Why does God use the bride and groom analogy when refering to his relationship to his people?
The love relationship between a husband and wife is the first and most fundamental human relationship. After Eve was created from Adam's rib the Bibls says this:
And Adam said, This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh: she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man. Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh. (Genesis 2:23-24 KJV)This was the first human relationship described in the Bible and it is the basic relationship from which all other human relationships flow.
Throughout human history God has tried to communicate with us in ways that we can easily understand. The ultimate example of this is that God came to live among us in human form in the person of Jesus Christ. What better way for God to communicate with us than to live with us as one of us?
God also uses other analogies from our daily lives to help us understand his relationship to us. Two examples would be the parent - child relationship and the husband - wife relationship. The parent - child analogy is used to illustrate the relationship between God and an individual person. The husband - wife (bridegroom and bride) analogy is used to illustrate the relationship between God and the group of believers - the nation of Israel in the Old Testament and the Church in the New Testament.
Here are some reasons why I believe God uses the bride - bridegroom and husband - wife relationship to describe our relationship to him (and the relationship between Christ and the church:
- It is the most basic of all human relationships, and universally understood.
- In its purest form, brides an bridegrooms love each other in the same way and with the same kind of love as should exist between human beings and God.
- On the other hand, the failure of the human marriage relationship can also illustrate the failure of the relationship between God and human beings. For example, in the Old Testament God often used human adultery to illustrate Israel's rejection of him as they followed after other false gods.
- When a bride and groom are truly in love, the wedding day is a time of great rejoicing and fellowship. In the same way, there will be great rejoicing and fellowship when Christ (the groom) and the church (the bride) are united at the end of the age and for eternity.
