8-17-12. Song of Songs 1:1-2:7. ROSE OF SHARON-devotional

Key Verse: 1:8

Kevin Jesmer NIU UBF

^“If you do not know, most beautiful of women, follow the tracks of the sheep and graze your young goats by the tents of the shepherds.”

Dear Lord Jesus, thank you for being with me and helping me each day to walk by faith and not by sight. Thank you for protecting me and my family from the deceptions of this world and helping us to live as Christians. Lord, I pray that you continue to be with us and grow us and mature us in faith. I pray that you heal Jennifer as she recovers from wisdom tooth extraction. Help her to recover fully. Lord, please open our hearts to you each day. Help us to learn many things through our study of the Song of Solomon. Illumine my heart with your word. I pray in Jesus’ name. Amen!

1. Rose of Sharon; Lily of the Valley (1:1-2:2).

Verses 1:1 – 2:2, “Solomon’s Song of Songs. She ² Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth— for your love is more delightful than wine. ³ Pleasing is the fragrance of your perfumes; your name is like perfume poured out. No wonder the young women love you! ⁴ Take me away with you—let us hurry! Let the king bring me into his chambers. Friends We rejoice and delight in you; we will praise your love more than wine. She. How right they are to adore you! ⁵ Dark am I, yet lovely, daughters of Jerusalem, dark like the tents of Kedar, like the tent curtains of Solomon. ⁶ Do not stare at me because I am dark, because I am darkened by the sun. My mother’s sons were angry with me and made me take care of the vineyards; my own vineyard I had to neglect. ⁷ Tell me, you whom I love, where you graze your flock and where you rest your sheep at midday. Why should I be like a veiled woman beside the flocks of your friends? Friends ⁸ If you do not know, most beautiful of women, follow the tracks of the sheep and graze your young goats by the tents of the shepherds. He ⁹ I liken you, my darling, to a mare among Pharaoh’s chariot horses. ¹⁰ Your cheeks are beautiful with earrings, your neck with strings of jewels. ¹¹ We will make you earrings of gold, studded with silver. She¹² While the king was at his table, my perfume spread its fragrance. ¹³ My beloved is to me a sachet of myrrh resting between my breasts. ¹⁴ My beloved is to me a cluster of henna blossoms from the vineyards of En Gedi.He ¹⁵ How beautiful you are, my darling! Oh, how beautiful! Your eyes are doves. She ¹⁶ How handsome you are, my beloved! Oh, how charming! And our bed is verdant. He ¹⁷ The beams of our house are cedars; our rafters are firs. She 2 I am a rose of Sharon, a lily of the valleys.He ² Like a lily among thorns is my darling among the young women.”..

This is a love song written by King Solomon. It is a celebration of human love, God’s beautiful gift to human beings. Verses 1:1-8 reflect the joy that lovers have in being together. Verses 1:9-2:2 show how love makes the loved one beautiful.  Dr Samuel Lee once said, that where there is no romance, there is no work of God. Romance is good. (What is not good is romance with no desire to commit to marry. It is not good to just enjoy each other in a romantic way without any desire to marry. For when we do, we are just leading someone else along and wasting their few years on earth to make life for themselves. You are also toying with someone else’s’ future spouse. You are also placing yourself in a vulnerable position where you may fall into sin. If we enjoy adulterous relationships then we are distancing ourselves from the holy God and our sins have hidden his face from us.  Such sins will condemn us on the last day.) But pure, romance, seeking to commit to one another is pleasing to God. I pray for our young people of this nation can discover the beauty of godly romance and not settle for any less in their lives. May they know that their bodies and their hearts are meant first, to be offered up to Jesus and then to the one whom God brings into their lives. They may not treat romance haphazardly, in the same way someone treats a pizza, but they may treat romance as holy and sacred, a gift from God.

This passage is also an allegory of the love relationship between God and Israel, Christ and his Church. His beauty and love surpass all human love and beauty. Jesus really loves his church. We can see that in the above verses. Verses 9,10, 15,  2:2.  “⁹ I liken you, my darling, to a mare among Pharaoh’s chariot horses. ¹⁰ Your cheeks are beautiful with earrings, your neck with strings of jewels. ¹¹ We will make you earrings of gold, studded with silver.  …¹⁵ How beautiful you are, my darling! Oh, how beautiful! Your eyes are doves…. ² Like a lily among thorns is my darling among the young women.”  To Jesus we are like the Rose of Sharon and lily of the valley. This is how Jesus sees his church. Even though we are sinners and our sins mar the image of God in us, when we repent and receive the forgiveness of God, Jesus forgives us and clothes us with his righteousness. He sees us now as his forgiven child. We are now the apple of God’s eye.  We are seen by God as princes and princesses. We are part of God’s family prepared to spend eternity with Jesus forever. I thank God, that through the Gospel I can be seen as God’s holy child. What a gift. Without the gospel of God’s grace I can never have such an image.  

