Marriage or Mockery?

Jeremiah 16:9 "For thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: 'Behold, I will cause to cease from this place, before your eyes and in your days, the voice of mirth and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride.'"

Jeremiah 33:10-11 “Thus says the Lord: ‘Again there shall be heard in this place—of which you say, 'It is desolate, without man and without beast”—in the cities of Judah, in the streets of Jerusalem that are desolate, without man and without inhabitant and without beast, 11 the voice of joy and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride, the voice of those who will say:

'Praise the Lord of hosts,
For the Lord is good,
For His mercy endures forever”—
and of those who will bring the sacrifice of praise into the house of the Lord. For I will cause the captives of the land to return as at the first,’ says the Lord."

Revelation 18:23 The light of a lamp shall not shine in you anymore, and the voice of bridegroom and bride shall not be heard in you anymore. For your merchants were the great men of the earth, for by your sorcery all the nations were deceived.

Dear God,

The blessings of Your restoration of Your people to spiritual hope and opportunity are thrilling. Jeremiah saw hope to come for the Hebrew remnant even before there was a remnant.  Jeremiah saw hope to come for the Hebrew remnant even in the midst of Babylon's destruction of Jerusalem and its temple.  That is genuine faith!

But destruction would precede restoration.

Destruction would be characterized by many tragedies.  But one tragedy Jeremiah names explicitly is that the voice of the bridegroom and the bride would be silenced.  However, Jeremiah also prophesies a day of repatriation of Your holy remnant from Babylonian captivity; and he writes that Your remnant would be blessed with weddings--brides and grooms!

John, the Revelator, prophesies the destruction of Babylon yet again in John 18.  Babylon is described as Your arch enemy--a bloody whore.  Babylon's end includes the cessation of weddings between bride and groom.

Your Word clearly teaches that blessed nations are nations that practice weddings between a bridegroom and a bride!  Holy marriage is both a cause and an effect of Your blessing!  The end of Your design for marriage is clearly prophesied throughout Scripture as a curse to a nation.  It is accompanied by witchcraft, assassinations of prophets, and martyrdom of the saints.

I pray for my friends and family who are ensnared by sinful substitutes for Your design, holy marriage. Your plan is for one man to marry one woman and remain in holy union for a lifetime. Divorce mocks Your design.  Co-habitation mocks Your design.  Same-sex marriages mock Your design.

But after all of the prophesied tragedy, You continue to extend hope--hope in the form of another wedding--a Bride and a Groom!  "Come, I will show you the bride, the Lamb's wife" (Revelation 21:9).  Heaven's glory begins with a wedding!  A holy Bride, the Church, and Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God and Bridegroom!

Thank You, Jesus, for bringing hope out of devastation, a remnant out of captivity, holiness out of horror, and the blessing of holy marriage out of civilizations where marital joy has been cursed into silence.  

In the Name of our Bridegroom, Jesus Christ,

Amen.