Song of Solomon 8:1-7
:1 O that thou wert as my brother, that sucked the breasts of my mother! when I should find thee without, I would kiss thee; yea, I should not be despised. :2 I would lead thee, and bring thee into my mother's house, who would instruct me: I would cause thee to drink of spiced wine of the juice of my pomegranate. :3 His left hand should be under my head, and his right hand should embrace me. :4 I charge you, O daughters of Jerusalem, that ye stir not up, nor awake my love, until he please. :5 Who is this that cometh up from the wilderness, leaning upon her beloved? I raised thee up under the apple tree: there thy mother brought thee forth: there she brought thee forth that bare thee. :6 Set me as a seal upon thine heart, as a seal upon thine arm: for love is strong as death; jealousy is cruel as the grave: the coals thereof are coals of fire, which hath a most vehement flame. :7 Many waters cannot quench love, neither can the floods drown it: if a man would give all the substance of his house for love, it would utterly be contemned.
At first glance this desire of hers seems to be quiet strange but when considering that this is the church speaking to Christ it becomes a bit more clear. The church in the age this was written was in the mind of God and had not come to the full light that it is in today. It seems to me that this is the groans of the church for Christ, her Groom to come, as a nursing child in Bethlehem, as a young man maturing in Nazareth and as a grown man dying outside the walled city of Jerusalem. It is a cry for Christ to come and know our heartaches, our joys, our experiences, our temptations. That is precisely what he did. We often think of the three and a half years of His ministry when we consider what he done but the thirty years that lead up to that were for us as well. It was in those years that he was becoming our High Priest touch with the feeling of our infirmities [Hebrews 4:15]. Her desire is that her beloved may know her experiences, Solomon was so wealthy, and she was so poor. There are things and experiences that only people on your level of poverty or wealth can relate to. She knew about sleeping in a humble house in the village, He knew about sleeping in a palace in the city. She knew of working with her hands to serve her family and he knew of servants doing his work for him. Christ came from the glory of glories in heaven and nursed a poor outcast who was on the run, because there are those in the bride of Christ who have suffered such fates. He came and slept under the stars, because he would know the cold that many of his people have felt. He was betrayed by his own people and even his own disciples. In all these things he was becoming like his brethren:
Hebrews 2:16-18 For verily he took not on him the nature of angels; but he took on him the seed of Abraham. Wherefore in all things it behoved him to be made like unto his brethren, that he might be a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make reconciliation for the sins of the people. For in that he himself hath suffered being tempted, he is able to succour them that are tempted.
Our Lord came into this world like we do, he lived in this world as we do and he tells us it behooved him to be like his brothers, for the purpose of being a merciful and faithful high priest. He “drank the spiced wine of my Pomegranate.” He tasted the wretchedness of our lives so we could taste the glory of his. In all this he was being made perfect through sufferings: [Heb 2:10 For it became him, for whom are all things, and by whom are all things, in bringing many sons unto glory, to make the captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings.]
Christ was already perfect; the text is not saying he was not perfect and then because he suffered he became perfect. He was already perfect in the eyes of God, God said “This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased.” He was becoming perfect in our sight, he was becoming a Lord that no man could ever say, “He doesn’t know what I am going through.” Through what he suffered he has become perfect by our evaluation. What the church is groaning for in Song of Solomon has been delivered to us, a kinsman redeemer, A high priest touch with the feeling of our infirmities. The King of kings stepped into our poor wretched existence and tasted the meager supplies we lived on, walked the dusty paths of the common people, was poor despised and rejected of men. O what a Savior is ours!! He knows my every heart ache, he knows your every care, He was tempted in all points such as we are. Now we say yes! He is perfect! Examine your Lord today and see if he is not perfect. You will find he is more perfect than you first thought. We say what was said of Solomon, “The half has not been told.” Everything you have heard, nay, everything you will ever hear is not even half of the perfection of Our heavenly Solomon, Jesus. John concludes his gospel by telling us that if his works could be recorded the volumes would not fit in this earth [John 21:25]
She then turns and tells the daughters of Jerusalem not to wake him till he pleases. Although the church groaned in that age for their messiah, rest assured there was a “fulness of time” when He would come, and he did [Gal 4:4]. He was not a second early or a second late. We as the church today groan, not for his first coming but for his second, while we long and hope and anticipate his second return we know that there is a day coming. He won’t be a second early or a second late, the church in this book still had some few hundred years before the one they were groaning for would come, and we may have a few moments or a few years but we, like the Church in our verses submit to his timing and his arising. As Peter told us: 2Pe_1:19 We have also a more sure word of prophecy; whereunto ye do well that ye take heed, as unto a light that shineth in a dark place, until the day dawn, and the day star arise in your hearts:
There is the dawn of the new day coming, He will rise from His throne in heaven, He will descend with a shout and the trump of God and we will meet him in the air! What a day that will be! Even so come Lord Jesus!!
“Set me as a seal upon thine heart, as a seal upon thine arm: for love is strong as death; jealousy is cruel as the grave: the coals thereof are coals of fire, which hath a most vehement.” As the Prophet Isaiah prophesied about our Lord: Isa 49:16 Behold, I have graven thee upon the palms of my hands; thy walls are continually before me. We are ever before his heart, His Mind, His sight. In that same chapter of Isaiah God tells us that a nursing mother could sooner forget her child than God could forget his people. I am reminded of Stephen while being stoned to death, he saw Jesus standing at the right Hand of God, even in our death he is watching and loving and caring for His own, for His bride. We have been etched into the palms of his hand and as the high priest garment bore the names of the tribes of Israel, our high priest is their representing the church, a nation of diverse people and languages who have been made fellow citizens of the same heavenly nation.
What is it that has motivated his poor life, his death, and his resurrection? Love! It was Love! For God so Loved the World, that he gave his only begotten son!! “Love is as strong as death.” Death could not stop the love that our groom had for his bride, but He died for the great love that he had for us. No force of nature could stop the love that he has for us. And he did give all that he had for the great love that he had for us. It has been said that God, bankrupted heaven to purchase his bride, while that may not be totally accurate the illustration totally is. He gave the most precious heaven had to offer for the worst this world had to offer, that he might buy us from the slave market of sin. That he might espouse us to his Son, that our sins could be atoned for! What great love! No greater love has any man than this; that a man lay down his life for his friends! He loved us while were yet sinners!! Herein is love, not that we loved him, but that he loved us and gave his son to be a propitiation for our sins!! OH Hallelujah! The Boundless eternal love Of God! If Every love story this earth has told could be wrapped into one it could not compare to the love between Christ and His bride, the church. Does this display of love drive you to love him more? It certainly should, how could any man turn away such a love, from such a King? O Lord your love for us has been so boundless and yet our love for you has, at times, had boundaries. Forgive us and may we present our bodies a living sacrifice, it is our reasonable service.