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Song of Solomon 4:1-16 – Part 8, Solomon Admires His Bride’s Beauty

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Song of Solomon 4:1-16 – Part 8, Solomon Admires His Bride’s Beauty

[Study Aired December 17, 2022]

Eph 5:27  “That he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish.”

Saints, both men and women, think about this: Since you are becoming Christs, imagine being the Lord himself and it is given to you by the Father to create the most perfect wife for yourself. How would she appear in mind and body? 

The answer to the above is that we are given the pattern of the heavenly, and by the Lord’s guidance, create such a magnificent woman with fear and trembling! The Bible is Christ’s pattern for her to be born as the Bride. The Bride’s mind is her body since the outer body reflects her spiritual mind. Her entire ensemble began in Eden and consummates with her wedding. The Song of Solomon is her response in perfect spiritually erotic charm for His pleasure ~ the perfect (virtuous) wife.

Our Lord, by Solomon’s imaginative poetry, admires his Bride’s beauty of his handiwork from conception through the fiery trials of life and the imminence of marriage.

It is well documented in the previous seven studies that a world hell-bent on overemphasizing physical erotica is looking in the opposite direction to maximize its salacious lust. Intrinsically in men and women is their God-given programming to be attracted to their sexual opposite. For the Lord’s purpose, there are all sorts of distortions of attraction that nature cannot sustain, no matter how hard its contenders loudly proclaim their ‘rights’. It is overwhelmingly inherent for boys and girls with parents who don’t attempt to rewire their child’s gender that boys play and act like boys, and girls likewise as girls. Certainly, there are minimal natural anomalies with genders that the Lord wills via His crooked Serpent to facilitate mankind to conjure other sexual possibilities for the degradation of the naturally erotic. Those exceptions are just as destructive to humanity as any other disregard for God’s word.

As we well know, the immutable fact is,

1Co 11:8-9  For the man is not of the woman; but the woman of the man. Neither was the man created for the woman; but the woman for the man.

It means that the very small dedicated Church was made for Christ in marriage and, subsequently, all remaining humanity depicted as their children.

Gen 2:18  And the LORD God said, It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him an help meet for him. 

Gen 2:21 And the LORD God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam, and he slept: and he took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh instead thereof; 
Gen 2:22 And the rib, which the LORD God had taken from man, made he a woman, and brought her unto the man. 
Gen 2:23 And Adam said, This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh: she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man. 
Gen 2:24 Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh. 
Gen 2:25 And they were both naked, the man and his wife, and were not ashamed.

The physical difference between a man and a woman and how the other’s brain is wired causes them to be naturally attracted to each other. The overarching missing link is the Lord’s more significant gift of His spirit that makes a husband and wife supremely one in Christ. It is why the Shulamite’s arousal is so focused on Him. Her utter submission to Him, she discovered (given by Him), intensified her every ‘happy hormone’ beyond what any man-devised erotica imagined or drug could hope to duplicate! We would need far more imagination than the Shulamite to fantasize about what the Lord has for us in eternity once His spirit is fully us. The “deep things of God” bring us to the marriage, yet we have very little idea of what He has for us beyond the Eighth Day, which excites the Bride with additional anticipation. A glimpse is for us to have the ability to move like lightning in any direction without turning (Eze 1). Yet, where do we go, and what do we do with our Husband in that mind boggling spiritual body beyond the Eight Day? We have little idea.

In the meantime, we will continue to study our responses to our Husband, who has written for us for our immense intrigue.

In this study of Chapter 4, the Shulamite is in a state of unspeakable belief in every word of her Lord’s adoring speech. The fact that the Lord chose her and not one of the other symbolic 1,000 gorgeous women speaks for itself, even though she knows she didn’t have one smidgeon of input for her beauty ~ it is all for and by Him for the Father’s glory.

