Blessed by Being Prepared as a Bride for Jesus
My first date with David was on New Year’s Eve. And when he left at 3 a.m. on that first day of 1986, I blissfully fell asleep. I knew I had found him, the one. When Valentine’s Day weekend came around a little more than a month later, I didn’t like it that he was talking about renewing his lease on his apartment because I didn’t want him to be tied up there and unable to get a place with me. When I flew to Oregon with him in April to meet his family, I took some postcards with me that I could use to write notes to some of my friends on the return flight in the event that he decided to pop the question on Cannon Beach or at Black Butte and we got engaged. But I brought the postcards back home with me. In fact, I might still have them.
Then in June he picked me up to go out for dinner. He made some sort of excuse to stop by his apartment. There on the door was a hand-drawn sign that said “Chez Dave” (French for “at the home of Dave”) where he said we were going to have dinner. He gave me a rose (which I still have pressed in a book) and a card that had the words of Psalm 34:3 written in it: “Glorify the Lord with me; let us exalt his name together” (NIV). And the “together” part was underlined. I said yes.
The next day we went to a jewelry store in Waco and bought a ring. And Sunday I wore it to church. I remember sitting in the choir loft admiring its sparkle under the lights. And then the next day we got busy getting ready for the wedding. There was so much to do: pick a date, send out invitations, get a dress, plan a reception. And I loved it all because I loved him. I could hardly wait, not just for the wedding but for the marriage.
If you know a couple who is engaged to be married and getting ready for a wedding, you know how busy they are, how focused they are on preparations, how happy they are as they look forward to that day and the life together that will come after that day.
Actually, if you are in Christ, you are the person who is engaged to be married. You are preparing for a wedding. Perhaps you’ve never thought of yourself and your relationship to Christ in this way. But clearly the Bible intends for us to view it that way. From the very beginning of the Bible, God speaks of his relationship with his people in terms of a marriage. Since the very beginning in Eden, when God presented a bride, Eve, to his son, Adam, and everything went terribly wrong with this bride and groom, God has been at work to present a bride to his Son, Jesus. It has been a very long engagement. But the wedding day is coming. In light of this coming wedding day, the questions we need to consider are these: Are we preparing ourselves for it? Are we remaining faithful to our bridegroom as we wait for him to come for us?
As we turn to Revelation 17:1–19:10, it may not appear to you on first blush that what we’re reading has anything to do with this marriage. But it does. Revelation as a whole is a call to patient endurance as we wait for our king, the Lamb, our bridegroom, to come. And inherent in that patient endurance is faithfulness. To wait is going to require that we refuse the advances of any other lovers who seek to seduce us. In Revelation 17 we’re presented with a seductress who has every intention of having us for herself. She doesn’t want us to hold out for our holy bridegroom. She is portrayed as alluring and exciting. She appears wealthy and promises uninhibited pleasure. But that is just how she appears from an earthly and human perspective. In Revelation we’re being shown reality from heaven’s perspective, from the vantage point that reveals all things as they truly are. And she is not what she seems.
Revelation 17 through 19 shows us four things we must do if we’re going to be prepared as a bride for our bridegroom. And the first is this: We can’t allow ourselves to be seduced by a love that won’t last.
The Seductress
Then one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls came and said to me, “Come, I will show you the judgment of the great prostitute who is seated on many waters, with whom the kings of the earth have committed sexual immorality, and with the wine of whose sexual immorality the dwellers on earth have become drunk.” And he carried me away in the Spirit into a wilderness, and I saw a woman sitting on a scarlet beast that was full of blasphemous names, and it had seven heads and ten horns. The woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet, and adorned with gold and jewels and pearls, holding in her hand a golden cup full of abominations and the impurities of her sexual immorality. And on her forehead was written a name of mystery: “Babylon the great, mother of prostitutes and of earth’s abominations.” And I saw the woman, drunk with the blood of the saints, the blood of the martyrs of Jesus. (Rev. 17:1–6)
Here is Babylon, which is a symbol for the city of man, humanity intent on living apart from God, portrayed as a woman, but not just a woman; she’s a prostitute. In fact, she’s not just a prostitute; she’s the “mother of prostitutes.” The picture John paints is so vivid that you can almost see her profile picture and bio on the app she uses to find sexual partners to hook up with. She’s dressed in the latest designer clothes. No costume jewelry for her; it’s all real gold and jewels and pearls. In her photo she’s holding a golden cup. She must be rich. We might imagine there is fine wine in the cup, but we’d be wrong. Inside the cup is the blood of those who have refused her, those who have seen her for what she is and exposed her. In the cup is the blood of those she has put to death who were patiently enduring her persecution while waiting for the true bridegroom. Also inside the cup is the evidence of the disgusting and degrading things she’s done to obtain all of her nice clothes, expensive jewelry, and sexual conquests. She’s had way too much to drink from this cup, and she’s intoxicated.
