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Song of Solomon – Part 17b, The Chariot of His Purposes: Authority, Submission, and the Bride’s Crowning
[Study Aired November 7, 2026]
OPENING: THE BED AND THE PARADOX OF PEACE
Before we move to the chariot, we must understand what comes first. Before Solomon can establish his kingdom and kingship, he must transform the bed itself. The place where Adam surrendered his authority—the bedroom, the intimate space where a man’s will meets a woman’s appetite—this must be reclaimed as a place of peace.
Son 3:7 Behold his bed, which is Solomon’s; threescore valiant men are about it, of the valiant of Israel.
Son 3:8 They all hold swords, being expert in war: every man hath his sword upon his thigh because of fear in the night.
Sixty valiant men surround the bed. Not to defend the sleeping husband from external enemies, but to guard the bed itself—to protect this place from the chaos that has infected it, from the false claims made upon it, from the murmuring voices that have tried to establish their own authority within it.
Three times twenty (3×20). This is the language of cycles, of completeness, of a process brought to full completion. In Scripture’s language, it represents humanity’s entire history—six thousand years of the Adamic age. Every age. Every season of human history has been infected with the same corruption: a man’s God-given willful surrender to a woman’s appetite, and the domination that follows. She reflects Korah’s rebellion in Numbers 15:1-26.
Korah confused being called by God with being chosen by God for a particular purpose. The Israelites had been brought out of Egypt and separated from the surrounding nations. They concluded that this made them all equally entitled to exercise spiritual authority. They believed they already possessed the fullness of God’s truth and therefore could not recognize the distinction between the called and the chosen.
This is the fundamental error that surrounds Solomon’s bed. The sixty valiant men are not defending against external attack. They are defending against internal rebellion—the uprising of those who have been called but not chosen, who believe their presence in the household gives them authority to rule, and who insist that equality of calling means equality of authority.
Solomon’s wives, like Korah’s rebels, believed themselves chosen simply because they had been called. They believed their position in Solomon’s harem—their inclusion in his household, their access to his bed—made them equally entitled to shape his will.
Five is associated with grace. Since 250 is a multiple of five (5 × 50), it represents grace experienced through the death of our old man. The 250 men represent our old man, who must be swallowed up by the earth and die.
Rom 6:1 What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound?
Rom 6:2 God forbid. How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein?
Rom 6:3 Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death?
Interestingly, God did not destroy Korah’s sons with him. They could identify with the Shulamite’s sisters, and eventually became associated with the service of song in God’s house (1 Chronicles 6:31-48), effectively singing the Bride’s praises in the Song of Solomon 6:9: “…The daughters saw her, and blessed her; yea, the queens and the concubines, and they praised her.”
Solomon, like Moses, had to learn that being called is not the same as being chosen. Being included in the covenant is not the same as being appointed to particular authority. And the bed—that sacred space where the king’s authority must be protected—must be guarded by those who understand this distinction.
Yet, notice something crucial: the sixty valiant men are “expert in war” and hold their swords “because of fear in the night.” This is not peace. This is vigilance. This is the exhausting posture of defending a peace that has not yet fully come. The bed is surrounded. It is protected. Its specter still naggingly contests it, as he expressed in Ecclesiastes 7:23-29.
This is the condition of all marriages still operating under the Old Covenant—under the covenant of law, of attempt, of human effort to maintain what only chastising grace can sustain in hope and faith. The valiant men must stand guard. The swords must be drawn. Respect the night; don’t fear it. Because the peace of the bed is perpetually under assault from the murmuring of those who believe their desires should determine the king’s will.
Psa 91:5 Thou shalt not be afraid for the terror by night; nor for the arrow that flieth by day;
Psa 91:6 Nor for the pestilence that walketh in darkness; nor for the destruction that wasteth at noonday.
Psa 91:7 A thousand shall fall at thy side, and ten thousand [1,000 sisters] at thy right hand; but it shall not come nigh thee.
THE CHARIOT: CHRIST’S MOVEMENT THROUGH HISTORY
Now Solomon builds something far greater than a defended bedroom. He builds a chariot far different from Babylon’s false richness, the Whore’s bed, and its chariot.
