The Bible is a divine book composed with the divine concepts. Because of this, it contains many wonderful records, of which Genesis 24 is one. This chapter not only unfolds a living in oneness with God; it also implies something deeper than human living. This is the reason that it is difficult for the human mind to fathom the depths of the Bible. On the surface of Genesis 24, we have a record of human living, but in its depths there lies something divine. Although it is easy to view the surface, it is difficult to probe into the depths.
In Genesis 24 we see a marriage which is a type of Christ marrying the church. In the New Testament we cannot find a verse which says that this marriage is a type of Christ marrying the church. However, the New Testament clearly reveals that Isaac, the son of Abraham, was a type of Christ being Abraham’s unique seed (Gal. 3:16). Based upon the fact that Isaac was a type of Christ, we may infer that Isaac’s marriage was a type of the marriage of Christ.
Because the Bible is a divine book composed with the divine concepts, we can see these concepts in the various biblical records. For example, we are all familiar with the story of Joseph. Although there is no word in the New Testament saying that Joseph was a type of Christ, any reader of the Bible can recognize that Joseph’s story closely resembles that of Christ. Some Bible teachers say that we should not allegorize anything in the Scriptures unless the New Testament indicates that it is an allegory or a type of certain spiritual things. But we should not insist on this, for although the New Testament does not say that Joseph was a type of Christ, every Bible teacher recognizes that Joseph was an excellent type of Christ. As we read the story of Joseph, we see that it depicts the life of Christ. Many incidents in Joseph’s life, such as his betrayal, are similar to those in the life of Christ. In the same principle, because Isaac is a type of Christ and because the marriage of Isaac resembles the marriage of Christ, we may say that the marriage recorded in Genesis 24 is a type of the marriage of Christ.
In Genesis 24 we have four main persons: the father, the son, the servant, and the bride. This is very meaningful. As we come to the New Testament, we see that the Triune God is working together to obtain a bride for the Son. What is the subject of the New Testament? If you say that the subject of the New Testament is just Jesus as our Savior, I would say that this is good, but that it is not all-inclusive. The subject of the New Testament is the Triune God, the Father, the Son, and the Spirit, working together to obtain the bride for the Son. The Father made the plan, the Spirit carries out the Father’s plan, and the Son enjoys what the Father has planned and what the Spirit carries out. Who is the bride? The bride is a part of the human race which will marry the Son and become His counterpart. Matthew 28:19 speaks of the Father, the Son, and the Spirit. In the Acts and Epistles we see how the Spirit works according to the Father’s plan to obtain the bride for the Son. At the end of the New Testament, in the book of Revelation, we see the bride. Revelation 19:7 says, “The marriage of the Lamb is come, and His wife has made herself ready.” Ultimately, the whole New Jerusalem, a city-lady, will be the bride (Rev. 21:2, 9-10). Although such a term as city-lady may sound strange, there is nothing wrong with using it, because the New Jerusalem will be a female, the wife of the Lamb, the counterpart of the Son of God. The entire New Testament is simply a record of the Triune God working together to gain a part of the human race to be the bride, the counterpart, of the Son.
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