This passage also tells us how much we love Christ. Billy Graham said, that if he could do it all over again, he would pray more and tell Jesus how much he loved him and how much he looked forward to seeing him in his kingdom. Christians and the body of Christ should and must love Jesus. Look at how much in these verses.  Verses 2, 3, 4, 12, 14, 16.  “² Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth— for your love is more delightful than wine. ³ Pleasing is the fragrance of your perfumes; your name is like perfume poured out. No wonder the young women love you! ⁴ Take me away with you—let us hurry! Let the king bring me into his chambers…¹² While the king was at his table, my perfume spread its fragrance. ¹³ My beloved is to me a sachet of myrrh resting between my breasts. ¹⁴ My beloved is to me a cluster of henna blossoms from the vineyards of En Gedi….¹⁶ How handsome you are, my beloved! Oh, how charming! And our bed is verdant….”

There is only one way to love Jesus this much and that is by experiencing the love of God ourselves. “We love because he first loved us.” Then woman in this passage knew the grace of God. Look at verses 6-7, “Do not stare at me because I am dark, because I am darkened by the sun. My mother’s sons were angry with me and made me take care of the vineyards; my own vineyard I had to neglect. ⁷ Tell me, you whom I love, where you graze your flock and where you rest your sheep at midday. Why should I be like a veiled woman beside the flocks of your friends?” This woman, in the passage, is tanned from working in the fields. He own brothers forced her to work the fields as a servant girl. She has the appearance of a poor, common worker. But yet she is overwhelmed by the fact that she is loved by this man. She is experiencing the essence of grace.

 We need to stop and think what Jesus has done for us. We need to realize the depth of his love as he came to this world to suffer and die for us. We need to know the depth of his shepherding of our souls even now. His love is deeper than the deepest ocean and higher than the sky. We need the Holy Spirit to reveal that love to our hearts and care about it and respond to it appropriately. I pray that I may grow to love Jesus to this extent until he is my all. I pray that an environment may be formed in our family where many young people may come to know the love of Jesus and live in that love.

Part 2: He Has Taken Me To His Banquet Hall (2:3-7).

Verses 2:3-7 read, “³ Like an appletree among the trees of the forest is my beloved among the young men, I delight to sit in his shade, and his fruit is sweet to my taste. ⁴ Let him lead me to the banquet hall, and let his banner over me be love. ⁵ Strengthen me with raisins, refresh me with apples, for I am faint with love.  ⁶ His left arm is under my head, and his right arm embraces me.  ⁷ Daughters of Jerusalem, I charge you by the gazelles and by the does of the field: Do not arouse or awaken love until it so desires.”

The banquet is a banquet of love. The banner over them is love. Love is given and accepted freely. The strong passions of love should not be aroused until the time and place are proper and right.  Pr 5:15-20 reads, “¹⁵ Drink water from your own cistern running water from your own well. ¹⁶ Should your springs overflow in the streets your streams of water in the public squares? ¹⁷ Let them be yours alone never to be shared with strangers. ¹⁸ May your fountain be blessed and may you rejoice in the wife of your youth.^{x 19} A loving doe, a graceful deer^y– may her breasts satisfy you always, may you ever be intoxicated with her love. ²⁰ Why, my son, be intoxicated with another man’s wife? Why embrace the bosom of a wayward woman?” Before meeting Jesus I focused on having a girlfriend. After coming to Jesus at 22 I lived as a single man, seeking Jesus, for 6 years. Then God led me to my wife Julie. That was 20 years ago. She was heaven sent and God gift and his will upon our lives. May the young people of this nation seek nothing less.

We must have a love relationship with Christ. We must take time to be with him and rejoice in his love. We must feast in his love and feel the rich assurance of his love abounding over us. This comes with time and growing in the grace of Jesus. Then we can love him like this. Am I at this point. Not yet. But I want to be and I pray for others to have such a love relationship with Christ. May the members ofKishwaukeeBibleChurchgrow in their love relationship with Jesus during this year. May Jennifer grow in a love relationship with Jesus during her stay in McGill.

Prayer: Lord, thank you for blessing us with the gift of love. Help me to grow in my love relationship with you.

One Word: Jesus’ banner over me is love