Song of Solomon 7:11-13
Come, my beloved, let us go forth into the field; let us lodge in the villages. Let us get up early to the vineyards; let us see if the vine flourish, whether the tender grape appear, and the pomegranates bud forth: there will I give thee my loves. The mandrakes give a smell, and at our gates are all manner of pleasant fruits, new and old, which I have laid up for thee, O my beloved.
Theses verse come from the final canticle of the book, 7:11-8:14. It is spoken entirely by the Shulamite, our representative of the Church.
In the last canticle she calls for her to return so he can look on her, now in this canticle she says something familiar, “Come, my beloved.” Throughout the book there has been this reciprocation of feelings, declarations and calls from one to another. We find that his love for her is met with her love for him, this is the nature of love, “We love him because he first loved us.” So it should be between Jesus and the church. He at times is calling for us and we should be calling for him, He has expressed his love for us in his life and in the volumes of Scripture, we ought to express our love for him in this life of ours and if our life were a book the theme of that book ought to be the theme of the scriptures, Jesus. Are we reciprocating the love that has been shown to us?
She calls him away from the hustle and bustle of the city, away from the pomp and circumstance of the court at Jerusalem to a quiter place and a more peaceful work: ”Let us go forth into the field; let us lodge in the villages. Let us get up early to the vineyards; let us see if the vine flourish, whether the tender grape appear, and the pomegranates bud forth.” She wants to be where she has his undivided attention, and he has hers. We don’t have to worry about Jesus being distracted when we are with him, but we are so easily distracted. It would do us good to devote a part of our day to him and him alone. Maybe you have a garden, maybe you are blessed to live in the countryside and you have acres upon acres to escape the noise of the house, if so go to the garden with your beloved Jesus. Maybe you have found yourself in my current situation, in a city crowded with people. Still there are early morning hours that are quiet, and the house is still. Take advantage of those hours and revive that institution of walking with God in the cool of the day, I believe it was the very purpose of our creation, to fellowship with God. She told him it was there that she would give him her loves: “there will I give thee my loves.”
Much of this book is intimate, and so is any healthy marriage. Our espousal to Christ must have a same sort of spiritual intimacy, time we spend alone with him, time we pour our hearts out to him in prayer and time where he pours his out to us in his word and made effectual by his Spirit. Intimacy is private and so in like manner we ought to have our quiet time with the Lord. If we are to busy to spend time with him then we are to busy, it would be better to let some other area of life lack than to let this time with our Lord lack.
“The mandrakes give a smell, and at our gates are all manner of pleasant fruits, new and old, which I have laid up for thee, O my beloved.” In their garden there are all manner of fruits even old ones. This is certainly deeper than Solomon and the Shulamite and speaks of Christ and the church. In our garden of fellowship are the fruits that we bare for our Lord and there should be new ones! There are the old ones, and what a blessing it is that our old fruits are not like the fruit of this earth that rots away in a few days, but the fruit bore when we walk with Christ is eternal fruit, treasure laid up in heaven where there is no corruption! But don’t be satisfied because you bore fruit some years ago or your bore fruit in your early years, yes that fruit remains but are there any new ones? Or has the garden of fellowship grown over with briars and brambles? Have the little foxes spoiled the vines? Have the walls and fences guarding your fellowship been broken? Are their new ones? If not then today is not to late to repair the fences, kill the foxes, jerk up the weeds and soon you will see new fruit. Do as the Shulamite did and inspect the state of your vine and see whether the grapes appear. Notice who the fruit is for: “At our gates are all manner of pleasant fruits, new and old, which I have laid up for thee, O my beloved.” She has laid up the fruit for her beloved. What can a poor Shulamite give the King? He has all wealth and abundance of everything the world had to offer but their was one garden in Israel whose fruit was sweeter than any fruit domestic or foreign, the fruit laid for him by his bride. So it is with Christ, what can we give the King of Kings and Lord of lords? What can we poor sun kissed Shulamites do for our wealthy groom? We can go now to the garden of fellowship and lay up for him fruits, fruits of the Spirit, the fruit of praise and adoration, the fruit of the gospel seed sown in our life that brings more into the family. The sacrifice of praise is a sweet smell to him, offer it up this morning! Often, we have felt his presence in the church as his bride gathered to offer him our first fruits of giving, of praise, of worship, but that same power and presence is not reserved for the sanctuary only but can be enjoyed when we fellowship daily with him and offer up the first fruits of our day; the first hours, the first thoughts, the first cares, give them to him! Someone or something will receive the first fruits of our day but is there anyone, or anything more deserving or more rewarding than laying up fruits for our Beloved Jesus? We end with the words of the Shulamite as a prayer to our beloved Jesus, “Come, my beloved, let us go forth into the field; let us lodge in the villages. Let us get up early to the vineyards; let us see if the vine flourish, whether the tender grape appear, and the pomegranates bud forth: there will I give thee my loves.”
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