Song of Solomon 5:1-9 – Part 9, The Bride Searches for Her Beloved

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Song of Solomon 5:1-9 – Part 9, The Bride Searches for Her Beloved

[Study Aired December 24, 2022]

[Ironically] And the LORD God called unto Adam, and said unto him, Where art thou? Gen 3:9

A young couple in love constantly think about each other and, when apart, rehearse the most arousing moments together in their minds. They lust for more sensual occasions and look for any excuse to be together. It is precisely what the Bride does today with her Lord. She doesn’t have to be told to remember to meet with her brothers and sisters since she is the iconic Shulamite spiritually aroused for her beloved as she “sees the day approaching”.  She seeks any excuse to sustain that arousal and magnify it for her wedding day, yet, not breach her wall, the hedge, and veil of her spiritual virginity until He pleases. After all, she is the Bride of Christ and has learned to rule her lusts and have them work for her righteous joy, not impatiently to serve the flesh.

Heb 10:19 Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus, 
Heb 10:20 By a new and living way, which he hath consecrated for us, through the veil, that is to say, his flesh;
Heb 10:21 And having an high priest over the house of God; 
Heb 10:22 Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and our bodies washed with pure water. 
Heb 10:23 Let us hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering; (for he is faithful that promised;) 
Heb 10:24 And let us consider one another to provoke unto love and to good works:
Heb 10:25 Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is; but exhorting one another: and so much the more, as ye see the day approaching.

Just as Adam and Eve were born into the earthly Paradise, the Garden of Eden, the Lord is coming to the spiritual Paradise with unity in spirit of the Father now in the Bride, the image of the heavenly.

The Lord, in the first verse of this study, is coming into His garden, His wife, His Sister, and His Spouse ~ in spirit, they all are one and the same.

Son 5:1 I am come into my garden, my sister, my spouse: I have gathered my myrrh with my spice; I have eaten my honeycomb with my honey; I have drunk my wine with my milk: eat, O friends; drink, yea, drink abundantly, O beloved. 

The Bride Searches for Her Beloved

Son 5:2 I sleep, but my heart waketh: it is the voice of my beloved that knocketh, saying, Open to me, my sister, my love, my dove, my undefiled: for my head is filled with dew, and my locks with the drops of the night. 
Son 5:3 I have put off my coat; how shall I put it on? I have washed my feet; how shall I defile them? 
Son 5:4 My beloved put in his hand by the hole of the door, and my bowels were moved for him. 
Son 5:5 I rose up to open to my beloved; and my hands dropped with myrrh, and my fingers with sweet smelling myrrh, upon the handles of the lock. 
Son 5:6 I opened to my beloved; but my beloved had withdrawn himself, and was gone: my soul failed when he spake: I sought him, but I could not find him; I called him, but he gave me no answer.
Son 5:7 The watchmen that went about the city found me, they smote me, they wounded me; the keepers of the walls took away my veil from me.
Son 5:8 I charge you, O daughters of Jerusalem, if ye find my beloved, that ye tell him, that I am sick of love. 
Son 5:9 What is thy beloved more than another beloved, O thou fairest among women? what is thy beloved more than another beloved, that thou dost so charge us? 

The Study:

Son 5:1 I am come into my garden, my sister, my spouse: I have gathered my myrrh with my spice; I have eaten my honeycomb with my honey; I have drunk my wine with my milk: eat, O friends; drink, yea, drink abundantly, O beloved.

In the past six thousand years, it is only recently that relatively wealthy nations have been given by God to attain higher standards of living and access to hygiene. For most of this time, society was agrarian-based, where beautiful perfumes and spices effectively redirected one’s mind from the ever-present odour of animal dung, urine and its host’s unique scent.

Myrrh, frankincense, spikenard and the various aromas of spices were expensive and not easily acquired. Since the mode of transport was by hoofed beasts along well-dunged paths and roadways, the dust mixed with these wastes boiled up from the hooves and covered everything with its pungency. This, mixed with human sweat, was the characteristic smell of all travellers, and those perfumes mentioned above brilliantly masked the earthy. Men’s and women’s natural body odours in those times were no doubt more easily tolerated than in today’s sterile environment.

