The Table - the Wedding Feast of the Lamb

The Scriptures reveal that God longs to dwell with His people. With instructions on building the Tabernacle and it's furnishings and the clothing of the priests, God reveals his intent.

Exodus‬ ‭29‬:‭45-46‬ I will dwell among the people of Israel and will be their God. And they shall know that I am the Lord their God, who brought them out of the land of Egypt that I might dwell among them. I am the Lord their God.

45 God's desire is to dwell with his people. 46 God brought the Israelites out of Egypt that he might dwell with them. The Tabernacle was located in the center of the Israelite's camp. God was present within the most holy place within the tabernacle. While God dwelt among the Israelites within the tabernacle, & later within the temple in the city of Jerusalem, God's dwelling with man was at a distance.

The relationship that God desires with his people is over and over in the OT presented as far more intimate: a bride and bridegroom. Where God himself is the bridegroom of his people Israel.

Isaiah‬ ‭62‬:‭5b‬ As the bridegroom rejoices over the bride, so shall your God rejoice over you.

Usually the OT image of God as bridegroom and Israel as bride is a negative one where Israel is viewed as an unfaithful bride.

Image is extended in the NT with Jesus the bridegroom and the church his bride. Jesus is presented as the bridegroom who sacrifices himself to prepare his bride for the wedding.

In Revelation 19 John has a vision of what is called the wedding feast of the Lamb. It envisions the final celebration marriage supper of Jesus with his bride, the church.

Revelation‬ ‭19‬:‭6-9

Revelation 21 has a similar metaphor. The church is viewed first as a holy city, and then as a bride adorned. Revelation‬ ‭21‬:‭1-2 Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.

The bride is prepared - dressed in fine, bright, pure linen. "It was granted her to clothe herself with fine linen" "Fine linen is the righteous deeds of the saints" - the saints built upon what Jesus had done. He redeemed her, saved her, died for her sins, cleansed her from her shame and guilt, absorbed God's wrath for her disobedience, sealed and sanctified her by His Spirit and she did righteous deeds, empowered by his Spirit.

"The joy, the intimacy, the knitting together of soul and mind and heart and body, which we know best in our small corner with marriage, is only an indication of the kind of intimacy and joy we will experience when the church is united with Christ forever." DA Carson, The God Who Is There

This is the final fulfillment of God's desire to dwell with his people.

Revelation 21:3 And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God.

The imagery is not just a wedding, but the ultimate celebration. The anticipation could not be higher. This is viewed as the end of everything that stood between God and his people. The end of the corruption of sin. The end of the tyranny of death.

Revelation 21:4 He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.”

The central focus of the bridegroom & bride imagery is 1) anticipation of the joy of fully restored intimacy with God and 2) preparation of the bride to meet her bridegroom.