The Wide Path Dropout Mama
The Wide Path Dropout Mama
A Galilean Wedding
In this episode, I lay out the process of a Galilean wedding and compare it to our own love story with our eternal Bridgroom Yeshua! You will begin to see a story unfold you may not have seen before. In this betrothal to the Most High we see it weaving through scripture from Genesis to Revelation! Other resources for futher exploration of this subject can be found in a documentary on Prime called Before the Wrath, also The Almond House Fellowship youtube channel, episode titled Yeshua the Bridegroom - Mysteries of the Covenant revealed. You can also dig into this in depth in the book "Finding the Afikoman, encountering Jesus in the spring feasts" by Christie Eisner. I pray this episode blesses you! I can be reached at widepathdropoutmama@gmail.com.
Did you like this episode? Send me a message, tell me anything! I'd be honored to hear from you!
Hi, my name is Jenny. I'm a wife, a mom, an entrepreneur and, most importantly, a disciple of Yeshua Jesus. I've been a Christian for over a decade, having studied the Bible for at least that long, or better. Until about three years ago, I thought I knew Jesus pretty well. Then my world was rocked. I started studying the Bible from its Middle Eastern context and culture, and what I found has completely changed my and my family's lives forever. Join me as I share all that I've learned about our Jewish Messiah and listen to my conversations with other moms on their own journey with Jesus, as we discuss the practical ways that we walk out our faith in our everyday lives. This is a conversation for the Christian mom who wants more.
Speaker 1:This is the Wide Path Dropout Mama Podcast. Hey everybody, welcome back to today's episode. Guys, this is a super exciting one today. I have been working on this for a while now and, oh my goodness, guys, if this story, if this thing that I share with you today, does not make you understand how important it is to look into the culture and the context of Jesus's day, the culture of his people and of the time that he lived in and when the Bible was written oh my word. What we are going to go over today, I hope will change your life. I hope it will change the way that you see yourself within this love story between you and Jesus and the Father. I pray that it gets down into your soul and I pray that you leave this podcast with a hunger to know more about this, and I pray that he leads you on this. I just pray that he takes you on a little journey with this information and that he reveals himself to you in a way that forever changes your relationship with him. I know that it did for me. So get buckled in, get your coffee ready, get your hot tea, whatever you like, get situated. If you're in the car, you're good to go, just keep going, but get ready, because this is so beautiful and you will never see the word the same again. You will never see the Lord the same again. So here we go, let's get into it.
Speaker 1:Okay, so today I'm going to talk to you about what a Jewish wedding would have looked like in Jesus's day and, more specifically, what a Galilean wedding would have looked like, and as I explain this process to you, you absolutely will be hearing some things that sound very familiar to you and it's very exciting. I hope that you will be just excited as I was, as I was hearing this taught to me. Bells and whistles will be going off, things will sound familiar. You will absolutely begin to understand where I'm going with this as I unfold this process of this Galilean wedding. So it begins like this so back in that day in Galilea, typically the fathers would be the matchmakers. They would usually arrange a match between the bride and groom and when it came time to make the proposal or the engagement, they would meet near the town gate. So let me explain to you a little bit about the town gate.
Speaker 1:So back in those, back in ancient times, in the Bible days, the gates of the cities or the towns were where all the elders would be. That is where you would go to have a dispute settled. That's where you would go if you needed a witness, so you could buy land, or if you were going to go into covenant with somebody or have a contract. You wanted to go to the town gates because that's where the elders were and that's where you would get your witnesses. So everybody would be there. They would see. So you know all the parties would. There would be witnesses to any binding contract. So they, the couple that would be to get married, would meet near the town gate and they would gather there together with the father of the groom, the groom, the father of the bride and the bride to be, and they would bring a written contract, which was called a katuba, and what they would do is they would publicly read that katuba, or that marriage contract, for everybody to hear. That way, all parties were aware of what the katuba involved, and they were, you know, by hearing it all in the public. They could not go back and say, oh well, I didn't agree to this. No, you, you were reddit, everybody saw this, you agreed to it, so you're bound. So they would take this katuba, they would read it publicly and then gifts would be exchanged, and the most expensive gift would obviously be going to the bride. And I can give you an example of this.
