We have our sermon text. It’s actually two texts. As I’m going through Hosea, I saw here a relationship I wish to unpack between Hosea 2-16, 19-23 and Revelation 6-9.
It’s a one step removed difference, I hope you see. Hosea 2-16 and following, let us listen attentively to the word of God. And it shall be in that day, says the Lord, that you will call me my husband and no longer call me my master.
Verse 19, I will betroth you to me forever. Yes, I will betroth you to me in righteousness and justice and loving kindness and mercy. Verse 23, then I will sow her for myself in the earth and I will have mercy on her who had not obtained mercy.
And I will say to those who are not my people, you are my people. And they shall say, you are my God. Revelation 19, verses 6-9.
Revelation 19, 6-9. And I heard, as it were, the voice of a great multitude, as the sound of many waters, and as the sound of a mighty thundering, saying, Alleluia, for the Lord God omnipotent reigns. Let us be glad and rejoice and give him glory, for the marriage of the Lamb has come and his wife has made herself ready.
And to her it was granted to be arrayed in fine linen, clean and bright. The fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints. Then he said to me, Write, Blessed are those who are called to the marriage supper of the Lamb.
Let us pray. Here, God, we see the description here of the marriage supper of the Lamb, this wonderful metaphor and picture of the future union that we have with our Lord and Savior when all things shall pass away and we are brought into a new heaven and a new earth, this consummation of our redemption. Gracious God, but also in Hosea where we see a marriage, the metaphor of a marriage again in the Old Testament and it’s picked up again in the New Testament.
And Lord, and how both these images are an image of union and sweet fellowship in the context of the covenant, the covenant of grace and mercy. Gracious God and Savior, may this strengthen us, Lord, and help us to see anew and therefore all the more to praise you with joy in our hearts, how you have brought us into your salvation and redemption by your promise of the covenant and through the covenant of grace as pictured in marriage and in a feast and ultimately both of them together in this image of the marriage supper of the Lamb. May we pray, all of us participate in this coming glory, we pray.
Amen. The common thread, as you heard in my prayer between Hosea and these verses here in Revelation, that they both have the theme of marriage. And behind that more particularly, the marriage is what? A specialized covenant or a specific type of covenant.
The context therefore that ties these two are not just marriage as such but more broadly the covenant. And so from this we will see in the Old Testament, both the Old Testament and the New Testament, the imagery of feasts, right, the Old Testament feasts and the fellowship offerings in particular being merged into the picture of marriage itself, both of which are what? Celebrations or in particular the feasts, the signs and seals of the covenant of grace here culminated in this wonderful imagery of Revelation 19.9 that we look forward towards. And the Lord’s Supper is related to this because it’s what? A sign and seal like the old sign and seals, in that way it’s similar to the sacrament of the covenant of grace in which it shows a fellowship or a union that we have with our Lord and Savior through the imagery of a meal, sitting down and being with the one we eat, our Lord and Savior.
And that we have there as well, a feast in Revelation 9, although it is not a marriage, the marriage imagery is not really here but the connection is one step, it’s the covenant. Covenant, it’s a covenant meal, covenant marriage, and both are combined here in the future. In fact, Jesus tells us, as we’ll see in Mark, that He won’t sup with us, that He won’t drink with us until He returns again.
So He ties the Lord’s Supper in that sense of fellowship here in the future when He returns. So there’s the sermon in a nutshell. Let’s unpack it.
OT Marriage and Feasts
So here, the first point, the Old Testament marriage and the feasts therein, or I suppose you could say suppers, the image of marriage already here in Hosea, right? Chapter 1, verse 2, and especially 2.2. Let me jump over there again. We’re after Daniel. Hosea, bring charges against your mother, bring charges for she is not my wife nor am I her husband.
And so there he picks up more negatively, of course, the imagery of marriage. It only makes sense if this marriage is, that is more precisely a covenant, which it is, and God’s saying, you’re breaking my covenant. And He’s using the intimate picture here of marriage because that is what is often used, in fact, in the Bible, as we’ll see.
