We are looking at the marriage of the Lamb and the marriage supper of the Lamb. It helps us to understand that in ancient times there were often three stages to their marriage ceremonies and wedding ceremonies:
1. Betrothal. There was the original betrothal stage which often was a contract between parents concerning their children. It was legally binding, but of course the children didn’t live together, and they were not man and wife in that sense, but it was a legally binding situation.
2. Bridegroom comes to get his bride. When they grew up, the bride would be at her home and the bridegroom would come, often escorted with his best people and best men, to go to her home, get her, bring her back to his house where the wedding ceremony would take place.
3. Wedding feast. The third stage was the feast of the wedding, the supper. In the case of Scripture, the marriage supper of the Lamb. In which they would have a reception much like what we would have, although often it would go on for several days as people celebrated the marriage of two people.
That is kind of the backdrop of this, and we saw what Revelation 19:7 meant last time.
We look at Revelation 19:8 now which says, “It was given to her to clothe herself in fine linen, bright and clean; for the fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints.” So, her wedding dress are these righteous acts of the saints as we saw in Ephesians 5 last time, that is made possible only through the cleansing power of Christ and His Word and His blood for His bride. So, she is clean. She is holy. She is purified because of the work of Christ in her life. Her wedding dress, it says, is the righteous acts that follow that . . .
