Seeking a Bride

A New Year means a new opportunity to read through the Bible.

When my husband and I were first married, there was an elderly woman in our church who had read through the Bible over fifty times. As the Pastor encouraged her to share about her Bible reading, I realized that I had never read through the Bible once!

I wanted to try it.

The Bible is a big book. It has a lot of words, pages, and chapters. Something our Pastor said then stuck with me: You may not read through the whole thing in a year, but as Christians, we should read some of it everyday.

I’m starting in Genesis again, and I read the account of Abraham sending his servant back to his home country to seek a bride for his son, Isaac.

The servant seems nervous and unsure. He prays for God’s guidance. It is the first time in Scripture where God’s steadfast love is mentioned as the servant remembers how God has always shown that kind of love to his master, Abraham.

The story has a happy ending. God answers the servant’s prayer as a beautiful young woman comes and gives water to him and all of his camels. In addition to being beautiful, she is hard working and generous, and she is willing to go with him even though she has never met Isaac or Abraham.

I’ve read the story lots of times, but this time, God showed me something new.

He is seeking a bride for His Son.

Abraham served as a picture of our loving heavenly Father. Isaac, once sacrificed upon a hill, served as a picture of the Heir of Promise, the beloved only Son. The servant, who is never named, is the picture of a faithful Christian, obediently taking on a task that is beyond him and waiting to see what God, in His steadfast love will do. Rebecca, beautiful, generous, willing to tie herself forever to a Man she has never seen, is the Church, stepping out in faith, engaging herself to the Son.

And the story has a happy ending. The Son will come back one day for His bride.

If you make it all the way to Revelation in your Bible reading, you’ll get a sneak peek of the ending: “And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as Bride adorned for her husband…and He who was seated on the throne said, ‘Behold, I am making all things new…It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end.’”

God uses His Word to sustain us as we serve Him. Whether we are the servant, seeking a bride for His Son, or whether we are that Bride, being prepared to meet our Husband, God’s Word fills us with His wisdom, comforts us in difficulty, and guides us with His will.

Make today the day you start reading His love letter to you.