The mystery of how God creates the fruit of new life dominates Passover’s wedding motif. It connects Genesis’s command to be fruitful and multiply to God’s covenant gift with Noah and Abraham, God’s calling to a new beginning. John’s first sign is the bride and bridegroom’s everlasting covenant with its joyful hope, with its preparation of becoming one forever, of building a home and a family, anticipating the sure establishment of God’s kingdom.

Why a wedding feast motif for Passover when the Song of Solomon is read? Marriage pictures hope for the continuation of the family, the blessing of new life from oneness. God formed Adam’s bride from his side, the perfect equal facing him, “bone of his bone” and “flesh of his flesh.” The two humans God considered one flesh (Gen. 2:24). Their marriage extended the Father’s house.

Similarly, in the spirit realm, the Father selects, creates, and prepares the bride in oneness with His Son

to ensure the family’s way of life will endure, forming her “in Him.” She takes on the family name, identity, and reputation by setting her love upon Him. The biblical marriage covenant symbolized the spiritual union between the Son and His bride (Hos. 2:19, Eph. 5:26), for “he that is joined to the Lord is one spirit” (1Co. 6:16–17). “To know God” (Jhn. 17:3) suggests a closeness on a spiritual plane that is analogous to the intimacy of sexual intercourse. The oneness between Christ and the church is the most crucial element in building God’s house (1Co. 6:19–20). Since the bride will be the mother and guardian of offspring called by His name, she must be holy and pure to rear His children. By patterning after her, the children image their Father¹ (DBI, p. 120–122). The creation of God’s house is the central topic of John’s first sign. We further understand the striking parallels between physical and spiritual wedding unions from the Hebrew marriage customs. (See chart below.)

The Hebraic wedding tradition had four steps—the betrothal, the preparation, the ceremony, and the wedding feast. The father chose the bride for his son not based on her physical appearance but upon her prized qualities of upholding the Abrahamic covenant (Gen. 24:3–4, 38:3–6). The young woman agreed to the engagement by drinking the offered cup of betrothal at the end of a meal. She became legally bound to the groom and could not free herself from the agreement except by death. Without the legal right to divorce, only the groom could release her (Pro. 2:17). From the moment of the marriage contract (the ketubbah; Eze. 16:8, Mal. 2:14) until the wedding ceremony, the bride dedicatedly prepared for her role and responsibilities as a wife, spending a good deal of time in the home of the groom’s family. In taking the cup, the bride’s hopes and dreams in life, her will, became united with the bridegroom’s will. They became one in mind and accomplishment, learning to walk together. She underwent a unique ritual purification bath. The groom also spent his time in sober preparation (he drank no wine), building onto his father’s house, a dwelling for his new bride, and preparing a year’s provisions for them. It was the custom for the husband not to work during the first year of marriage (Deu. 20:7, 24:5). After the bride drank from the betrothal cup, the bridegroom paid the price to the father for the bride (Strong’s H4117, the mohar, 245, 5 × 49). He also gave gifts (Strong’s H4976, the mattan, 490, 10 × 49) to the bride and her family (Gen. 34:12).²

Then, at a time known only to the groom’s father, the trumpet sounded (usually around midnight), signaling the bridegroom with his groomsmen, musicians and singers, and lamp bearers to go forth to take his bride from her father’s house (Psa. 45:14–15). The bride waited in eager expectation with her maidens for the groom to bring her into his father’s house in a joyous grand procession (Jer. 7:34, 16:9, Rev. 18:23). The trumpet alerted the community and waiting virgins (who served as witnesses of the bride’s virginity) that the time of the wedding ceremony had come (Mat. 25:1, 6–7). The groom wore a magnificent headdress, a victory garland crown. In contrast, the bride wore a full-length veil over her head and an exquisite dress, symbolizing her covering in compliance with her husband’s influence and eminence (Isa. 61:10, Sng. 3:11). The ceremony was simple: the father placed the bride’s hand in the groom’s hand. Following a blessing on their union, the bride and groom drank from the wine cup of blessing. The marriage consummation took place in the bridal chamber (Strong’s H2646, huppah, 93, 31 × 3, Psa. 19:5, Isa. 4:5), after which the virgins obtained the cloth, proof of the bride’s virginity. And fourth, the wedding feast lasted seven to fourteen days, with the groom displaying his glorious bride (Gen. 29:22, 27). It was a time of joy (wine), abundance, oneness, and distinctive dress.²

Given the Hebrew marriage custom, Passover, the night before Yeshua died, held a novel dimension: a marriage proposal to His disciples (ketubbah). The Father had selected them. They had been washed in baptism (by John the Baptist, Jhn. 1:35 38) and cleansed by Yeshua washing their feet. The disciples partook of the betrothal cup of blessing after the meal, the cup ratifying the new marriage covenant, accepting Yeshua’s proposal (Mar. 14:24, 1Co. 11:25). Afterward, they understood Yeshua spoke to His betrothed, “Don’t be troubled. You trusted God; now trust in Me. There are many rooms in my Father’s home, and I am going to prepare a place for you. If this were not so, I would tell you plainly. When everything is ready, I will come and get you, so that you will always be with Me where I am” (Jhn. 14:1–3, NLT). Yeshua, committed to His bride, abstained from wine until the day of the marriage ceremony, “I will not drink of the fruit of the vine from now on until that day I drink it new with you in My Father’s kingdom” (Mat. 26:29, Mar. 14:25, Luk. 22:18). The payment (mohar, H4119, Seekins, p. 179) was His lifeblood, indicating the highest possible love and value for His bride. His gift (mattan, H4976) to her was His Holy Spirit, the Helper in her preparation and maturing to Christ’s full stature.

…just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself for her, that He might sanctify and cleanse her with the washing of water by the word, that He might present her to Himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she should be holy and without blemish. For we are members of His body, of His flesh and of His bones. This is a great mystery, but I speak concerning Christ and the church” (Eph. 5:25–28, 30, 32, NKJV).

His blood, the wine in the proposal cup, meant forgiveness, justification, and sanctification for His church, allowing the Holy God’s presence in her. He healed sin’s effects through His broken body, preserving her life by imputing His righteousness, protecting her from God’s wrath against sin. The Holy Spirit’s two aspects, water (for cleansing) and oil (for power and binding up wounds), are employed in His bride making ready and being filled with Him. His Spirit gives the bride strength to conquer and overcome the self-serving culture of the evil one. She becomes the new Eve, a suitable ezer who is profoundly and inherently Him (see Hebrew Marriage Customs and the Passover chart below).

Takeaway:
At Yeshua’s last Passover, He spoke to His disciples in terms of the new covenant marriage, offering them the cup of betrothal and promising to return to take them into His Father’s house. The three synoptic gospels contain Yeshua’s declaration of His dedication to prepare a place for them: “I will not drink of the fruit of the vine from now on until that day I drink it new with you in My Father’s kingdom.” And Yeshua’s faithful followers, having accepted the betrothal cup, prepare for that day, learning to live in the stature of His holiness by the gift of His Holy Spirit, awaiting the trumpet sounds.