Dream #11 - June 22, 2023 - I Started to Marry an Old Man, the Pope, While My God-Ordained Groom Was Entangled

In this dream, I (bride of Messiah) was in preparation for getting married, with concrete plans.  I had a date set & my mother (Holy Spirit) was making arrangements with the venue & caterer.  We secured & prepared my dress, jewelry, & veil. I had a sense that so many of the preparations & details were out of my hands, that my arrangements were being made completely by my mom, including time of day of the ceremony, when to arrive at the venue, & even the man I would be marrying. My only responsibilities were to get myself ready & to be in place at the time I was instructed to report to the venue.  But there was a general feeling that I was walking into the wedding blind, like a blind date.  But my mom kept giving me clues & identifying attributes about my groom.  I knew that the Rabbi from the 1st congregation I used to belong to was officiating.  So my mom drove us up to the venue that she had booked and decorated.  We parked & got out—the venue had a green lawn & careful landscaping around the venue.  

Inside, the lobby reminded me of the second Messianic congregation I used to attend - fresh white walls with polished honey wood molding, and glossy tile floor- substantial and warm while sleek & fresh. But through the double doors, once we crossed the lobby, instead of the sanctuary, the doors opened into a function room that had a white, fresh kitchenette nook to the left of the entrance, while the main gathering space straight ahead was a bright & airy sun-room, the whole wall straight ahead being a panel of white-framed French windows/doors looking out onto a manicured lawn & garden. The chuppah (wedding canopy) was against the backdrop of the wall of windows.  The walls were bright white, the floor was a polished honeyed hardwood, & there were polished brass candelabra chandeliers mounted in the ceiling.  The room was decorated with greenery and flowers. I saw a crowd of guests already gathered on both sides of the white paper-lined aisle - people who’ve come to know me through my adult years, people from the Messianic congregation I used to belong to & others who’ve been around me as an adult to witness my wait for marriage.  People were cheering for me & celebrating as I was walking in the room.  Rabbi & his wife were cheering. It was the big moment.  Rabbi met me toward the back of the aisle & walked me down the aisle and then took his place at the chuppah as the officiant.  This is backwards because the groom is supposed to wait for the bride to join him under the chuppah/at the altar, but I was the one in place & waiting.  

After a couple of minutes, the groom came through the entrance behind me and made his way to the front, but I didn’t turn to look.  But I heard the perplexed murmurs starting to ripple through the gathering, & I saw the surprised expression on Rabbi’s face.  I wondered to myself “Is he that fine? Or is he famous?” I turned to the side to look at him & to my shock & dismay, he was an old man! And not just any old man, but he was or appeared to be Pope Francis! (Just deceased at the time of transcribing this into type).  He had on the white robe and papal regalia.  I stood there feeling duped & deceived, like Jacob.  Then we kneeled side by side on a kneeler/cushioned bench, proceeding with that part of the ceremony, opening with a blessing over the couple.  I believed it was too late to turn back. My mom was looking confused & taken aback, indicating that this wasn’t the man she had arranged for me to marry.  After that initial shock, I started trying to think of a way out of this arrangement.  I was focusing on the fact that this is supposed to be a Jewish ceremony,  meaning it had 2 distinct  parts to complete before it could be official. So Rabbi Marty blessed the 1st cup of wine, and I drank from it. But I signaled to Rabbi, whispering to him not to proceed to the 2nd part of the ceremony that seals the marriage with the 2nd cup.  In modern days, the 2 ceremonies - betrothal & marriage (erusin & nisuin) - have been lumped into one, but in Biblical times, they could be months or a year apart, like with Mary & Joseph. So the only was I could think of to put a halt to things & stop this train, & back-pedal, was to stop the ceremony after the betrothal of the 1st part. So Rabbi suddenly jumped to the benediction, the gathering dispersed, & the reception began, with the mostly non-Jewish guests thinking the ceremony was over & complete. As I was greeting guests during the reception, I could tell they were perplexed. Many were beating around the bush trying to get answers.  They’d delicately ask “So…what drew you to this man?” or “How did you two get together?” (Instead of asking point blank “how did you end up with this old man?”). And I would just smile & try to maintain a brave face. 

