Song of Songs - Chapter 3

The maiden/bride finally "leaves the nest" and goes in search of her Lord wherever He may lead, and begins to see Him not just as a lover but as the enthroned King of Kings!

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Hello everybody, and welcome back to Jeff's Bible Trek. It's another beautiful day in the Pacific Northwest. Actually, that's not entirely true. It's it's raining cats and dogs out there. But that's why everything is so green here, right? And the sun is up there someplace shining. Um, so there you go. We are working our way through Solomon's Song of Songs, and this episode is on chapter three. As chapter two ended, the maiden slash bride was experiencing a dry spell, and the king was challenging her to come out and pursue him, and with that came some encouragement from my listeners, who may have lost the sense of the Lord's presence, and to seek for him afresh. So chapter three continues with the struggle she was going through at this time. In verse one she says, All night long on my bed I looked for the one my heart loves. I looked for him but did not find him. The word night in this verse is actually plural in the Hebrew, meaning the king was gone for many succeeding nights. She was waiting in anguish and came to the place where she thought she'd lost him altogether, but she was really struggling and fighting against leaving the safety of her enclosure. Twice she says she was searching for him, not just searching for him, but to feel his presence again. She was spinning her wheels and getting nowhere. I mean, how long does it take to search for somebody on a bed? If she's sleeping, it could take all night. So finally, for the first time in two chapters, she gets up and goes out to find him. And she says, I will get up now and go about the city through its streets and squares. I will search for the one my heart loves. So I looked for him, but did not find him. So she's not just crawling around on her bed anymore. She's moving out and finally struggling to move into the third phase of her Christian experience. The first step in the Christian experience is to know the Lord Jesus Christ on the thr on the cross in salvation. The second step is to know Jesus on his throne. And the third step is to walk with him wherever he may lead us. It's not limited to place or time. The maiden had taken the first two steps, but not the third. But now in order to bring her out from her place of rest, the Lord disturbs her rest and shakes her nest, drawing her out to skip on the mountains and hills with him. And she went out on the streets, not looking for books or seminars, but for Jesus Himself. And you know there were people out there on those streets and squares, people that she could communicate with and who could possibly point the way to the king she had lost. The point here is that we need to have interaction and fellowship with God's people. Together we can find Jesus. When we lose the sense of God's presence, that is not the time to stay away from such fellowship, but to run to it. The maiden stirred herself from her bed of ease and went where other believers congregate. She didn't find him right away. It required patient and persistent seeking over a period of time. Blessed are those who discover patience and persistence in their walk with God. In verse three, she asks for directions from someone. They are the men who guarded the city in the darkness. They are men chosen and entrusted by God to guard the souls of his people. In Hebrews thirteen and seventeen it says, Obey your leaders and submit to their authority. They keep watch or stand guard over you as men who must give an account. Obey them so that their work will be a joy, not a burden, for that would be of no advantage to you. So they are church leadership. Notice the watchmen were not who she was searching for. They simply pointed the way. She still had to find him for herself. The watchmen can be helpful in such cases at times, other times not. They can only point to the Lord. And apparently their directions were pretty decent, because in verse four, she says, Scarcely had I passed them when I found the one my heart loves. I held him and would not let him go till I had brought him to my mother's house, to the room of the one who conceived me. She found him. And what did she do? She didn't ask him what to do, but quickly took him back to the enclosure and wouldn't let go. And this was okay. The Lord knew how much testing she could endure now. He had made his point, and that was it's time to leave the nest and step out of the incubator and into some interaction with other people and problems. Just as an aside, there's an interesting parallel verse to this in Genesis twenty-four. This is the account of when Abraham's servant brought home Rebecca to be Isaac's wife. And it says in verse sixty seven, Isaac brought her into the tent of his mother Sarah, who had conceived him, and he married Rebecca, so she became his wife, and he loved her. That sounds a lot like our text here in the Song of Songs. This then is the end of Act two, I guess you could call it, using a theatrical term. This leaves her reveling in the Lord's presence and holding on to him fervently. But she still has some things to learn things about ministry. Jesus is patiently bringing her to the place where she'll go anywhere and do anything with him that he asks. Verse five is a