Song of Solomon - the Second Stage — Ed Miller

Reliance on the Holy Spirit in Bible Study

As we come to look at God's Word together, I mention the indispensable principle of all Bible study of life, and that is total reliance upon God's Holy Spirit. We're coming to God's Book, and like the Lord Jesus, it's human and divine.

We try, by God's grace, not to neglect the human side, but we dare not neglect the divine side. God longs to show Himself to those who are called babes. He hides it from the sophisticated, from the wise, from the prudent, from the worldly.

He reveals it to little babes. Let me share an indispensable principle Bible verse from Song, and then we'll pray together and look in His Word. Chapter 2, please, and verse 4, He has brought me to His banquet hall.

Well, that's where we are tonight. He has brought me to His banquet hall. His banner over me is love. Sustain me with raisin cakes. Refresh me with apples, because I am lovesick. Let His left hand be under my head, and His right hand embrace me.

It's a great triumph of the Lord to be brought to the banquet hall. This is actually a military figure marching under banners, and His banner over us is love. And that's the triumph that has brought us to the banquet hall.

It's His victory, and it's His triumph. And according to the record here, even being triumphantly led to His banquet hall, I need to be supported so I can take it in. I'm ready to faint. It's so much.

It's too much. Now, I know commentators differ on what it means to have His left hand under you and so on. I mean, it does describe the dip, if you look at it. I don't know if that's what he's talking about here, but it also describes the way a mother would hold a little baby when that baby is being fed.

That little baby is underneath is the left arm, and at least for tonight, that's what it is. He's brought us to His banquet hall and He has a lot to say. And if He doesn't support us, we can't take it in.

And He's called us to come as little babies, and His hand is under us and He wants to feed us. So with that attitude, let's come before the Lord and trust Him to speak. Our Father, how we thank You that by Your grace You have brought us to Your banquet hall.

You've drawn us. You've answered our heart's cry. You are kissing us with the kisses of Your mouth, expressing Your love to us over and over again. Now this evening, as we come to Your banquet hall, we would ask again by Your grace that You would support us in order that we might be able to take it in.

Feed us. We want to be like newborn babes. Desiring the sincere milk of the Word that we might grow by it. Will You minister to us tonight and dawn Christ upon us? You know our needs. You know who we are.

You have drawn us here. Now meet us. Show us Yourself, we pray. And we want to thank You in advance that because our Lord Jesus deserves it, it's done. In His precious name, Amen. We have so much to look at in this book.

I'll confess to you right up front, most of what's in the Song of Solomon, I don't have a clue. I don't understand all of these word pictures. Just so much. That's one of the reasons we've chosen it, my wife and I, for our year book.

And so I can't give you much. I can only give you the little bit that I've begun to see. And so let me just review a little bit and get us back into the flow, and then we'll pick up where we left off.

The Song of Songs as a Picture of Heavenly Love

It's a love story, this Song of Songs, a love story of two worlds. And I believe the way God has written it, earthly love, is designed to reflect, to illustrate heavenly love. And so we have the love story here of both worlds.

In our sessions together, we're looking at especially the heavenly side. I hope God helps you apply the other side so that when you go home, you can relate that to your life partner. The groom not only loves the bride in this book, but the groom is in love with the bride.

Does your wife know that you love her? Does she know that you're in love with her? May God help us. That's what this is all about. This describes our union with the Lord Jesus Christ in the tenderest of terms.

He uses the most intimate of all relationships on the earth, marriage, and the most intimate side of the most intimate relationship on the earth to give us a passing glimpse of His heart toward us. It's a book, as we have suggested, of progressive love.

And right from the very beginning, the groom in answer to the sigh and cry of the bride to be drawn that he might kiss her with the kisses of his mouth express his love to her over and over again, he's begun to do that.

I pointed out that there are other believers in the book, but the book calls attention especially to the bride and groom. Let's look again, just to get it before us, at the three movements in the book.

Three Stages of Union with the Groom

Chapter 2 .16. Each step, I think, shows a development, a forward step in union with the groom. My Beloved is mine and I am His. He pastures His flock among the lilies. In this first stage, in this first experience of union with the groom, it begins with the bride's interest in the groom.

It also includes his interest in her, but the emphasis is, He's mine. It's about me. It's subjective. He is mine. Oh yeah, it's true. I'm also His. But that's not the emphasis. And then he kisses her eyes open many times.

And she comes to this. Chapter 6 .3. I am my Beloved's and my Beloved is mine. He pastures His flock among the lilies. And here she expresses his interest first in her. She's not quite gotten away from her interest in him, but at least she begins in a new direction.