Because of their collective unfaithfulness, even generational unfaithfulness to Him, mixing God’s worship with pagan methods. And we’re going to unpack more of that as we go through Hosea. He, as the Lord of the covenant, tells them and urges against them that they stop with these wicked sins and violations of His Word, but rather to embrace the covenant marriage that He has there.
And it shall be, I already read that there, there is, of course, no literal marriage as such. That’s why I use the word metaphor. We’re not married to God.
It is like we are married to God. And the connection, more precisely, of course, is a covenant. We have a covenant with Him.
That’s why I ended on verse 23, where we have that covenantal language. And I will say to those who are not my people, you are my people. They were ami, lo ami, now they are ami, right? They are my people from the Hebrew.
And they will say, you are my God. This is the language. This is a common way of speaking in the ancient Near East publications of the covenant that they declare publicly.
We are in covenant. We are in a pact with our God. And of course, this is the God of creation and God of heaven and earth.
It’s a special covenant. But the marriage is used here. And as I pointed out in the sermon and Hosea elsewhere and Isaiah and Jeremiah in particular, that God picks this idea up to hammer home the significance and importance as much as we realize emotionally, volitionally in our experience what marriage is like.
Because back then, the vast majority of people throughout time have been married. It’s just simply the way it is. And so this, therefore, metaphor makes sense to lots of people.
It hits the greatest audience. They’re like, okay, I can get this. This intimate relationship as much as you wouldn’t like your wife cheating on you, I don’t like you cheating on me.
That’s the point in breaking what? The covenant. So I’ll pick another covenant relationship to drive home this point to my audience. And of course, he even had kids, right? He names the kids to reinforce the seriousness of their sins and urging to repentance that he gives them.
And so it’s a metaphor about the church’s relationship that’s binding and intimate. And of course, God is a holy God and a jealous God against their wickedness, urges them to repent. The Old Testament covenantal feasts are also related to this as well, of course.
These are signs and seals of the covenant of grace in the Old Testament form. The connection there between the covenant feast and the marriage metaphor, of course, is the covenant itself. The covenant is agreement between two or more people.
It’s the simplest way of understanding that word. It’s not very complicated in one sense because all of us live in a world and a moral universe that uses covenants. Although we don’t always use the word covenant, we may use the word pact, P-A-C-T.
We have a pact between nations, for example. And we have an agreement with the HOA. That’s a covenant.
We use the word agreement, but it’s a covenant. So we have all these different words for covenant, in fact. God uses that imagery and that key idea often throughout the Old Testament and the New Testament.
Oh, wait, what? Testament is also a covenant. It’s a specialized covenant, to be sure, where it’s not enacted until you’re dead, whereas most covenants are enacted while you’re alive. But it’s a covenant, a promise before he dies.
In this case, the Son of God, that he would deliver us from our sins, and he did. So this covenant, an agreement between two or more people, specifically with God, of course, a unilateral covenant, where he is the greater party, we are the inferior party. And this, by God’s grace, he has given us in the Old Testament forms and the language.
And the Lord made a pact with his people, as I pointed out in Hosea 2, you are my people and you shall be my God. You trace that theme, that language used in the Old Testament differently. Sometimes it’s a longer phraseology used.
Sometimes it’s a shorter one, you are my God. As simple as that, saying, as it were, half the covenant language there. It’s there nevertheless, and it points out the exclusive and unique relationship God has with his people that no one else has.
He doesn’t make a covenant with the world. He makes a covenant with his chosen, his elect, his church. And in that exclusive relationship, as highlighted here in Hosea, as a marriage.
And there, of course, in Revelation, don’t want to get too far ahead of myself, as a marriage. And we are the bride. That’s exclusivity.
Everything pointed to Christ in his covenants and relationship in the Old Testament feasts and sacrifices. Now, not all the altar sacrifices that they ate or participated in. The whole burnt offering, the old law, for example, is called that, W-H-O-L-E, because the whole thing is burned up in fire.
You don’t eat it. It’s just completely devoured. To show consecration, for example, with respect to sanctification.
And on the flip side, to show the seriousness of sin. That whoever has sin, all of you must be devoured. All of it.
