).

The presence of Jesus at the wedding turned their sadness into gladness. Also, His presence displayed His glory: “This beginning of signs Jesus did in Cana of Galilee, and manifested His glory; and His disciples believed in Him” (v.11).

There is hope in Christ for every wedding and marital relationship as we are filled with the Word and the Holy Spirit, and do whatever He tells us to do to resolve issues.

The Bride Is Ready For The Glorious Wedding
Another wedding is yet to come. We read in Revelation 19:7-9: “Let us be glad and rejoice and give Him glory, for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and His wife has made herself ready … arrayed in fine linen, clean and bright, for the fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints … Blessed are those who are called to the marriage supper of the Lamb.”

Today the Church is engaged with the Lord Jesus Christ. We love Him even though we have not seen Him (1 Pet. 1:8). He will come as the Bridegroom for His Bride at the rapture of the Church (1 Th. 4:13-17).

The marriage supper of the Lamb will occur with the second coming of Christ to establish His millennial kingdom. How encouraging to know that we, as true believers, are heading not for a funeral but for a wedding. The best is yet to be!

By Emanuel John

I’m my Beloved’s and He is mine – His banner over me is love;
He brought me to His banqueting table – His banner over me is love;
He’s fairest of ten thousand to my soul – His banner over me is love. —Unknown