Genesis 24 finds Abraham getting on in years. He asks his head servant “who managed all he owned” to find a wife for his son, Isaac.  Abraham insists his servant not find a wife for Isaac among the Canaanites; he asks him to return to the land of his family to find a wife for Isaac (Gen. 24:1-4).  

God the Father also desires a bride for His Son, Jesus.  Jesus died and rose again, just as Isaac did in a figure (Gen. 22; Heb. 11:17-19).  He now dwells with the Father.  The Father sent the Holy Spirit, the One who manages His affairs, into this world to find a bride for Jesus.  The Spirit gathers her from the world but the bride is of the same family as Jesus (Heb. 2:11).  As family, she shares a family likeness with Jesus and His Father.  She and Christ have common spiritual DNA (Divine Nature Ancestry). 

The upshot is that what Christ is, His bride is.  In one aspect, this is true by virtue of her union with the Lord by marriage.  But Genesis 24 shows another aspect: origin.  The bride is what Christ is because they have the same origin.  “For the One who sanctifies and those who are sanctified are all of the same origin” (Heb. 2:11).  Jesus is firstborn from the dead by God. The bride is also born of God. That birth is Christ in her so what she is by union is no different than what she is by origin. From the perspective of common origin, it doesn’t matter who sanctifies and who is sanctified.  All are one.  Yet each aspect–marriage and origin–adds to the wealth of divine reality.  Like facets of a diamond, each throws its unique light and color on our understanding.

Christ’s bride, in one aspect, is not of another nature.  She is not Canaanite, so to speak.  Her family origin in God is without reference to the nation of fallen humanity.  Her lineage is not mixed.  Her descent is from God.  Old things have passed away.  New things have come.  Everything is from God (2 Cor. 5:17-18).   

Jesus said, “The one who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, will have streams of living water flow from deep within him” (John 7:38).  John explains that Jesus “said this about the Spirit” whom His followers would receive (John 7:39).  The living water of the Spirit flows from deep within Christ’s bride (also depicted in Revelation 22:1-2).  

It is fitting, then, that Abraham’s servant met Isaac’s bride, Rebekah, next to a well (Gen. 24:11, 16-17).  Rebekah gives Abraham’s servant a drink and waters his 10 camels (Gen. 24:18-20).  Rebekah pictures the bride of Christ.  The Spirit flows from deep within her and waters all who travel this arid world, thirsty for God.  “Both the Spirit and the bride say, ‘Come!’  Anyone who is thirsty should come.  Whoever desires should take the living water as a gift” (Rev. 22:17).

John 3:34 says Jesus has the Spirit without measure.  The bride shares this measureless possession of the Spirit.  “There is a river–its streams delight the city of God, the holy dwelling place of the Most High.  God is within her; she will not be toppled.  God will help her when the morning dawns” (Psalm 46:4-5).  The dawn is the resurrection (Matt. 28:1; Mark 16:2; Luke 24:1; John 20:1).  The bride is raised with Christ as a dwelling in which God lives by His Spirit (Eph. 2:6, 18-21).  This indwelling is her delight!