“My beloved is to me a cluster of henna blossoms in the vineyards of Engedi. Behold, you are beautiful, my love behold, you are beautiful your eyes are doves. Behold, you are beautiful, my beloved truly delightful.” Song 1.

Staring at your lover is supposed to add a feeling of giddiness and disconnect from normal life. It’s supposed to captivate your imagination. It’s supposed to soften the hard edges of life and refocus you on the value of having the other person in your life, come what may.

The bride is supposed to be caught up in love with the beloved. Her normal life now ruined by the love of this other. Her imagination no longer wandering but fixed. Her sense of self becoming affirmed by his love and also lost into it. She is floating above her normal life and no longer captivated by it. In a word, she has been raptured by his Love.

The bride is the one caught up in the bridegroom. Regardless of the state of life around her she is fixed and transfixed on the delight of knowing a beloved who is a king, who is intently aware of her and delights in her fully. As the three men were cast into the fire but the fire didn’t touch them because of the presence of the Son of God, so too the bride can walk through any fire and not be burned. She is the prize of the King, and his delight is in her. Woah to those who would dare to touch her, hurt her or persecute her. These ones will see death very shortly.

The wedding is at the end. At the very end. Until then is the betrothal period. We are among those who are being saved, salvation comes at the end. Along the way the rest of life is the best test we will ever have: how much can we get filled with love before the end? To the fullness of God? Ephesians 3.

In this way the devil is thrown down and the bride takes her place on the throne, as they square off under the watchful eye of the King.