Rev 18:11 And the merchants of the earth shall weep and mourn over her; for no man buyeth their merchandise any more:
Rev 18:12 The merchandise of gold, and silver, and precious stones, and of pearls, and fine linen, and purple, and silk, and scarlet, and all thyine wood, and all manner vessels of ivory, and all manner vessels of most precious wood, and of brass, and iron, and marble,
Rev 18:13 And cinnamon, and odours, and ointments, and frankincense, and wine, and oil, and fine flour, and wheat, and beasts, and sheep, and horses, and chariots, and slaves, and souls of men.Chariot G4480 – 1. a chariot, a type of vehicle having four wheels.
Solomon was highly aware of Israel’s whoredoms, and the same “chariot” signified whoredoms by his 1,000 wives’ appearance of unity, where their spiritually ‘mincing’ walk disproved authenticity; he was 931 BCE, years too early to begin to see the emergence and John-like “admiration” and culmination of The Great Whore’s chariot, the means by which she, in many forms, conveyed her lewd doctrines, seducing mankind.
Rev 17:6 And I saw the woman drunken with the blood of the saints, and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus: and when I saw her, I wondered with great admiration [astonishing deceptions].
Son 3:9 King Solomon made himself a chariot of the wood of Lebanon.
Wood of Lebanon. Not gold. Not silver. Not the precious materials that might suggest permanence or divine origin. Wood. The material that speaks of the earthly, the natural, the temporary.
1Co 3:11 For other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ.
1Co 3:12 Now if any man build upon this foundation gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, stubble;
1Co 3:13 Every man’s work shall be made manifest: for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire; and the fire shall try every man’s work of what sort it is.
The chariot’s framework is built of wood—temporary material. However, it is built with a purpose. Christ, as the Bridegroom, does not construct His chariot for permanence in this age. He constructs it for movement. For progress through history. To carry forward His purposes until they are complete.
The chariot itself is not the end. The chariot is the means. It is the vehicle through which Christ moves, carries out His will, and draws all things to Himself. This is why Paul says:
1Co 15:50 Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; neither doth corruption inherit incorruption.
The wooden framework of the chariot will not endure forever. In its appointed time, in its appointed season, it will accomplish everything it has been designed to accomplish. When that work is complete, it will be consumed in the fire of the final judgment, and Christ will stand forth in His true, eternal glory—no longer needing the temporary vehicle through which He moved.
What is this chariot? Who are the living creatures within it?
Christ is Himself the Chariot. Centered on Ezekiel 1:15-21, His Bride is so completely united with Christ in spirit that she becomes the means through which His will, His authority and His work are carried out.
Eze 1:15 Now as I beheld the living creatures, behold one wheel upon the earth by the living creatures, with his four faces.
Eze 1:16 The appearance of the wheels and their work was like unto the colour of a beryl: and they four had one likeness: and their appearance and their work was as it were a wheel in the middle of a wheel.
Eze 1:17 When they went, they went upon their four sides: and they turned not when they went.
Eze 1:18 As for their rings, they were so high that they were dreadful; and their rings were full of eyes round about them four.
Eze 1:19 And when the living creatures went, the wheels went by them: and when the living creatures were lifted up from the earth, the wheels were lifted up.
Eze 1:20 Whithersoever the spirit was to go, they went, thither was their spirit to go; and the wheels were lifted up over against them: for the spirit of the living creature was in the wheels.
Eze 1:21 When those went, these went; and when those stood, these stood; and when those were lifted up from the earth, the wheels were lifted up over against them: for the spirit of the living creature was in the wheels.
One spirit. One movement. The living creatures and the wheels move together, not because the wheels are forced by mechanical necessity, but because the spirit—the singular, unified spirit—determines the movement of the entire vision.
This is what the Bride becomes: not an independent entity with her own will, but a unified extension of Christ’s will. She has no destination of her own. She goes wherever He goes. She does not determine the direction. The spirit that moves through Him moves through her too.
