NT Text: Revelation 19:7
OT Source(s):
Source: Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Reference Type: Allusion
Connection Method(s): Promise-Fulfillment + Longitudinal Theme
Significance: "The marriage of the Lamb has come, and His bride has made herself ready" consummates Isaiah's marital promise to restored Zion: "as a bridegroom rejoices over his bride, so your God will rejoice over you" (Isa 62:5). Isaiah had announced that the once-Forsaken and Desolate land would be renamed Hephzibah ("My delight is in her") and Beulah ("married"), for the LORD delights in His people as a husband in a wife (Isa 62:4). John shows that nuptial joy reaching its eschatological fulfillment in the wedding of the Lamb to His Church. This is promise-fulfillment carried along the Marriage and Bride longitudinal theme, in which the covenant bond between Yahweh and Israel is revealed all along to anticipate Christ and His Bride. The escalation is the move from a renewed earthly Jerusalem to the heavenly bride adorned for her husband, washed and clothed in the righteous acts of the saints (Rev 19:8). The telos is mutual delight: God rejoicing over His people and His people summoned to "rejoice and be glad," so that Christ is seen not merely as foretold but as the Bridegroom whose love is the everlasting satisfaction of the redeemed.