The Bridal Company

Look with me at Deuteronomy 21: 10 - 13: When you go forth to war against your enemies, and the Lord, your God, has delivered them into your hands and you have taken them captive,  11 And you see among the captives a beautiful woman and have a desire for her to be your wife, 12 You shall bring her home to your house, and she shall shave her head and pare her nails,13 And she shall put the raiment of her captivity off from her, and shall remain in your house and bewail her father and her mother a full month: and after that you shall go in to her and be her husband, and she shall be your wife."
 
Notice first of all that warfare is a given. It is "when," not "if" you go to war. For those in covenant with God, not only is warfare certain, but the outcome is also certain: God wins and those in oneness of spirit with Him win as well..."and you have taken them captive..." He has put all things that stand in opposition to Him, or in contradiction to Him, "...under our feet," (Ephesians 1: 22).
 
The whole world was in conflict with God; thus, He sent His mighty warrior Son, Jesus to put an end to the conflict. Jesus took the whole world captive through His redemptive work at Calvary. He took the whole earth and the entire world system captive. Now has come to pass the words of Psalm 24: 1, "The earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof; the world and they that dwell therein."
 
Today, by right of creation and by right of victory, every being belongs to Him. Even those who are in rebellion against Him belong to Him and He can do as it pleases Him with them. Among the rebels there are those whose spirits are soft toward Him and in His eyes they are beautiful to Him, but it is an inward beauty that attracts Him because the "Lord looks upon the heart" (1 Samuel 16: 7). He sees and is attracted to those whose hearts are tender and submissive to Him...and He "...has a desire unto them that they should be His Bride."
 
After the war was won, He espies such a one and immediately selects her from among the captives and brings her into His house (the Church;, the Body of Christ, the Kingdom of God). Such ones are exhorted "Forsake not the assembling of yourselves together" (Hebrews 10: 25; Acts 2: 42, 46; 1 Corinthians 14: 26). As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord" (Joshua 24: 15)
 
"And she shall shave her head..." (12b). Can you think of anything less appealing to a stately man than a bald woman? And especially when the Bible states "...a woman's hair is her glory" (1 Corinthians 11: 15). Thus, she is instructed to put off her own personal glory that she might share in, and manifest His glory.  But, Pastor, the Bible says that God will not share His glory with another" (Isaiah 42: 8; 48: 11). Oh how we have failed to understand this! In the original, it is much clearer. It says, "And my glory will I not give to one of another species." In essence, it is to those who have become one with Him in spirit and purpose...those who have aligned themselves fully to Him that He shares HIs glory."

Peter reminds us that those who have become one with God through Christ have "...become partakers of His divine nature (2 Peter 1: 4). The scriptures bear out the fact that we are "...partakers of Christ, of the Holy Spirit, of His grace, of His holiness, of His promises and of His sufferings." So as we put off the flesh, put off the old man with his deeds, then we indeed "put on Christ and the new man," and we exchange our worthless glory for His indescribable glory.  That glory is the out-shining of who and what He is. It opens the doors to Heaven, the pathways of His purpose and His hidden treasures. Would to god that all the house of God might be willing to bow humbly before Him and shave their heads in order to walk in the fullness of His glory. Such is the spirit and the heart, the thinking and the desire of the Bridal Company.
 
In our next blog, we will continue to look at other aspects of that wondrous Bridal Company.