This is what perfection looks like in motion. Not the perfection of individual achievement, but the perfection of complete unity with Christ. Not the perfection of independent righteousness, but the perfection that comes only through abiding in Him.
Mat 5:48 Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect.
How is this possible? How can a bride become perfect as the Father is perfect?
Joh 15:4 Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in me.
Joh 15:5 I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing.
Only through abiding. Only by surrendering her own will to His. Only through becoming, like the wheels in Ezekiel’s vision, the perfect instrument through which His will is manifested.
THE CHARIOT’S CONSTRUCTION: SILVER, GOLD, AND THE PAVEMENT OF LOVE
Now let us examine the chariot’s construction—the materials that compose it, the foundation on which it stands, and the covering that protects it.
Son 3:10 He made the pillars thereof of silver, the bottom thereof of gold, the covering of it of purple, the midst thereof being paved with love, for the daughters of Jerusalem.
Four distinct elements:
The Pillars – Silver – The Elect Established in God’s Temple
Rev 3:12 Him that overcometh will I make a pillar in the temple of my God.
The pillars are not separate from the chariot. They are the chariot’s structure—the vertical supports that give it form and stability. They are made of silver, which represents God’s Word, redemption, and the truth of God as it is spoken forth.
The pillars of Solomon’s chariot are the elect—those established as permanent supports in the temple of God. They are not temporary fixtures. They are not decorative. They are structural. They bear the weight. They support the movement.
They are silver—refined through fire, purified, bearing the mark of judgment and redemption. They stand as pillars because Christ perfected them, not by their own effort, but by burning away everything false, everything corrupt, everything rooted in the Adamic nature.
The Bottom – Gold – Righteousness Refined in Fire
Rev 3:18 I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich.
The foundation of Solomon’s chariot—the very ground upon which it rests and from which it draws its stability—is gold. Not merely the possession of gold, but gold that has been tried in fire. Righteousness that has been tested. Truth that has survived judgment.
This is not the Bride’s righteousness. She does not possess her own righteousness. Rather, she stands on the righteousness of Christ, refined through the fire of the cross, having survived the judgment of all humanity’s sin, immutable and eternal.
The chariot does not rest upon a foundation of human effort. It rests upon the foundation of Christ’s perfected righteousness—the only righteousness sufficient to bear the weight of God’s purposes.
1Pet 1:7 Our faith is tried with fire so that it may be found unto praise, honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ.
The Bride’s faith—her trust, her reliance upon this golden foundation—is itself tried in fire. Through the tribulations of her life, she learns that the only solid ground is the righteousness of her Husband. Every attempt to establish her own righteousness, to build her own moral superiority, to trust in her own goodness—all of this is burned away in the fire of testing.
What remains? The recognition that the only foundation worth standing upon is gold tried in fire. The righteousness that has survived judgment. The authority that has conquered death. The power that has broken the curse.
The Covering – Purple – Royal Authority
Purple is the color of kingship and royal authority. It is the color worn by those who rule, exercise dominion, and speak with absolute authority.
Notice: the covering is not applied to the Bride herself. The covering is applied to the chariot. She does not wear the purple as her own possession. She is covered by it. She is protected beneath it. She exercises authority not because it is inherent to her, but because she is carried within something whose authority comes from the King. Here are some prominent scriptural examples where the color purple is used:
Judges 8:26 – The purple garments of the kings of Midian.
Esther 8:15 – Mordecai’s royal apparel included purple.
John 19:2–3 – Christ was clothed in purple by the soldiers who mocked Him as King of the Jews.
Revelation 21:20 – Amethyst, a purple stone, is the twelfth foundation of New Jerusalem.
The purple is Christ’s royal covering. The Bride does not possess it. She is possessed by it. She is hidden within it. Her authority to move, speak, and carry out Christ’s will flows from being covered by the purple of His kingship.
This is crucial to understanding the Bride’s paradoxical position. She is signified as perfected. She is established. She carries authority. None of this belongs to her. All of it belongs to Him. She is simply the vessel through which His perfection, His establishment, His authority move into the world.