Solomon Admires His Bride’s Beauty

Son 4:1 Behold, thou art fair, my love; behold, thou art fair; thou hast doves’ eyes within thy locks: thy hair is as a flock of goats, that appear from mount Gilead. 
Son 4:2 Thy teeth are like a flock of sheep that are even shorn, which came up from the washing; whereof every one bear twins, and none is barren among them.
Son 4:3 Thy lips are like a thread of scarlet, and thy speech is comely: thy temples are like a piece of a pomegranate within thy locks.
Son 4:4 Thy neck is like the tower of David builded for an armoury, whereon there hang a thousand bucklers, all shields of mighty men.
Son 4:5 Thy two breasts are like two young roes that are twins, which feed among the lilies.
Son 4:6 Until the day break, and the shadows flee away, I will get me to the mountain of myrrh, and to the hill of frankincense.
Son 4:7 Thou art all fair, my love; there is no spot in thee. 
Son 4:8 Come with me from Lebanon, my spouse, with me from Lebanon: look from the top of Amana, from the top of Shenir and Hermon, from the lions’ dens, from the mountains of the leopards. 
Son 4:9 Thou hast ravished my heart, my sister, my spouse; thou hast ravished my heart with one of thine eyes, with one chain of thy neck. 
Son 4:10 How fair is thy love, my sister, my spouse! how much better is thy love than wine! and the smell of thine ointments than all spices! 
Son 4:11 Thy lips, O my spouse, drop as the honeycomb: honey and milk are under thy tongue; and the smell of thy garments is like the smell of Lebanon. 
Son 4:12 A garden inclosed is my sister, my spouse; a spring shut up, a fountain sealed. 
Son 4:13 Thy plants are an orchard of pomegranates, with pleasant fruits; camphire, with spikenard,
Son 4:14 Spikenard and saffron; calamus and cinnamon, with all trees of frankincense; myrrh and aloes, with all the chief spices: 
Son 4:15 A fountain of gardens, a well of living waters, and streams from Lebanon. 

Together in the Garden of Love

Son 4:16 Awake, O north wind; and come, thou south; blow upon my garden, that the spices thereof may flow out. Let my beloved come into his garden, and eat his pleasant fruits. 

Irrefutably, the Lord made the woman for the man, and she is a shadow of His Church (1Co 11:1-16), the Bride of Christ being made for him and the rest of humanity, their children.

In the prior studies of the Song of Solomon, it was cited that the Lord clearly made a woman’s every physical detail a delight for the man. Not only is her outward impression particularly inviting, but if her mind is the mind of Christ, as it should be, every physical detail and speech amplifies her beauty by leaps and bounds. As the husband should be God’s image in all spiritual understanding and is God’s glory, such an equally spiritually yoked couple is a match made in heaven! 

1Co 11:7 For a man indeed ought not to cover his head, forasmuch as he is the image and glory of God: but the woman is the glory of the man.

Intrinsically in women is their desire to nurture and highlight every element of their natural beauty and subdue the inelegant features. To many, it is torturous to present themselves with makeup and have their hair look its best, with touchups throughout the day. Men are particularly glad that they make an effort. From a spiritually truthful standpoint, the Babylonian adage is interesting, “if a woman’s hair looks good, so does the rest of her.” Our former Babylonian way didn’t know that saying symbolically agrees with the Lord’s order of headship with Him as her covering.

For the Lord, what counts as beauty is a person’s spiritual understanding and his God-given ability to walk in and do the will of God. The Shulamite’s utter submission to her husband amplifies her every bodily feature for his accumulative spiritual arousal.

1Pe 3:2 While they behold your chaste conversation coupled with fear. 
1Pe 3:3 Whose adorning let it not be that outward adorning of plaiting the hair, and of wearing of gold, or of putting on of apparel;
1Pe 3:4 But let it be the hidden man of the heart, in that which is not corruptible, even the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit, which is in the sight of God of great price. 
1Pe 3:5 For after this manner in the old time the holy women also, who trusted in God, adorned themselves, being in subjection unto their own husbands:

The Lord’s spirit within, from years of study, with relative ease discerns the spiritual meanings of the Bride’s bodily features in Chapter 4 (e.g. Eyes – spiritual understanding; Twin washed white sheep – witness; fruitfulness; etc.). We could, for example, attain a quasi-spiritual correlation with the word “goats” and the Lord’s goat and heavenly sacrifices for no significant spiritual benefit and make this series even more rhetorical. I hope to tease out the concealed spirit and clarify the metaphors at the Lord’s will rather than restate the spiritually obvious in verses 2 – 8.

Thy hair is as a flock of goats, that appear from Mount Gilead.

We can only guess Solomon’s vivid imagination of why his Bride’s hair looks like a flock of goats on Mt Gilead. Sheep and goats follow each other on well-worn trails they make by constantly walking the same path. They walk on different meandering paths loosely parallel to each other, and thus, his Bride’s hair looks like wavy tendrils cascading down her head, Mount Gilead. With exceptional imagination, if the Bride, with a typical female action, runs her hands through her wavy hair and gently shakes her head, her hair cascades like trails of thousands of goats running in fits and starts down the small ravines and gullies of Mount Gilead. Such are those tantalising nuances of female actions they are unaware of that captivate a male, particularly Christ, for their spiritual connections.

Gilead is a resource-rich and beautiful part of Lebanon. The derivative meaning of Gilead is H1567 means, witness heap; the pile of stones heaped up between Jacob and Laban to certify their covenant; located on Mt Gilead. (H1530 – heap, spring, wave, billow a. heap (of stones) 1. over dead body 2. alone 3. used in ratifying a covenant b. waves (fig. Of chastisement of Jehovah) c. spring).

