My friend, Neil told me he was preaching on selected love stories from Scripture for next Sunday, the day before Valentine's Day. When he asked me what my sermon would be about I told him, the plagues of Exodus. I know, I'm a hopeless romantic ... or are we missing something?
Through much of the Old Testament God makes promises and vows to his people. Some of these are covenants which spell out the rights and responsibilities of God and God's people. God will be their God and they will be God's people. In Jewish wedding tradition there was a pre-wedding agreement called the ketubah. It was and ornate and very elaborate agreement entered into between the groom and the father of the bride. It spelled out the rights of each party in the wedding agreement. When this agreement was made the bride and the groom were considered married even though they were not living together for quite some time. This time was used by both parties to prepare for the wedding and subsequent wedding ceremony. God consistently speaks of Israel and then the New Testament Church as a bride. So let's imagine a love story here.
Bad people have taken the bride of God (Israel) into slavery and they even threaten the existence of the bride. The groom has taken all he will take and sends his representatives to rescue the bride from evil men. The groom is very powerful and has control over all of the natural, physical and spiritual world. But the bad men refuse to release the bride, even killing the children of the bride. They respond to the representatives of the groom by making the bride miserable. So the groom exerts his authority and protection over the bride, causing great harm to the captors. When they refuse all attempts to force the release of the bride the groom does what they have already been doing to the children of the bride.
Sunday we will take this love story even further. For in the end, the groom initiates the greatest act of love in history to finally free the bride from captivity.
The "reproach of Egypt" is costly, even to God. But the faithful groom will stop at nothing to make sure that,when the father calls, the bride will be brought to a place of freedom, safety and provision.
Now THAT'S a love story!
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