A bride in ancient Israel did not know what day or hour her groom would return for her. In fact, the groom himself didn’t know when he’d go to claim her. Only his father knew as he was the person who decided when everything was ready, including the chamber (Mark 13:32). The time frame for this preparation is understood if the father had the last word. If it was up to the Groom, he would not have waited so long.
Jewish grooms usually came for their brides late at night, near the midnight hour. Shofars might break the silence of the night. There would be shouts in the streets, and a procession of people lined through the town with torches that reached the home of the bride. She had only moments to make her final preparations. During the Parable of the Ten Virgins, we read about the Groom’s return: “And at midnight a cry was heard: ‘Behold, the bridegroom is coming; go out to meet him!’” The bride and her attendants would trim their lamps and get ready to go. In a similar way, Jesus would
come for His bride like a thief in the night, calling His bride to meet Him. After brides in ancient Israel heard that their bridegroom was coming, they prepared themselves to enter a bridal litter like the one mentioned in the Song of Songs 3:9-10: “Of the wood of Lebanon Solomon the King made himself a palanquin: He made its pillars of silver, its support of gold, its seat of purple, its interior paved with love, by the daughters of Jerusalem.”
The procession back to the home of the bridegroom began with the bride in the palanquin or litter that was accompanied by musicians, singers, dancers, friends, family, and bridal attendants carrying torches. The voice of the bridegroom and the bride would be heard in the streets of Jerusalem (Jeremiah 33:11). The bride would be veiled, and the bridegroom would peek under the veil to make sure he had the right bride. (Recall the story of Jacob and Rachel to find out the origin of this custom.) The bride would be attired in her finest clothing, decked with jewels, glowing and beautiful.
(There’s no such thing as an ugly bride! – because she knows how much she is loved.) The bridesmaids followed (reminiscent of the five wise virgins of Matthew 25), carrying multi-wicked candles, symbolic of the torchlight of ancient times. When that day comes, it will all happen very quickly and there will be no time to draw close to God if we haven’t already drawn to Him before then.