In the Old Covenant and the Laws of Moses, the God-given human sweat and subsequent washings and applications of frankincense, spikenard, myrrh, and incense burning all depicted the vast difference between our Lord’s spiritual cleanliness and the self-righteousness of our works. They depicted our tortuous trials and progressions from the natural to the spiritual. Christ, in this first verse, has already been proven worthy by His Father, and the Bride now is gloriously ‘tortured’ with joyful anticipation for his hand to unbolt her door.

I have eaten my honeycomb with my honey; I have drunk my wine with my milk: eat, O friends; drink, yea, drink abundantly, O beloved.

As we all are well accustomed, wine in moderation physically and spiritually is a joy to man and God, as portrayed in,

Num 15:7 And for a drink offering thou shalt offer the third part of an hin of wine, for a sweet savour unto the LORD.

Ecc 10:19 A feast is made for laughter, and wine maketh merry: but money answereth all things.

Like the Bride’s mind, the Groom’s mind is on her, and he rarely thinks of anything other than his beautiful wife-to-be. His pre-wedding celebrations with his friends and drinking wine almost merge with breakfast (possibly fermented milk or curd), and as such, time is lost with these jubilations before travelling to be with his beloved. Neither did he have time to separate his honey from the honeycomb, so he ate it whole (for strength 1Sa 4:27).

For the Bride of Christ, her Lord is about to break his ‘breakfast’ that literally was for him, but for a short time. 

Rom 9:27 Esaias also crieth concerning Israel, Though the number of the children of Israel be as the sand of the sea, a remnant shall be saved: ~ the Bride of Christ.
Rom 9:28 For he will finish the work, and cut it short in righteousness: because a short work will the Lord make upon the earth.

In the God realm, that timeframe is very short, from Christ’s death on the cross to his wedding feast; he thus mixed his wine with his milk.

He drank milk and wine on earth in Palestine; thus, he symbolically mixed his wine, his spirit and his strong word with the weaker vessel, his Bride (milk), inclusive for the world and the beginning of the New Covenant. The Bride is the youngest, the “less” whom her elder sisters serve. She remembers being unskilful in her Lord’s (milk of the) word; now, she is blessed by being changed in spirit by her “better”, Christ. (Heb 5:12-13)

Heb 7:7 And indisputably, the lesser is blessed by the greater. (BSB)

Mat 26:29 But I say unto you, I will not drink henceforth of this fruit of the vine, until that day when I drink it new with you in my Father’s kingdom.

Son 5:2 I sleep, but my heart waketh: it is the voice of my beloved that knocketh, saying, Open to me, my sister, my love, my dove, my undefiled: for my head is filled with dew, and my locks with the drops of the night.
Son 5:3 I have put off my coat; how shall I put it on? I have washed my feet; how shall I defile them?

Rom 13:11 And that, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep: for now is our salvation nearer than when we believed.
Rom 13:12 The night is far spent, the day is at hand: let us therefore cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armour of light.

The Bride is washed, clean and sleepy. Sleep is often difficult for lovers as they think of little else but each other. However, the Shulamite has her lamp trimmed and filled with oil and is ready for the sound of horse’s hooves. With her heart pounding, she recognises the voice of the Shepherd.

Rev 3:20 Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me.
Rev 3:21 To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with my Father in his throne.

Our Lord has finished His work for the first fruits of the First Fruit in Him, and his short work in creating the Bride is barely finished; he has the odours of a traveller now mixed with the mist of the night condensed on his head and clothing. Upon the Bride opening the door to him, their first impulse would be an impassioned embrace and kisses; he is naturally somewhat abashed that his “undefiled” Bride is washed and elegantly perfumed, whereas his mist-laden hair and beard smell more of work on a threshing floor; a man wielding a sword against the wicked, even a potter working smelly clay. Incidentally, most women admire a working man dressed in his occupation’s attire, as his presentation says a lot about his honour and diligence in work that substantially makes him desirable (1Ti 5:8). Those mentioned physical labour’s scents, among the many not stated, all represent our Lord’s spiritual scent from His labours after having almost finished making the Bride whole. He and His Bride are about to enter their rest on the Seventh Day, the One Thousand Year reign, and she will be made equal with God under Him.