The Midst Paved with Love – The Foundation of Everything
There is something even more fundamental than the pillars, the foundation of gold, or the purple covering. There is the interior—where all these elements come together. What paves this middle space, the interior of the chariot where the King Himself sits?
Love.
Not sentiment. Not romantic emotion. Not the false covenant of desire and satisfaction, but love in the sense that defines the entire Godhead: the sacrificial, chastising, all-consuming commitment that moves Christ to give everything for the Bride, to refine her, to perfect her, to make her into the instrument through which His will is executed.
Eph 5:25–27 Christ loved the Church and gave Himself for her, that He might sanctify and cleanse her with the washing of water by the Word, and present her to Himself as a glorious Church.
The order matters. First, Christ loves. Then, He gives Himself. Then, He sanctifies. Then, He cleanses. Then, He presents her to Himself as glorious. But all of this flows from a singular source: love. Not love as the world defines it. But love as Christ demonstrates it—love that is simultaneously judgment, refinement, and transformation.
This is why the pavement of love is paved—it is walked upon. It is the ground of every interaction between the Bride and her Groom. Every correction she receives comes through love. Love designs every test she faces. Love burns away every falsehood. Love is not the soft emotion that affirms her as she is. Love is the chastising grace that demands her perfection and provides the only means to achieve it.
THE BRIDE AS PHARAOH’S HORSES: STRENGTH WITHOUT INDEPENDENT AUTHORITY
Now we turn to one of Scripture’s most mysterious statements: Song of Solomon 1:9, “I have compared thee, O my love, to a company of horses in Pharaoh’s chariots.”
At first, the comparison seems unusual. Why would Christ compare His Bride to horses pulling Pharaoh’s chariots? Spiritually, horses represent strength, power, and the ability to carry out their master’s will. The important distinction is where that strength comes from.
The Bride has no independent authority. Her strength and authority are derived entirely from Christ. In the study Song of Solomon, Part 3 – Solomon and His Bride Delight in Each Other, the Bride is second in headship under Christ, just as Joseph was placed under Pharaoh’s authority.
Consider Joseph:
Genesis 41:40–43. Pharaoh gave Joseph authority over Egypt, placed him in the second chariot, and commanded the people to bow before him. Joseph did not become Pharaoh. He exercised Pharaoh’s authority.
Likewise, the Bride exercises Christ’s authority, not her own.
She is power, movement, and the manifestation of strength. It is His power, His movement, His strength working through her. She is the horse—the animal of strength and beauty and capability—but she pulls not her own chariot. She pulls His. She is not the vehicle of her own will. She is the vehicle of His. When Philip was inspired by the holy spirit to “join” himself to the Ethiopian Eunuch’s chariot, it signifies the same joining of the Bride to her Lord’s chariot, His vehicle and Ark (Acts 8:26-40) of the New Covenant.
This is what it means to be perfected. Not to achieve independence from Christ, but to achieve complete unity with Him such that her will and His will become indistinguishable. Not to establish her own kingdom, but to participate in His kingdom. Not to exercise authority in her own name, but to manifest His authority in the world.
The horse does not ask why it pulls. The horse does not question the direction. The horse does not attempt to establish its own destination. The horse moves where the driver directs. In that complete submission, the horse becomes part of something far greater than itself—the vehicle through which the will of Pharaoh (or, in our case, Christ) is executed in the world.
Eze 10:16 And when the cherubims [The Elect of Christ, the Bride] went, the wheels went by them: and when the cherubims lifted up their wings to mount up from the earth, the same wheels also turned not from beside them.
Eze 10:17 When they stood, these stood; and when they were lifted up, these lifted up themselves also: for the spirit of the living creature [Christ within] was in them.
THE DAUGHTERS OF ZION: WHO WILL BEHOLD THE CROWNING?
All of this—the chariot, the pillars, the gold foundation, the purple covering, the pavement of love—is constructed not for the Bride’s own satisfaction, but for a specific purpose.
Son 3:11 Go forth, O ye daughters of Zion, and behold king Solomon with the crown wherewith his mother crowned him in the day of his espousals, and in the day of the gladness of his heart.