And consumed up. And judged in the flames of judgment. And the fellowship offering, where you literally split part of the animal apart, and the priest eats some of it, and you eat some of it.
Or your family eats some of it. And, of course, it’s called fellowship. Because a meal is an idea of being brought together.
We don’t, I think, often think of that way explicitly in America. Although we still somewhat practice that. And so far as, yeah, you can come over, or we can meet somewhere.
We’re going to sit down. We’re going to talk. We’re going to have a fellowship.
And it’s going to be over a meal, something we have in common. And God picks this natural way of doing things, right? I talk about the light of nature. He picks it up, and He makes it sanctified or holy in a special way.
And He calls it a sacrament. Because it’s a sign and a seal of the covenant in the Old Testament. Particular there on all those sacrifices of grace.
He uses it to strengthen their faith of old, like He uses baptism in the Lord’s Supper today. So God is with His people. He makes a covenant with His people.
And there in the Old Testament, He uses the sacrificial system, the feasts or meals or supper. All the same idea, isn’t it? Although supper is a specific type of meal, but it’s still what? A meal. It’s the same category of thought, is my point.
But it’s a covenant meal. And you can see clearly already the connection between the Old Testament feasts and what? The Lord’s Supper, the Eucharist communion. It too is a meal in the sense of sitting down and eating.
Although we would say today, more precisely, it’s more like a snack or something. But the imagery is to highlight the fellowship. That’s the point that we have with God through Christ Jesus.
And what? His blood is built for us and His body broken for us. So Hosea talks about a covenant. The feasts talk about a covenant.
And I suppose you can go one step beyond the marriage here. Not in the text, but marriages often had what? A feast, right? A celebration. Although here it’s about the bad side of it.
NT Marriage and Lord’s Supper
You’re breaking the covenant relationship. New Testament marriage and the Lord’s Supper. The marriage imagery, of course, is picked up again in the New Testament.
And it makes sense because it’s the same body of Christ. Although the outward form has changed. You don’t have to be Jewish.
You don’t have to do all the Jewish stuff and go to a temple and whatnot. All that’s done away with. But the substance still remains the same.
There are people who believe the Messiah and are born again. The imagery there is implicit. Somewhat explicit and implicit with respect to applying it to the church today.
In the parable of the wise virgins in Matthew 25.10 and following, for example. In Matthew 25.10 and following. I’m going to read verses, yeah, 8 through 13 actually.
And the foolish said to the wise, Give us some of your oil for our lamps are going out. But the wise answer is saying, No, Lester should not be enough for us and you. But rather to those who sell and buy for yourselves.
And while they went to buy, the bridegroom came. See, there’s the marriage. And those who are ready went in with him to the wedding and the door was shut.
And afterwards, the other virgins came and also said, Lord, Lord, open to us. But he answered and said, Assuredly, I say to you, I do not know you. Watch, therefore, for you know not the day nor the hour in which the Son of Man is coming.
So Christ is already alluding to his coming, his preparing as a wedding feast. And are you prepared as the virgins to attend the wedding? Second Corinthians 11 is more clear and directly applicable. Second Corinthians 11 verses 1 through 2. Oh, that you would bear with me a little folly.
And indeed you do bear with me for I am jealous for you with a godly jealousy. This is Paul writing yet again another letter to the churches of Corinth. For I have betrothed you to one husband.
That I may present you as a chaste version of Christ. There we have, more explicitly, the same imagery as the Old Testament of marriage. Of Christ being, of course, the bridegroom and we being the bride.
And Paul here, as a minister, presenting and betrothing, I’m giving you to Jesus. Of course, he’s not doing it formally speaking. Again, it’s not married in that sense.
But it is a earthly picture of this heavenly and spiritual reality and the intimate relationship that we have when God promises us he will deliver us and unite us with Jesus. So Paul is describing his ministry as one who brings the bride to Christ. Those who are born again, both individually and, of course, collectively as the body of Christ.
