Ancient Betrothals, Adonai's Betrothals, and the long-awaited Wedding Supper of the Lamb

I love the way God weaves patterns throughout the Torah (His Word) and throughout time, so that when His people see signs of that pattern, we think back to all the ways He revealed Himself through that pattern and forward to all the ways He promised reveal Himself through the pattern in the future. Covenant meals are one of those patterns. They stretch from Genesis to Revelation.

(Note: this is from a talk I gave recently at a Messianic Jewish Congregation {Jews and Gentiles who follow Jesus}. So, the name you will read for Jesus is His Hebrew name Yeshua, and names for God and His Word are from the Hebrew as well).

Ancient Betrothals & Weddings were Sealed with Covenant Meals

Ancient wedding covenants were sealed with a meal at the betrothal ceremony and the wedding ceremony. In covenant meals, a bond was made with each side accepting their privileges and responsibilities and agreeing by oath to carry out their assigned roles. There was often a sacrifice made, which was followed by a meal in which part of the sacrifice was eaten.

The meal becomes the means for reconciliation and relationship between two people and also between man and God. We see examples of this in:

  • the covenant meal of bread and wine that Melchizedek, Priest and King of Salem (Jerusalem ), brought to share with Abraham. Gen 14

  • Covenant with Abraham (involving sacrifice, promise, and a covenant meal in Genesis 18), and the covenant between Yeshua and Peter after he denied Yeshua 3 times included a shared a meal with him (John 21:15-25). 

What is the biggest covenant that ancient wedding covenants reminded brides and grooms of? Which covenant would all marriage covenants be an echo of?  

It is the betrothal and wedding covenant between Adonai and Israel on Mount Sanai. We see in Exodus 19, God comes down on Mount Sinai “on the third day” to meet with His people” (Exodus 19:16). The people were afraid and didn’t want to meet with God directly, so Moses went up and received God’s Word. God gave the Torah to Moses, and he came down to explain it to God’s people. Exodus 24:

3 When Moses went and told the people all the Lord’s words and laws, they responded with one voice, “Everything the Lord has said we will do.” 4 Moses then wrote down everything the Lord had said.

He got up early the next morning and built an altar at the foot of the mountain and set up twelve stone pillars representing the twelve tribes of Israel. 5 Then he sent young Israelite men, and they offered burnt offerings and sacrificed young bulls as fellowship offerings to the Lord. 6 Moses took half of the blood and put it in bowls, and the other half he splashed against the altar. 7 Then he took the Book of the Covenant and read it to the people. They responded, “We will do everything the Lord has said; we will obey.”

8 Moses then took the blood, sprinkled it on the people and said, “This is the blood of the covenant that the Lord has made with you in accordance with all these words.”

9 Moses and Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, and the seventy elders of Israel went up 10 and saw the God of Israel. Under his feet was something like a pavement made of lapis lazuli, as bright blue as the sky. 11 But God did not raise his hand against these leaders of the Israelites; they saw God, and they ate and drank.(they shared a covenant meal)

12 The Lord said to Moses, “Come up to me on the mountain and stay here, and I will give you the tablets of stone with the law and commandments I have written for their instruction.”

Exodus 24:3-12

Mount Sinai was the Betrothal of Adonai to His Beloved

In this we see many aspects of an ancient betrothal ceremony. We see the people of Israel saying, “I do” to Adonai’s proposal. They promised their enduring love and faithfulness to Adonai at the bottom of the mountain. They offered sacrifices and were sprinkled with the blood (the wine) of the covenant. Moses, Joshua, Aaron, Nadab, Abihu, the priests, and seventy elders of Israel went up the mountain where they all would sit and share a meal in God’s presence. Then Moses would receive the Ketubah- the Torah written on stone and God’s plan for the Tabernacle and how His people could nourish and continue their relationship with Him for better or for worse. One of the ways to do this would be to sacrifice and enjoy meals before the Lord that would remind them of their betrothal and wedding covenant meal.

But even as the document was being prepared as a sign of the wedding between Adonai and His people Israel, their hearts were turning to other gods at the base of the mountain. They actually sacrificed and prepared the wedding supper with the golden calves instead of Adonai. And then we see grief-stricken Moses at the failed attempt of a wedding ceremony bringing a sacrifice to Adonai and offering to fulfill Genesis 3:15- to be the promised one who will sacrifice Himself in delivering Adonai’s people from sin so they can be His alone forever. We see this when Moses pleaded for Adonai to forgive His betrothed’s sins, but if not, he said “please blot me out of your book that you have written.” And Adonai gently said no. You are My deliverer, but not the One to come who will deliver My people that way.