The daughters of Zion are called to behold the king at his espousals—at the moment of his wedding. Notice: they are called to witness a specific moment. A specific truth. A specific reality that is being established.
Solomon is crowned with a crown that his mother has placed upon his head. Not self-assumed authority. Not a rebellious assertion of power. The authority was conferred by the mother, the one who bore him and raised him to recognize his position.
In the Old Covenant type, this mother was Bathsheba. The wife who learned to navigate the complex realities of covenant, authority, and the difference between desiring to be desired and serving a kingdom larger than her own appetites. Bathsheba, who became the woman capable of training up a son—Solomon—who would understand that authority is not seized or negotiated, but received and stewarded.
In the New Covenant reality, who is this mother? She is the Jerusalem above—the free mother of us all. She is the established order of heaven itself, from which the King’s authority flows. She is the principal of God’s sovereign choosing, His predetermined election, His unassailable will.
She places a crown upon His head.
The daughters of Zion—those other women, those called but not chosen, those in the churches who have never understood the distinction between being included and being appointed—they are called to behold this. To witness it. To see that the authority being demonstrated is not negotiable. It is not subject to their approval. It is not up for democratic vote or popular acclamation. It is the authority of one crowned by heaven itself.
Zadok the priest and Nathan the prophet crowned Solomon king of Israel under King David’s direction. The deeper answer is that God chose Solomon to succeed David, and David ensured God’s instruction was carried out. This account appears in 1 Kings 1:28–40. Why was Solomon crowned? David was old and nearing death. His son Adonijah attempted to make himself king without David’s approval. Adonijah gathered supporters, including Joab and Abiathar the priest, and declared himself king. However, God had already determined that Solomon would succeed David.
1Kgs 1:30 Even as I sware unto thee by the LORD God of Israel, saying, Assuredly Solomon thy son shall reign after me, and he shall sit upon my throne in his stead; even so will I certainly do this day.
David had promised Bathsheba—had sworn to her by the Lord God of Israel—that Solomon would be king. When Adonijah tried to seize the throne without authorisation, David was moved by the spirit to ensure God’s decision would be carried out.
1Kgs 1:34 And let Zadok the priest and Nathan the prophet anoint him there king over Israel: and blow ye with the trumpet, and say, God save king Solomon.
The trumpet. The declaration. The public announcement. This is not a private matter. This is not something that happens in hidden chambers. The coronation is public. The daughters of Zion are called to behold it. At the First Resurrection, they are called to witness the establishment of an authority that does not depend on their understanding or their approval.
THE FINAL VISION: REVELATION’S TESTIMONY TO THE BRIDE’S CROWNING
This brings us to the culmination of all that Song of Solomon has been moving toward—the vision in Revelation where the Bride finally recognizes her true position:
Rev 4:8 And the four beasts [The Bride of Christ] had each of them six wings about him; and they were full of eyes within: and they rest not day and night, saying, Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty, which was, and is, and is to come.
Rev 4:9 And when those beasts [The Elect/Bride of Christ] give glory and honour and thanks to him that sat on the throne, who liveth for ever and ever,
Rev 4:10 The four and twenty elders [The Bride of Christ] fall down before him that sat on the throne, and worship him that liveth for ever and ever, and cast their crowns before the throne, saying,
Rev 4:11 Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honour and power: for thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created.
The Bride—manifested as the four living creatures, the wheels, the twenty-four elders—sees the One who sits on the throne. What does she do? Does she insist on her own authority? Does she demand recognition? Does she refuse to submit?
No. She casts her crowns before the throne.
This is the ultimate recognition. This is the final understanding. The Bride, perfected, established, and crowned with authority, now appointed voluntarily, willingly, and absolutely, casts that authority back before her Groom’s throne. It was always His. She was simply its steward. She was simply the instrument through which it was manifested. She recognizes the order of administration, yet the same authority she has been given is her inheritance to keep.
In casting those crowns, she achieves her final, ultimate perfection.
