“I AM A JEALOUS GOD! I WILL HAVE NO RIVAL TO MY LOVE, I WILL TOLERATE NO MIXTURE IN YOUR DEVOTION TO ME! I AM JEALOUS FOR YOUR LOVE!! I AM YOURS AND YOU ARE MINE, I LOVE YOU!!”

Not only do I like it. It’s biblical.

@Berean you said you had more to say?

In reading this post, it has conjured up some thoughts, and in the spirit of helping to define this for myself, I want to share them. The Lord speaks to me a lot from types and shadows in the old testament; they facinate me. One comes to mind in relation to the B P is Genesis 24: Abraham sending his servant to get a bride for Isaac. What a picture this is of the Father sending the Spirit to gather the church/bride and to bring her His Son to be married. I love this.

I’m just going to try and hit the main points of my thinking, hope it comes out like I’m seeing it. (Side note: Rebekah means: Ensnarer, rope with a noose, fettering; which is to imply: “Captivating Beauty.” You have got to love OT names and thier meanings.)

There are two or three things that I am meditating on. Jesus said that He did not know the day or the hour He would return, but the Father only. He wait’s for the timing of His Father to receive His bride. Abraham was very old when he made the oath with his servant to go and get the bride for Isaac. I can see Isaac wondering and longing for this bride and feeling the pain of losing his mother.

We see him in the south country, meditating in a field after the work of the day. You can imagine what the man is pondering. He is thinking of this bride whom he is to receive. You can almost feel his ache, his desire, his wonder. “Who is she, what will she be like? How good,” he thinks, “it will be to have a companion, a friend, a lover.” This thing runs deep with him, that’s why he seperates himself from his friends and servants to be alone in a solitary place. A field in the south country; alone with his thoughts, his longings, his pain and desire. Oh for the day, he thinks, that I will be one with this bride of mine…… Oh hasten the day father, hasten the day…..

Second thought: The Jewish betrothal and marriage ritual. I found the details of this amazing in light of the B P as I looked at it again. The bride would be picked out by either a parent, friend or a brother. Then the betrothal took place as a promise, a covenant to marry. A ring would be placed on the brides finger and a dowery given. the bride would begin to prepare herself for the married life, and the marriage. The bridegroom would return to his or his father’s house and begin to prepare a place for his promised bride. A friend of the bridegroom would be the go between and the keeper of the bride for his friend.

Third thought: Jesus tells the disciples, “John 14:1-3
Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me.
2 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.
3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also.

Ephesians says:
When he ascended up on high, he led captivity captive, and gave gifts unto men. And he gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers;12 For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ:
13 Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ:

This sounds a whole lot like betrothal language to me. You have the Son returning to the Father’s house to prepare a place for the bride. He’s leaving gifts behind Him which are the Friends of the bridegroom to communicate His heart to them and prepare, preserve them for the wedding.

I’m seeing Jesus like Isaac out in the field in the south county. He’s not indifferent or unemotional about his bride that is promised Him. John sees Him and His eyes are lamps of fire, LIKE buring passion. I think He jealous for His bride. even in the throne room, around the father’s throne theres this awesome emrald rainbow with thunders and lightnings flashing. I think it’s screaming, I AM A JEALOUS GOD! I WILL HAVE NO RIVAL TO MY LOVE, I WILL TOLERATE NO MIXTURE IN YOUR DEVOTION TO ME! I AM JEALOUS FOR YOUR LOVE!! I AM YOURS AND YOU ARE MINE, I LOVE YOU!!

I’m really feeling that. WOW. Passionate, jealous God. Man that’s good stuff.

“Jesus has always been seen as the Bridegroom and the church the Bride, but never before He returns for us,”

that’s like saying we’re not “saved” until he returns to save us.

um yeah that isn’t unquie to IHOP either. Go to google books and search Charles Spurgeon with “ravished” in quotation marks. do the same with St. Augustine. It’s not as if we just say things with out massive research.

God loved the world so much, or was love sick enough to send his only Son that we may be saved.

I would have to say that this statement is inaccurate. Jesus has always been seen as the Bridegroom and the church the Bride, but never before He returns for us, but not in the sense that Jesus wants to ravish us and is lovesick for us.

I have yet to read past this statement, but I will likely have more to say.