Before reading this post, check out my poem "The Bride's Submission" on my Zadokim blog.
In Hebrew there is a word and a concept called Ezer Kenegdo. This was the word used for Eve when she was created of Adam's flesh. She would be his Ezer Kenegdo, which is often translated into English as helper or helpmeet, but which really means "strong equal one" or "one who stands face to face with."
This is how a man and woman should operate when they are husband and wife. Together they are strong equals, and they are something different than they were when they were single.
As the Bride of Christ, we are His Ezer Kenegdo.
I was going to say, "We all know that after marrying Him, we are strong equals to Christ," but we don't all know that, do we? If we did, we would not come to Him with cringing fear of rejection or with pleas for help with situations that we are well-equipped to handle ourselves. Imagine what life would be like if you truly understood that you were Christ's strong equal, one with whom He would share His innermost thoughts and dreams, His Heart. He loves and completely trusts you to respect and honor those dreams and decisions, and of course you are willing to do so because you love Him, too.
As I said in my post on The Government of Love, there is no carrot and stick here. You do not love and honor His dreams and wishes because you're afraid He will hurt you or hate you or condemn you to Hell or the illusion if you make a mistake, you do so because you're in love with Him! He, in turn, does not give you your heart's desires because you repented enough or were good enough or followed the commandments perfectly. He does so because He loves you.
But this is not what I had planned to talk about today. Today I am going to talk about the Veil. For we are married to Christ and equal to Him, but we are equal to Him also before we marry Him. Now, I am not saying we are not completely and totally dependent upon Him for our existence. What I mean by this is that we do not marry Christ once only. Instead, as He reveals new facets of Himself to us, we marry that facet. Thus we marry Christ over and over again. The old mindset would call this taking up your cross daily, but that connotation is one of agony and suffering. "Oh we'll suffer together and it will be worth it someday..." NO!
For the Cross was the ultimate Veil.
Before I go any further, let me say that I have heard for a while that there is a difference between the Body of Christ and the Bride of Christ. This I didn't truly understand until this moment. We are made equal to Christ as we become His Body because we are Him from that point on. (This was our Creation.) The fullness of Christ dwells within us in the being of the Holy Spirit, and we dwell fully within Him as we have accepted His Body and Blood through Communion to cement our own existence. It is something much more and much different to become the Bride. (Remember, there is more, but there is no such thing as less.)
So Christ is this mighty, glorious, wonderful, indescribable existent Being. He sees us and we have our own wonder, might, glory, and beauty that is equal to His. Yet, we are separate in the way of married people. We have not wed nor consummated our union, so to speak. As we are drawn to each other, our greatness and glory repel each other. We do not repel each other in the way that we are disgusted with each other, but in the way that magnets of a like polarity cannot come together. The force is too strong!
So what do we do? How do we wed? Christ showed us this on the cross. I'm not talking about dying here. I'm talking about humility. Christ humbled Himself in order that we might be able to join with Him. He Veiled the fullness of His glory from those who saw Him there, but also from Himself. Had He not, He never would have wept when Lazarus died or felt sadness for Jerusalem.
We, in turn, Veil our own light and glory, that both of us becoming darkened can join as one so that we can both become a new, United Light Glory that is somehow even more than the fullness of who we were before.
To connect this with the Seven Planes of Existence (Relationship), this Veiling happens in the purple, or Questioning Plane. We are asked there, "Is Yahweh really Yahweh?" As He hides the part of Himself from us that we are going to marry so that we can marry Him in that part of Himself, we are also to submit ourselves to Him in humility so that we can join to Him. We do this by trust.
It's so simple! Yahweh Veils His great awesome Self and all we have to do is trust that this great awesome Self that He is is still Him. We trust Him. That's all! We trust Him.
So much of this is evident in the relationship between a man and a woman. I'm not yet married, and I'm not sure where the custom of a bride wearing a veil came from, but nobody at a wedding freaks out when the bride walks down the aisle with her face covered. The groom does not panic and wonder if the face of the bride has changed or if she has suddenly changed her nature and started lying to him. He does not wonder if the woman that he's (hopefully) spent so long dating and getting to know is going to be a completely different person now. He rejoices because of the day and its beauty. He remembers his bride in her beauty. He longs for her and for their consummation. And she feels the same for him.
Both people (again, hopefully) know that there will be changes after the wedding. They will be more united, more confident in their own identities, and even more beautiful. But it will be a change of joy and peace, not one of fear and potential suffering.
So it is with the Lamb and His Bride. We must truly be willing to give up our "strong equalness" even as Christ gave up His Glory. We "take up our cross daily," not in a fear and pain situation, but in that quiet trust as He leads us into marriage and consummation, which is ultimate union. We do so in hope and joy as we trust Yahweh, as we trust our Bridegroom. The oil of faith and trust in our heart burns fiercely as we wait patiently for the Veil to be removed and our new union to be revealed. It won't be what it was when the Veil was placed, it will be better.