When the room cleared out & it was just Mom & me (I don’t know where the old man, the pope, went…maybe I dismissed him with a promise of contacting him for the second half of the ceremony), I said to mom “where did you find this guy & why the HECK did you arrange for me to marry this random, old, CATHOLIC, & supposedly celibate man? Why am I betrothed to this old geriatric? Most of the people who were here don’t know the difference between the betrothal & the marriage ceremony in a Jewish wedding, so they think I’m married to an old dude & the Pope at that!  I wonder if I can switch out the groom between ceremonies?”  My mom responded “I don’t know what happened, this man was just an interloper, a wedding crasher, because  he’s not the man that I arranged for you”.  She proceeded to get the arranged groom on a video call, & he was a young man in Israel.  He had dark hair and was an upwardly mobile professional - in the prime of his life. Mom contacted him immediately to get to the bottom of why he wasn’t in place for the wedding ceremony according to their arrangements. It seemed like he got engaged to the wrong woman on his end.  He had been physically intimate with a woman that he hadn’t been serious about, a blonde who presented a bit like Elle Woods from Legally Blonde. During the period of their dalliance, she became pregnant. He felt obligated to marry her because of the chance that he was the father, despite knowing that he was supposed to marry me.  During the course of this video call, the visibly pregnant blonde was seen in his background, moving about in the home, playing house.  My promised husband implied that he was feeling trapped as he was explaining his situation.  So my mom asked him if his marriage arrangements to this woman were final, & instructed him to meet us at our home on a certain date.  We lived in a different house that was larger and had a big kitchen.  She wanted to meet with him in person to work things out in their contract, since he may have been in breach of contract. So she wanted to talk business to renegotiate or for him to repay the dowry that was paid. 

Some days passed & the dream picked up with the ordained groom meeting us in our kitchen. Mom started grilling him on why he allowed himself to become sexually ensnared with someone, knowing that he had made a contractual agreement to marry someone else.  He explained that he wasn’t actually married to the other woman, but that they were just engaged. He explained that he was not 100% certain that he was the father of her child since their physical relationship was not exclusive - he had doubts & suspicions.  He renegotiated that he would wait until the child was born so he could do a paternity test to determine if he was the father or if he had just been duped. He made a covenant that he would not go through with a marriage to that woman until he can verify his paternity & that he would not use my dowry to support her or her child. It was a convoluted situation. We sat there calculating how far along the counterfeit woman was in her pregnancy. She was going on 6 months gestation, so he had to wait about 3 months before verifying or disproving paternity to determine if he could walk away from that relationship or not. And I had 3 months to wait to see if I could move forward with the last part of the marriage ceremony & ketubah signing with the right groom.  Then, I began to lament, saying, “Even if this does work out for us to complete the marriage in exactly 3 months, most of my friends and family already attended what they thought was my wedding & I wouldn’t know how to invite them back for the real thing.  There were only a handful of people in my life/on my guest list who were familiar enough with the Jewish wedding to know that I hadn’t completed it & knew the situation, so I would end up having a much smaller, low-key, anticlimactic gathering of people for the real thing.  My mom and the promised groom suggested that I wear the same beautiful wedding dress & decorate the setting nicely, & just make it a meaningful, holy event, even if smaller.  Just have all of our closest family & friends stand around us in the chuppah up near us to witness the blessing, the sharing of the 2 cups, the joining of the talit, & the ketubah signing. I was experiencing this intimate scene of being in a softly lit round chuppah with my mother, the groom, and Rabbi looking over the ketubah, with a close-knit group of witnesses standing around the chuppah, enveloping us, before I woke up. 

—----------------- Interpretation—-----------------------

1. Bridegroom (Messiah) enters a covenant agreement to marry a chosen pure bride (the elect, the Ecclesia), with the Holy Spirit making the arrangements.  

2. The Holy Spirit prepares the pure bride & gets her in place for the marriage while the Bridegroom entertains a counterfeit bride (apostate unfaithful church), a harlot masquerading as the bride, who gives Him cheap & non-exclusive intimacy (worship).  The Bridegroom is delayed by 3 units of time due to an obligation to tarry with the harlot long enough to test her offspring as to whether or not it was conceived by him (test her fruit).

3. While the Bridegroom has 3 units of time to be delayed from meeting the Bride for the marriage, a counterfeit bridegroom (anti-Christ) takes the opportunity to slide in & try to deceive the bride into marrying (entering into covenant) with him. She (the Ecclesia) shares the first cup (initially comes into agreement) with the counterfeit groom (anti-Christ), but she recognizes the fraud half-way through the process & walks away before accepting his ring (his signet, The Mark).

4. Small marriage ceremony with the promised Bridegroom surrounded by a handful of close friends and immediate family represents the remnant that are allowed to witness the marriage supper of the Lamb.