Lynn Mosher

The Price of the Bride

May 16, 2019 By Lynn H Mosher

“You were bought with a price
[you were actually purchased with
the precious blood of Jesus and made His own].”
1 Cor. 6:20 Amp

The price of the bride.

Bought with a payment. But not exactly what you think.

The purchase price of the bride was not a fee paid but rather compensation to the father for the loss of his daughter’s help. Sometimes, the bride’s father would also give a gift to his daughter for her dowry. He would hold the dowry for her in case of divorce or her husband’s death.

This second step in the betrothal process is called the mohar and must be paid in order for betrothal to take place. The bridegroom paid the bride’s father the mohar, the agreed amount of money.

As an alternative to money, a payment could also consist of jewelry or other valuable goods. In Jacob’s case, services rendered replaced the future loss of his father-in-law’s daughters. In the case of Caleb and David, the performance of an assigned task, such as a deed of valor, replaced the loss.

This gives us the priceless portrayal of how the Father considered His Son’s Bride to be of great worth, for the heavenly Bridegroom paid an inestimable price for Her, “the church of God, which He bought with His own blood.” (Acts 20:28 NIV)

Jesus paid the Father’s mohar for His Bride, as “a single sacrifice for our sins [that sall avail] for all time,” (Heb. 10:12a Ampc) “who gave himself as a ransom on behalf of all.” (1 Tim. 2:6 CJB)

The Greek word for ransom above is used only this once and means the redemption price of a slave or captive, that which is offered in exchange for another.

Redeeming us from our sins and ultimate spiritual death, Christ became our Kinsman-Redeemer, for He “redeemed us from the curse of the Law’s condemnation, by himself becoming a curse for us when he was crucified.” (Gal. 3:13 Phillips)

The Greek meaning of the word used here for redeemed describes beautifully what Christ did for us. It means to ransom, to rescue one from loss to improve opportunity, to purchase one for his freedom from another’s power by paying a price to recover him, or to buy up for one’s self or own use.

Don’t you love that?

God’s redeeming grace is the glowing torchlight of the entire Bible. The tender and affectionate story of Ruth and Boaz depicts this redemption as an earthly representation of the heavenly relationship between God and His people in regard to marriage.

Filled with great allegoric meaning, the whole book of Ruth supplies an abundant field of spiritual grains just waiting to be gleaned. Planted thousands of years ago and lying dormant in the soil of time, this book’s historical illustrations awaited the proper harvest time to reveal not only the restoration of Israel but also Christ’s redemption of His Bride, as His mohar.

There is One who longs to be your Kinsman-Redeemer, One who still walks that road of life with you, who leads you to His field of grace, that you may glean the precious seed-grain of the Word and feed upon that Bread of Life…

…and that Redeemer’s Name is Jesus.

 And that Bridegroom says to you, “I gave My Life to redeem you. Will you be My Bride?”

May you know you are that precious Bride, worthy of the great price the Lord paid for you… Lynn

 

*If you’d like to read the full story of redemption, you are welcome to the free pdf of Ruth: A Redemption Story. You can download it here.

**If you’ve missed the first two episodes of this series or you would like to follow along, you can find the previous episodes here:

1) Come…I will show you the Bride
2) The Bride of Choice

***To my subscribers: I’d like to apologize for late a post and for hitting your inbox with duplicate posts earlier this week. My email decided to misbehave. Thanks for your understanding.

 

 

 

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