Detailed Betrothal Process

Groom’s father chooses the bride:

-Abraham sends Eleazer to choose a bride for Isaac

-God chose Israel

-Exodus 6:7- I will take you to be my people, and I will be your God, and you shall know that I am the LORD your God, who has brought you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians.

-Exodus 19:4-5- ‘You yourselves have seen what I did to the Egyptians, and how I bore you on eagles’ wings and brought you to myself. Now therefore, if you will indeed obey my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my treasured possession among all peoples, for all the earth is mine;

-God chooses us. John 15:16-You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he may give it to you. 1 John 4:19- We love because he first loved us.

Bride does not see/meet groom but his servant informs her: 1 Peter 1:8- Though you have not seen him, you love him. Though you do not now see him, you believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory,

Betrothal

-Ketubah is read in front of witnesses (usually family and friends)

-Exodus 19:5- Now therefore, if you will indeed obey my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my treasured possession among all peoples, for all the earth is mine;

-Exodus 20: the 10 commandments

-For New Covenant: Jeremiah 31:31-34- “Behold, the days are coming, declares the LORD, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah, not like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, my covenant that they broke, though I was their husband, declares the LORD. For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the LORD: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall be my people. And no longer shall each one teach his neighbor and each his brother, saying, ‘Know the LORD,’ for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, declares the LORD. For I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.”

-Mohar is presented

-Psalm 74:2- Remember your congregation, which you have purchased of old, which you have redeemed to be the tribe of your heritage! Remember Mount Zion, where you have dwelt.

-for New Covenant: the cross is the bride price. Holy Spirit given as a guarantee. 2Cor 1:22 -and who has also put his seal on us and given us his Spirit in our hearts as a guarantee.

–1 Peter 1:18-19– knowing that you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your forefathers, not with perishable things such as silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot.

–1Cor 7:23– You were bought with a price; do not become bondservants of men.

–1Cor 6:19-20-Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.

–Mattan (other gifts)

-Eleazer brought gifts: Gen 24:53- And the servant brought out jewelry of silver and of gold, and garments, and gave them to Rebekah. He also gave to her brother and to her mother costly ornaments.

-Exodus 3:22- but each woman shall ask of her neighbor, and any woman who lives in her house, for silver and gold jewelry, and for clothing. You shall put them on your sons and on your daughters. So you shall plunder the Egyptians.”

-For the New Covenant: Gifts of the Holy Spirit: 1 Cor 12:8-11- For to one is given through the Spirit the utterance of wisdom, and to another the utterance of knowledge according to the same Spirit, to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by the one Spirit, to another the working of miracles, to another prophecy, to another the ability to distinguish between spirits, to another various kinds of tongues, to another the interpretation of tongues. All these are empowered by one and the same Spirit, who apportions to each one individually as he wills.

–Bride accepts/signs the ketubah/ “I do”

-Rebecca accepts: Genesis 24:57-58– They said, “Let us call the young woman and ask her.” And they called Rebekah and said to her, “Will you go with this man?” She said, “I will go.”

-Exodus 19:7-8- So Moses came and called the elders of the people and set before them all these words that the LORD had commanded him. All the people answered together and said, “All that the LORD has spoken we will do.” And Moses reported the words of the people to the LORD. Exodus 24:7- Then he took the Book of the Covenant and read it in the hearing of the people. And they said, “All that the LORD has spoken we will do, and we will be obedient.”

-For the New Covenant: Romans 10:9-10- because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved.

-Celebratory meal:

-Exodus 24:9-11- Then Moses and Aaron, Nadab, and Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel went up, and they saw the God of Israel. There was under his feet as it were a pavement of sapphire stone, like the very heaven for clearness. And he did not lay his hand on the chief men of the people of Israel; they beheld God, and ate and drank.

-For the New Covenant- demonstrated in the Last Supper. Communion: Luke 22:15-20- And he said to them, “I have earnestly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer. For I tell you I will not eat it until it is fulfilled in the kingdom of God.” And he took a cup, and when he had given thanks he said, “Take this, and divide it among yourselves. For I tell you that from now on I will not drink of the fruit of the vine until the kingdom of God comes.” And he took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and gave it to them, saying, “This is my body, which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me.” And likewise the cup after they had eaten, saying, “This cup that is poured out for you is the new covenant in my blood.

-Sealing the Process with the cup of wine: one cup shared by the couple.

-Exodus 24:8- And Moses took the blood and threw it on the people and said, “Behold the blood of the covenant that the LORD has made with you in accordance with all these words.” Exodus 24:5– And he sent young men of the people of Israel, who offered burnt offerings and sacrificed peace offerings of oxen to the LORD.

-For the New Covenant- Luke 22:20 –And likewise the cup after they had eaten, saying, “This cup that is poured out for you is the new covenant in my blood.

-Jesus would not eat or drink again until the wedding supper: Luke 22:18 –For I tell you that from now on I will not drink of the fruit of the vine until the kingdom of God comes.”

Groom Leaves to Prepare a Place for His Bride:

-John 14: 2-3- In my Father’s house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also.

-Holy Spirit helps us, reminds us of Him- John 16:7, 13-14- Nevertheless, I tell you the truth: it is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you. But if I go, I will send him to you…When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth, for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come. He will glorify me, for he will take what is mine and declare it to you.

-Only Groom’s father knows when he will return: Mark 13:32- “But concerning that day or that hour, no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father.

Mikvah

-the bride went to the Mikvah (the purification pool of water) for a telivah- the immersion in the water symbolizing the following:

-a public consecration/setting apart of the bride.

-the showing of passing from one authority to another, from single woman to married woman, from old man to new man.

-Exodus 19:14- So Moses went down from the mountain to the people and consecrated the people; and they washed their garments.

-Mark 16:16- Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned.

Groom Returns for to Gather His Bride

-Usually by night

-a procession with his friends leading the way blowing shofars (horns), music, and shouting. 1 Thess 4:16- For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Joel 2:15-16– Blow the trumpet in Zion; consecrate a fast; call a solemn assembly; gather the people. Consecrate the congregation; assemble the elders; gather the children, even nursing infants. Let the bridegroom leave his room, and the bride her chamber.

–Song of Solomon 2:10– My beloved speaks and says to me: “Arise, my love, my beautiful one, and come away,

-He’d have her carried back to the chamber on an aperion: Song of Songs 3:9-10- King Solomon made himself a carriage from the wood of Lebanon. He made its posts of silver, its back of gold, its seat of purple; its interior was inlaid with love by the daughters of Jerusalem.

Consummation in the Chamber

-the huppah canopy covered the Hebrews at Sinai, sheltering them.

-echad- to become one. John 17:21-23- that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me. The glory that you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one, I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me.

-friend of the bridegroom to announce the consummation of the marriage: John 3:29- The one who has the bride is the bridegroom. The friend of the bridegroom, who stands and hears him, rejoices greatly at the bridegroom’s voice. Therefore this joy of mine is now complete. Rev 19:6-8- 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.

Wedding Feast

-between Jacob and Leah: Gen 29:22- So Laban gathered together all the people of the place and made a feast.

-Rev 19:9- And 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.”

-the second cup of wine is shared: Luke 22:18- For I tell you that from now on I will not drink of the fruit of the vine until the kingdom of God comes.”