Immigration and migration, what the Bible says (repost)

This was a fairly long post on what the Bible says about how to treat immigrants.

Thanks for reading, or re-reading.

The Church as the Bride of Christ -- References in the Bible

The Church as the Bride of Christ - references in the Bible.

Much of the Song of Solomon may be about the love of Christ and the Church. There were dramatic comparisons of Israel’s unfaithfulness to God to adultery, in the Old Testament, especially in Ezekiel 23 and in the story of Hosea and his wife.

Here are the only direct references about the Church being the Bride of Christ, in the Bible. The first two are about God's people being the Bride of Christ -- there was no Church during Isaiah's time:

Isaiah 61:10 I will greatly rejoice in the Lord!

My soul will be joyful in my God;

for he has clothed me with the garments of salvation.

He has covered me with the robe of righteousness,

as a bridegroom decks himself with a garland,

and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels.

Isaiah 62:5 For as a young man marries a virgin,

so your sons will marry you.

As a bridegroom rejoices over his bride,

so your God will rejoice over you.

Revelation 19:7 "... Let’s rejoice and be exceedingly glad, and let’s give the glory to him. For the marriage of the Lamb has come, and his wife has made herself ready.” 8 It was given to her that she would array herself in bright, pure, fine linen: for the fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints.

Revelation 21:2 I saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared like a bride adorned for her husband.

21:9 One of the seven angels who had the seven bowls, who were loaded with the seven last plagues came, and he spoke with me, saying, “Come here. I will show you the wife, the Lamb’s bride.” 10 He carried me away in the Spirit to a great and high mountain, and showed me the holy city, Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God … (all scripture quotations are from the World English Bible, public domain.)

Prayers in the Bible: one from Isaiah

Isaiah 33:2 Yahweh, be gracious to us. We have waited for you.

Be our strength every morning,

our salvation also in the time of trouble. (World English Bible, public domain.)

A great prayer to start the day with.

This is one of a series on prayers in the Bible. The previous post is here. Thanks for reading.

Isaiah: some thoughts on origins, 2

Isaiah 45:18a 18 For thus says the Lord,
who created the heavens
(he is God!),
who formed the earth and made it
(he established it;
he did not create it empty,
he formed it to be inhabited!) (ESV)

Here God indicates, through the prophet Isaiah, that He purposefully made the earth as a habitation for creatures, including, humans, or maybe He is speaking just of humans here.. This relates to what is called the anthropic principle.

Thanks for reading.

Isaiah: some thoughts on origins

Isaiah 45:7 I form light and create darkness,
I make well-being and create calamity,
I am the Lord, who does all these things. (ESV)

Isaiah is speaking for God here, of course. There are two very interesting ideas here. First, the passage speaks as if God created darkness, not as if darkness is merely the absence of light. Is this poetry, or is this a description of how and what God created? I don't know.

Second, God speaks as if he created calamity, or problems. Interesting, to be sure.

Thanks for reading.