Promise of a New Betrothal for People from Every Nation

Adonai passionately loves all the people He created, so He promised a new wedding covenant with His people - one that He alone would be responsible to fulfill, in which He would write the Ketubah on the hearts of His Beloved Bride (Jeremiah 31:33; Hebrews 10:16; Isaiah 25:6-8). He would restore the broken marriage covenant and offer a new betrothal sealed with a meal of wine and bread which is Yeshua’s broken body and blood poured out of the winepress of His sacrificial suffering for us.

Ancient betrothal and wedding covenant meals look back to Sinai and forward to this meal, which I’ll talk a bit more about in a moment. Ancient betrothals involved wine and a meal.

Betrothal Under the Huppa (which heralds the Holy of Holies)

The Bride and Groom would stand under a “huppa.” Looking at the dimensions of the huppa, we notice it was patterned after the Holy of Holies in the Temple and Tabernacle, which was patterned after the one in heaven that God showed Moses on Mount Sinai, which looks forward to the New Jerusalem to come when Adonai restores all things. Standing under the huppa, the Bride to be was given the choice to say “I love this man” or choose like Rebekah, who was asked “will you go with this man?” and who said, “I will go.” In a similar way, no one is forced to say “I love you” to Yeshua, In Romans 10:9-10, we read about the New Covenant “I do:” “...If you confess with your mouth the Lord Yeshua, the Messiah, and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead you will be saved. For with the heart one believes to righteousness and with the mouth confession is made to salvation.” Once the bride accepted the Ketubah the man would offer a cup of wine to his intended. If she drank signifying her acceptance of him, he would drink also, beginning the time of betrothal. A feast also accompanied the betrothal. This meal was a promise of a meal to come- when, one day in the future, the groom would come ready to dwell with his bride and they would drink wine and feast again for seven days as part of the wedding celebration. There would be a span of time, usually up to year, between the betrothal and wedding celebration, in which the groom would prepare a place for his bride (usually attached to his father’s dwelling). The bride would then prepare to be his wife and always keep a lamp burning in the window for when He would come and get her for the wedding celebration. The father of the groom would declare when it was time, and grooms would often be coming to get their bride at night. The lamp burning in the window was a symbol that she was ready for him and still committed to him.

Why wine?

Wine represents blood of sacrifices and joy of reconciliation.

Why was the provision of wine at a wedding the first of Jesus’s miracles? How does this point to the ultimate covenant meal that all ancient weddings looked forward to?  

Abundant wine was one of the signs of the Messiah’s coming, which His people were looking for. The interaction between Yeshua and his mother was very interesting here.

On the third day a wedding took place at Cana in Galilee. Yeshua’ mother was there, 2 and Yeshua and his disciples had also been invited to the wedding. 3 When the wine was gone, Yeshua’ mother said to him, “They have no more wine.”

4 “Woman,[a] why do you involve me?” Yeshua replied. “My hour has not yet come.”

John 2:1-5

Notice this first miracle of Jesus’s ministry was “on the third day,” a direct parallel to the day God came down on Mount Sinai to meet and dwell and speak His Word to His people (Exodus 19:11). The third day is a pattern elsewhere: Abraham bound Isaac on the third day on Mount Moriah and then God provided another sacrifice instead of his son of promise. Yeshua died on that same mountain and rose again on the third day after he died (Genesis 22:1-18, Luke 24:1).

The Bridegroom at a wedding is the one responsible to provide the wine. When Mary asked Yeshua to provide the wine, she was essentially asking Him to step into the role of Bridegroom. But he was clearly a guest at this wedding, not the bridegroom.  Why was she asking? If it were just a simple request to save face for the bridegroom’s family, then Yeshua’s response to her “woman, why do you involve me? My hour has not yet come” doesn’t make a ton of sense. She was asking for a miracle, but likely a much larger one.

Her statement “they have no wine” reflected a prophecy in Isaiah describing God’s people longing for the wine of salvation, “The wine mourns, the vine languishes, all the merry-hearted sigh…No more do they drink wine with singing…There is an outcry in the streets for lack of wine; all joy has reached its eventide; the gladness of the earth is banished (Is. 24:7, 9, 11).