repeat of chapter two and verse seven. Daughters of Jerusalem, I charge you by the gazelles and by the does of the field, do not or arouse or awaken love until it so desires. This, as before, is a charge to get into the Word of God. Jesus is wanting to take the maiden into a new phase in her walk with him, and that's why this charge is here, because the word of God always leads us into our next phase as a Christian. Let the Word of God awaken, arouse, stir up our love for Jesus so that we can serve him in new ways, a new adventure. And this is a good place to encourage you to get into a read your Bible through in a year plan. The first of the year is coming up, and I urge you to prepare for getting on such a plan on January first. The bride continues speaking in verses six through eleven, and I'll read the rest of this chapter. Who is this coming up from the desert? Like a column of smoke perfumed with myrrh and incense made from all the spices of the merchant? Look, it is Solomon's carriage, escorted by sixty warriors, the noblest of Israel, all of them wearing the sword, all experienced in battle, each with his sword at his side, prepared for the terrors of the night. King Solomon made for himself the carriage, he made it of wood from Lebanon, its posts he made of silver, its base of gold, its seat was upholstered with purple, its interior lovingly inlaid by the daughters of Jerusalem. Come out, you daughters of Zion, and look at King Solomon wearing the crown, the crown with it with which his mother crowned him on the day of his wedding, the day his heart rejoiced. Wow. My Bible that I'm using for this study, the NIV, says it's the bride speaking in these verses. The living Bible says it's the women of Jerusalem who are speaking. I don't think it's really important who the human speaker is. The Holy Spirit inspired the song, so we could consider him, Jesus, to be the speaker here, or the Holy Spirit. The identity of a speaker is also not really important because the focus of the passage is Solomon, and what is said of him tells us some interesting things about the Lord Jesus Christ. What is seen here is a distant cloud of dust rising like columns of smoke, appearing from the desert, the wilderness. It is actually, as we learn in the next verse, caused by a procession of mighty men bearing what my NIV calls a carriage. The King James calls it a bed. The New King James calls it a couch. The ASV calls it a litter. But it was, as you've seen in Oriental and Arabian movies, a large bed or cushion carried on the shoulders of men on poles, yet enclosed for privacy. So all of these words for it are really correct. Now as this procession approaches, the shuffle of feet across the desert floor caused the dust to rise up, quote, like a column of smoke, unquote. This is very significant because smoke is something brought out and released through the action of fire. Joel too, in verse thirty, says, I will show wonders in the heavens and on the earth, blood and fire and billows of smoke. That verse speaks of a purging of the earth by fire. Now I for one agree that this is the bride or maiden who speaks these words in chapter three, verses six through eleven. She's standing in Jerusalem watching Solomon approach. He is coming to purify her by fire. As a result, she'll see him in a new way. She's going to see him in a way she's never seen him before. This is what God wants to do in us. He wants to bring the fire of the Holy Spirit into our lives so we'll see Jesus in a fresh revelation of power and might. Note that he is perfumed with myrrh and incense. As said before, myrrh symbolizes the sufferings and death of Jesus. Incense represents the resurrection and triumph, the triumphant and enthroned life of Jesus. And he's perfumed with all the spices of the merchant, it says. Merchants don't give away their spices, they sell them. Excuse me. A price must be paid to obtain them. Jesus paid a price to become perfumed. He left heaven and died on the cross. Excuse me. Sorry. Well, getting real here. He left heaven and died on the cross, and now he's coming to her with all of this fragrance. When we say that Jesus wants to purify us with fire, we're not saying he wants to just burn us up and leave us in a pile of ashes. This is not the fire of judgment, but of purification and refinement. He only wants to burn away that which is not like him. And through having contact with him in this process, that which has perfumed him perfumes us. It's no wonder Paul said in Philippians 3 10, I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so somehow to attain to the resurrection from the dead. And when the dust clears, what is the new way in which she sees him? In verses seven and eight she says, Look, it is Solomon's carriage, escorted by sixty warriors, the noblest of Israel, all of them wearing the sword, all experienced in battle, each with his sword at his side, prepared for the terrors of the night. Here we have an interesting contrast. Solomon is lying at ease in this carriage, yet sixty soldiers escort him in a state of military readiness. This symbolizes that Christ has triumphed over death, hell, and the grave, yet we live in a world under the power of the evil one, whose purpose it is to challenge Jesus' rest on earth. Nevertheless, Jesus sits at ease on his throne, much like he was at rest in the boat during a huge storm. Jesus, as Solomon, is well prepared