The Passionate Suitor

One of our deepest human desires is to give and receive love. I think this is a reflection of being created in God's image. For eternity, love has flowed between members of the Trinity. When He created, He gave us this gift. This desire is met in part as it's expressed in our relationships with others. However, I think the real reason for its existence is to drive us to intimacy with Him. The ultimate fulfillment of this longing is only met by the touch of the infinite Lover of our souls and our fervent response to Him.

In Song of Songs 1:12, we find the maiden sitting at dinner with the shepherd, having accepted his earlier invitation to follow. It's in the context of this desire for a loving relationship that the young maiden says to herself:

While the king is at his table, my perfume fills the air with its fragrance.

She's sitting at the table and notices him noticing her. She's thinking of what he means to her, hoping for some response. And respond he does. In verse 15 he says to her:

Look at you! You are beautiful, my true love!
Look at you! You are so beautiful!

Here she is, still the 'dark but lovely' immature maiden of a few verses earlier. She has weakness and sin in her, but she also has desire for him. When he looks at her, he sees, not only the young shepherdess that has brought her flocks following after his, but also the mature bride which will emerge. He's looking at her through the corridor of time, seeing the effect of his love lavished on her, and the changes it brings. With this vision, from the beginning he relates to her as if she's complete and calls her beautiful.

Remember the Banquet of Wine I talked about ealier? (See the articles here.) This is where, as part of the betrothal process, the groom pours out a glass of wine for his intended. This represents his pouring out of himself for her.

I see this same thing happening in the relationship between Jesus and the disciples. At the last supper, Jesus took the cup and passed it among them saying 'Drink. This is Me, poured out for you.' Further, in the context of the same meal, He told them he was going away to prepare a place in His Father's house and would return for them so they could live with Him. This is more imagery taken directly from Jewish wedding customs.

Yet while He was saying and doing these things, He knew what was going to happen later that very night. He knew the betrayal of Peter. He knew that the rest would forsake Him during the crucifixion. The disciples were very dark, but He saw them as lovely. He too looked through time, past that night's failings, saw their future intimacy and called them to a position of authority.

And by proxy, we were there with them in that room. In love He calls us to a journey wherein we'll be changed by a passionate relationship with Him. He meets us as immature people, dark with sin. He loves us first. Having poured his life out for us, He forgives our sins and calls us before we're cleaned up. It's only then that He starts the cleansing, knowing that eventually, in spite of failings along the way, we will eventually be the mature, radiant bride, lovely in His sight.

The Inviting Shepherd

The first several verses of Song of Songs open with the bride's declaration of her delight in and desire for her betrothed. She has decided that she desires his presence. She doesn't want to be away from him and so asks in verse 7 of chapter 1:

Tell me, O you whom my soul loves,
Where do you pasture your flock,
Where do you make it lie down at noon?
For why should I be like one who veils herself
Beside the flocks of your companions?

She's asking here where she can predictably find him. She wants to know his routine so she can follow it to him. She doesn't want to be veiled next to strangers but unveiled in his presence. To her inquiry the groom responds in verse 8:

If you yourself do not know,
Most beautiful among women,
Go forth on the trail of the flock,
And pasture your young goats
By the tents of the shepherds.

He enjoys her presence. He finds her the most beautiful of women, and so he invites her: if you don't know the way, there are other's who do, follow along after them and the flock, and you'll find me.

One warm afternoon, Jesus was walking along the river bank, enjoying the cool air blowing off the water, when he passed his cousin John, standing in the shade of a tree with two of his disciples. John proclaimed 'Behold, the Lamb of God!' and the two disciples of John started following Jesus. Jesus turned and asked 'What do you seek?' And they said 'Where are you staying?' This is the same heart cry for intimacy which prompted the Shulammite to ask 'where do you pasture your flock?'. They're both questions expressing a desire for closeness. Jesus responded with a simple 'Come and see.' This too parallels the SoS passage with the same inviting response to come to that place of pasture and rest.

One of the two disciples that followed Jesus that day was Andrew. He went and got his brother Peter who also responded to the invitation. Later, many cried out to Peter on the day of Pentecost 'where do we go for this relationship'. Three thousand responded that day to the invitation. Through the centuries, this longing cry for intimacy still reverberates. And likewise, we're still invited to follow all those who've gone before on this path of extravagant, passionate pursuit of the One who loves us.

