The Chaste Virgin Analogy

[Davy]

There are times in God's Word when He gives His faithful Church metaphors and analogies that everyone can relate to, and they serve as anchors in His Word, anchors that prevent His Message from being misunderstood, or misapplied, etc. This is why our Lord Jesus often gave parables to the multitudes, and then later explained them to His elect. This method of analogy, allegory, parable, using metaphors, figures of speech, etc., is used in all languages. Our Heavenly Father and His Son uses it too in His Word. And it can often impart a deeper meaning in His Word, and a whole lot of information through use of symbols we all are familiar with.

In 2 Corinthians 11, Apostle Paul repeats a parable that originally God gave through Isaiah in the Old Testament...

2 Cor 11:2-4
2 For I am jealous over you with godly jealousy: for I have espoused you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ.

We, Christ's Church, Apostle Paul compares as 'chaste virgins' betrothed to Christ. Of course that is not meant literally, but spiritually. In a spiritual sense, Christ Jesus is our True Husband according to Apostle Paul. He is pulling this analogy from the Old Testament prophets, like Isaiah 54 for one example. How does Apostle Paul mean this analogy?


3 But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtilty, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ.
4 For if he that cometh preacheth another Jesus, whom we have not preached, or if ye receive another spirit, which ye have not received, or another gospel, which ye have not accepted, ye might well bear with him.
KJV

Did you know brethren there could even be "another Jesus" which Paul warns of?

This is actually the same warning our Lord Jesus was giving about the coming pseudo-Christ at the end, per Matthew 24 and Mark 13. It is also what Apostle John was shown by Christ in Revelation 13:11 forward about the "another beast". And it is also the same subject that Apostle Paul showed in 2 Thessalonians 2:3-4 about the coming "man of sin". Well here, Apostle Paul points directly to how Satan disguises ("transformed") himself as an angel of light, and his ministers disguised as the ministers of righteousness (2 Corinthians 11:13-15).

Where did Paul get this idea of spiritual betrothal and chaste virgins? Here's one place, in Hosea 2 about God's prophecy to the ten tribe "house of Israel" when He would scatter them, but then remove their Baal worship, and instead make a new covenant with them...

Hos 2:16-20
16 And it shall be at that day, saith the LORD, that thou shalt call Me Ishi; and shalt call Me no more Baali.
17 For I will take away the names of Baalim out of her mouth, and they shall no more be remembered by their name.
18 And in that day will I make a covenant for them with the beasts of the field, and with the fowls of heaven, and with the creeping things of the ground: and I will break the bow and the sword and the battle out of the earth, and will make them to lie down safely.
19 And I will betroth thee unto Me for ever; yea, I will betroth thee unto Me in righteousness, and in judgment, and in lovingkindness, and in mercies.
20 I will even betroth thee unto Me in faithfulness: and thou shalt know the LORD.
KJV

That happened after Jesus was rejected in Jerusalem and crucified, and the The Gospel went to the Gentiles. Just so happened, the scattered ten tribes of Israel were there too among those Gentiles in the Christian west, and both together became Christ's Church. This is why Paul quoted from the Book of Hosea about both believing Israelites of the ten tribes, and including Gentile Romans, per Romans 9.

Rom 7:4
4 Wherefore, my brethren, ye also are become dead to the law by the body of Christ; that ye should be married to another, even to Him Who is raised from the dead, that we should bring forth fruit unto God.
KJV

(Continued...)

 

[Davy]

(Continued...)

But how did The LORD use this analogy like Paul did, regarding the deception at the end of this world? Jesus gave us His parable of the ten virgins, is one place. But in Isaiah 54 and Luke 23 is where He especially gave a warning against deception for the end...

Luke 23:27-30
27 And there followed Him a great company of people, and of women, which also bewailed and lamented Him.
28 But Jesus turning unto them said, "Daughters of Jerusalem, weep not for Me, but weep for yourselves, and for your children.
29 For, behold, the days are coming, in the which they shall say, 'Blessed are the barren, and the wombs that never bare, and the paps which never gave suck.'
30 Then shall they begin to say to the mountains, 'Fall on us'; and to the hills, 'Cover us'."
KJV

Jesus said that on His way to be crucified to those women in Jerusalem who lamented Him. He said the days would come when they, and their children would say, "Blessed are the barren, and the wombs that never bare, and the paps which never gave suck."