Across her photo in large letters is the name she has given to herself: “Babylon the great.” And when we read it, we realize that we’ve heard of this family. She comes from a long line of Babylons. She is a daughter of Babel, that ancient people who sought to build a tower to the sky to invade God’s glory and take it for themselves. They intended to build a city and make a name for themselves. But their project came to a destructive end. She’s a daughter of that ancient city that dragged the people of God into exile, the city led by Nebuchadnezzar, who said, “Is not this great Babylon, which I have built by my mighty power as a royal residence and for the glory of my majesty?” (Dan. 4:30). We can see the family resemblance.
This woman represents the world in opposition to God and his people. She looks appealing. Most people would look at her and think that she’s beautiful. In fact, John seems quite taken with her:
When I saw her, I marveled greatly. But the angel said to me, “Why do you marvel?” (Rev. 17:6–7)
It seems as if John has fallen under her spell. Clearly she’s attractive. She seems fun. She seems powerful. She seems like the kind of person you’d want to post a selfie with to show how well connected you are. But the angel is about to reveal to John, to the seven churches in Asia, and to us, what may not be obvious from the way she presents herself:
I will tell you the mystery of the woman, and of the beast with seven heads and ten horns that carries her. The beast that you saw was, and is not, and is about to rise from the bottomless pit and go to destruction. And the dwellers on earth whose names have not been written in the book of life from the foundation of the world will marvel to see the beast, because it was and is not and is to come. (Rev. 17:7–8)
Here’s the truth about her, the angel tells John. She gets all of her power and presence, all of her allure and accoutrements, from the beast. And we remember the beast from chapter 13 of Revelation. This is the beast that rises from the sea, the counterfeit Christ, the imitation savior, the governmental, ideological, and political force that is set against Christ and his people. This beast is the one propping up the woman, whispering in her ear, providing her funding, empowering her evil. John writes that her identity and intentions aren’t immediately evident on the surface. To grasp who she is and what she is determined to do requires us to look closely and think deeply.
This calls for a mind with wisdom: the seven heads are seven mountains on which the woman is seated; they are also seven kings, five of whom have fallen, one is, the other has not yet come, and when he does come he must remain only a little while. As for the beast that was and is not, it is an eighth but it belongs to the seven, and it goes to destruction. And the ten horns that you saw are ten kings who have not yet received royal power, but they are to receive authority as kings for one hour, together with the beast. These are of one mind, and they hand over their power and authority to the beast. They will make war on the Lamb, and the Lamb will conquer them, for he is Lord of lords and King of kings, and those with him are called and chosen and faithful. (Rev. 17:9–14)
This woman is seated on seven mountains. John’s first readers would have immediately recognized that John was talking about Rome, as the city of Rome was built on seven hills. Rome glittered with an abundance of wealth. She flexed her muscles of power. She was attractive and alluring, and everybody who was anybody was engaged with her. From what we read in the letters to the seven churches in Revelation 2 and 3, we know that many Christians in the first century were attracted to the luxuries, significance, power, and access she dangled in front of them. Of course, Rome was also the place where Christians would soon be lit on fire as human torches or fed to the lions. Every Babylon turns violent toward those who resist and expose her true ugliness.
