Les belles promesses

Pierre Lemaitre

Description

She was married at Sinai. Divorced for adultery. Scattered among the nations. Stripped of her identity. And yet the prophets insist she will return.

Who is the Bride of Christ? The standard answer—"the Church"—raises more questions than it answers. Which church? When did this bride appear? What happened to the original bride, the one YHVH married at Sinai, the one He divorced and scattered, the one the prophets promised would be restored?

Mystery of the Bride follows the trail from Genesis to Revelation, tracing a continuous story that institutional religion has fragmented into disconnected pieces.

The story begins in Eden. Before Israel existed, before Abraham was called, a pattern was established: the woman taken from the side of the man while he slept, brought to him as his bride, bone of his bone and flesh of his flesh. This is the prototype. Every marriage that follows echoes this original design.

At Sinai, the pattern materialized in history. YHVH took Israel as His bride in a formal covenant ceremony. The vows were the Ten Commandments. The ratification was blood. The wedding feast occurred in the presence of God on the mountain. Israel was no longer merely a people—she was a wife. Her identity was defined by her Husband.

But she forgot.

The Northern Kingdom fell into idolatry and was divorced—formally, legally, prophetically. The ten tribes were scattered among the nations and lost their identity as Israel. They became "not my people," fulfilling Hosea's prophecy. They intermarried with Gentiles, forgot their heritage, and vanished from history.

Or did they?

The prophets speak of a future regathering—not just of Judah, but of Israel. Ezekiel's vision of dry bones specifies "the whole house of Israel." Jeremiah's new covenant is made "with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah"—both houses, reunited. The Messiah himself said he was sent "to the lost sheep of the house of Israel." Not to start a new religion, but to find his scattered bride.

This volume examines the evidence. Where did the ten tribes go? What historical markers trace their migrations? How did Israelite identity persist even when the name was lost? And what does this mean for understanding who the "Gentiles" coming to faith really are?

The mystery deepens when we reach Revelation. The Bride is described as the New Jerusalem—a city with twelve gates named for the twelve tribes of Israel. Not a Gentile church replacing Israel, but Israel restored, glorified, descending from heaven as a bride adorned for her husband. The imagery is unmistakably Israelite. The identity is unmistakably covenantal.

The implications reshape everything.

If the Bride is scattered Israel being regathered, then salvation isn't primarily about escaping earth for heaven—it's about covenant restoration. The gospel isn't fire insurance—it's a wedding invitation. The Bridegroom came to find his lost wife, to restore what was broken, to remarry the one he never stopped loving.

This changes how we read Scripture. The "Gentiles" coming to faith may not be outsiders being added to Israel—they may be Israelites who forgot who they were, now being awakened to their identity. The "wild olive branches" grafted in may be branches returning to their own root. The mystery Paul speaks of—Gentiles becoming fellow heirs—may be the mystery of scattered Israel coming home.

Mystery of the Bride doesn't claim to have all the answers. But it asks the questions that institutional religion has avoided for centuries. Who is the Bride? Where has she been? And what happens when she finally remembers?

The Bridegroom is returning. He's not coming for a stranger. He's coming for the one he married long ago—the one he died to legally reclaim.

The question is whether she will recognize him. And whether she will remember who she is.

Spécifications