The Courtship
Bringing all the covenant imagery to life in Jesus Christ.
(NOTE: This is part 3 on this subject. The last article in this series was published on 04/30/2019)

Revelation 21:9
“And there came unto me one of the seven angels which had the seven vials full of the seven last plagues, and talked with me, saying, Come hither, I will shew thee the bride, the Lamb's wife.”

In this Creation Series, we have been exploring how God's creation of heaven and earth is typified by His covenant that is brought to life, both by and in Christ Jesus. Previously, it has been pointed out that in order to begin comprehending all the imagery John brings to life in the “Revelation of Jesus Christ”, one must first have a working understanding of the other 65 books contained in the Bible. In particular, we should have a thorough knowledge of Moses’ life, especially the Ten Commandments which are the written basis of God's covenant with mankind. We must not forget that tied to God’s covenant is both a blessing and a curse, which is summarized in Deuteronomy 11:26. Equally important for rightly dividing the "Revelation of Jesus Christ" is a comprehensive understanding of how Jesus fulfilled all the Old Testament prophecies concerning Himself.

Now stay with us and make sure you catch this point concerning the blessing and the curse. Adam the first man is responsible for the curse being poured out upon all mankind. Jesus, the second man Adam, is responsible for the blessing being poured out upon whosoever will repent and accept God’s promise. (see 1 Corinthians 15) Wherein Jesus fulfills God’s promise to Abraham that by his seed(descendants) all nations including the Gentiles would be blessed. Take note that all of God’s promises to Abraham are fulfilled by this one descendant of Abraham, the man Jesus Christ. (See Galatians 3 for complete details.)

I think we often forget that Adam had a coconspirator in his transgression. The KJV calls Eve a “help meet”. Adam pretty much sums up what that means when he says the woman Eve is “bone of his bone and flesh of his flesh”. Eve is a part of Adam. She is his equal by God’s own decree.
Genesis 2:24 Therefore, shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh.
It is clear that the woman Eve sinned first; however, her husband Adam was a willing and equal partner in crime! The point is they are unworthy of God’s blessing because they both broke His Garden Paradise covenant and ate of the forbidden tree.

Keeping all this in mind lets jump forward to the prophet Jeremiah’s time and in particular Jeremiah chapter 3. Of particular importance is to know that Jeremiah picked up his prophesying were Isaiah left off. Both Isaiah and Jeremiah preached repentance: warning Israel and Judah that God was not slack concerning His promise of pouring out the curse upon a people and nation that broke His commandments. The most grievous of these being breaking the first commandment by having other God’s besides the true God Jehovah. Remember right after Solomon’s reign the Kingdom of Israel was divided into the Ten Northern tribes retaining the name Israel and the two Southern Tribes Judah and Benjamin retaining the capital Jerusalem. This curse came upon them because Solomon married women from foreign nations, built shrines for them to worship their foreign gods and even bowed to foreign gods himself. All of Israel followed suit and as promised the kingdom was split after Solomon died.

Why is all this important? What does it have to do with “The Revelation of Jesus Christ”? In particular, what does all this have to do with Revelation 21:9? What courtship?

Read and study some of the scripture references used to check up on our reasoning and come back. We will dig into this story a little more next time.