But certainly John is using the symbol of the great prostitute to refer to more than first-century Rome. The fact that he doesn’t say explicitly that this is Rome makes the vision timeless. Throughout history we’ve seen a succession of Babylons or Romes—regimes that have attracted the masses, declared their own greatness, rejected any need for God, and oppressed those who are “called and chosen and faithful.”
What is so sad about this woman is that she doesn’t realize that the satanic source of her ideas and values, the beast she rides on, doesn’t really love her. In fact, he hates her. And the day is coming when all of her lovers will hate her too:
And the angel said to me, “The waters that you saw, where the prostitute is seated, are peoples and multitudes and nations and languages. And the ten horns that you saw, they and the beast will hate the prostitute. They will make her desolate and naked, and devour her flesh and burn her up with fire, for God has put it into their hearts to carry out his purpose by being of one mind and handing over their royal power to the beast, until the words of God are fulfilled. And the woman that you saw is the great city that has dominion over the kings of the earth.” (Rev. 17:15–18)
Her picture might look good on the screen at this point. But the day is going to come when her pimp, the beast, will turn on her, and she will be made desolate. Her beautiful clothes will be gone, and she’ll be left naked and exposed. Instead of feasting on the finest of foods herself, she’s going to become a feast for the beast. He’s going to devour her. She’s going to get burned. More than that, she is going to burn. And all who have joined themselves to her by committing spiritual adultery with her are in danger of being burned too.
Then I heard another voice from heaven saying,
“Come out of her, my people,
lest you take part in her sins,
lest you share in her plagues;
for her sins are heaped high as heaven,
and God has remembered her iniquities.” (Rev. 18:4–5)
Here is a voice from heaven speaking to us, his people, calling us to come out of this city of Babylon, away from this wicked woman, so we won’t be seduced into living like her and vulnerable to burning up with her. There is an urgency to his voice. He’s warning us to flee from the evil city before it’s too late. We’ve seen where association with her will lead; it’s time to get out. So how are we going to do that?
We live in Babylon. It is ubiquitous, everywhere. Are we supposed to follow in the steps of the Essenes in the second century who went out to live in the desert, or the monks in the medieval era who moved into monasteries, or the Amish in our day and time who live out in the country avoiding modern technology? I don’t think so.
If only changing our address would accomplish what we’re being called to do here. This is going to require far more than a change of address. It will require a radical change of heart, a change in our affections and interests and desires. It means that we have to figure out how to live in Babylon as citizens of the new Jerusalem, as aliens and strangers. We’re going to have to figure out what it will mean for us to refuse to make ourselves at home here. What we’re being called to here is not separatism but distinctiveness. What we hear in this voice from heaven is a summons to refuse to become entangled with the world, to refuse to make our home here spiritually in terms of allegiance and loyalty.
As we take note throughout this chapter of Babylon’s materialism and consumption, we realize that to come out of her is going to mean resisting the seductive nature of her advertising, starving the greed of always wanting more and better.
And as we begin to think it through, we realize that if we are going to be prepared as a bride for our bridegroom, there is something else we are going to have do: We have to break up with all of our old lovers.
The Breakup
We’re going to have to delete the world’s number from our phones. No more late-night conversations. We can’t keep up the flirtation. We can’t think that we can stay close to the world, enjoying all it has to offer, giving our heart and affections to it, and still be faithful to our bridegroom. It simply won’t work.
In a way, Revelation 18 is John seeking to shake some sense into our heads about what we might have seen as a harmless infatuation. He wants us to know that if we refuse to come out of Babylon, if we refuse to give up our dalliances with the world, we’re going to be destroyed with her. She seems so in control, so self-confident. Our interactions with her seem so natural, not dangerous. And we can’t imagine that she will ever be anything except beautiful and powerful. But John shows us, one day, in a single day, everything will change:
“I sit as a queen,
I am no widow,
and mourning I shall never see.”
