Preparing for the Bridegroom: Rehearsal

By Michele M. Gayle

This book is the stirring that the church of God needs today, as we await the return of our Lord. It draws people back to the truth, as it relates to holy worship as God had ordained. We are made aware of the Old Testament's Holy Days, there significance, and relevance for us the New Testament believers. God's salvation plan is so vividly revealed; what we see is the intricacy in which God had woven His plan of Salvation into these Holy Feast; veiled in shadows and types but revealed and substantiated in Yeshua the Christ.

• Language: English
• Publisher: AuthorHouse
• Release date: Mar 17, 2014
• ISBN: 9781491871874

Michele M. Gayle

Michele Gayle is pastor of Bride of Yeshua Ministries in Toronto, Ontario Canada. She is also the author of Daily Living God's Presence and Daily Living God's Presence Devotional.

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© 2014 Michele M. Gayle. All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or

transmitted by any means without the written permission of the author.

Published by AuthorHouse 05/13/2014

ISBN: 978-1-4918-7188-1 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4918-7187-4 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2014904562

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Contents

Preface

Introduction

Part 1 Yeshua and His Bride in Ancient Jewish Wedding

1     Shiddukin—Choosing of the Bride

2     Ketubah—The Contract

3     Mohar—The Bride’s Price

4     Mattan—The Voluntary Gift

5     Mikveh—The Immersion

6     Kiddushim—The Sanctification

7     Nissuin—The Carry Away of the Bride

Part 2 The Rehearsals

8     The Passover

9     8Feast of First Fruits

10   Feast of Unleavened Bread

11   The Festival of Pentecost

12   Feast of Trumpets

13   Feast of Atonement

14   Feast of Tabernacles

15   The Spirit of the Feast

16   Conclusion

A notice of Copyright:

KJV

Scripture quotations marked KJV are from the Holy Bible, King James Version

(Authorized Version). First published in 1611. Quoted from the KJV Classic

Reference Bible, Copyright © 1983 by The Zondervan Corporation.

NKJV

Scripture quotations marked NKJV are taken from the New

King James Version. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson,

Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

NIV

Scripture quotations marked NIV are taken from the Holy Bible, New

International Version®. NIV®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 by International

Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved. [Biblica]

ESV

Unless otherwise indicated, all scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible,

English Standard Version® (ESV®). Copyright ©2001 by Crossway Bibles, a

division of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

NASB

Scripture quotations marked NASB are taken from the New American

Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973,

1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission.

To the memory of my beloved mother

Rev. Dr. Cynthia L. Miller.

You are not forgotten. You live on in who I am, and is becoming.

Dedication

This book is dedicated to the Bride of Yeshua Ministries Inc. May all who read this book know the truth and be set free.

Preface

This book is directly inspired by a vision I saw. I believe the Lord’s intentions for this study is to awake the consciousness of the Church to be ready for Christ coming, which is indeed quite eminent. And also to reveal the truth as it relates to our responsibility to up-hold holy worship unto God. That the holy observances become for us as He had ordained and commanded in the Old Testament; fulfilled, substantiated and upheld by our Lord Yeshua [Jesus] as recorded in the New Testament.

Introduction

The Lord Jesus will return, this is His promise in St. John chapter fourteen For I go to prepare a place for you and if I go I will come again to receive you unto myself that where I am there ye may be also. (Jn.14:2c, 3)

This Pledge Messiah intended to serve as comfort to the disciples and believers of the early church and to us today. There was no need to be troubled, anxious and full of fear because of His departure. He assured them and us that He will come again. He was leaving on account of us.

One, it is to prepare a home for us with Him. Second, it is that the Holy Spirit will come to us as promised before, by the Father. (Acts 1:4)

Even this in its self should serve to our comfort—we are not alone, not abandon and not forsaken! We have the promise and seal.

There is however something very intriguing here in this text. I am referring to the above mentioned verse from John chapter 14. This scripture verse is better understood by the Lord Jesus’ Jewish audience of His day, than it does to us today. We, in our twenty-first Century Western Civilized Culture will not readily note all that is being implied by the Lord Jesus. In order for us to fully comprehend what Christ was really saying and what the people of His day understood Him to have said, it is necessary for us to become familiarized with the Ancient Jewish Customs. We must especially have some understanding of the Ancient Jewish Wedding. In fact, this promise, Behold I go to prepare a place for you and I will come again to receive you unto myself… was made by the Lord Jesus, and is almost a direct quote from the vow that a groom would have spoken to his bride during their betrothal ceremony.

So in part one of this book we are going to be looking at the Ancient Jewish wedding and how it parallels the Lord Jesus and the Church.

Having accomplished my task, we will then have a grasp; a better understanding of who we truly are in Christ Jesus. Not only that, but we will definitely know what is expected of us as we await His return.

Part 1

Yeshua and His Bride in

Ancient Jewish Wedding

Shiddukin—Choosing of the Bride

It is the very wise king Solomon who said "Whoever finds a wife finds a good thing, and obtains favor of the LORD. (Prov.18:22) Today in our western culture it seems very normative for men and women to just have a good time with no strings attached. It is completely acceptable to live together outside of Holy matrimony (Marriage). Some appear to be contented and totally resigned to living void of any marital commitment—a let the chips fall where they may sort of attitude.

The wedding or marriage as instituted by God in the Book of Genesis is for most old fashion and to some point nonexistent. Even among those of faith there appears to be a general disregard for this scriptural or biblical requirement. Also, with civil laws favoring common law and same sex unions we have in deed strayed very far from the biblical plan for Marriage. As a result of how far our society has gone away from this divinely instituted act, we are unable to truly understand in context what the bible is saying when it uses illustrations involving marriages.

Our concept of marriage is very signific-antly different to that of the Holy Bible and the Ancient Hebrew marriage customs.

In Biblical times it was that, a man having found a wife; seeing a woman that is deemed wife material. One the man considers to be well pleasing to him; the order of that day was, he would approach his parents about the matter; asking that they, or his father should secure the potential Bride for him.

This was what Samson did. Remember how he insisted on his parents for the philistine woman. "Get her for me; for she pleaseth me well." Then they went down with him to do the business of acquiring the Bride. (Judges 14: 3)

However there is yet a stricter practice that I prefer to use here as an example for the first stage of this marriage process. It is that of the father being the one with the responsibility to find a wife for his son. The father being aware; having full knowledge of his son’s measure of maturity and his need for a wife. He planned for his son’s marriage. He looked for a wife and when he had seen such worthy candidate, he approached her and her family with his intentions.

This Stage is called the Shiddukhin—this was the first necessary step of arrangements preliminary to the Betrothal.

The father of