Speaker 1:In the Bible, in Genesis, when Abraham sends Eleazar to find Isaac, a bride, when Eleazar finds Rebecca, he adorns her with all this beautiful jewelry and he even gives some gifts to her mother and her brother. So that is, that was typical in that day. That's what you did. So next, the bridegroom would be given a pitcher, a pitcher of wine, and he would then pour a or some of the wine into a ceremonial cup that is called the cup of joy, and he would offer it to his desired bride to be. So when this woman is offered the cup, she then has the. She has the choice. She can either choose to reject that cup, push it away and give it back to the groom and say no, I do not want, I don't accept this proposal, I don't want to get married. But if she takes a sip from that cup, she is saying yes, I want to marry you, I want to engage in this marriage contract with you. She is saying yes. So he, when she takes a sip and she says yes, the groom would then also take a sip from the cup to solidify the new kind of covenant that they have just stepped into with each other. And then this is the part where it starts getting good. So then the groom would say publicly for everyone to see, he would say this you are now consecrated to me by the law of Moses and I will not drink this cup again until I drink it anew with you in my father's house. Are you hearing what I'm hearing? Does that sound familiar. Okay, I'm not going to go there yet. We'll go back to it in just a minute after I explain this.
Speaker 1:So at that point, each party would go their separate ways, because this is when the real work begins. This is when the betrothal process begins. So at that point the groom and his father would leave and they would begin to get the materials ready to build a bridal chamber onto the groom's father's house. So that process could take anywhere from months up to a year. So it was known in that day that it could take up to a year until the bride was taken to her husband where they could begin their actual marriage and their life together.
Speaker 1:So this, this time that the groom is getting the materials together, he's beginning to build a bridal chamber onto his father's house. The bride would also be with her bridesmaids and her family. They would be beginning the process of getting ready for that wedding. They would be getting their materials together, their linens together. They would be making a wedding dress. So that would be her work to do. While he's making room and building her a bridal chamber for them to live in on his father's house, she would also be preparing herself. She would be getting her materials ready for her wedding dress. She would be adorning herself, preparing for the day when her groom would come to get her. So the fun part is that this is where it really starts getting good and where you're really going to start seeing these familiar phrases that we've heard all of our lives in the Bible. It's going to take on new meaning.
Speaker 1:So during this time, while the groom is building this chamber onto the father's house, when the house is done, nobody can say that it is done. Only the father can say, okay, this looks good, it's ready, you can go get your bride. Only the father can say that. So when he tells his son, okay, son, you can go get your bride now, it would usually be in the middle of the night and there would be a procession. Okay, so there would be this group of people like the groom's men, and they would be blowing a show far in the streets to announce the bridegroom is coming, the bridegroom is coming, and everybody would be gathering in the streets and they would follow this procession, as the bridegroom is going to get his bride in the middle of the night and the bride would have to be sleeping in her wedding clothes because she never knew when he was coming right. She had to always be prepared, to always be ready in case this was the night that he would come to get her. So when the bridegroom gets to the bride's house, the wedding party that you could kind of call it the wedding party would whisk her up, right, they would lift her up onto this, onto this chair, and they would hold her in the air and they would I'm doing air quotations they would fly her to the groom's father's house and as she's lifted up, she joins the groom. Okay, so they lift the groom and the bride up together and they whisk them away to the father's house, where they will. She will forever be with her groom from that day on.
Speaker 1:Guys, is this sounding familiar to you? Is this sounding familiar? Because I was geeking out as I was hearing this story? Okay, so now we are. I will. I can get even deeper into this. I can explain to you. You know how the bride is taken into her bridal chamber and she's kept there for seven days while her and the groom, they consummate their marriage and then, at the end of that seven days, she was unveiled to the wedding party and they would have the wedding feast and anyone who was invited that didn't come, anyone who was not dressed in the proper attire, they would be shut out and only those wedding guests who were there and in their proper attire would get to enjoy the wedding feast with the newly married couple. So, guys, I could just shut the podcast off right now and that would be enough.