I'm His. And oh yes, He's still mine. And finally, she's drawn by His love into the very climax of the redemptive experience. Chapter 7 .10. I am my Beloved's and His desire is toward me. And at this point, all she can see is His interest in her.

She doesn't mention the other side at all. It hasn't gone away. It's just now this is taking up the whole landscape. Of her life. I'm His. And all His desire is toward me. And that's where the book draws to its close.

Now, although there are many other things in this superlative love song, we're trying just to trace the path that the bride has been drawn into. If we can see the big things. And so in stage one, where her interest is primarily in Him, I've tried to show you that the key idea in that section is revelation.

As you go through these verses, you see over and over again, chapter 1, 1 to chapter 3, verse 5, how He kisses her eyes open. And every time He kisses her, she gets a new revelation. She doesn't really enter into it yet, but it's a brand new world.

And she sees things that are, some of them are shocking that she sees. And it's almost too much to believe. But that is stage one. When somebody gets to verse 2 of chapter 1, and they have seen this world and turned it down and embraced Christ and breathed out a prayer, draw me now, kiss me with the kisses of your mouth, reveal your love to me.

When you begin there, then God must show you these things. And so He begins to show her many, many things. And then as we move from stage one to stage two, from discovery, from light, from insight, from illumination, from this revelation, chapter 3, 6 to 6, 10, she enters into, that's the point, she enters into, she begins now to experience some of these things that she has seen, that have been discovered to her.

And the key word is surrender. The key word, submission. She surrenders. She resigns to the Lord. And then finally, from chapter 6, 11 to the end of the book, we see God flashes back to the beginning of the book.

Those things that she has seen and hadn't entered into now become hers in a wonderful way. And the key words are rest. She's now beginning to rest in His love. And fruit. Now things are becoming intuitive because life is intuitive.

And she's beginning to act out of a relationship and out of a union. And so you see, as you come to the end, it comes to a crescendo. I'm not a musician, but I understand that every now and then in the music, there are written some notes to the musician.

The letter F, forte, they say that means. And so the musician sees the F and it means play it louder. And so they play it louder. And sometime there's the double F, fortissimo. And then you pull out the stops and you begin to really play it.

Well, as I understand this book, you see that it starts with pianissimo. Is that the right word? It starts very softly and it begins to move. And by the time we're at the end, we're shouting. And she just begins to enter into rest and live by the fruit of that union.

Well, by God's grace, we're tracing out that union. Now, let me mention by way of review, and then we'll go to our new material. As God draws the bride in the first section and He kisses her eyes open, as He begins to answer her sigh and her prayer, I mentioned this morning five revelations.

The Bride Sees the King and Her Identity in Him

I don't know what else to call them. Five new things she discovers in her new world as He discovers Himself to her. Chapter 1, verse 4, Her eyes were opened and she saw that not the groom was the king, but her groom was the king.

What a revelation that. And then He kisses her again. And she not only sees who He is, chapter 1, 5 and 6, she sees who she is. She sees herself out of Him. She sees herself in Him. She says, I'm dark, oh, but I'm lovely.

I'm like the tensecator, oh, but I'm like the curtains of solace. She sees both. She sees herself. Then He opens her eyes again in chapter 1, verses 6 and 7, and she sees how badly she has been burned.

That she's been in the wrong place. She's been in a flock, but it hasn't been the Lord's flock. She's been under shepherds, but they're not the Lord's shepherds. They're the companions of the shepherd.

Her brothers have put her to work. And all she has known is this Christless activity. She just works and works and works. And finally, she's so tired. She's so hungry. He had to show her that. My wife is a worker.

And honestly, when she gets into a project, you don't see her till the project is done. Now, you can back me up on this, and Ben can. When she gets into a project, you might think I'm exaggerating, but when she gets into a project, she forgets to eat.

And what that means practically is she forgets to feed me. And she forgets to sleep. It'd be three o 'clock in the morning. I'll go down and say, come on now, put it down. You can do it tomorrow. She gets so busy.

She gets so involved. She gets so occupied. When she gets on a big project, she always loses weight. Because she doesn't eat. She doesn't sleep. And I'll tell you, brothers, that happens on the level of earth.

Maybe you're like that or know somebody like that. But when that happens spiritually, it's a terrible thing. I think the enemy uses that as one of his great ploys. He gets us so busy in vineyard work, so active, that we forget to eat.

We get so involved. We hardly notice that we're hungry. We hardly notice that we're tired. And then when it's all over, we just faint. We're exhausted. And so she cries out in verse 7, Tell me, O you whom my soul loves, Where does your flock, Where do you pass your flock?