For this reason her plagues will come in a single day,
death and mourning and famine,
and she will be burned up with fire;
for mighty is the Lord God who has judged her. (Rev. 18:7–8)
The great prostitute boasts, saying in essence, “I’ll never lose this power. I’ll never lose affection and adulation. I’ll never lose.” But from his vantage point, John can see that she’s going to lose everything. And everyone who has joined themselves to her is going to lose everything too. On the day when Babylon gets her due, everyone who has made their home there, their fortune there, finds their identity and meaning there, will lose everything they thought made them happy, everything that provided their security, everything that gave their lives meaning. John wants us to hear from them. He wants us to hear agony in their cries.
And the kings of the earth, who committed sexual immorality and lived in luxury with her, will weep and wail over her when they see the smoke of her burning. They will stand far off, in fear of her torment, and say:
“Alas! Alas! You great city,
you mighty city, Babylon!
For in a single hour your judgment has come.” (Rev. 18:9–10)
Everyone whose power was an extension of the beast’s power, everyone who was seduced by her into committing spiritual adultery with her, everyone who went to her summits and conferences, they’re going to watch in fear as she burns because they know that her torment is going to become their torment:
And the merchants of the earth weep and mourn for her, since no one buys their cargo anymore, cargo of gold, silver, jewels, pearls, fine linen, purple cloth, silk, scarlet cloth, all kinds of scented wood, all kinds of articles of ivory, all kinds of articles of costly wood, bronze, iron and marble, cinnamon, spice, incense, myrrh, frankincense, wine, oil, fine flour, wheat, cattle and sheep, horses and chariots, and slaves, that is, human souls. (Rev. 18:11–13)
Everyone who has profited from her corruption, enjoying a standard of living made possible at the expense of men, women, and children in the sweatshops of the world, will lose it all:
The fruit for which your soul longed
has gone from you,
and all your delicacies and your splendors
are lost to you,
never to be found again! (Rev. 18:14)
The merchants of these wares, who gained wealth from her, will stand far off, in fear of her torment, weeping and mourning aloud:
Alas, alas, for the great city
that was clothed in fine linen,
in purple and scarlet,
adorned with gold,
with jewels, and with pearls!
For in a single hour all this wealth has been laid waste. (Rev. 18:14–17a)
All of the delicacies that they once fed on are going to turn sour in their stomach. All of their collections are going into the dumpster. All of their fine clothes are going to become rags. All of their bank accounts and stock portfolios and insurance policies and investment properties are not going to be able to secure their future like they thought they would. It will be gone in one day, and they will be reduced to weeping and wailing:
All shipmasters and seafaring men, sailors and all whose trade is on the sea, stood far off and cried out as they saw the smoke of her burning,
“What city was like the great city?”
And they threw dust on their heads as they wept and mourned, crying out,
“Alas, alas, for the great city
where all who had ships at sea
grew rich by her wealth!
For in a single hour she has been laid waste.” (Rev. 18:17b–19)
It was their connections in and to the great city that filled the lives of these shipmasters and sailors not only with wealth but with significance. They loved her. One minute she is gleaming and bright, and the next minute she’s just gone. For good.
Then it is as if these shipmasters and sailors turn away from gazing wistfully at the smoking city. They stop throwing dust on their heads and speak through their tears to the bride of Christ, the ones who have patiently endured all that Babylon put them through, the ones who were not seduced by her, the ones who made a clean break from Babylon, saying:
Rejoice over her, O heaven,
and you saints and apostles and prophets,
for God has given judgment for you against her! (Rev. 18:20)
They recognize that the source of their great sorrow is a source of great joy for the bride. The bridegroom has put an end to Babylon’s cruelty toward the bride that he loves. He has given Babylon what she deserves. Never again will she seduce. Never again will she become drunk on their blood. In fact, a mighty angel begins to recount all of the things that will never again take place in Babylon:
Then a mighty angel took up a stone like a great millstone and threw it into the sea, saying,
“So will Babylon the great city be thrown down with violence,
and will be found no more;
and the sound of harpists and musicians, of flute players and trumpeters,
will be heard in you no more,
and a craftsman of any craft
will be found in you no more,
and the sound of the mill
will be heard in you no more,
and the light of a lamp
will shine in you no more,
and the voice of bridegroom and bride
will be heard in you no more,
for your merchants were the great ones of the earth,
and all nations were deceived by your sorcery.