Speaker 1:But we are going to get into the scriptures. I'm going to walk you through that process and I'm going to show you in the scriptures what that looks like for us and for Jesus Yeshua as our bridegroom. I'm also going to show you the underlying wedding story that can be found from Genesis all the way to Revelation. So get ready, guys, because it's about to get so good. So this wedding story that involves us and Jesus and the Lord, it began all the way back in the book of Genesis.
Speaker 1:So, on Mount Sinai, when Yahweh gives Moses the Ten Commandments, he gives them on these two tablets, right, he takes these two stone tablets and he inscribes the Ten Commandments, and a lot of times we think of these two stones as having all of the commandments written on them. So it took two stones, so there's five commandments on one and the other five on the other stone, but it's actually. That's not the case. So back in those times, when somebody would go into covenant, they would each have a copy of the covenant. So those two stone tablets were actually all. Ten of them were on each tablet, and one tablet was for Yahweh, the other tablet was for the children of Israel. That way, they would always have that tablet and that would remind them that they are in covenant and what those terms of the covenant are.
Speaker 1:So I am going to submit to you that the entire story of Yahweh rescuing the Israelites out of Egypt and out of bondage. As he took them out of bondage and he took them through the Red Sea. He took them through a baptism in the Red Sea. He took them through the process of mikvah. A mikvah is a wedding, a ritual, not just for weddings, but it was a ritual cleansing, right. So he took them through this mikvah, through the Red Sea and a cleansing, and he's preparing this people that he wants to join to himself, right? He says that I am the creator of this world. This world belongs to me, but I want you to be my set apart people. I want you, I want to take you for myself as my treasure. That is, that's wedding talk. So he is essentially rescued his bride, if you will out of bondage, out of Egypt. He has taken them through a cleansing process in the Red Sea and he's preparing them to meet him on the mountain and to go into a marriage covenant with them. I don't know if you're aware of this, but those 10 commandments on Mount Sinai, guys, that was a wedding. They had a wedding that day between Yahweh and the people of Israel. They went in, they went into a covenant marriage.
Speaker 1:And I'm going to break this down in scripture for you. Okay, so the Israelites have been rescued out of bondage, they've been taken through the Red Sea, they've walked down the Isle of the Red Sea, they've been cleansed by the Red Sea. They're preparing themselves to meet Yahweh on this mountain. And here is the proposal. I'm going to read it to you, and this can be found in Exodus 19. 3.
Speaker 1:Then Moses went up to God and Yahweh called to him from the mountain and said this is what you are to say to the house of Jacob and what you are to tell the people of Israel. You yourselves have seen what I did to Egypt and how I carried you on eagles' wings and brought you to myself Now. If you obey me fully and keep my covenant, then, out of all the nations, you will be my treasured possession. Although the whole earth is mine, you will be for me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation. These are the words you are to speak to the Israelites. So he is essentially saying, hey, I am willing to go into covenant with you if you are willing to go into covenant with me and to obey all of these words that I am going to speak to you. So he is essentially saying, hey, go tell them that this is what I am willing to do and ask them if they want to go into this covenant with me. And I am going to pick back up in verse 7.
Speaker 1:So Moses went back to summon the elders of the people and set before them all the words that Yahweh had commanded him to speak. The people all responded together we will do everything Yahweh has said. So Moses brought their answer back to Yahweh, and Yahweh said to Moses I am going to come to you in a dense cloud so that the people will hear me speaking with you and they will always put their trust in you. And then Moses told Yahweh what the people had said. And Yahweh said to Moses Go to the people and consecrate them today and tomorrow, have them wash their clothes and be ready by the third day, because on that day Yahweh will come down on Mount Sinai in the sight of all the people. So they are getting ready for a wedding. He is saying Cleanse yourself, get ready, get your garments on. We are about to have a wedding on this mountain.
Speaker 1:So at this time, that is when the Lord descends onto the mountain, a shofar is being blown and everybody assembles and then he begins to give out these commandments, the covenant terms. Right? So those 10 commandments were the terms of that covenant marriage. So then we can read throughout the rest of these chapters. So we will go into that was in chapter 19. So then it goes on chapter 20, obviously gives out the 10 commandments, and on to on through chapter 23. And then he lays out all of these covenant laws that they need to abide by in this covenant with him.
