Mystery of the Bride
Part 6
Vicky Moots
We are not told in Genesis which rib was removed from Adam to prepare a bride for him, but it wouldn’t surprise me if God, the Great Physician, who performed that first surgery had chosen the fifth rib on the left. That particular rib lies immediately under the breast and directly over the mid-portion of the heart.
That location is certainly an appropriate position in the body of Christ for the bride: close to His heart, which speaks of love, and next to His breast, which speaks of nourishment. The bride of Christ loves Him supremely and hungers and thirsts for Him. She is completely satisfied with His love. The number five in Scripture is considered to be the number of grace. The bride understands that she was chosen, not because of her beauty or accomplishments, but because of His grace.
In the natural, when surgery is required on the lungs, a special procedure, called a thoracotomy, is performed. During this procedure, an incision is usually made over the fifth rib since it is in the middle of the chest. If a lobe of a lung must be resected because of cancer, or other disease, then a portion of the fifth rib may need to be removed in order to provide more room to work inside the chest cavity. Surgeons choose that rib because it has been discovered through years of experience that removal of the fifth rib does not interfere with the mechanics of breathing.
When Adam’s surgery was complete, he had a bride, but he also had a scar, for surgery always leaves a scar. I believe that both the first Adam and the last Adam, Christ, have a scar on the left side of their chest, under the fifth rib, at the location of the heart: Why do I think this to be so?
When Christ died on the cross, the soldier wanted to be sure that He was actually dead, so he took his spear and pierced Him in the side. The spear had to enter into the left chest cavity, into the heart, and not into the abdominal cavity, or the contents would not have been blood and water. Soldiers knew their anatomy well. Their target was the heart. They knew that the heart was located under the fifth rib. We read in II Sam. 3:27 that when Joab killed Abner, that he “smote him under the fifth rib, that he died…” Smiting someone under the fifth rib to kill them was common practice in Old Testament warfare (read II Sam. 2:23, 4:6 and 20:10). How did soldiers know where to find the fifth rib if they couldn’t see the ribs to count them? Very simple: the fifth rib is the one that is right under the breast, just below the nipple.
The last part of Gen. 2:21 tells us that after God removed the rib from Adam, He “closed up the flesh instead thereof.” He is a very thorough Surgeon. The Bible provided us this very important medical detail. The final part of any surgery is to close up the wound. God is always faithful to finish a work that He has started.
If your desire is to be a part of the bride of Christ, then you can be sure that God will continue working in you to make you ready, as long as you are willing to let Him. He will not close up the flesh until He is through with the cutting. The work will not be complete until your life is ended or until Christ returns, as Paul tells us in Phil. 1:6: “Being confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ.”
Little by little, whittle by whittle, with each skillful cut of the unerring scalpel of the Word of God, in the hands of the Master Surgeon, we are being changed into the image of His dear Son, as He prepares us to become a spotless bride, like unto the spotless Lamb, so that we may be ready to reign with Him.