The Faces of Jesus in the Song of Songs

I recently finished a series of devotional glimpses into the heart of God through the Bridal Paradigm. In that series, I made one glaring, although intentional, omission: I skipped over the Song of Songs. I felt this book is too vast to do it justice in a one-entry, introductory way and so just ignored it. Now, I want to go back and pull a few things from this book.

This isn't a study of the book, but rather it's going to be patterned similarly to the previous series. In each article I'm going to take a small section from the book and use it as a jumping off point to reveal a specific quality of God's heart.

I believe the Songs can be interpreted several ways, all of which are valid. However, for the purposes of this series, I'm going to be looking at it as an allegory for the relationship between believers as the bride and Jesus as the groom.

Practice listening

I really liked this morning's sermon. The Pastor is doing a series on prayer and today's topic was about spending time building intimacy with Jesus by listening to Him through the written word. One point that he raised was that we typically tend to listen to Him more in the hard times than in times of ease. This prompted a thought that I want to explore a bit here: It's much easier to hear his voice in the hard times if we've practiced listening to it during the easy times.

To start, I want to look the following parable:

Matthew 25: 1-13 Then the kingdom of heaven will be comparable to ten virgins, who took their lamps, and went out to meet the bridegroom. And five of them were foolish, and five were prudent. For when the foolish took their lamps, they took no oil with them, but the prudent took oil in flasks along with their lamps.

Now while the bridegroom was delaying, they all got drowsy and began to sleep. But at midnight there was a shout, 'Behold, the bridegroom! Come out to meet him.' Then all those virgins rose, and trimmed their lamps.

And the foolish said to the prudent, 'Give us some of your oil, for our lamps are going out.' But the prudent answered, saying, 'No, there will not be enough for us and you too; go instead to the dealers and buy some for yourselves.'

And while they were going away to make the purchase, the bridegroom came, and those who were ready went in with him to the wedding feast; and the door was shut. And later the other virgins also came, saying, 'Lord, lord, open up for us.'

But he answered and said, 'Truly I say to you, I do not know you.' Be on the alert then, for you do not know the day nor the hour.

Within context, Jesus is talking about the big trouble that's coming just before His next advent. This parable is of course applicable to that time, but I think it's equally applicable to any troublesome times that come into our lives.

First, I want to notice that this is about wise and foolish believers, not about saved and unsaved people. All these individuals had lamps, symbolizing ministries. All had oil, symbolizing Holy Spirit anointing. They were all doing anointed ministry.

Secondly, I want to notice that some had just enough oil for the ministry they were involved with whereas others had an abundance of oil. I believe the foolish were spending time in prayer, bible study and fasting in order to be prepared for the ministry they were pursuing. Conversely, the wise were spending time in these same disciplines in order to have an intimate relationship with Jesus and ministering out the overflow of the resulting anointing. Both were doing the stuff, but the motivations were different. Up to this point, there is no noticeable difference between the wise and foolish virgins.

Thirdly, I want to notice that sometimes God introduces a strategic delay. He doesn't operate on our time table. Sometimes the heavens are as brass because of our disobedience and God is waiting for us to repent. Other times it's because, for His own purposes, He chooses to delay. It's at the end of this delay that we see the difference between the wise and foolish.

Fourthly, I want to notice that we can't live off another's relationship of intimacy. When the foolish realized they were in trouble, they went to the wise and asked to borrow some of their anointing. Their response, while at first sounding harsh, is actually just a reflection of the reality that their individual histories in God were their own. While others can be told of them as encouragement to pursue the same, the existential lessons can't be acquired second hand, only experienced first hand. I love music and am taking guitar lessons. I would love to be able to play like my instructor, but all he can do is teach me principles and ways of learning. If I want to be able to play like him, I need to invest time doing the practice, day-in, day-out, over an extended period, to gain the experience. Just like my instructor, the wise can communicate what they do, but they can't transfer the actual experience.

Finally, I want to notice that those with a surplus were ready to minister. I don't interpret the end of this parable to be a statement of the virgins' status regarding salvation. I understand it to be a statement as to their preparedness to minister during the time of trouble. I think of Paul's statement in 1st Corinthians 3:14,15 which says 'If any man's work which he has built on [the foundation of Christ] remains, he will receive a reward. If any man's work is burned up, he will suffer loss; but he himself will be saved, yet so as through fire.' Whether it's the big trouble at the end of the age or the little troubles that come into our lives, trouble will come. When it does, the wise will have a history in God that allows them to minister to the Lord and others through that time and receive a reward. The foolish will come through that time being saved but suffering loss, not being able to participate in the glory of what God's doing in that time.