Ephesians 5.25 and following, where we have the more popular and more well-known passage of this imagery and parallel between our relationship with our Lord and Savior and our relationship with our spouse. Husband, love your wives just as Christ also loved the church and gave himself for her. The love is the parallel, but the love in the context of marriage.
That he might sanctify and cleanse her with the washing of water by the word that he might present her to himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she should be holy and without blemish. As the husband is married to the wife and as the husband loves the wife, so Christ is married to the bride, loves the bride, and washes her with the word, the word, the Bible of truth, that he might present her to himself a glorious church. Implicitly present herself to us in the marriage feast of the Lamb in Revelation 19, having no spot or wrinkle or any such thing.
There’s sanctification again, right? I mentioned in Sunday School class, sanctification is kind of everywhere, if you think about it. Your whole life is about walking in sanctification, being holy and submitting to God and his will for us. Holiness there, the holiness in the context of the covenant.
It’s always in the context of the covenant. Mark 14, 24 and following. And he said to them, this is my blood of the new covenant, which is shed for many.
So here we have the traditional passage there in Matthew and Luke as well, in which we read about the formation of the Lord’s Supper in the New Testament, where Christ is now instituting as the head of his church, what the rest of us could never do and should never do, which is make up a new way of honoring God on our own and worship here a sacrament in particular and saying, this old stuff is done away with. Here we have a new way of honoring me and reflecting what the sacraments are in the New Testament era. And he said to them, this is the blood of the new covenant.
The new covenant as expressed in the New Testament era, that is the covenant of grace now looks different in the New Testament era than it did in the Old Testament era. That word there, those two words is what we get from the word new covenant, which is shed for many. Assuredly, I say to you, verse 25, I will no longer drink of the fruit of the vine until the day when I drink it new in the kingdom of God.
So here we have Jesus talking about the Lord’s Supper, what he instituted for us to replace all the Old Testament sacraments. And he continues on, it’s not just here’s the covenant, here’s the blood, here’s the body, the symbolism here, and then what it reflects and therefore strengthens our faith. But assuredly, he says, believe me, this is going to be true.
I will no longer drink of the fruit of the vine. He’s not drinking with the vine until the day when I drink it new in the kingdom of God. That is when he returns in the flesh.
Right? He’s not here with us. He is God and man, but as man, he’s somewhere. He’s got a body.
His body is not omnipresent. It wouldn’t be a man. And he’s going to return.
And he says, when I drink it new in the kingdom of God, is he literally going to drink wine? Could be. But at the very least, it means he’s coming back. He’s going to have sweet fellowship with us because that’s the whole point of the Lord’s Supper is an imagery.
He picks a mundane thing and says, this is holy when we institute it and understand and come to it that it points to me and my blood and my body. And the covenant of redemption for you. And he will return.
And that hints, it seems to me, a pretty strong hint when he returns. Thus, Revelation 19, this imagery here. And I’m not going to go into exactly how we’re supposed to understand the whole of Revelation 19.
There’s different schools of interpretation. But the best of them, although they disagree in details, they all agree there’s glorious themes that they have in common in those approaches to the book of Revelation. Revelation 19, verses 6 and following.
Marriage Supper of the Lamb
So here we have the third point, the marriage supper of the Lamb. Well, the two imageries of feast and suppers and eating and of marriage, both of which reflect the covenant, covenantal meals, marriage, which is a covenant in here combined together in Revelation 19. And I heard, as it were, the voice of a great multitude.
As the sound of many waters and as the sound of mighty thundering saying, Alleluia for the Lord God omnipotent reigns. This is the people of God praising him. Let us be glad and rejoice and give him glory for the marriage of the Lamb has come and his wife has made herself ready.
So there already is the imagery of marriage. And to her, that is the bride of Christ. It was granted to be arrayed in fine linen, clean and bright for the fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints.
So there in Ephesians 5, where we read the husband supposed to love their wives as Christ loved the church. And then Paul goes off as he typically does when he writes the word Christ or God or salvation. He wants to continue on with that theme and forget his original idea.
And he says, Christ purifies his church with the word. He wants to present a spotless, pure virgin. And here we read the conclusion of that.
He does. For fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints. Well, pastor, I have no righteous acts.