It is the perfection of yielding and doing. Not the perfection of achieving. But the perfection of receiving. Not the perfection of becoming independent, but the perfection of becoming so completely united with Christ that the distinction between His will and hers ceases to matter.
Rev 19:15 And out of his mouth goeth a sharp sword [the silver pillars upholding the word of God in Christ’s chariot], that with it he should smite the nations: and he shall rule them with a rod of iron: and he treadeth the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God.
Rev 19:16 And he hath on his vesture and on his thigh a name written, KING OF KINGS, AND LORD OF LORDS.
By that time, the Bride will even more dynamically understand that every word spoken from that mouth is the Word that has moved through her. Every sword that goes forth is the sword she has carried. Every nation that is smitten is smitten through her participation in Christ’s purposes.
Yet she does not claim the victory as her own. She casts her crowns before the throne. She returns to her Groom what He has placed in her hands, recognizing at last that true authority is not possession, but participation. True power is not independence, but complete unity.
THE PERSONAL INTERROGATION: YOUR CROWNING OR YOUR CASTRATION?
Now the question returns to you and me. In your own life, in your own heart, are you building a chariot? Are you establishing yourself as a vehicle through which Christ’s purposes are executed? Or, like Eve and Cain, are you trying to build your own chariot—your own authority, your own kingdom, your own independent dominion?
This question is not only for the spiritually advanced. Every soul, in his designated time and order, must answer this fundamental question. The answer determines everything.
Some try to be Solomon without submitting to Solomon. They want the authority, the power, the dominion—but without the yoke of complete submission to Christ. They want to exercise the silver and gold, the purple and the love—but only insofar as these serve their own purposes, their own will, their own advancement.
The chariot will not move for such a one. It will stand still. Dead. Useless. Because a chariot is not a destination. It is a means of movement. And movement requires submission to a will outside one’s own.
Others recognize they are called to be the horse—strength, beauty, power. They have not yet understood that the horse (as opposed to, comically, a specific donkey in Numbers 22:28) asks no questions. The horse does not negotiate the direction. The horse does not insist upon a say in where the chariot goes. The horse simply goes where the driver directs.
For such a one, the path ahead is the surrendering of independent will. It burns away the desire for personal recognition. It refines all that is false and corrupt, leaving only the pure strength that can serve without claiming the victory as its own.
Then there are those—the chosen, the Bride in the fullest sense—who have already begun to understand. They have seen the pillars of smoke emerging from the wilderness. They have recognized that the old economy is ending. They have begun to align their wills with His. They have started to grasp that true authority is never possessed independently, but always received and exercised as a steward of something far greater than oneself.
For such a one, the crowning approaches. Not the crowning of personal achievement, but the crowning of perfect union with Christ. The crowning that comes when all pretense is burned away, when all claim to independent righteousness is consumed in fire, when all that remains is the pure, refined submission of a will completely united with His.
The daughters of Zion will see this crowning. They will witness it. They will be forced to acknowledge it, even if they refuse to understand it.
Jer 25:27 Therefore thou shalt say unto them, Thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel; Drink ye, and be drunken, and spue, and fall, and rise no more, because of the sword which I will send among you.
Jer 25:28 And it shall be, if they refuse to take the cup at thine hand to drink, then shalt thou say unto them, Thus saith the LORD of hosts; Ye shall certainly drink.
You who have been called to be the Bride—are invited to participate. Not to watch from a distance. Not to stand outside and judge. But to become the very crown itself. To become the instrument through which Christ’s authority is manifest in the world. To become, in the fullest sense, the chariot through which His purposes are executed.
This is the destiny that the chariot of Solomon announces.
This awaits on the other side of the wilderness, when the pillars of smoke have passed and the moment of establishment arrives.
END OF PART 17b
The chariot is constructed. The Bride is crowned. And the daughters of Zion are called to behold—not in judgment, but in astonishment—the establishment of an authority that no human will, no carnal appetite, no murmuring voice can deny or deflect. The kingdom of Christ is being built, and His Bride is the very means through which it moves, transforms, and ultimately reconciles all creation back to its Maker.