And in her was found the blood of prophets and of saints,
and of all who have been slain on earth.” (Rev. 18:21–24)
No more culture and creativity. No more industry. No more purpose or meaning. No more light. No more love. Everything that brought richness and beauty to life will be gone for good. What a contrast to the “no mores” we read about in the new Jerusalem—no more tears, no more death, no more mourning or crying or pain (21:4).
Finally, we get to hear the bride speak. Instead of crying out “Alas! Alas!” she’s crying out, “Hallelujah!” This is what she’s been waiting for! All of her resistance to the world’s seduction and all of her years of waiting for her bridegroom have proved worthwhile:
After this I heard what seemed to be the loud voice of a great multitude in heaven, crying out,
Salvation and glory and power belong to our God,
for his judgments are true and just;
for he has judged the great prostitute
who corrupted the earth with her immorality,
and has avenged on her the blood of his servants.”
Once more they cried out,
“Hallelujah!
The smoke from her goes up forever and ever.”
And the twenty-four elders and the four living creatures fell down and worshiped God who was seated on the throne, saying, “Amen. Hallelujah!” And from the throne came a voice saying,
“Praise our God,
all you his servants,
you who fear him,
small and great.”
Then I heard what seemed to be the voice of a great multitude, like the roar of many waters and like the sound of mighty peals of thunder, crying out,
“Hallelujah!
For the Lord our God
the Almighty reigns.
Let us rejoice and exult
and give him the glory,
for the marriage of the Lamb has come,
and his Bride has made herself ready;
it was granted her to clothe herself
with fine linen, bright and pure”—
for the fine linen is the righteous deeds of the saints. (Rev. 19:1–8)
She has been preparing for this day, and the day is finally here. After all of the waiting, it is finally time for the wedding. And she is ready. And in this she shows us the third way we must prepare ourselves for our wedding day: we have to say yes to the dress.
The Dress
The wording John uses here is important. We read, “It was granted her to clothe herself with fine linen, bright and pure.” And there is part of us that wants to say in response, “Which is it? Was the wedding dress given to her, or did she provide it herself?” And the answer is yes.
We can’t get ourselves ready for this wedding on our own. We’re being prepared as a bride for Jesus by Jesus. To be dressed appropriately for this wedding is going to require that we are provided with the perfect righteousness of another, the righteousness of Christ given to us as a gift. This grace given to us will also go to work in us so that we will be able to “put on then, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, bearing with one another. . . . And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony” (Col. 3:12–14). We’ll be empowered by this grace to live in a way that brings honor to our bridegroom. And when we fail, we can be sure that as we turn from our sin toward him in repentance, he will “forgive us our sins and . . . cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:9). We’ll be provided with what we need to work out our salvation with fear and trembling (Phil. 2:12). The righteousness of our groom is going to work in and through our lives in such a way that his righteousness will be evident. It’s going to purify us and beautify us and satisfy us.
And the angel said to me, “Write this: Blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb.” And he said to me, “These are the true words of God.” (Rev. 19:9)
The joy of our lives, the blessing of our lives, now and into the future is that we’ve been invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb, not simply as a guest, but as the bride. We’ve already been sealed to our bridegroom with the promised Holy Spirit (Eph. 1:13). He is going to show up right on time. We can count on it. So we must prepare for it. In fact, there’s one more thing to do to prepare for it. But this isn’t one of those things to put on your to-do list. It’s one of those things brides who are in love with their bridegroom can’t keep from doing, even if everyone around them wishes they wouldn’t. Brides who are in love can’t stop talking about the bridegroom. This is how we know we really are prepared for the wedding: we find that we can’t keep from talking about our bridegroom.
Our Bridegroom
Then I fell down at his feet to worship him, but he said to me, “You must not do that! I am a fellow servant with you and your brothers who hold to the testimony of Jesus. Worship God.” For the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy. (Rev. 19:10)
John is so overcome with the glory and beauty of what the angel has shown to him about our future marriage that, in a moment of wonder, he falls down to worship the angelic messenger and is quickly corrected. The angel is just the messenger with the good news, like John is and like we are to be. Love for your bridegroom Jesus means that you “hold to the testimony of Jesus.” You simply can’t stop talking about him to anyone who will listen.