to deal with any alarms, warnings, and assaults on his rest that spring from the powers of darkness. Nothing could surprise Solomon as he rested in his carriage. And this is how the maiden saw him for the very first time. He was more than just a lover now, he was a glorious king ready for battle. And as I thought of her watching him enter Jerusalem, I couldn't help but think of Psalm twenty four verses seven to ten. Lift up your heads, O you gates, and be lifted up, you ancient doors, that the King of glory may come in. Who is this King of Glory? The Lord strong and mighty, the Lord mighty in battle. Lift up your heads, O you gates, lift them up, you ancient doors, that the King of Glory may come in. Who is he this King of Glory? The Lord Almighty, he is the King of Glory. This was her new revelation of him, glorious, mighty, yet coming to her so he can make her of the same fragrance as himself, to make her like him. Oh that we could see Jesus like this. She said King Solomon made for himself the carriage. He made it of wood from Lebanon, its posts he made of silver, its base of gold, its seat was upholstered with purple, its interior lovingly and laid by the daughters of Jerusalem. In these verses the carriage itself is the focus of attention. Remember, this is not a chariot on wheels, but a covered litter carried on the shoulders of men, slaves owned by Solomon. In the same way, the Ark of the Covenant was never to be pulled on a cart by oxen, but carried on the shoulders of the Levites. The implication is there is clear. The movements of our risen Lord are carried along by those who belong to him. Does this tell you of the awesomeness of being a Christian? This is why prayer is so vital. This is why that if the glory of God is going to come to our cities, it'll be through us, our prayers, our good works, our display of love for one another. Let's talk about the characteristics of the carriage that Solomon is being carried on, and by extension Jesus. It's made from wood. Wood represents the human nature. Therefore it points here to Jesus' superior manhood. It represents the excellence and height of moral character that marked his movements. It has silver posts. Silver always represents redemption in the scriptures, and in this case the redemption Jesus purchased for us with his blood on the cross. It has a floor of gold. Gold in Scripture represents the character or the nature of God. Obviously Jesus displayed the character and nature of God on earth. He said he who has seen me has seen the Father. I and the Father are one. Hebrews one three says Jesus is the radiance of God's glory and the exact representation of his being. It has a seed of purple. Purple in Scripture represents kingly authority. Jesus is Lord. He reigns. The government is upon his shoulders. He sits on the throne. Glory to God. And finally, it says the interior was lovingly inlaid by the daughters of Jerusalem. This speaks of the love of all the saints for Jesus. Our total affections are the vehicle for his movements and his goings forth in the world. In fact, the New King James Version translated it as interior paved with love. Solomon built it, but this part was constructed by the people of God. So Solomon's carriage with its pillars of silver, golden floor, purple seat, and work of love was how he moved along in the world. Again, with regard to the movements of Jesus, our prayers are crucial. And so we arrive at verse eleven, the last verse of the chapter. She says, Come out, you daughters of Zion, and look at King Solomon wearing the crown, the crown with which his mother crowned him on the day of his wedding, the day his heart rejoiced. This is the maiden exhorting others in the body of Christ to see Jesus as she has just seen him, crowned in kingly authority. This is Jesus because in the book of Revelation we see one like the Son of Man with a crown of gold on his head, sitting on a white cloud with a sickle in his hand. Jesus wears the crown of the King of Kings. And then there's the mother. What is her identity? Well, his literal mother was Bathsheba, speaking of Solomon. But who does she represent here? People say various things, but I like the fact that it represents the human race as a whole. Now it's true that God is the Father of the Lord Jesus Christ, but his human body was prepared by a human mother from the human race. It says though that this mother crowns Jesus on the day of his wedding. And it's interesting to me that in the book of Revelation, when the twenty-four elders appear, and many say the elders represent the church, notice what they do. Whenever the living creatures give glory, honor, and thanks to him who sits on the throne and who lives forever and ever, the twenty four elders fall down before him who sits on the throne, and worship him who lives for ever and ever. They lay their crowns before the throne and say, You are worthy our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things, and by your will they were created and have their being. So we, the human race, gave birth to the body of Jesus, but when we get to heaven, any crowns we have received, we will give to him. Wow, so the majesty of the passage in Revelation four is a great one to finish with in this episode. I think I'm gonna go find an empty room to shout praises to my Jesus and to my heavenly Father. We'll see you again in our next episode. And until then, God bless you.