If Mary is drawing up images of Isaiah, then she is bringing up the end of this prophecy, too. Whenever a verse or section of Scripture is quoted, it brings to mind the entire context of the verse.  Israel running out of wine is not the end. Adonai promises to give those who love Him from all the peoples of the earth a special feast of wine, the Messianic Banquet:

On this mountain the Lord Almighty will prepare
    a feast of rich food for all peoples,
a banquet of aged wine—
    the best of meats and the finest of wines.
7 On this mountain he will destroy
    the shroud that enfolds all peoples,
the sheet that covers all nations;
8     he will swallow up death forever.
The Sovereign Lord will wipe away the tears
    from all faces;
he will remove his people’s disgrace
    from all the earth.
The Lord has spoken. (Isaiah 25:6-8)

This would mean Mary was inviting Yeshua to provide the abundant, miraculous wine that would signify a return of God’s presence to dwell with His people in a new Eden where there would be no more death. It would also be a revelation that Yeshua is divine, since the Bridegroom throughout Scripture is God Himself providing the wine at the banquet of salvation.

Ancient Jewish expectations were that miraculous and superabundant wine would symbolize the arrival of the Messiah and the age of salvation. Adonai would prepare a wedding feast for His people in a New Eden.  Amos said “In that day, I will raise up the booth of David that is fallen…The mountains shall drip sweet wine, and all the hills shall flow with it (Amos 9, 11, 13). (See also Joel 3:18, 2 Baruch 29:1-2). Yeshua’s response to Mary makes more sense when we have a better idea what she was asking for.

Why did Yeshua (Jesus) Call His Mother "Woman?"

Yeshua addressing his mother as “Woman,” might sound disrespectful to us now in modern culture, but we know Yeshua obeyed Torah, including the commandment to Honor his father and mother. Yeshua also addressed her as “Woman” as he was dying on the tree of sacrifice and was establishing John as her provider in his place, “Woman, behold your son!” Calling her “Woman” is a red flag to look back to Eve in Genesis, who was referred to as Woman eleven times. In addressing his mom as Woman, he is alluding to her as the one receiving the promise given to Eve in Genesis 3:15

Genesis 3:15 And I will put enmity
    between you and the woman,
    and between your offspring[a] and hers;
he will crush[b] your head,
    and you will strike his heel

Yeshua’s first miracle then, began to reveal His identity as the snake crushing seed of the Woman who would bring a new Eden and whose kingdom would be recognized by miraculous, superabundant wine. The six stone jars used for purification would have held 20-30 gallons each, making his miracle truly an abundance of wine: 120-180 gallons! Yeshua began to reveal His identity as divine Bridegroom here, but he politely declines his mother’s full request.

What Betrothal did the Last Supper Point To?

Later, during the third cup of the Last Passover Seder meal Yeshua ate with His followers, He lifted the cup of redemption and revealed what the betrothal covenant meal between Him and His people would be. They were remembering Exodus 6:6 when Adonai said, “I will redeem you with an outstretched arm.” They remembered how Adonai did redeem His people from Egypt-and how He took them to a mountain to seal His wedding covenant. And Yeshua said- this cup is the cup of redemption through which I will climb a mountain to pour out the crushed wine of My blood, which will seal our new marriage covenant together. “Drink of it, all of you; for this is the blood of the new covenant which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins” (Matthew 26:27-28) “This cup which is poured out for you is the new covenant in my blood (Luke 22:20) This is my blood of the new covenant, which is poured out for many (Mark 14:24). My crushed body will provide the meal, and My redemption will be complete, for I will completely remove Egypt from your hearts and replace it with our marriage covenant’s Ketubah written there.

Marriage: A Symbol of Resurrection and Multiplied Life through Death

In order for wine, which gladdens the heart, to be a heart-gladdening beverage, it must first be crushed. Yeshua would be crushed for the transgressions of His Bride, offering her the gift of redemption and reconciliation. While He was on the tree of sacrifice, his “side” was pierced, and from it flowed an abundance of blood and water. The fact that it is his side is another pattern that takes us back to Eden (Genesis 2:21-22) to the first marriage, when God formed Eve by removing one of the sides of Adam (the translation of “rib” is completely inaccurate…it was his side God removed). From the beginning, marriage was a symbol of resurrection and multiplied life out of the death of one.  God would restore His marriage covenant with His people through the blood and water flowing from His side.

Adonai’s Bride would drink of the wine representing the wine of His blood and eat of the bread representing His crushed body, and remember her divine Bridegroom and that the next time He would eat of it again with her would be at the Marriage Supper of the Lamb in the New Eden, when He comes to celebrate His wedding with His Bride.

