Purchased with a Price

I’ve been watching a program titled ‘Lessons in Faith’ and am so excited by what I am learning. The program author Reverend Ray Vander Laan has spent an enormous time in Israel learning about the people and the culture in Jesus’ time. How much more exciting the Bible is when you understand the culture of the people to which Jesus spoke.
One such insight is that families built their houses as an addition to their fathers. In other words, when the son found his bride, both fathers would negotiate the bride price to compensate the bride-to-be’s family. After this engagement, the bridegroom would leave and begin building his house onto the original one of this fathers’. This tradition carried on for generations.
This engagement could carry on for months and sometimes even years. What is also interesting is that the young man could not marry his bride until his father set the time.

The bride-to-be would then spend her time preparing for the wedding and was often called “one who had been bought with a price.”
This insight helps me to understand heaven and my eternal relationship with God. When Jesus spoke of the kingdom of heaven, He compared Himself to a bridegroom and us (His Church) as His Bride.
Now is the preparation time for the wedding.
I would encourage anyone interested in this study to go to Rev. Vander Laan’s website http://www.followtherabbi.com