Beloved and Betrothed
“I am my beloved’s
and my beloved is mine.”
Song of Solomon 6:3 (ESV)
All weddings begin with an engagement, but some engagements are more exciting than others. My husband and I dated throughout our high school and college years. One afternoon early in our senior year, Bruce suggested we go get something to eat. Before we got our food, he suddenly pulled the car into a convenience store parking lot. He told me to stay in the car and ran in to purchase something. When he returned a few minutes later, he had a box of candied Boston baked beans and began eating them while we talked.
“I want one,” I insisted.
“There’s only one left,” he replied. “It’s yours if you want it.” I held out my hand and Bruce emptied the box. My engagement ring fell into my hand and he asked me to marry him.
Our daughter’s engagement was definitely different. Meredith had always said that if she wasn’t married when she turned thirty, she was going to Italy for her 30th birthday. She had been dating a young man for about five months and I kept saying, “This looks like it may be going somewhere, Don’t you want to wait? Italy would be a great place for a honeymoon.”
Meredith replied,” I’m not waiting on some guy to decide if I’m in or out of his life. He says he likes me a lot, but won’t tell a woman that he loves her until he has a ring and proposal to back it up. I’m going to Italy.” She went to Italy with a single college friend. Twelve days into her trip, her future husband showed up in Venice on her 30th birthday and declared, “Happy Birthday. I love you. Will you marry me?”
Pastor Tim Keller writes there are many metaphors found in the Bible to describe our relationship with God. Made in God’s image, we know him as our Creator, and we are his creatures. Because God is the King of Kings, we realize that we are his subjects. God is also our good, good Father and we are his children. He is our Shepherd and we are his sheep. Finally, throughout the Old Testament, God is pictured as a Bridegroom with his people as his bride.
“I will betroth you to me forever. I will betroth you in righteousness, in love, and compassion.
I will betroth you in faithfulness and you will acknowledge the Lord.”
(Hosea 2:19-20 ESV)
What words come to mind when you think about an engagement? When Bruce asked me to marry him, I knew that he had chosen me. The word chosen means “singled out for a purpose.” We were engaged for ten months and even after dating almost 6 years at that point, I still kept praying, “God, please don’t let him change his mind!” God never changes his mind over choosing us. Scripture assures us that God has chosen us out of all the peoples on the face of the earth to be his people, his treasured possession. (Deuteronomy 14:6, 1 Peter 2:9)
By the time Bruce and I married, I knew I was also cherished. The word “cherished” means to protect & care for someone lovingly. The Apostle Paul reminds the Church at Ephesus that God cherishes his church (Ephesians 5:26). He nourishes and cares for her. Another word for cherish is the word beloved. Scripture assures us that we are God’s beloved:
“Let the beloved of the Lord rest secure in him, for he shields him all day long,
& the one the Lord loves rests between his shoulders.” Deuteronomy 33:12
Those who rest secure between God’s shoulders rest closest to his heart. Think about how you rock your children or grandchildren. Each time I rock one of those grandbabies I place them between my shoulders so that they are just over my heart. That’s just a small picture of the way God cherishes and cares for us. He keeps us close to his heart.
Jesus is the True Bridegroom who has chosen and cherishes his Bride, the Church. Like the prophet Hosea, Jesus paid our bride price by going into the squalor of the marketplace, choosing us in spite of our sin, rescuing, redeeming, and forgiving us. He gave his very life for His Bride.
No one loves the Church more than Jesus. The Church is God’s holy Bride looking & leaning forward to our great wedding to the King of Kings. All those in Christ are chosen, cherished, united by covenant, and beautifully clothed in Christ’s righteousness. (Revelation 19:7)
The Bible begins & ends with a wedding. Marriage is so important to God that He bookends his Word with it. The Apostle John describes the final wedding scene between Christ and his Church with these words:
“Let us rejoice & be glad & give him glory.
For the wedding of the Lamb has come and his bride has made herself ready…
Come I will show you the Bride, the wife of the Lamb.”
(Revelation 19:7, 21:9)
No longer a bride, but now a wife! We are beloved and betrothed, chosen and cherished!