Jesus, upon having healed a man of his infirmity by the pool of Bethesda, says,

Joh 5:15 The man departed, and told the Jews that it was Jesus, which had made him whole. 
Joh 5:16 And therefore did the Jews persecute Jesus, and sought to slay him, because he had done these things on the sabbath day. 
Joh 5:17 But Jesus answered them, My Father worketh hitherto, and I work.
Joh 5:18 Therefore the Jews sought the more to kill him, because he not only had broken the sabbath, but said also that God was his Father, making himself equal with God.

The derivative of “Dew”, (H2929), is H2926, mentioned only once in scripture,

Upon Nehemiah rebuilding the walls of Jerusalem, the rebuilding represents the Bride’s former self, old Jerusalem, with the following verse’s many rich symbols to be teased at the Saint’s pleasure in Nehemiah 3.

Neh 3:15 But the gate of the fountain repaired Shallun the son of Colhozeh, the ruler of part of Mizpah; he built it, and covered[H2926] it, and set up the doors thereof, the locks thereof, and the bars thereof, and the wall of the pool of Siloah [shee-lo’-akh – fountain] by the king’s garden, and unto the stairs that go down from the city of David. 

The Bride in the Song of Solomon frequently refers to herself as a “garden”; her purity is ‘locked’, and she is a walled city with a drinking fountain, a pool of pure water covered by her Lord from spiritual contamination.

If we have lifted a well’s cover, we first note that condensation collects on its underside, distilled drops from the previous night. Solomon’s dewy head and beard are his wife’s covering of the pure pool of the Lord’s word within her as she receives his kisses that are better than wine.

…  I have put off my coat; how shall I put it on? I have washed my feet; how shall I defile them? 

Our gentile brother and sister Christians see that we are a peculiar people. We know that our Lord has washed our walk and made us holy; the Bride is undefiled and holy, though in the Song of Solomon the couple express the poetic earthy. The Shulamite imagines her beloved coming to her with the odours of travel, not realising (in her time and order) that her Groom was made pure two thousand years ago.

Son 5:4 My beloved put in his hand by the hole[H2356] of the door, and my bowels were moved for him.

A “hole of the door” is simply an entrance through a wall or into a cave. Ezekiel, in his visions of the abominations of Israel, in like manner spoke of a doorway as a “hole in the wall”.

Eze 8:7 And he brought me to the door of the court; and when I looked, behold a hole [H2356] in the wall. 
Eze 8:8 Then said he unto me, Son of man, dig now in the wall: and when I had digged in the wall, behold a door.

In her heightened state of anticipation for her Lord’s coming, the Bride lives with great hope and expectation; it is natural in the flesh to sometimes doubt that he would choose her above the other daughters of Jerusalem. As she waits patiently, she seems to stare at the door and imagines that her Lord came out of the dark misty night to her door and just as quickly departed. A deep dread embittered her emotions. Myrrh’s negative origin means “bitter”(H4843).

Interestingly, the name Smyrna equates with bitterness and is one of the seven churches in the creation process of the single Church within the Bride of Christ. In her carnal state in the Song of Solomon, she has moments of doubt and dreads the thought of the second death, yet her spiritual side, ironically, is dripping with myrrh’s exotic perfume synonymous with Christ, the spiritual Jew.

Rev 2:8 And unto the angel of the church in Smyrna write; These things saith the first and the last, which was dead, and is alive; 
Rev 2:9 I know thy works, and tribulation, and poverty, (but thou art rich) and I know the blasphemy of them which say they are Jews, and are not, but are the synagogue of Satan. 
Rev 2:10 Fear none of those things which thou shalt suffer: behold, the devil shall cast some of you into prison, that ye may be tried; and ye shall have tribulation ten days: be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee a crown of life. 
Rev 2:11 He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches; He that overcometh shall not be hurt of the second death.

