ondria@bellcore.bellcore.com (Ondria Wasem 21332) (07/20/90)
I am posting the followin article for the WINGS OF LIGHT bible study: GIVE YOUR HAND -------------- When a man and woman are married, it is said that each gives his or her hand to the other. During the ceremony each places a wedding band on the other's hand as a symbol of this act of binding together and as a token of their vows. By giving her hand to the man, the woman is in effect giving herself to him; the same is true for the man. In the context of the ceremony each individual's hand is therefore representative of the individual as a whole. A corresponding representation is found in the Scriptures with regard to the people of God. As Paul wrote in his first epistle to the church in Corinth, "...ye are the body of Christ, and members in particular." (I Cor 12:27) In this writing and others Paul equates the body of people who make up the people of God on earth with the body of Christ; they are in effect the continuation of the physical body of Jesus in the sense that they are vessels for the Spirit of God. More specifically, the relationship between the Lord and His people is compared in the Scriptures to the relationship between the bride and the bridegroom. Isaiah writes, "...as the bridegroom rejoiceth over the bride, so shall thy God rejoice over thee." (Isaiah 62:5) The comparison is also made in the twenty-first chapter of Revelation. John is told by one of the angels, "Come hither, I will shew thee the bride, the Lamb's wife." (21:9) He is shown a beautiful city of gold and precious stones. The name of the twelve tribes of the children of Israel are written on the gates of the city; the names of the twelve apostles are in its foundations. The inhabitants of the city are described as "the nations of them which are saved..." (21:24) It is clear that this city is made up of people, who are the people of God, whom the Lord refers to as His bride. Just as the hand represents the whole body in the wedding ceremony, so it does in the Scriptures. Paul continues in the twelfth chapter of I Corinthians to make a symbolic comparison between the parts of the body and the people of God who are blessed with various spiritual gifts. "For the body is not one member, but many. If the foot shall say, Because I am not the hand, I am not of the body; is it therefore not of the body?... But now are they many members, yet but one body." Since the body of Christ in its entirety is made up of people as they are led by the Spirit of God, the "parts" of this body must be made up of these same people. In the same sense that the wedding band, worn by the man and the woman who have married, serves as a reminder of the vows to which they have bound themselves, the people of God have also made a pledge by which they are bound to live. Moses, after he delivered the commandments of God to the children of Israel, proclaimed, "...thou shalt bind them for a sign upon thine hand, and they shall be as frontlets between thine eyes." (Deut. 6:8) The wedding vows of the people of God are therefore the laws and teachings of the Lord; these are the terms by which all ment must live in order to maintain their relationship with God. The wedding band itself, as the outward sign of an inward commitment, does more than merely remind its wearer of his or her vows. It also serves to tell those with whom the individual has contact of this commitment and of the important place it has in his or her life. In like manner the people of God must be forthright and open about their beliefs. As Jesus exhorted His disciples, "Let your light shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your father which is in heaven." (Matt. 5:16) Jesus has therefore given His people, as those who are called to the marriage supper of the Lamb, the dual commission of not only keeping their vows, but of inviting others to join the wedding party as well. The Wings of Light Bible Study P.O. Box 1242 Mt. Laurel, NJ 08054