Speaker 1:And then, when you go to here is where it starts getting really good, and you go to chapter 24 in Exodus Guys, when I saw this I was completely blown away because I had never seen this before. So when, back in those ancient times when you would go into covenant with someone. Once you went over the terms of the covenant, you then would have a covenant meal to kind of seal that covenant and kind of put a cap on that agreement that you have stepped into. So in Exodus 24, this is where you see Moses and the elders have a covenant meal with the one true living God. They have a covenant meal on Mount Sinai. I'm about to read it to you and if you've never heard or seen this before, it's going to blow your mind. I had never seen this and it just, it just it shook me when I read this. Okay, here it is. Exodus 24, verses nine.
Speaker 1:Moses and Aaron, nadab and Abihu and the 70 elders of Israel went up and saw the God of Israel. Under his feet was something like a pavement made of sapphire as the sky itself. But God did not raise his hand against these leaders of the Israelites. They saw God and they ate and drank what, what? They ate and drank with Yahweh on a sapphire floor. I am, I just was so blown when I read that I just blew my mind that they actually had a meal with the Lord on that mountain. They also had sacrifices, they did some other things that you would typically do when you enter into a covenant meal.
Speaker 1:And so when you look at it like they stepped into a marriage covenant with Yahweh, when you take a look at all of the things that happened after that and take a look at the history of you know the kingships in Israel you can see that it is literally just a love story. It's a story about a husband and a wife who the husband, all he wants to do is love and cherish his wife, but his wife keeps cheating on him. He keeps Committing adultery with these other gods, these other deities. She keeps going back and cheating on him, and then he would then call to her and he would discipline her. He would do all the things that he said he would do if she broke covenant with him to woo her back to him, to cause her to cry out to him to take her back, and he did every single time. Every single time is a real stepped out on Yahweh. He always brought her back, he always forgave her, he always went back into that marriage covenant with her, and that that is.
Speaker 1:That is our story with the Lord, and so when he brings Jesus onto the scene. He's bringing Jesus to, once and for all, forgive his bride and give her clean garments, give her the gift of righteousness so she can forever just walk with him and that holy matrimony. And they wouldn't have to worry about the cycle of you adult, you adulterize and you break covenant with me. And now we've got to. You know, offer these sacrifices so you can get back into covenant with me, so you can be back in right standing. He sent Jesus to kind of rectify all of that, and so whenever you have this understanding, you can understand why it was such a big deal.
Speaker 1:When the Israelites started worshiping that golden calf, they had just just went into a covenant with him and he was just going to give her the gift of righteousness. And he was going to give her the gift of righteousness, and so no sooner did they go into covenant with him. Moses leaves, then they start worshiping this golden calf, and so that's why the Lord was so upset. He just, he just went into an intimate covenant with these people and these people just cheated on him right away. So you can kind of understand how he was so upset by that and how he was just willing to just do away with with his bride, essentially because she cheated on him.
Speaker 1:So, now that you have this foundation of this story, you've heard this Galilean wedding story. You've heard the. You've now heard me talk about the 10 commandments and how there was a wedding on Mount Sinai. So now I let's take a look at scripture and let's take a look at this betrothal process, because he began that betrothal process back then and we have been going through this cycle of of being in covenant, breaking that covenant, being in covenant, breaking that covenant. Jesus comes right. He has his ministry.
Speaker 1:So let's go to, let's go to Matthew, matthew 26, and let's let's go to the last supper. So we are going to go back to this whole concept of remember that Jesus is from Galilee and his 12 disciples are all from Galilee. Okay, so he used their culture to help teach them some of these concepts that he was trying to help them understand. So he is with his 12 disciples. It's the last supper together. They don't really understand this, but he does, and so I'm going to pick up and read in Matthew 26, verses 27 through 29.
