Bible Lessons

From: Messages of God's Love: 1933

The Song of Solomon 4

ONE is impressed with the thought that this chapter answers to the promise in Isaiah 53:11¹¹He shall see of the travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied: by his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many; for he shall bear their iniquities. (Isaiah 53:11),

“He shall see of the travail of His soul, and shall be satisfied.”

That Scripture cannot be fulfilled in its entirety until, not only the Church and other heavenly saints, but the earthly saints, Israel and saved Gentiles (Revelation 15:2-4²And I saw as it were a sea of glass mingled with fire: and them that had gotten the victory over the beast, and over his image, and over his mark, and over the number of his name, stand on the sea of glass, having the harps of God. ³And they sing the song of Moses the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb, saying, Great and marvellous are thy works, Lord God Almighty; just and true are thy ways, thou King of saints. ⁴Who shall not fear thee, O Lord, and glorify thy name? for thou only art holy: for all nations shall come and worship before thee; for thy judgments are made manifest. (Revelation 15:2‑4); Matthew 25:31-40, 46³¹When the Son of man shall come in his glory, and all the holy angels with him, then shall he sit upon the throne of his glory: ³²And before him shall be gathered all nations: and he shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats: ³³And he shall set the sheep on his right hand, but the goats on the left. ³⁴Then shall the King say unto them on his right hand, Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world: ³⁵For I was an hungred, and ye gave me meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink: I was a stranger, and ye took me in: ³⁶Naked, and ye clothed me: I was sick, and ye visited me: I was in prison, and ye came unto me. ³⁷Then shall the righteous answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee an hungred, and fed thee? or thirsty, and gave thee drink? ³⁸When saw we thee a stranger, and took thee in? or naked, and clothed thee? ³⁹Or when saw we thee sick, or in prison, and came unto thee? ⁴⁰And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me. (Matthew 25:31‑40)
⁴⁶And these shall go away into everlasting punishment: but the righteous into life eternal. (Matthew 25:46); Micah 4:1-6¹But in the last days it shall come to pass, that the mountain of the house of the Lord shall be established in the top of the mountains, and it shall be exalted above the hills; and people shall flow unto it. ²And many nations shall come, and say, Come, and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, and to the house of the God of Jacob; and he will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths: for the law shall go forth of Zion, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. ³And he shall judge among many people, and rebuke strong nations afar off; and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruninghooks: nation shall not lift up a sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more. ⁴But they shall sit every man under his vine and under his fig tree; and none shall make them afraid: for the mouth of the Lord of hosts hath spoken it. ⁵For all people will walk every one in the name of his god, and we will walk in the name of the Lord our God for ever and ever. ⁶In that day, saith the Lord, will I assemble her that halteth, and I will gather her that is driven out, and her that I have afflicted; (Micah 4:1‑6), etc.) are brought into the full blessing designed for them by God, and won for them by Christ’s atoning death.

The desire of the Bridegroom (chapter 2:14) was to see the face of His chosen; chapter 4 shows, in prospect, the fulfilment of that desire. Seven (the number of spiritual completeness in Scripture) things about the earthly bride are noted in speaking of her beauty in His sight. May we be able to grasp their spiritual meaning.

Eyes like a dove surely suggest that the character represented by the dove in Scripture is to be seen in these Jewish believers—the clean dove finds no rest amid the corruption in which the unclean raven is at home (Gen. 8). Christ’s words to His disciples were, “Be ye ... .harmless (guileless) as doves.” Matthew 10:16¹⁶Behold, I send you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves: be ye therefore wise as serpents, and harmless as doves. (Matthew 10:16). In Leviticus the dove or pigeon is mentioned repeatedly as acceptable to God as an offering for sin under the law, and Matthew, Mark, Luke and John record the Holy Spirit’s descending upon Christ at His baptism as like a dove.

Hair as a flock of goats on the slopes of Mount Gilead is believed to refer to the long hair of the Nazarites (Numbers 6), separated to God from the attractions of the world.

Teeth (verse 2) like a flock of shorn sheep, etc., the context appears to show, tell of purity within in full measure. (How different from Acts 7:54⁵⁴When they heard these things, they were cut to the heart, and they gnashed on him with their teeth. (Acts 7:54)).

Lips and speech (verse 3) are fashioned anew for His praise.

The temples (upper cheeks) as a piece of a pomegranate, may refer to fruitfulness, which the pomegranate represents in Scripture. May we not then connect verse 3 with Ephesians 5: 19, 20, and Colossians 3:16¹⁶Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom; teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord. (Colossians 3:16)?

Neck like the tower of David (verse 4) speaks of security with God against the power of Satan (see 1 Peter 1:5⁵Who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. (1 Peter 1:5)).

