We had a great time this weekend and spent some time meditating on First fruits and worshipping the Most High on the beach. We made our way to the beach before first light. We rocked up with our tribes of kids all in good spirit and tangible excitement. We briskly made our way closer to the shore where we could see some fishermen. There was something glorious about the rising sun. We lifted up our voices, filled with songs, in celebration of the risen King. My wife took some amazing photos, with the rising sun shining on us. This is such a wonderful picture of when the Son of Yah shining on us and through us.
Now after last week’s blog on the garments of light I had some positive responses for which I am really thankful. If you have missed it, here is the link. We covered what Adam and Eve (possibly) looked like before sin and what will our resurrection bodies look like. Now, this week we are going to cover;
· The connection between the garments of light and the wedding garments and more importantly,
· How are we clothed in wedding garments?
– What is the connection between wedding garments and the garments of light?
Last week we touched on the beautiful idea of how our resurrected bodies will be like garments of light. Enoch refers to our resurrected bodies/bodies of light to be the garments of life. Now, we will see that the bride is adorned with white/brightness. The book of Revelation will expound on this idea;
Revelation 3:4,18
Thou hast a few names even in Sardis which have not defiled their garments; and they shall walk with me in white: for they are worthy… I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich; and white raiment, that thou mayest be clothed, and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear; and anoint thine eyes with eyesalve, that thou mayest see.
Last week we discussed how it was possible that Adam and Eve were created in a type of light form. Like Yeshua at the transfiguration. It could be possible that they received flesh (as we know it) once they sinned. Again here in Revelation 3 we see a negative connotation to the flesh and nakedness. I understand the objection, how does this connect with the garments of light? The passage talks about WHITE garments not SPARKLING garments, right? Well, no, it could be.
Let’s have a closer look at ‘white’ in this passage. The Greek word for white is leukos. The Strong’s and Thayer’s definitions are as follow;
G3022
Original: λευκός
Transliteration: leukos
Phonetic: lyoo-kos’
Thayer Definition:
– light, bright, brilliant
– brilliant from whiteness, (dazzling) white
– of the garments of angels, and of those exalted to the splendour of the heavenly state
– shining or white garments worn on festive or state occasions
– of white garments as the sign of innocence and purity of the soul
– dead white
– of the whitening colour of ripening grain
Origin: from luke (“light”)
As we can clearly see from the two definitions the word ‘white’ could also mean light. The origin is from leukos which means light. The name Luke/Lucas is derived from leukos. So the white garments in Revelation could be connected to the garments of light. Maybe these garments could be so white they appear to be light? Either way, there is definitely a connection here.
And these garments are furthermore connected to the clothing of the bride;
Revelation 21:2
And I John saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.
Baruch 5:1-3
Put off, O Jerusalem, the garment of mourning and affliction, and put on the comeliness of the glory that cometh from God for ever. Cast about thee a double garment of the righteousness which cometh from God; and set a diadem on thine head of the glory of the Everlasting. For God will shew thy brightness unto every country under heaven.
We can conclude that the bride of Messiah/saints/Jerusalem above is clothed in garments of light (leukos). The chosen of Yah get to wear these garments to reflect the glory of the risen one to the Father. This leads us to our final question of this study:
– How are we clothed in wedding garments?
There is this (seemingly) harsh passage of scripture where Yeshua shuns the dude that did not wear his wedding garment. Yeshua banishes him and the dude has to leave the wedding. It always bothered me that Yeshua would go through all the trouble inviting people from the highways and byways and then end up chasing away this fellow that did not dress appropriately. I wonder; what is the deal here?
Okay, the passage I mentioned is recorded in Matthew 22;
Matthew 22:11-14 (ESV)
“The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who gave a wedding feast for his son, and sent his servants to call those who were invited to the wedding feast, but they would not come. Again he sent other servants, saying, ‘Tell those who are invited, “See, I have prepared my dinner, my oxen and my fat calves have been slaughtered, and everything is ready. Come to the wedding feast.”’ But they paid no attention and went off, one to his farm, another to his business, while the rest seized his servants, treated them shamefully, and killed them. The king was angry, and he sent his troops and destroyed those murderers and burned their city. Then he said to his servants, ‘The wedding feast is ready, but those invited were not worthy. Go therefore to the main roads and invite to the wedding feast as many as you find.’ And those servants went out into the roads and gathered all whom they found, both bad and good. So the wedding hall was filled with guests.