Son 5:5 I rose up to open to my beloved; and my hands dropped with myrrh, and my fingers with sweet smelling myrrh, upon the handles of the lock. 
Son 5:6 I opened to my beloved; but my beloved had withdrawn himself, and was gone: my soul failed when he spake: I sought him, but I could not find him; I called him, but he gave me no answer.

Rev 3:20 Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me.

For the Elect of God, the Shulamite’s intensely romantic fantasies are with them when they have jubilantly enjoyed the taste of Christ, the heavenly gift, and sometimes doubts about their calling momentarily cross their imaginations. The sweet-smelling myrrh of Christ’s word and her following His commandments are the spiritual works of her hands dripping because of the overflowing abundance of his word. With her hands wet with myrrh, He has given her sole right to unlock that which is locked.

Rev 3:7 And to the angel of the church in Philadelphia write; These things saith he that is holy, he that is true, he that hath the key of David, he that openeth, and no man shutteth; and shutteth, and no man openeth; 
Rev 3:8 I know thy works: behold, I have set before thee an open door, and no man can shut it: for thou hast a little strength, and hast kept my word, and hast not denied my name.

Mat 13:11 He answered and said unto them, Because it is given unto you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it is not given.

The Lord guarantees His Elect trials following their opening of the door to Him, and it seems after many years and weariness in their ninth hour, they feel abandoned as Christ experienced on the cross. King David often despaired for the Lord’s seeming withdrawal, most strikingly in all of Psalms 22.

Psa 22:1 To the chief Musician upon Aijeleth Shahar, A Psalm of David. My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? why art thou so far from helping me, and from the words of my roaring?

Mat 27:45 Now from the sixth hour there was darkness over all the land unto the ninth hour.
Mat 27:46 And about the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying, Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani? [G4518 – Phonetic: sab-akh-than-ee’– Definition: 1. thou hast forsaken me] that is to say, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?

The seeming abandonment of us by our Lord exercises our faith muscles. From experience, our increasing God-given maturity by the shrewdness of Christ keeps our eyes on Him even in the depths of despair in the temporary prison of our trials.

Pro 1:20 Wisdom crieth without; she uttereth her voice in the streets: 
Pro 1:21 She crieth in the chief place of concourse, in the openings of the gates: in the city she uttereth her words, saying, 
Pro 1:22 How long, ye simple ones, will ye love simplicity? [as opposed to His shrewd designs working in us] and the scorners delight in their scorning, and fools hate knowledge? 
Pro 1:23 Turn you at my reproof: behold, I will pour out my spirit unto you, I will make known my words unto you. 
Pro 1:24 Because I have called, and ye refused; I have stretched out my hand, and no man regarded; 
Pro 1:25 But ye have set at nought all my counsel, and would none of my reproof: 
Pro 1:26 I also will laugh at your calamity; I will mock when your fear cometh; 
Pro 1:27 When your fear cometh as desolation, and your destruction cometh as a whirlwind; when distress and anguish cometh upon you.
Pro 1:28 Then shall they call upon me, but I will not answer; they shall seek me early, but they shall not find me:
Pro 1:29 For that they hated knowledge, and did not choose the fear of the LORD: 
Pro 1:30 They would none of my counsel: they despised all my reproof. 
Pro 1:31 Therefore shall they eat of the fruit of their own way, and be filled with their own devices. 
Pro 1:32 For the turning away of the simple shall slay them, and the prosperity of fools shall destroy them. 
Pro 1:33 But whoso hearkeneth unto me shall dwell safely, and shall be quiet from fear of evil. 

The entire process of creating the New Adam, the Bride of Christ, is rich with a turbulent birthing, yet, a known end keeps her focused on her Lord.

