The Midrashic hermeneutic is a Jewish way of looking at Scripture and prophecy. A concept within this method of Bible interpretation is the idea that some prophecies of the Bible are not explicit, but implicit in the repetition of patterns. There are numerous examples where the life of a Jewish patriarch prefigures the life of Christ. For example, Joseph’s brothers betrayed him, and God used that act of betrayal as a way to save Jacob’s family during a time of famine. Similarly, Jesus was betrayed by his Jewish brothers, only to have that act of betrayal result in the salvation of all, Gentiles and Jews.

So, you get the point. The Holy Spirit uses patterns recorded in Scripture to provide a hint at a future event. This brings us to the seven Gentile brides mentioned in Scripture. They are:

Eve. We know her story all too well. She was the mother of humanity.

Rebekah. She was Isaac’s wife, the mother of Israel.

Asenath. This woman doesn’t get much time in the Bible, but she was Joseph’s Egyptian wife. She became the mother of two tribes of Israel—Ephraim and Manasseh.

Zipporah. She was the wife of Moses. He married her in the dessert. She and her family stayed loyal to Moses when he had what had to be seen as the hair-brained idea to march into Egypt to free their slave population.

Rahab was the town naughty lady of Jericho. She hid Israelites who were sent to reconnoiter the city. For her kindness, she earned her life. But she earned much more: she earned the heart of the Israelite Salman, and they became part of the Messiah’s lineage.

Ruth. The book of Ruth is a great book in the Bible. She was a Moabite woman who followed her mother-in-law Naomi to Israel after their husbands died. There she gleaned in the fields to forage enough for her and Naomi to eat. Things looked bleak until she caught the eye of Boaz, who just happened to be the son of Rahab. He married Ruth and cared for her and Naomi in a pattern that presages Jesus coming for His bride. And, yes, their son was in the lineage of Jesus.

These Old Testament examples constitute six of the seven, and they present a bit of a mystery. The Old Testament speaks to the deaths of Jewish wives of significance. Yet, there is no mention of the deaths of these six Gentile brides. Some believe the Jewish writers of the Bible didn’t value them enough to mention their passing because of their Gentile origins (Once a schicksa, always a schicksa?). This notion is easily dismissed when we consider that the entire book of Ruth was penned about a Gentile bride. She got more than a mention! So, the Midrashic question becomes: Is the Holy Spirit hinting at a broader, bolder truth by giving no time to their deaths?

The answer can be found in the identity of the seventh Gentile bride mentioned in the Bible—the Church. The Church isn’t destined to death. It is destined to eternal life with its Husband and Savior. But does the pattern speak of something else? Some say it harkens to Paul’s letter to the Corinthians where he reveals the mystery that “We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed—in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye at the sound of the last trumpet.” The final Gentile bride will not die, and the six leading up to it have no mention of their deaths in Scripture. An interesting pattern, don’t you think?

Prophecy comes alive in the This Generation Series.

This Generation Series books available now: Precipice, Pentecost

Coming in 2016: Penance, The Challenge