Speaker 1:So it says this during the last supper, jesus takes a cup of wine. He gives thanks to God for it and he gives it to his disciples and he says this each of you drink from it, for this is my blood, which confirms the covenant between God and his people. It is poured out as a sacrifice to forgive the sins of many, and this is where it gets good, you guys. In verse 29, this is what Jesus says Mark my words I will not drink wine again until I drink, until the day I drink it new with you in my father's house. Okay, so you see that he this is wedding language and the disciples would have absolutely understood that to be wedding language Now, even though they probably were confused. Like, wait a minute, like this is wedding language. Why are you saying that to us? You know this is what you say to a bride. Well, this is where the whole picture of us being the bride of Christ comes in. So he's essentially saying, like I'm engaging, you are in covenant with me. I have got to go back to my father's house now and I've got to prepare a place for you, and when I've prepared that place, then I will come back and get you and I will bring you back to my father's house. So Jesus says in John 14, verses 2 through 6 in my father's house are many mansions. If it were not so, I would have told you I go to prepare a place for you and if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to myself. That where I am there, you may be also, and where I go, you know and the way you know where I go, you know and the way you know. So he's talking wedding language here. He's saying I've got to leave now. I've got to go prepare this, I've got to go build these houses. I'm preparing these places for you on my father's house so that when I come back I can bring you to myself and you know where I'm going and you know the way to get there. You know that I'm going to my father's house and you know that I'm the only way that you can get there. So he's assuring them I will come back for you. I am preparing a place for you and I'm coming back and I'm going to bring you to myself.
Speaker 1:This next part kind of ties into our last podcast. Remember I was telling you about the Feast of Trumpets, how we're going to hear the sound of a shofar and that's when Jesus is going to come back for his bride, right? So this concept of the groom coming in the middle of the night, we hear it in scripture all over the place. So first, thessalonians 5 to says for you, yourselves know perfectly that day of the Lord so comes as a thief in the night. 2nd Peter 3, 10 says but the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night, in which the heavens will pass away with a great noise. So we see this picture of our bridegroom, yeshua coming back, and there's going to be the blowing of a trumpet. He's gonna come back like a thief in the night. This is totally lining up with this Galilean wedding process, right? So let's continue on. Let's let's keep comparing this process with the scripture.
Speaker 1:Jesus himself says in Revelation Behold. Revelation 16, 15 behold, I am coming as a thief. Blessed is he who watches and keeps his garments Lest he walk naked and they see a shame. So he's saying blessed is my bride, who is ready. She is in her wedding garments, she's ready. So whenever I come and get her, she's ready. It doesn't matter if I come in the middle of the night, which exactly? Which is exactly what I'm gonna do. My bride is dressed in her wedding garments, she is ready.
Speaker 1:But let's back up, because after Jesus says this to his disciples, he's given them this cup of wine and he's told them that he is going to go to his father's house and build on To make room for them, to bring them back to himself. Now he has got to pay that bride price, right, he has to pay that, that dowry, that mohar is what it's called in Hebrew, it is the bride price. So first, peter one, 18, 19 says this Knowing that you were not redeemed with corruptible things like silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish, without spot. So he, his bride price, was his life, his blood that he poured out, and he gave his Holy Spirit as a, as a Reminder, as a pain, as a gift. Right, he's adorned us with the Holy Spirit as a promise that he is coming back to get us, to bring him back, to bring us back to himself. First, corinthians 723 reminds us that we were bought at a price right. So the gift that Jesus left us in the Holy Spirit is that guarantee that he's coming back.
Speaker 1:And so I want to go back to the picture of this Galilean wedding, when the groom comes Like a thief in the night. They're blowing the shofar in the streets, the procession is coming, they get to the bride's house that they lift the bride in the groom up into the air. Right, and sometimes they call that. Now, in modern days, they call that the catching away, they call it Nissan. So they're the bride in the groom, they are caught up in the air together, right, does that sound familiar? And they're being whisked away to their bridal chamber there, there, the, the house on the father's house, the place at the father's house that he has built on to for them to Be with together forever, right?
Speaker 1:So, with this picture in mind, I'm going to read this scripture first Thessalonians 4, 16 and 17. For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with a voice of an arc Archangel and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and thus we shall always be with the Lord. Wow, Guys, are you catching all of this? Are you seeing? Are you are you tracking?