Jer 29:11 For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the LORD, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end.
Jer 29:12 Then shall ye call upon me, and ye shall go and pray unto me, and I will hearken unto you.
Jer 29:13 And ye shall seek me, and find me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart.
Jer 29:14 And I will be found of you, saith the LORD: and I will turn away your captivity, and I will gather you from all the nations, and from all the places whither I have driven you, saith the LORD; and I will bring you again into the place whence I caused you to be carried away captive.

The Shulamite knows that her Lord will answer since she implicitly believes His word for the expected end. The drama continues to amplify her anticipatory arousal for her husband.

Son 5:7 The watchmen that went about the city found me, they smote me, they wounded me; the keepers of the walls took away my veil from me.

The Bride is fully aware that she is one of the “watchmen” continually looking for enemies within. She was wounded by her brothers and sisters, her other watchmen of the New Jerusalem, for the love they expressed during her many failings of nakedness in their presence. Her Lord’s word had wounded her, for seventy times seven times, she was forgiven. The veil of her flesh is about to be fully removed before entering into spiritually consummative unveiled holiness in her Lord.

Mat 27:51 And, behold, the veil of the temple was rent in twain from the top to the bottom; and the earth did quake, and the rocks rent;
Mat 27:52 And the graves were opened; and many bodies of the saints [the Bride] which slept arose.

Not long ago, the Bride’s Lord went before her in the like manner with his mother, Mary, asking the gardener where he was laid.

Son 5:8 I charge you, O daughters of Jerusalem, if ye find my beloved, that ye tell him, that I am sick of love. 
Son 5:9 What is thy beloved more than another beloved, O thou fairest among women? what is thy beloved more than another beloved, that thou dost so charge us?

The Elect of God doesn’t need their Babylonian sisters, the daughters of Jerusalem, to tell them where Christ is or that they are lovesick for him. The spirit of the occasion is similar to Joseph indiscreetly rubbing his ten brother’s nose’s in his God-given sovereignty.

The camp of Israel, our Babylonian Christian brothers and sisters, are given no regard for the first and holy resurrection; they gleefully parrot that they are all saved anyway, so what’s the big deal?

Jer 4:22 For my people [the camp of Israel] is foolish, they have not known me; they are sottish [foolish] children, and they have none understanding: they are wise to do evil, but to do good they have no knowledge.

Joh 15:18 If the world hate you, ye know that it hated me before it hated you. 
Joh 15:19 If ye were of the world, the world would love his own: but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you. 
Joh 15:20 Remember the word that I said unto you, The servant is not greater than his lord. If they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you; if they have kept my saying, they will keep yours also.
Joh 15:21 But all these things will they do unto you for my name’s sake, because they know not him that sent me.
Joh 15:22 If I had not come and spoken unto them, they had not had sin: but now they have no cloke for their sin.
Joh 15:23 He that hateth me hateth my Father also.
Joh 15:24 If I had not done among them the works which none other man did, they had not had sin: but now have they both seen and hated both me and my Father.
Joh 15:25 But this cometh to pass, that the word might be fulfilled that is written in their law, They hated me without a cause.
Joh 15:26 But when the Comforter is come, whom I will send unto you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth, which proceedeth from the Father, he shall testify of me:
Joh 15:27 And ye also shall bear witness, because ye have been with me from the beginning.

Isa 46:9 Remember the former things of old: for I am God, and there is none else; I am God, and there is none like me, 
Isa 46:10 Declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times the things that are not yet done, saying, My counsel shall stand, and I will do all my pleasure: 

The irony is that in the beginning, it was the Lord searching for Adam, and now at the end, it is the Bride in a lovesick search for her Lord ~ tongue-in-cheek, on both occasions, each knew where the other was.

Every husband delights in an engaging and enthusiastic wife, his fruitful ‘garden’.

Son 5:1 I am come into my garden, my sister, my spouse: I have gathered my myrrh with my spice; I have eaten my honeycomb with my honey; I have drunk my wine with my milk: eat, O friends; drink, yea, drink abundantly, O beloved. 

… and we do!

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