In the mouth of two or three witnesses shall every word be established. -2 Corinthians 13:1
Like any legal transaction, the marriage contract required two witnesses present for the presentation to the bride. These two witnesses represented Moses and Elijah. Moses is known as the attendant to the bride, while Elijah is the attendant to the bridegroom. We see these two attendants with Yeshua on the Mount of Transfiguration, a prophetic picture of what He shall be like at the marriage supper. Matthew 17:1-3 tells us:
And after six days Jesus taketh Peter, James, and John his brother, and bringeth them up into an high mountain apart, and was transfigured before them: and his face did shine as the sun, and his raiment was white as the light. And, behold, there appeared unto them Moses and Elijah talking with him.
We also read in Revelation 11:3, "And I will give
power unto my two witnesses, and they shall prophesy a thousand two hundred
and threescore days, clothed in sackcloth."
The remnant that makes up the bride is a company of two witnesses. This concept of two witnesses is clear in the story of Jacob, who is now called Israel by God. He spent a restless night wrestling with an angel upon meeting his brother, Esau-whom he had cheated out of his birthright. Thus, he named the place
Mahanaim, which means "two camps."
When Jacob received word of Esau's arrival with 400 men, he greatly feared, dividing his two wives, Leah and Rachel and their children, into two camps.
Prophetically, God also divided Israel into the house of Judah, the southern kingdom, and the house of Israel/Ephraim, the northern kingdom. Both houses went into captivity-Ephraim to Assyria, and 125 years later, Judah to Babylon. Only Judah returned to the land, along with some of Ephraim, while the rest dispersed into the culture of the Assyrians and scattered across the face of the earth into all the nations.
Just as two witnesses are required as eyewitnesses to the signing of the marriage contract or
Ketubah, Ephraim and Judah (a picture of Jews and Gentiles) make up Israel, the one true Bride of Messiah. Both serve as witnesses and give testimony to what God has done in the past, and is doing now to bring about His kingdom on this earth. It is those that make up these two camps that will be the two witnesses in the earth during the latter days.
All true believers in the Messiah are a part of Israel, whether naturally or grafted in. Romans 11:17 says, "And if some of the branches be broken off, and thou, being a wild olive tree, wert grafted in among them, and with them partakest of the root and fatness of the olive tree."
God has not replaced His bride Israel with the "New Testament" believers, as some teach in the body today. The Bride of Christ is made up of all believers in Messiah, whether Jew or Gentile, and make up the commonwealth of Israel. 1 Corinthians 12:13 reads, "For by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body, whether
we be Jews or Gentiles, whether
we be bond or free; and have been all made to drink into one Spirit."
Yeshua says He is the same yesterday, today and forever. Therefore, God hasn't changed brides and He certainly doesn't have two. Some teach that God is married to Israel and Yeshua to the church. But Yeshua said that the Father and He were one-and He is the one true God. So that doctrine would make God a polygamist.
The book of Hosea is a great picture of God's pursuant love and even after Israel (Ephraim and Judah) committed spiritual adultery and iniquity against Him. Hosea 2:19-20 says:
And I will betroth thee unto me forever; yea, I will betroth thee unto me in righteousness, and in judgment, and in lovingkindness, and in mercies. I will even betroth thee unto me in faithfulness: and thou shalt know the LORD.
God commanded Hosea to take an adulterous woman as his wife and to continue to seek her and bring her back, as a picture of how Israel had committed great whoredom against Him, departing from the Lord-yet, He promised to bring back to Himself. Hosea 3:1-5 tells us:
Then said the LORD unto me, Go yet, love a woman beloved of
her friend, yet an adulteress, according to the love of the LORD toward the children of Israel, who look to other gods, and love flagons of wine. So I bought her to me for fifteen
pieces of silver, and
for a homer of barley, and a half homer of barley: and I said unto her, Thou shalt abide for me many days; thou shalt not play the harlot, and thou shalt not be for
another man: so
will I also
be for thee. For the children of Israel shall abide many days without a king, and without a prince, and without a sacrifice, and without an image, and without an ephod, and
without teraphim; afterward shall the children of Israel return, and seek the LORD their God, and David their king; and shall fear the LORD and his goodness in the latter days.
Many in the church today are like Ephraim, having turned away from their Hebraic roots and chasing after the pagan ways of the world. Even Judah has become defiled. Though they have guarded God's law, they have been blind to the advancing light and the revelation of Yeshua the Messiah in these last days.
Just as the two thieves on the crosses beside Yeshua stood as witnesses to His obligation in His blood covenant, so we His bride will stand as a testimony to what Yahweh is doing in the last days, as Gentiles and Israel-both make up the Bride of Christ.
For more information about the Who is the Bride, visit our website at
http://www.healwithoil.com or purchase a copy of Rebecca's book, Who is the Bride online at bookstores everywhere.
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