Dear Loved Ones,
God has been stirring my heart in regards to the purpose for which we exist, not just our calling but why we were born and born-again. There are seasons and timings of the Lord that change from one spiritual season to another, however the Purpose for which God created us and then died so that His Son could live inside of us never changes. Concerning the seasons, it is possible to become so comfortable in one particular season that we might miss the fact that winter is over and spring has come with all its new blossoming of life. Also it is possible to allow our own comfort that comes from knowing the Lord in the present to become an obstruction to allowing Him to pour forth by Life through us with the change of the seasons.
Over the past years we have all experienced a long season during the Covid days of sheltering in place. We were in a time period, not of “doing”, but of filling up on the Lamb for the journey that would follow. We were blessed to have an opening like this in ways that were not always available to us at other times. Many of us really took advantage of those days and that time with the Lord. But the purpose in filling up would eventually bring us to the purpose for pouring out. I have heard it said that after a long and harsh winter where people had to stay inside … nine months later during the summertime the birth-rate rocketed! Another way of saying this is that fruit comes forth when you have been truly abiding in the Vine over a concerted period of time.
But there is something higher than our preparations. It is Him, Jesus! He is the Way, the Truth, and the Life. The beautiful thing about life is that “Life lives”! If it’s His life, then He springs forth. But don’t worry, not every tree or flower shoots forth at the exact same time. Our trust is not in our manifestation but that He is our life. In His time within the “spring” season new desires to share the Life you have received will show forth. We have spent an irregular amount of time in winter because of the Pandemic, but now we will see what “newness of Life” has to say about everything. I do know that the season that is met with the greatest welcome and rejoicing is Spring.
Other seasons speak of death or hibernating in accord with Jesus’s death for His Body. But Spring embraces the coming forth of His life within His very own Body. We feel His Life in us, His Body, pulsating to live and to give itself. Let us not resist His coming in us. We have stored up. We have set aside our movements to gather unto Him. Now we arise and shine for the light has come.
Song of Songs 2:7-13 —
“I charge you, O ye daughters of Jerusalem, by the roes, and by the hinds of the field, that ye stir not up, nor awake my love, till he please. 8 The voice of my beloved! behold, he cometh leaping upon the mountains, skipping upon the hills. 9 My beloved is like a roe or a young hart: behold, he standeth behind our wall, he looketh forth at the windows, shewing himself through the lattice. 10 My beloved spake, and said unto me, Rise up, my love, my fair one, and come away. 11 For, lo, the winter is past, the rain is over and gone; 12 The flowers appear on the earth; the time of the singing of birds is come, and the voice of the turtle is heard in our land; 13 The fig tree putteth forth her green figs, and the vines with the tender grape give a good smell. Arise, my love, my fair one, and come away.”
Yours together in Him,
Randy
The picture here drastically changes from the season that has come before in the previous verses and chapter. There are three elements to notice in this verse. The first thing is the voice. At this stage, the Shulamite does not always understand His words, but she knows His voice. Jesus said, "My sheep know my voice," and not that they understand His words. His presence to her is based on His Word but not the eternal word. She is in need of a rhema word. This coming moves her, for this is what motivates her at this stage. Secondly, it states that "He cometh." This speaks of a continuing coming. He comes, not for world domination or for victory over the devil, but for her. He comes to her as a visitor, for she as yet does not abide with Him as One. She has not learned the trust that abides but must have continuous "comings" in order to keep her stabilized. Notice that He has to approach her from outside, as seen in the fact that He comes to her. Lastly, He comes leaping upon the mountains. The mountains do not have to be removed and plucked up (Mk. 11:24), for He leaps over them. "I lift up my eyes unto the hills from whence (Him) cometh my help" (Ps. 121:1). When He comes even the heights cannot contain Him. This is a description of the risen Lord. It is a manifestation of the risen Lord over all things.
Song of Songs 2:9 - "Behold, he stands behind our wall."