Speaker 1:Because this, this was such a game changer for me, learning all of these things, and I'm gonna give you some, some other resources to look into further, to study this further, because there are so many details and so many scriptures that just that, that help paint this picture of this wedding and of this, this Galilean wedding, this Betrothal process that we are in the middle of. Right, we are that bride who is adorning ourselves, we're waiting on him to come back. We are Preparing ourselves, we are getting our garments ready. We are going to be dressed in that white linen when he comes back. You know, we want to be that bride who is ready for Jesus when he comes back.
Speaker 1:Right, I kind of I, you know, after learning all of this, it just made me think about myself in a different way and the way that I'm Holding and carrying myself until Jesus comes back. You know, I think about, you know, for instance, like a man who's gone to war, right, what kind of wife do you want to be while your man is gone fighting for your country? Do you want to be the kind of wife who is found at home, keeping up with her home, taking care of the children, taking care of herself, taking care of their home, getting prepared for when he comes back? So, when he comes back, he is coming to a home that's been well cared for. He's coming to To, to children and a wife who have been Very well cared for. You know, have has she been been fanning the flame of their love? Has she been reading those love letters and and keeping the, the love alive even though he's gone right? Or is she out running the streets? Is she out, you know, being with other men? Is she? That's not the kind of bride that we wanna be.
Speaker 1:So when you look at it through that lens of of, am I being a bride that Jesus would wanna come back to? Is this bride behavior? I always ask myself that if I'm struggling with something or if you know, just, I'm just like is that bride-like? Is this the kind of bride that Jesus wants when he comes back? When you start looking at it that way, it really it just. It really puts it into perspective on how we are to carry ourselves until our Messiah returns.
Speaker 1:I could go into a lot more detail in this Galilean wedding comparison to the Bible and to the betrothal process that the Lord has begun and is waiting to fulfill, but I want you to. I wanna leave that to you to discover. I want you to have your own revelations. I want you to go on your own little rabbit trail and start looking into these things and let the Lord reveal these things to you, because, oh my God, there's so much more to it, there's so much more depth to it. But I also want to, I wanna, just remind you of what's going on in the world today. So, now that you can look at the Bible and you can look at this story, this love story, right Like this love story from Genesis all the way to Revelation, this story that God's laid out for us, it shows us who we actually are, right Like. It brings us being the bride of Christ into 3D. You know it just it brings so much more meaning to that aspect of our identity in our relationship with Jesus.
Speaker 1:With that in mind, doesn't it make so much sense what we see happening in the world today? Doesn't it make so much sense that our family is being torn apart, the ideal family that the Lord established with Adam and Eve, and then, on Mount Sinai, when he joins himself to us and he goes into covenant with us, the family right, the husband and the wife, and this family, this nuclear family that the Lord established, it's being attacked. It's being attacked. We are. The family is being attacked. The sanctity of marriage between a man and a woman is being skewed. They are trying the enemy is trying to confuse our little ones. He is trying to confuse their identity. He's trying to make them question whether they're actually a male or a female, let alone the fact that they are meant to be in a marriage covenant with a family. Right, that is the example that God has laid out for us, right? And that is being attacked right now.
Speaker 1:So I just I hope that this story, that this wedding story, has really inspired you. I hope that it's made you wanna fall deeper in love with our bridegroom Yeshua, and I just pray that you will begin to see things through that lens and that he will deepen your revelation of this aspect of your relationship with him, because it really is, in my opinion, is probably one of the most important ways that we can relate ourselves to the Lord. We have all these identities that we relate to the Lord, right, we call the Lord our Father, our King. We call Jesus our friend, our Comforter, our Teacher. But when we see it as Jesus is our bridegroom, we are his bride. We are waiting for him to come back and take us to that wedding chamber and consummate that marriage and to celebrate with him for all of eternity. That's what all of this is about, right?
Speaker 1:So with that, I'm gonna leave you to have your own, to start your own journey with this information, and I pray that it has edified you, I pray that it's inspired you, that it's excited you, and I just pray that he takes you on a journey and I pray that he shows you what he wants to show you about this, with you and him. So with that, that's gonna wrap up our episode. As always, I pray that God will keep you in his perfect peace today and I pray that God will bless you and keep you Until next time on the Wide Path. Dropout Mama Podcast. Thank you.