Our God is truly the most thoughtful and creative of all Bridegrooms. Within each covenant He makes with man, a ring is presented. A ring serves as a sign of commitment, a symbol of intimacy, and a promise of protection. A ring is exactly what we have in the sign of each covenant, designed to remind us that all of this is really an epic love story between God and His bride. To begin...
God enters a covenant with Noah and his descendants, Genesis 9. The sign of this covenant is the rainbow (9:1-17). Every rainbow is a ring. When viewed from ground level, rainbows do not appear to be circular because the world prevents a person from seeing the whole picture. When viewed from above (from a heavenly perspective), the truth is revealed: the rainbow forms a complete circle, a ring made entirely by light.
God enters a covenant with Abraham and his descendants, Genesis 15. The sign of this covenant is circumcision (17:10-11). In the act of circumcision, the blade follows the circumference of a ring. The cut itself marks a permanent ring around the male organ.
God enters a covenant with the Israelites and their descendants at Mount Sinai, Exodus 24. The sign of this covenant is the Sabbath Day (31:13). To the Jewish people, the giving of the Torah at Mount Sinai is very much a marriage ceremony during which God, the Bridegroom, gave His people the Sabbath Day. Significantly, the Jews think of this day as being a wedding ring. It sets them apart from the world; it makes them unique to all others. It declares to everyone, “I’M TAKEN!” much like a wedding ring does for a spouse. And even in a spiritual sense, the Sabbath is like this circular constant that crosses through linear time, completing its loop every seventh day. Really the Sabbath is a ring, but its essence is spiritual. Like the rainbow, one must view it from above to see its fullness.
God enters a covenant with Phinehas and his descendants, Numbers 25:6-13.
The sign of this covenant is not explicitly stated, so we’ll have to examine the story closely. The story goes like this:
Behold, one of the people of Israel came and brought a Midianite woman to his family, in the sight of Moses and in the sight of the whole congregation of the people of Israel, while they were weeping in the entrance of the tent of meeting. When Phinehas saw it, he rose and left the congregation and took a spear in his hand and went after the man of Israel into the chamber and pierced both of them, the man of Israel and the woman through her belly. Thus the plague on the people of Israel was stopped.
And the Lord said to Moses, “Phinehas has turned back my wrath from the people of Israel, in that he was jealous with my jealousy among them, so that I did not consume the people of Israel in my jealousy. Therefore say, ‘Behold, I give to him my covenant of peace, and it shall be to him and to his descendants after him the covenant of a perpetual priesthood, because he was jealous for his God and made atonement for the people of Israel.’”
In 1 Samuel 18, there is a covenant made between David and King Saul's son, Jonathan. It is worth mentioning because the covenant here pictures a much larger story. Saul (the father, the king) is a picture of God the Father, the King. Jonathan (Saul’s son) is a picture of Jesus, Son of the King. David is a picture of you, the righteous believer. Their covenant is a picture of the covenant that Jesus makes with you on account of your willingness to serve His Father, the King, in the face of giant opposition. This layer of meaning is heard when reading the following passage in 1 Samuel:
Saul watched David going out to meet Goliath . . . As soon as David returned from the striking down of the Philistine, David was brought before Saul with the head of the Philistine in his hand. And Saul said to him, “Whose son are you, young man?” And David answered, “I am the son of your servant Jesse of Bethlehem.”
As soon as he had finished speaking to Saul, the soul of Jonathan was knit to the soul of David, and Jonathan loved him as his own soul. And Saul took him that day and would not let him return to his father's house. Then Jonathan made a covenant with David, because he loved him as his own soul.
Certain phrases have been underlined so you can see that the covenant is connected to David’s killing Goliath. How did he kill Goliath? Well, David had in his possession a perfectly-tailored ring, a ring that David had come to know and make known––a lone sling swinging steadily its stone. Whirling around and around, can you see the ring the sling creates?
The rest of David’s life––his kingship and all––would sound off from this pivotal moment, this defining act of bravery. Like a royal signet ring used to seal documents, God used the swinging sling to authenticate David in the eyes of Israel as one sealed with legitimate royalty. I conceive the covenant made with David later on in 2 Samuel 7 traces back to this event as well.
God enters a covenant with his followers in the upper room, Luke 22:20. The sign of this covenant is not explicitly stated, so where is the ring? The ring is the cup! Specifically, the ring is the top of the cup, the rim their lips kissed as they drank the wine at the last meal. “The cup” is more than this, though, because Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane calls the whole event of crucifixion a cup. This cup––His crucifixion––was topped with a terrible crown of thorns. Note its resemblance to a ring, a ring decorated not with Eden’s jewels but with Earth’s curse. (Thorns = a direct result of Adam and Eve’s fall, Genesis 3:18.)
The exchange here is so meaningful. The inexpensive ring we offered Him––the one that He accepted––was a crown of thorns. Worn tightly, it drew out His blood. The expensive ring He offers us––the one that we accept––is a cup of wine. Grasped firmly, it pours out His blood. Through these rings His life finds its way to us.
ONE FINAL NOTE:
Genesis 1:14-16: God said, “Let there be lights in the expanse of the sky to separate the day from the night, and let them serve as signs to mark appointed times and days and years... And it was so.
In Jewish thought, the sun is seen as the masculine; the moon is seen as the feminine. We see this dynamic in their respective roles: the sun initiates the light; the moon receives and reflects the light. There’s a giving and a receiving here, something expressed even by male and female anatomy. But if this is less than satisfying, the sun and moon's masculine/feminine dynamic is also found in the Bible. Genesis 37:9-11: Then Joseph had another dream, and he told it to his brothers. “Listen,” he said, “I had another dream, and this time the sun and moon and eleven stars were bowing down to me.” When he told his father as well as his brothers, his father rebuked him and said, “What is this dream you had? Will your mother and I and your brothers actually come and bow down to the ground before you?”
Suffice to say, the sun and moon express a masculine and feminine dynamic in Jewish thought. In Matthew 24, Jesus says, "In those days,‘The sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light...’ Then will appear the sign of the Son of Man in heaven...coming on the clouds of heaven, with power and great glory..."
"The sun will be darkened and the moon will not give its light" would seem to describe a solar eclipse, or should we say...
...A RING!
A masculine and a feminine coming together!
A Bridegroom and His Bride!
An appointed time––
a wedding banquet!