She obviously has a true love for Him, but not a pure love. No one can question that she deeply loves him and the trueness of it. But the one least aware of the wall that is between the two of them is her. She continues in the growth of their union by using terms such as "us," "we," and "our." What was His now becomes ours but what was wrong with us now becomes His. It is now "our wall." In these verses, she shows what her knowledge of Him is based on. She knows Him by His voice and she knows His ability over the obstacles of the earth, but this knowing of Him is not sufficient to take away the walls. He is only able to reveal Himself through the lattice having a wall of separation between. She is unaware of this because, for her, to know Him as she does is already overwhelming and glorious. Even though she could see Him, the lattice barrier still remained. She could see Him, but only in part.
What kind of wall is this? A middle wall of partition? A veil? Are these the walls of her own home to which has she returned? All of these are basically the same thing. We can become prisoners of our own God-given gifts and blessings. It is our wall that keeps us from drawing nearer or seeing Him more fully. Even though her view is distorted by the wall, she is happy with that. "He stands" showing His readiness to leave this earth-bound place to go up. He stands ready.
Song of Songs 2:10 - "My beloved spoke, and said unto me, Rise up, my love, my fair one and come away."
I noted in verse 9 that she seemed happy to remain behind the wall, but His words to her in this verse show that, though she is satisfied, He is not. He wants her to "rise up...and come away." Rising up refers to resurrection. To rise up means to come away and leave something behind. This is not a rebuke but a call to her heart to come to Him. She must begin to understand that to begin to come to Him involves coming away from the securities she once trusted in. Everything to this point had been sweetness, love, and feasting. For the first time, she is confronted with choices that are not comfortable. To be with Him all of a sudden doesn't have the same romantic connotation that it had earlier.
He wants her to leave her PLACE. She doesn't know what it means but feels that His desire is putting a strain that was not there previously. But though His call causes ambivalence in us, we must remember that He knows best. When we go up into the mount with Him, we see Him face to face and we are changed into the same image and forget the problems of our old "walled life and walled days." There are no walls in the mountains, no fences or boundaries. The purpose of "wall removal" is not just to free her from bondage, but that they might become One. He broke down the middle wall of partition so that a oneness could take place. He is not just trying to remove the divisions of our life but any division that acknowledges anything but the One. To get Him to concentrate on your problems is a division that He wants to be removed.
With the introduction of the term "come away" comes a presentation of rest in a whole new light from what she has ever known before. The Lord presents this place of rest as something other than a condition in this life. At first, Christ must be seen as something other than our life but still in this world. In that sense, we must come away. The time has come to change her perspective concerning rest. To Him, the "wall period" in her life is like the winter that is past. The answer is not to fix the wall but to come away and acknowledge new life. He tells her to arise, for the present season is the time to bloom. He sees beautiful things. He wouldn't let others disturb her rest, but he raises her out of it to go find another place. He has a right to disturb "earth rest" in order to bring us into greater rest. The rest she had down here was only to refresh her enough to move on to His place of rest. Up to this time, where He rests and where she rests have been two different places.
Song of Songs 2:11 - "For lo, the winter is past, the rain is over and gone."
The winter is when everything dies. Springtime is next, and it is a time of resurrection. Apparently, up to now, she has only been planted in union with His death. Old things (winter) are now passed away. For Him, the great "winter" and bleakness that caused her cover-up behind a wall is past, and new life is, not on its way, but all around already.
Song of Songs 2:12 - "The flowers appear on the earth; the time of the singing of birds has come, and the voice of the turtle dove is heard in our land."
The time had come. This is not a call so much unto Him as unto the beauty of the new creation but we will find that her motivations are yet in the early stages relating to blessings in the first creation.
Song of Songs 2:13 - "The fig tree put forth her green figs, and the vines with the tender grapes give forth fragrance. Arise, my love, my fair one, and come away."