Where in the world did Lord Jesus get that quote from?

He was quoting from Isaiah 54 about the symbolic barren woman who remained chaste to Him...

Isa 54:1-10
54 Sing, O barren, thou that didst not bear; break forth into singing, and cry aloud, thou that didst not travail with child: for more are the children of the desolate than the children of the married wife, saith the LORD.

You have to put your thinking cap on to understand the above. This is symbolic, not literal. But it is about the idea of child birth, so God is using a natural thing here as a type of parable, or analogy.

In the above, the barren woman without child, is told to break forth into singing, and cry aloud (in joy), but why, because women having children is a blessing from God, is it not? The idea here is that the barren womb has remained 'a chaste virgin' waiting on her True Husband to come. This is where Apostle Paul got that "chaste virgin" and "one Husband" analogy from.

Because when Jesus does return, that barren woman will then have MORE children than the married wife. How? This is spiritual, not literal. It means the 'faithful' chaste virgin who remained chaste waiting on Christ to come will bear more children in final, in His future Kingdom, specific to the believing Gentiles that will be mentioned in the next verses.

2 Enlarge the place of thy tent, and let them stretch forth the curtains of thine habitations: spare not, lengthen thy cords, and strengthen thy stakes;
3 For thou shalt break forth on the right hand and on the left; and thy seed shall inherit the Gentiles, and make the desolate cities to be inhabited.
4 Fear not; for thou shalt not be ashamed: neither be thou confounded; for thou shalt not be put to shame: for thou shalt forget the shame of thy youth, and shalt not remember the reproach of thy widowhood any more.

There is the idea of the barren woman winding up with more children in final, than the married wife who played the harlot against her True Husband.


5 For thy Maker is thine husband; the LORD of hosts is His name; and thy Redeemer the Holy One of Israel; The God of the whole earth shall He be called.

That again is where Apostle Paul was pulling from with the idea of having espoused us to our One Husband Jesus Christ (2 Corinthians 11:2).


Who then does the "married wife" symbolically represent? She represents the harlot that does NOT remain faithful waiting on her True Husband to come. She represents having played the harlot when Jesus returns, and is no longer a chaste virgin, but is found as a harlot and is with child. Who is she married to early though? To the false-Messiah who comes first prior to Jesus' return.


6 For the LORD hath called thee as a woman forsaken and grieved in spirit, and a wife of youth, when thou wast refused, saith thy God.
7 For a small moment have I forsaken thee; but with great mercies will I gather thee.
8 In a little wrath I hid My face from thee for a moment; but with everlasting kindness will I have mercy on thee, saith the LORD thy Redeemer.
9 For this is as the waters of Noah unto Me: for as I have sworn that the waters of Noah should no more go over the earth; so have I sworn that I would not be wroth with thee, nor rebuke thee.
10 For the mountains shall depart, and the hills be removed; but My kindness shall not depart from thee, neither shall the covenant of My peace be removed, saith the LORD That hath mercy on thee.
KJV

Continuing in Isaiah 54 will show that God is saying this also is about the city of Jerusalem, which is what His future marriage is about per Revelation 21:9-10.

So that is where Paul's idea of wanting to present us to "one Husband" as a "chaste virgin" comes from. Paul was indirectly using the idea of the barren woman representing the "chaste virgin". To fully understand what Paul was pointing to, one must have understood that Isaiah 54 Scripture where he was pulling this idea from.

Lord Jesus used it in that Luke 23:28-30 Scripture also towards the unbelieving Jews in Jerusalem for the end. Do you recall He said to blind Jews in another place, "I am come in My Father's name, and ye receive Me not: if another shall come in his own name, him ye will receive." (John 5:43). That is how He was pointing to the coming false-Messiah to Jerusalem that comes first, and that false one will proclaim himself as God, and deceive many.