We can see that the Bride’s hair is wavy; she is a pillar in the Temple of God, a daily sacrifice. She is beautiful and bountiful, like the sweet-smelling mountains and valleys of Lebanon’s richness.

The most outstanding spiritual aspect of Chapter 4 is that the Bride has been a sacrifice without blemish spiritually; she is given to be spotless.

Son 4:7 Thou art all fair, my love; there is no spot in thee. 

Exo 12:5 Your lamb shall be without blemish [H8549], a male of the first year: ye shall take it out from the sheep, or from the goats:

In Ephesians 5, regarding husbands loving their wives and him presenting to himself as Christ, his wife washed by the word without blemish, that “blemish” is:

Eph 5:27 That he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish [G299].

Every aspect of the Shulamite’s physical body represents a spiritual correlation. Even a babe in Christ can easily reference the spiritual reality of most shadows of the Bride’s body. What Christ has presented to himself in Song of Solomon chapter 4 is His wife washed by His word and her sins having been made white as snow.

Son 4:9 Thou hast ravished [H3823] my heart, my sister, my spouse; thou hast ravished my heart with one of thine eyes, with one chain of thy neck. 

The primary point of the Groom being ravished is in the erotic sense since the term refers to his pounding heart for his spiritual arousal for her sole devotion to Him. 

H3824, this verse in Nahum, refers to breasts for the sake of a different connection for being ravished. A denotative of H3823 relating to being ravished sexually is H3824 for “breasts” in foreplay depicted as a dove’s breasts and throats pulsating (like a heartbeat) to its ceaseless calls. As such, the couple’s hearts are ‘ravished’ like the sound of two doves rhythmically out of sync calling to each other.

Nah 2:7 And Huzzab shall be led away captive, she shall be brought up, and her maids shall lead her as with the voice of doves, tabering [meaning to play or sound the timbrel, beat, play upon, drum on a timbrel or other object] upon their breasts [H3824].

In the process of the Bride being spiritually ravished by her Lord’s word, she has become spotless and without blemish, as the derivative H3824 with its multiple meanings refers. For us, where the rhythmic play of flesh profits nothing, the spirit is life and is the most significant meaning.

Continuing to explore the term “ravished” where its positive and negative meanings are starkly polarised: The Church can be ravished positively always with the truth of her echoing the dove-like call of her Lord’s word and he back to her. In the negative, a deceptive shepherd, too, can echo the Lord’s words that cause the laity to go astray.

Pro 5:18 Let thy fountain be blessed: and rejoice with the wife of thy youth. 
Pro 5:19 Let her be as the loving hind and pleasant roe; let her breasts satisfy thee at all times; and be thou ravished [H7686] always with her love.

How fitting in the negative that the delights of a woman’s body can lead us astray, as we know happened to us while in Babylon being fed the milk of the word as we lay with some of the nominal 46,000 Christian churches.

Speaking of the destruction of Babylon and especially within, in the following verse:

Isa 13:15 Every one that is found shall be thrust through; and every one that is joined unto them shall fall by the sword [word of God]. 
Isa 13:16  Their children also shall be dashed to pieces before their eyes; their houses shall be spoiled, and their wives ravished [H7901 – to lie down sexually; H7693 – to violate, ravish; copulate]. 

Continuing…

Son 4:11 Thy lips, O my spouse, drop as the honeycomb: honey and milk are under thy tongue; and the smell of thy garments is like the smell of Lebanon.

The word of our Lord is sweet to us, as is honeycomb, and for us to poetically succumb in pure love to milk as opposed to the strong meat of the word in lovemaking is more fitting for this occasion.

Positively:

Pro 16:23 The heart of the wise teacheth his mouth, and addeth learning to his lips. 
Pro 16:24 Pleasant words are as an honeycomb, sweet to the soul, and health to the bones.

Negatively:

Pro 5:1 My son, attend unto my wisdom, and bow thine ear to my understanding: 
Pro 5:2 That thou mayest regard discretion, and that thy lips may keep knowledge.
Pro 5:3 For the lips of a strange woman drop as an honeycomb, and her mouth is smoother than oil: 
Pro 5:4 But her end is bitter as wormwood, sharp as a twoedged sword.

The smell of death to the flesh, which was the Bride’s former garment, allegorically doesn’t sound too inviting, yet, to our Lord, it is now like the smell of Lebanon, a sweet savour.

Son 4:12 A garden inclosed is my sister, my spouse; a spring shut up, a fountain sealed. 