The breasts like roes (fawns of a gazelle) which feed among the lilies, tell of affection for the Lord, and toward His people who are the lilies (chapter 2:1, 2, 16. See 1 John 5:1¹Whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ is born of God: and every one that loveth him that begat loveth him also that is begotten of him. (1 John 5:1)).

Beloved Christian reader, have we all of these seven characteristics in full display?

The Bridegroom waits until the day dawns, and the shadows dee away (verse 6). Then will He come to the help of His people who will be waiting for Him. Meanwhile He abides where the prayers and praises of the saints are incense (Revelation 5:9⁹And they sung a new song, saying, Thou art worthy to take the book, and to open the seals thereof: for thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation; (Revelation 5:9)). There He has gone in the virtue and power of His work on the cross, and in the fragrance (see Psalm 45:8⁸All thy garments smell of myrrh, and aloes, and cassia, out of the ivory palaces, whereby they have made thee glad. (Psalm 45:8) and Exodus 30:34-38³⁴And the Lord said unto Moses, Take unto thee sweet spices, stacte, and onycha, and galbanum; these sweet spices with pure frankincense: of each shall there be a like weight: ³⁵And thou shalt make it a perfume, a confection after the art of the apothecary, tempered together, pure and holy: ³⁶And thou shalt beat some of it very small, and put of it before the testimony in the tabernacle of the congregation, where I will meet with thee: it shall be unto you most holy. ³⁷And as for the perfume which thou shalt make, ye shall not make to yourselves according to the composition thereof: it shall be unto thee holy for the Lord. ³⁸Whosoever shall make like unto that, to smell thereto, shall even be cut off from his people. (Exodus 30:34‑38)) of His matchless life and God glorifying, sin-atoning death.

Verse 7 is a fresh call to the bride. Her bridegroom a second time tells her she is all fair, all beautiful, and adds, “and there is no spot in thee.” Most comforting to the troubled Jewish saints will these words be when they are in the lions’ dens, and the mountains of the leopards—apt figures for the fearful persecution which the believing Jews will experience (Matthew 24:9-22⁹Then shall they deliver you up to be afflicted, and shall kill you: and ye shall be hated of all nations for my name's sake. ¹⁰And then shall many be offended, and shall betray one another, and shall hate one another. ¹¹And many false prophets shall rise, and shall deceive many. ¹²And because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold. ¹³But he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved. ¹⁴And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come. ¹⁵When ye therefore shall see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, stand in the holy place, (whoso readeth, let him understand:) ¹⁶Then let them which be in Judea flee into the mountains: ¹⁷Let him which is on the housetop not come down to take any thing out of his house: ¹⁸Neither let him which is in the field return back to take his clothes. ¹⁹And woe unto them that are with child, and to them that give suck in those days! ²⁰But pray ye that your flight be not in the winter, neither on the sabbath day: ²¹For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be. ²²And except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved: but for the elect's sake those days shall be shortened. (Matthew 24:9‑22)).

He bids the bride come with Him from Lebanon, the range of mountains near the Mediterranean sea north of Palestine, to look from the top of Amana (believed to be one of the northern peaks of the range east of the Lebanon), from the top of Senir (apparently to the south of Amana and one of the lesser peaks of Hermon), and from Hermon, the continually snow clad mountain which far exceeds in height (9,381 feet above the sea) all other mountains of the Holy Land. All these heights are in the north, near and beyond Damascus. (See Deuteronomy 34:1-6¹And Moses went up from the plains of Moab unto the mountain of Nebo, to the top of Pisgah, that is over against Jericho. And the Lord showed him all the land of Gilead, unto Dan, ²And all Naphtali, and the land of Ephraim, and Manasseh, and all the land of Judah, unto the utmost sea, ³And the south, and the plain of the valley of Jericho, the city of palm trees, unto Zoar. ⁴And the Lord said unto him, This is the land which I sware unto Abraham, unto Isaac, and unto Jacob, saying, I will give it unto thy seed: I have caused thee to see it with thine eyes, but thou shalt not go over thither. ⁵So Moses the servant of the Lord died there in the land of Moab, according to the word of the Lord. ⁶And he buried him in a valley in the land of Moab, over against Beth-peor: but no man knoweth of his sepulchre unto this day. (Deuteronomy 34:1‑6) where Moses viewed the land from the east, though he could not enter it).

Space prevents our consideration here of verses 9 to 15, the outpouring of the love of Christ for His people, the Jews, who will be converted at last. The language is figurative, yet the land of Israel, when blessed in the Millennium will be the most fertile land in the world.

The bride answers in verse 16, in language which we believe refers, in the north wind and south wind to the Holy Spirit without Whom the “garden’s spices” would not “flow forth.” She invites her Beloved to come into His garden and eat its precious fruits, and the next chapter brings Him there.

ML 02/12/1933

Click here to show subject links in the text for more information.