“But when the king came in to look at the guests, he saw there a man who had no wedding garment. And he said to him, ‘Friend, how did you get in here without a wedding garment?’ And he was speechless. Then the king said to the attendants, ‘Bind him hand and foot and cast him into the outer darkness. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’ For many are called, but few are chosen
And to some extent it sounds like it ended worse for the wedding garment-less guy than for the people that did not come to the wedding at all, but why? Surely, he still made it to the wedding right? Peter explains what happens here:
2 Peter 2:20-22 (ESV)
For if, after they have escaped the defilements of the world through the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in them and overcome, the last state has become worse for them than the first. For it would have been better for them never to have known the way of righteousness than after knowing it to turn back from the holy commandment delivered to them. What the true proverb says has happened to them: “The dog returns to its own vomit, and the sow, after washing herself, returns to wallow in the mire.”
So once we are acquainted with the Person of Messiah, the Truth of Messiah should change us forever. However, if we intentionally deny walking in the Truth after we have met Messiah we are worse off than before we knew the Truth/Messiah. So the dude that was thrown out of the wedding represents someone that knew of Yeshua but his ways were unchanged by knowing (of) Yeshua. His behaviour remained unchanged. He never obtained a wedding garment and for the King this is a serious breach of protocol. And this is a big red light for modern churchianity/Christianity. We are to walk as a faithful bride of Messiah not rolling around in the mud with the garments of light.
1 John 1:7
But if we walk in the light, as He is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanses us from all sin.
Once we walk in the light we are clothed in wedding garments. We need to do the Truth not just be aware of it. I am not talking about salvation now. We all know salvation is a gift from Abba through Messiah. I am talking about walking in covenant commitment and covenant love with the Most High.
Once we exchange our old clothes/nature like Isaiah 61 and Zachariah 3 illustrates we can be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the LORD, that He might be glorified. This costs us something and most of the time it costs you everything. We get to be buried in the water grave of baptism and rise up as a new creation in Messiah.
Galatians 3:27
For as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ.
So this is step one and next week we will look deeper into the topic of being clothed with Messiah. Once we are baptised into Messiah we are clothed with the Messiah and we are able to be glorified with Him in the resurrection of the dead. Once we are clothed with Messiah we are equipped to perform our tasks in the Kingdom and walk by faith (and not by sight). But do we automatically reflect Yeshua once we are baptised?
There is a transition from garments of righteousness (Messiah) to garments of light. The key here is to find out what do the garments of light represent. In Revelation 19 we get a clearer picture of what the garments portray. To make it unambiguous I looked at various translations.
Rev19:8 (NIV)
Fine linen, bright and clean, was given her to wear.” (Fine linen stands for the righteous acts of God’s holy people.)
Rev19:8 (ESV)
…it was granted her to clothe herself with fine linen, bright and pure”— for the fine linen is the righteous deeds of the saints.
Rev19:8 (Berean Study Bible)
She was given clothing of fine linen, bright and pure.” For the fine linen she wears is the righteous acts of the saints.
We have seen that the garments are bestowed on us when we walk in the light/righteousness. The reason we want to be clothed in white (garments of light in my opinion) is because it testifies our bridal journey with the Bridegroom. How we have been forged in the holy fire and have overcome through the blood of Messiah.
Rev19:17 (TS2009)
And the dragon was enraged with the woman, and he went to fight with the remnant of her seed, those guarding the commands of Elohim and possessing the witness of יהושע Messiah.
If you are not walking in the ways of the Most High or you do not know Yeshua you are no threat to the enemy and he does not have any reason to pick a fight with you. But for those walking in the light and reflecting the likeness of Messiah, the enemy hates you and literally wants to kill you. Except for this, we see that those who do not have the testimony of Messiah and walk in His ways will possibly miss out on the wedding feast. Just like the 5 unwise virgins in Matthew 25. The wise had light to sustain them throughout the night and the unwise did not.
You can still be saved and be on the outside of the feast. For example; only the priest got to enter the tabernacle and only the high priests could enter into the holy of holies. We do not have to time to look at the parallels between the priesthood and the bride today, but maybe in a future study. You could be part of Israel even though you were not allowed to be part of the priesthood. You can be part of the remnant but not part of the bride. You can be a guest at the wedding or you can be the bride. Same applies here. The first step is to be clothed with Messiah and then we need to move from glory to glory as we walk in the light.
Yah willing, next week will take a look at garments of Messiah.
Shalom fam
<>EdgarJudah