New Life Starts at the Betrothal (Not the Wedding- or Death)

So, the wine of ancient betrothals represents a bride’s acceptance of her groom’s proposal, and the covenant meal represents the establishing of a new family and their commitment to one another until the wedding feast can commence. The Bride is never the same after this, stepping into a new life. A betrothal was as binding as a wedding is now, and they were considered to be married (though they couldn’t consummate it yet). She bears the ring of His commitment, as she has drunk the wine and shared the meal of His promise, and she walks every new step as beloved,  belonging to her Bridegroom and Him to her. She begins to prepare to be the wife of this husband, in all that that means in whatever profession he has. The betrothal in ancient times looked back to Adonai’s betrothal to Israel on Mt. Sinai and forward to the New Marriage Covenant that Bridegroom Yeshua would make with His blood.

In Revelation 3:20 we find Yeshua (Yeshua) saying, “Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him and he with Me!” He invites each person into His wedding covenant to look forward with His people throughout the ages to the Wedding Supper of the Lamb. Each person invites Him in to this covenant meal of betrothal in which they receive Yeshua’s sacrifice as their means of forgiveness and restored relationship with God then begins a new life. Eternal life does not begin after death or after Yeshua comes back. Eternal life begins at this moment and continues forever. Death is just a means of passing from life to Life. Abundant life, which Yeshua came to bring (John 10:10), begins the moment we know Him, for He is Life. “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.” (John 10:10).  In John 17:3 Yeshua says, “This is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God and Jesus Christ, whom You have sent.” Trusting Yeshua as Savior and Lord is the start of a new life “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come:[a] The old has gone, the new is here!” (2 Corinthians 5:17). We are forgiven, and invited into all we were created for: to know God and live out our unique reflection of Him on the earth in a way that others can come to know Him, too. Each person that accepts that invitation then continues to drink the wine and eat the bread in remembrance of their betrothal to Yeshua, and their looking forward to the Wedding Supper with Him in the new Eden when He would eat and drink with them in celebration of their eternal union.

Eternal Life Now

For us, today, thinking about this, I hear the Lord wooing us deeper into an understanding and experience of the riches of His love for us. He has offered us the covenant meal made possible by the sacrifice of Himself-a meal of His own body and blood. If we have opened the door and received Him as Savior and Lord, we have drunk of the wine and eaten the bread of the covenant. His wine is miraculous and superabundant. He is fully able as Bridegroom to complete all His promises to us. He does not want His bride to hobble into His new creation weighed down by bondage and brokenness. As soon as our new life begins, when we are His and He is ours, He wants to begin restoring us and healing those broken places inside of us. He longs to heal us emotionally, help us work through forgiveness, free us to offer Him our pain, and overall invite us into a deeper relationship with Him in which He heals and delivers us. He longs to free us from bondage so we can walk wholeheartedly with Him, carrying His heart over this broken world and extending His offer of Life. Just as a bride carries the heart of her groom, He invites us to carry His heart.

We Are the Bride

Also, we are His Bride together.  It’s not like you are His bride and I am His bride and He has a ton of brides. 1 Corinthians 12:12-27 talks about how we are one body. That’s why Jesus made such a big deal about us loving one another. John 13:34-35: “34 A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. 35 By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.” He doesn’t want us to get caught up in offense and judgement and unforgiveness. He wants us to overlook offenses when possible (Proverbs 19:11) and work through pain and forgiveness with Him when we are hurt. If we form judgements after the flesh about our brothers and sisters, we take Yeshua’s seat as Judge that He alone deserves. Ancient Hebrew Judges were both the Judge and the Advocate. By dying in our place, He alone earned this right to be Advocate and Judge. He wants us to see one another through His eyes and depend on Him to be a just Judge and to bring us justice in His time and the best possible way. When we eat the wedding covenant meal with Him in the Wedding Supper of the Lamb, there will be no room for judgment, unforgiveness, and division. He wants that heart of love to begin now. He wants His Bride to be one. He alone can give us the love to be one.

Eagerly Prepare for the Wedding to Come

His heart longs to claim His Bride. He longs to bring justice to His Beloved. May our hearts long for Him in return and walk with Him in the new life He has provided us. May we live as ancient betrothed wives would- declaring, “I am His and He is mine” by the way we live. And may we eagerly prepare and be ready for Him to come back that we may celebrate with Him the covenant meal of the Wedding Supper of the Lamb Yeshua.

Copyright ©  2023 Angela Edmonds. All rights reserved.


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