New birth, new life, and new loveliness were going on in His world. He wants her to come away from man-made walls and buildings into spontaneous life. She needed to come away out of her house into the world of His fruitfulness and fragrance. This resurrection is not just addressed to dead ones, but to "my love, my fair one." In fact, this call is not to sinners but to the church, which is the bride of Christ. He wanted her to come away from her house. Later, He will want her to come away from her land. "Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father's house, unto the land that I will show thee" (Gen. 12:1).
Song of Songs 2:14 - "O my dove, who art in the clefts of the rock, in the secret places of the stairs, let me see thy countenance, let me hear your voice; for sweet is thy voice and thy countenance is comely."
Many people have many different ideas about who is doing the speaking here. The truth remains the same regardless of who it is, but I believe He is describing her true spiritual state that she might hear it. Calling her "my dove" shows that the following things about her that He delights in are the result of the work of the Holy Spirit.
The Cross is preeminent. She must see she also died with Him or she will never come away. The joint death was in order for there to be a joining together in resurrection life (the life of One). He speaks as if it were already settled concerning her position in the rock. He describes her as one who is in the cleft of the rock and then says, "let me see you and hear you." She needs to declare the truth that He might hear her say it. From His viewpoint her countenance and voice are sweet, and so He desires that she speak and view herself from this position. He wants to see her face because the countenance of one who has received His Word will shine the way Moses did when he talked with God face to face and received God's Word. This is just one more facet of "the place" where He sees her. Him seeing her face and hearing her voice will one day be the desire of her heart toward Him. Christ's bride was taken out of His side. His desire toward her is great, but her walls and strongholds of understanding still hold Him at bay. But this will change, and when it does, it is God who has worked in us to do of His good pleasure.
Another view of this would be that she is speaking these words to Him. If that is the case, then her response here proves that she believes He is in that secure and secret place but she still believes that her key to this is found in His present speaking the truth (his voice) and in His present presence (countenance) in the location where she is at.
Song of Songs 2:15 - "Take (from) us the foxes, the little foxes, that spoil the vines; for our vines have tender grapes.”
In verse 13 He spoke of the vines and the tender grapes, and here He shows that along with the beautiful picture He gives comes a warning, that the little things in life can spoil what God is doing if we are not instant in season. She may not be aware that the beautiful picture of fruitfulness relates to her own growth. He relates the little foxes as hindrances to her spiritual growth. He talks about the little foxes. It is not one giant problem that causes Him concern, but small frequent ones.
Again, it is difficult to determine who is speaking in this verse. The previous paragraph offered what would be the Lord's point of view had he been doing the talking. However, we must also consider this verse's meaning in light of the Shulamite being the speaker. In that case, the Vine would be her Beloved that no fox, wolf, or dragon can destroy. She is not "at rest" in the heavenlies, then, but concerned about what is on the earth. Her concern is that if the foxes are not removed, they will spoil her fruit. Not having tended her own vineyard earlier may be causing her to be overly concerned with it now. Since she has not yet come away, she still wants Him to deal with all the little problems surrounding her. She does not yet rest upon Him as the Vine and her simply as a branch of His fruit-bearing nature; therefore she is concerned about loss for herself. We are not the Vine. If we stand still spiritually we should be somewhat concerned the foxes will get us. But we are a branch and He is the Vine. One thing that should comfort us even more is that our Father is the Husbandman.
Song of Songs 2:16 - "My beloved is mine, and I am his; he feedeth among the lilies."
That her Beloved is hers is primary in her mind. She is possessing Him, though little of her is yet being possessed of Him. Her rest, at this stage, is in the fact that "my Beloved is mine" and that a feeding and fellowship is still active. By Him saying "Come away" shows that He is seeking something from her, but she is content where she is. He is from above and she is from below. Right now, the issue for her is not His pleasure but her own contentment and rest. May her heart truly hear His voice and, even more, hear His heart and find Him in a new way and flow of true Oneness.***