In Hebrew there is a word and a concept called Ezer Kenegdo. This was the word used for Eve when she was created of Adam's flesh. She would be his Ezer Kenegdo, which is often translated into English as helper or helpmeet, but which really means "strong equal one" or "one who stands face to face with."
This is how a man and woman should operate when they are husband and wife. Together they are strong equals, and they are something different than they were when they were single.
As the Bride of Christ, we are His Ezer Kenegdo.
I was going to say, "We all know that after marrying Him, we are strong equals to Christ," but we don't all know that, do we? If we did, we would not come to Him with cringing fear of rejection or with pleas for help with situations that we are well-equipped to handle ourselves. Imagine what life would be like if you truly understood that you were Christ's strong equal, one with whom He would share His innermost thoughts and dreams, His Heart. He loves and completely trusts you to respect and honor those dreams and decisions, and of course you are willing to do so because you love Him, too.
As I said in my post on The Government of Love, there is no carrot and stick here. You do not love and honor His dreams and wishes because you're afraid He will hurt you or hate you or condemn you to Hell or the illusion if you make a mistake, you do so because you're in love with Him! He, in turn, does not give you your heart's desires because you repented enough or were good enough or followed the commandments perfectly. He does so because He loves you.
But this is not what I had planned to talk about today. Today I am going to talk about the Veil. For we are married to Christ and equal to Him, but we are equal to Him also before we marry Him. Now, I am not saying we are not completely and totally dependent upon Him for our existence. What I mean by this is that we do not marry Christ once only. Instead, as He reveals new facets of Himself to us, we marry that facet. Thus we marry Christ over and over again. The old mindset would call this taking up your cross daily, but that connotation is one of agony and suffering. "Oh we'll suffer together and it will be worth it someday..." NO!
For the Cross was the ultimate Veil.
Before I go any further, let me say that I have heard for a while that there is a difference between the Body of Christ and the Bride of Christ. This I didn't truly understand until this moment. We are made equal to Christ as we become His Body because we are Him from that point on. (This was our Creation.) The fullness of Christ dwells within us in the being of the Holy Spirit, and we dwell fully within Him as we have accepted His Body and Blood through Communion to cement our own existence. It is something much more and much different to become the Bride. (Remember, there is more, but there is no such thing as less.)
So Christ is this mighty, glorious, wonderful, indescribable existent Being. He sees us and we have our own wonder, might, glory, and beauty that is equal to His. Yet, we are separate in the way of married people. We have not wed nor consummated our union, so to speak. As we are drawn to each other, our greatness and glory repel each other. We do not repel each other in the way that we are disgusted with each other, but in the way that magnets of a like polarity cannot come together. The force is too strong!
So what do we do? How do we wed? Christ showed us this on the cross. I'm not talking about dying here. I'm talking about humility. Christ humbled Himself in order that we might be able to join with Him. He Veiled the fullness of His glory from those who saw Him there, but also from Himself. Had He not, He never would have wept when Lazarus died or felt sadness for Jerusalem.
We, in turn, Veil our own light and glory, that both of us becoming darkened can join as one so that we can both become a new, United Light Glory that is somehow even more than the fullness of who we were before.
To connect this with the Seven Planes of Existence (Relationship), this Veiling happens in the purple, or Questioning Plane. We are asked there, "Is Yahweh really Yahweh?" As He hides the part of Himself from us that we are going to marry so that we can marry Him in that part of Himself, we are also to submit ourselves to Him in humility so that we can join to Him. We do this by trust.
It's so simple! Yahweh Veils His great awesome Self and all we have to do is trust that this great awesome Self that He is is still Him. We trust Him. That's all! We trust Him.
So much of this is evident in the relationship between a man and a woman. I'm not yet married, and I'm not sure where the custom of a bride wearing a veil came from, but nobody at a wedding freaks out when the bride walks down the aisle with her face covered. The groom does not panic and wonder if the face of the bride has changed or if she has suddenly changed her nature and started lying to him. He does not wonder if the woman that he's (hopefully) spent so long dating and getting to know is going to be a completely different person now. He rejoices because of the day and its beauty. He remembers his bride in her beauty. He longs for her and for their consummation. And she feels the same for him.
Both people (again, hopefully) know that there will be changes after the wedding. They will be more united, more confident in their own identities, and even more beautiful. But it will be a change of joy and peace, not one of fear and potential suffering.
So it is with the Lamb and His Bride. We must truly be willing to give up our "strong equalness" even as Christ gave up His Glory. We "take up our cross daily," not in a fear and pain situation, but in that quiet trust as He leads us into marriage and consummation, which is ultimate union. We do so in hope and joy as we trust Yahweh, as we trust our Bridegroom. The oil of faith and trust in our heart burns fiercely as we wait patiently for the Veil to be removed and our new union to be revealed. It won't be what it was when the Veil was placed, it will be better.
Comments
Post a Comment