The Bride’s “garden” (H1588 – enclosure; enclosed garden;) is her virginity sealed for the day of her marriage; she is protected by a hedge of the Lord’s word. Likewise, the Garden of Eden was sealed for Adam and Eve until sin manifested by them taking the forbidden fruit. Initially, Adam and Eve were sealed within the garden with its hedged borders that protected them from the ravagings of the world beyond. Upon being cast out of the garden, their return was prevented by an Angel with a flaming sword until the Bride of Christ was made worthy to be the new heavenly garden.

Gen 3:24 So he drove out the man; and he placed at the east of the garden of Eden Cherubims, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to keep the way of the tree of life.

She now is that spiritual Garden of Eden, about to be no longer sealed to produce a change in the rest of humanity, from her fountain of the bountiful spiritual fruit of her Lord’s word, his weapons that will turn every way that will soon enforce the tree of life.

… A fountain sealed. 

There are several derivative meanings for “fountain”; the one in that verse is H4599, which means 1. Spring.

Eve is the original mother of all living; from her ‘fountain’ springs all humanity. The Bride of Christ is the final fountain of life eternal through her Lord and from her springs the salvation of the rest of humanity. For the moment, in the Song of Solomon, she is a sealed virgin for her wedding day, and her consummation brings forth a fountain of living waters for her children on the Eighth Day.

Joh 4:14 But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life.

Son 4:13 Thy plants are an orchard of pomegranates, with pleasant fruits; camphire, with spikenard,

The above metaphors depict the course of the Bride’s life that has created her into the beauty she is for her wedding day.

Together in the Garden of Love

Son 4:16 Awake, O north wind; and come, thou south; blow upon my garden, that the spices thereof may flow out. Let my beloved come into his garden, and eat his pleasant fruits.

The cold frosty winds of the north are not too long gone, as are the southerly whirlwinds (incidentally, it is all reversed in the southern hemisphere) on the turbulent days of her creation. Now the gentle summer breeze for the reality of her Lord’s pressing closeness wells up the floral perfumes of her spiritual arousals from the south; they call out, and his answers are symphonic – like doves to each other.

The Bride imagines her beloved above her; he resides to her north of the garden of love that she is. The judgment from the north has done its work within her ever since she was found naked in the field in her blood. The dichotomy of the north wind of her Lord’s breath, formally judgment, became a gentle floral, arousing summer breeze from the south. 

Just as Adam and Eve discovered, biologically and spiritually for our bodies, trouble comes from the south; in this case, our pudenda, when we disobey the Lord’s word. The parable now is that Her Lord’s southern summer breeze of his breath is now soft upon her face, lips and every part of her body, the ‘earth’, the fruitful garden that blooms in luxurious spiritual expressions. 

As judgment came from the north to Job, it was and is a blessing for us all as the Lord blesses us spiritually upon our repentance. The Lord causes us to not fear walking in the coals of fiery conversion that we eventually see, as did Job is a blessing.

The Bride in the Song of Solomon most profoundly sees the totality of her life of struggles about-face, now flowering in her with and by her Lord.

Job 37:9 Out of the south cometh the whirlwind: and cold out of the north. 
Job 37:10 By the breath of God frost is given: and the breadth of the waters is straitened. 
Job 37:11 Also by watering he wearieth the thick cloud: he scattereth his bright cloud: 
Job 37:12 And it is turned round about by his counsels: that they may do whatsoever he commandeth them upon the face of the world in the earth. 
Job 37:13 He causeth it to come, whether for correction, or for his land, or for mercy. 
Job 37:14 Hearken unto this, O Job: stand still, and consider the wondrous works of God. 
Job 37:15 Dost thou know when God disposed them, and caused the light of his cloud to shine? 
Job 37:16 Dost thou know the balancings of the clouds, the wondrous works of him which is perfect in knowledge? 
Job 37:17 How thy garments are warm, when he quieteth the earth by the south wind? 
Job 37:18 Hast thou with him spread out the sky, which is strong, and as a molten looking glass? 
Job 37:19 Teach us what we shall say unto him; for we cannot order our speech by reason of darkness. 
Job 37:20 Shall it be told him that I speak? if a man speak, surely he shall be swallowed up. 
Job 37:21 And now men see not the bright light which is in the clouds: but the wind passeth, and cleanseth them. 
Job 37:22 Fair weather cometh out of the north: with God is terrible [awe-filled] majesty.
Job 37:23 Touching the Almighty, we cannot find him out: he is excellent in power, and in judgment, and in plenty of justice: he will not afflict. 
Job 37:24 Men do therefore fear him: he respecteth not any that are wise of heart.

In a loving embrace with her Lord, the enigma of his fair-weather from the north mixes with his gentle breeze from her south into a passionate whirlwind of blissful spiritual delights, transporting them up into the heavens or eternal love. That is how His garments to her are warm as he “quieteth” her earth through the paradox of intense spiritual arousal by His south wind upon her perfumed fruitful garden.

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