Well, yes and no. That’s true. Any righteous acts you do that is obedience to God’s law is because of the grace of God in you already.
You were born again. And he works in you both through will and do as good pleasure. And those are never grounds or warrants for heaven.
But God blesses his own blessings. He crowns his own crowns. He gives more grace to the grace he already granted you.
We covered some of that Wednesday night in eschatology. And here, just to highlight an encouragement to you, brothers and sisters, yes, you feel like your works are not sufficient insofar as they are. They aren’t.
But God is pleased to see only the good works because of the blood of Christ and not the bad that’s attached to it. And he will speak of you this way. Fine linen is righteous acts of the saints.
Then he said to me, Write, blessed are those who are called to the marriage supper of the Lamb. The book of Revelation, however we wish to approach it as a total structure, all sides agree that you got to have and understand Old Testament imagery. There’s a lot of theology in the book of Revelation, a lot of imagery being picked up from the Old Testament, especially.
And clearly, marriage, idea of covenant and intimate relationship. And the feast, again, covenantal feasts, we have of the Old Testament and, of course, the Lord’s Supper, which itself is a feast in the sense of a meal, of sitting down out of fellowship and of communion that we have with our Lord and Savior by the power of his Holy Spirit dwelling in us. It’s all combined here.
Lots of imagery in Revelation, all compressed. Because this is the final picture of the end of all ages. The Lord’s Supper parallels the marriage feast.
Again, the ancient Near East pictures of feasts are a fellowship of unity, of friendliness, of reconciliation in this particular case. You could not have a meal with somebody you’re at odds with. It’s how it works, isn’t it? You want to be near them, they don’t want to be near you.
Especially when it’s not just personal, it’s an objective problem that you have with them. They burn down your house, they’re not going to fix it. You know, call the cops on you, whatever the case is.
And it’s triply, doubly so with God Almighty in which we have broken his law. We are born sinners and continue to sin before him. And we are not reconciled with him.
We have a great divide and a gulf between us and him. And the meal here, the Lord’s Supper, is a sign and seal that that has changed for those who repent and believe in him. So that’s the similarity here of the Lord’s Supper to the marriage feast.
But of course, the marriage feast is significantly different. Both are about a covenant, but the Lord’s Supper is not about marriage. The Lord’s Supper focuses not on marriage, that imagery is used elsewhere in the Bible, but focuses explicitly on what? Christ’s death.
Isn’t that interesting? Not his resurrection, not his incarnation, but his blood shed for us and his body broken for you. That’s the focus. But again, they’re tied.
As you know, theologically, they’re both about the covenant. Because this side of Christ’s return, we walk in the valley of the shadow of death. And we cannot fully celebrate the resurrection until Christ returns and the fullness thereof.
We still struggle with sin. Sin has not been fully conquered in our hearts and our minds. That’s the walk of sanctification, not fully vanquished insofar as that goes.
But certainly the effects of it are, and so we are sanctified and are continuing to be sanctified. And so the Lord’s Supper is given in that context and thus focuses upon Christ’s blood and body, as we must focus upon that when we repent and believe and renew our faith when we struggle with sin. This communion table is not about marriage as such like in Hosea, but it is about the covenant of grace, which Hosea, of course, is talking about too.
The covenant given to them. And here, Revelation 19, the covenant finally fulfilled in the ultimate sense when Christ Jesus, our Lord and Savior, returns. Either way, we are appointed to the glories of our Lord and what He’s done for us and continues to do for us.
Let us pray. Gracious God and Savior, Lord God above, it is a wonder to stand here and the patience you have towards us in which you have painted your relationship with us in so many different ways and descriptions in the Bible. And here, they are combined together of marriage, of a covenant, and of a supper, of a covenant, of the Lamb.
We are brought together. Blessed are those who are called to the marriage supper of the Lamb. Our God and Savior, may all of us be called to the marriage supper of the Lamb.
May not one here not be there with us when Christ returns. Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, have mercy upon us through Christ, and may our weak faith be strengthened by this truth, that Jesus shed His blood for us in spite of our sins. Amen.