Wear the Ring
Eric Wall here! I’m the Worship Minister in the modern service here at CRBC, and I married Chloe Wall 10 months ago! I’ve continued to meditate on the significance of marriage, and here are some things I have discovered.
Think back to a wedding ceremony: The time where two are joined together before God and witnesses in a covenant to last a lifetime.
Mark 10:6-9 says, “But at the beginning of creation God made them male and female. For this reason man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh. They are no longer two, but one. Therefore, what God has joined together, let man not separate!”
God pursues us in a lot of ways. One of those ways is giving us pictures through His creation and order to show His character. Marriage is one of those pictures! In Hosea 2, God’s people had been disobeying Him for a long time, and it was getting to the breaking point. After talking about their sin and judgment, He says this:
“Therefore, I am going to persuade her (my people Israel), lead her to the wilderness, and speak tenderly to her. There I will give her vineyards back to her. There she will respond as she did in the days of her youth, as in the day she came out of the land of Egypt. On that day you will call Me, “My husband,” and no longer call Me, “My Master.” On that day I will make a covenant for them and will enable the people to rest securely. I will take you to be My wife forever, in righteousness, justice, love, and compassion (Hosea 2:14-16, 20).
God compares His relationship to us to a loving husband and his wife.
In view of this analogy, God speaks to wives in Ephesians 5:22-24, reminding them that they are first part of the bride of Christ before they are a bride to a husband. He says to model yourself after the Church as it relates to Jesus.
He also tells husbands, “Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave Himself for her to make her holy…”
Essentially, he says be a husband to your wife as I have been the Husband to you.
But this analogy of being a husband continues in Revelation 19!
“Then I heard something like the voice of a vast multitude, like the sound of cascading waters, and like the rumbling of loud thunder, saying: Hallelujah, because our Lord God, the Almighty, has begun to reign! Let us be glad, rejoice, and give Him glory, because the marriage of the Lamb has come, and His wife has prepared herself.“
The practice of a wedding ceremony and this institution of marriage has been created by God in part to give us an understanding of what the end of times will be like when it all comes together.
Let’s keep thinking about this picture: A proposal comes with an engagement ring, a promise for the wedding day. A fiancé wears her ring everyday leading up to the wedding because she delights in that promise. She is PROUD to be a part of that promise. She reserves herself for that promise.
Being engaged is fun, and the wedding is awesome, but what they long for is marriage—knowing each other fully and dwelling together in complete unity! This wedding day is not the point, but it really serves as the beginning of the main deal—a lifelong marriage.
The moment we trusted Jesus as our Savior was like an engagement. We said “yes!” to Jesus asking us to be with Him. The day we see Him face to face will be like the wedding ceremony. There will be celebration because we’ve finally begun what we’ve longed for! And after that day, we will be with Him for eternity, and that will be like marriage.
But for right now, we live in this middle engagement period. We’ve accepted the promise of Jesus and look forward to the future. While we’re here, I want to encourage us with this—wear the ring! Just like a fiancé wears her engagement ring, delight in the promise of God! Even though it represents a future promise of glory, it also represents a relationship now. Walk with the Lord with contentment and anticipation. Someone that doesn’t wear the ring when they’re engaged is not looking forward to the wedding. Be faithful in the days you have left on this earth to live every aspect of your life in view of that promise.
Wear the Ring!
Author Bio
Eric Wall serves as the Worship Minister in the modern service at Council Road. He and his wife, Chloe, will celebrate their first year of marriage on July 14.