THE FOUR CUPS OF BETROTHAL - Richard M. Sharp

Eldredge has suggested that there are three things a man needs to feel successful in life: 1) an adventure to live, 2) a battle to fight, and 3) a damsel to rescue. Because man is fashioned in the likeness of God, one can assume that He himself had the same drives. Leaving His position in Heaven and taking the form of a man gave Him the adventure to live. His adversary gave Him the battle to fight and His nature (God is love) drove Him to rescue a damsel. That damsel was the nation of Israel. By His death on the cross, the barrier between Jew and Gentile has been removed through faith in Jesus, and we are builded together for a habitation of God through the Spirit (Ephesians 2: 14-22). Nothing and no one can ever come between the covenant of marriage established as betrothal on the cross. Betrothal has occurred for all who have embraced Jesus. 

Tracing the Jewish roots of Christianity in the ancient writings, Dr. Richard Sharp examines how the ancient ritual of betrothal has framed the meta-narrative of God's relationship with man. This ritual of betrothal is suggested by scriptural texts from Genesis to Revelation and suggests that a formal wedding between God and man is in the offing, and that the legal marriage has already occurred through the act of betrothal.  Merriam Webster's Collegiate Dictionary describes the word "meta" as situated behind or beyond (Webster, 1996). It is this notion that there exists a story of betrothal behind or beyond a simple narrative of a particular story in the Bible that is implied. It is that meta-narrative that ties the sixty-six books of the Bible together and allows the reader to view, for example, the books of Hosea and Ephesians, not as single pieces of literature, but as stories which fit within a grander story.