I hate to put you on the spot, but I have to ask: Who was the last person you talked to about your bridegroom? Did she sense in you a longing for the wedding day, a longing for this eternal marriage?
The wedding day itself isn’t actually in our passage in Revelation. We have to skip ahead to catch a glimpse of it. We find it in Revelation 21:2–3, where we read:
I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God.
Finally, we’ll have the relief and joy of being together, enjoying the marriage we were meant for, the happiest marriage of all time, the marriage that will never end.
Hearing and Keeping Revelation 17–19
Revelation 17 through 19 has shown us a vivid picture of what this world is like and what all who love this world can expect if they refuse to leave her. So what is it going to look like for us to hear and keep these chapters and thereby experience the promised blessing in it?
We live in Babylon. We shop in her supermarkets, wear her clothes, and benefit from her privileges. Perhaps the most important thing we must do is step back to get perspective on our lives and ask ourselves some questions:
Perhaps a test of whether or not we’ve given our heart away to Babylon is how we respond when her luxuries, her benefits, are taken away from us now. In Revelation 18 we see the response of those who are closely entangled and dependent upon her. They mourn. But we also see the response of those who are called and chosen and faithful. They celebrate. They have taken the long view. They are so convinced that the world and its desires are passing away that when they see the world and its trinkets proving to be fleeting, instead of saying “Alas! Alas!” they say, “Hallelujah!” They recognize that God is answering their prayers. His kingdom is coming. His will is being done on earth as it is in heaven. They are rejoicing, but they’re not gloating. They’re rejoicing that evil will not have the final word in this world. Instead, this world’s system of oppression, exploitation, greed, and violence will collapse under the judgment of God.
John wants us to see the world for what it is. What he communicates through this vision in Revelation, he states more clearly in his earlier letter: “Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world—the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride of life—is not from the Father but is from the world. And the world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever” (1 John 2:15–17).
My friend, are you living like you really do believe that “the world is passing away”? The people in the churches who first received John’s letter likely would have found it difficult to envision a day when Rome would fall. But that day came, just as it has come for so many world powers since then. Similarly, today, we have a hard time believing that governments that persecute God’s people such as Burma, China, India, Iran, Nigeria, North Korea, Pakistan, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Syria, and Vietnam will ever be reduced to nothing. In fact, it is not merely the governments we consider to be set against Christ that will one day come to an end. Every human government has a limited shelf life. One day all of the many isms that have such a grip on the many cultures of the world—classism, racism, materialism, consumerism, egoism, hedonism, humanism—will no longer rule the day. Every kingdom will one day give way to the true kingdom.
Hearing and keeping this passage must mean that day by day and year after year we’re finding that love for our true bridegroom is squeezing out any lingering love of the world. We’re growing in wisdom and in our ability to see things as they are. We’re better able to see what will last, where true security can be found.
Whenever we gather with fellow believers to come to the Lord’s Table, we are, in a very real sense, coming away from Babylon. We’re demonstrating our desire for our bridegroom, our longing for the greater feast that this feast points to. We’re demonstrating that we don’t expect that this world will ever satisfy us like Christ satisfies us. We believe what he said when he told us that he is coming soon. And so we’re talking about him, preparing for him, waiting for him.
When I think about being prepared as a bride, it makes me think back to what it was like when David and I were engaged. We were already planning and merging our lives together, and as our wedding day got closer, it got harder and harder to go home to my little apartment at night. We wanted to be together. When we returned from our honeymoon and drove up to our apartment, David said what he had said many times during our engagement: “It is getting late, I guess I better drive you home.” And we looked at each other and celebrated that we didn’t have to be separated anymore.
One day, after all of the preparing for the wedding, our bridegroom will come for us. All of the waiting will be over. The wedding will give way to the marriage, an eternity of togetherness with the one who loves us. Until then, let’s keep ourselves pure for him, let’s talk about him, let’s love him with all of our souls, all of our strength, and all of our minds.