Where do they eat? She discovered she was hungry. And tell me, where do you let them lie down at noon? I am so tired, I need rest. You know, over and over again. You can tell where somebody is. God's people are hungry.

And they need rest. And you can tell almost where they are as God is kissing them alive. With that cry, God opens her eyes for the fourth time. She saw, first of all, the king, who he was. Then she saw who she was.

And then she saw the vanity of this endless labor and work. And now God opens her eyes in verse 8. There is a true flock. There are those shepherds under shepherds who are the Lord's shepherds. And there is a pasture that is His pasture.

And she's told to go and follow those sheep who have found that pasture. And there she becomes flock conscious. It's all about her and Jesus. It's all about you and Jesus. But as He reveals Himself to you, I promise you, He'll lead you to His flock.

You need the flock. I need the flock. We need the body. And finally, chapter 2, 8 to 14, He kisses her again. And with this kiss, He shows her the freedom that is available in Him. And you remember, we ended with that.

She was behind her little enclosure, her man-made wall. She was behind the window. And He was free and bounding over the hills and over the mountains. And when He came, He would not go into her little enclosure.

But instead, He said, Arise, my darling, my beautiful one, and come along. The flowers have already appeared in the land. The rain is over and gone. The time has arrived. Arise, my darling, my beautiful one, and come along.

And she struggled with that. She had the revelation. And so those are the revelations that we have looked at. Now I know I run a risk of either neglecting some of the truth here. You don't have to worry a lot about that.

I'm going to neglect a lot of truth, but it's because I haven't seen it yet. You know, I can only give you as much as I've seen. And so to spend more time here, if you really understand spiritual things, makes some sense.

Because I'm more experienced with stage 1 than with stage 3. Quite honestly, I've seen a few things, but I see a little more here. So I'm going to spend a little more time here. I pray that God will help you get further than He's taken me so far.

The Dangers of Religious Labor and the Need for Rest

What I want to do, I want to mention five more things in that He kissed her and opened her eyes. But I want to do it because I need to get to stage 2 tonight also. So what I'm going to do is just give you the revelation that she saw.

Maybe say a word or two about it, but then you develop it. But these are things that we have to see. And I wanted us to get the complete picture of what He... When you're seeking Him, you've got to see that He's King.

You've got to see who you are in Him and out of Him. You've got to see that system of works is vanity and futility. You've got to see that God has a flock. You've got to see that there's freedom out there if by His grace you can come out of that lattice enclosure and so on.

These are things you've got to see. And so He kisses her again. Let me just lay these before you. Chapter 2, verse 7, I adjure you, daughters of Jerusalem, by the gazelles or the hinds of the field, you do not arouse or awaken My love until she pleases.

These daughters of Jerusalem are one group in the body that appear in song more than any other group beside the bride and the groom. They're in the house and they love the groom. Did you notice in chapter 3, verse 10, starting in verse 9, King Solomon made himself a sedan chair from the timber of Lebanon.

He made its posts of silver, its back of gold, its seat of purple fabric with its interior lovingly fitted out by the daughters of Jerusalem. They're ministering to Him. I tend to be hard on these daughters of Jerusalem.

I think they're the legalists in the book. And they're constantly an annoyance. But they love the Lord and they're ministering to the Lord and they're serving the Lord. But quite honestly, they're strangers to the groom.

Later on, she's going to ask them for advice. Help me find them. She couldn't find their way to the bathroom. These daughters of Jerusalem, they're the wrong people to ask. The bottom line is this. Every time they appear in the book, with that one little exception, they're always trying to upset the rest that she is entering into.

Now, depending on which particular translation you use, there is some discrepancy in the grammar, in the pronouns. Some translations make it, harass. Don't disturb, harass. Another translation says, don't disturb his rest.

Another says, the rest. Don't disturb the rest. But the point is, the common denominator truth is this. That over and over again, the daughters of Jerusalem are seeking to overturn rest. And the groom says, let love alone.

Stop disturbing rest. Now, we just sort of read that la, la, la. But I'll tell you, it was an eye-opener to me. After I began to taste a little bit of the rest in the Lord, those who opposed me were the Christians, were the believers.

They were in the family. And the daughters of Jerusalem were all over me. Because it looked like, see, they thought I quit vineyard work. I was delivered from that system of vineyard work, where I was being so badly burned.

They didn't understand it. And they kept trying to disturb my rest. And I'm just suggesting that, if you're serious about following the Lord, don't be surprised when the daughters of Jerusalem come around and they disturb what you think is from the Lord.

Revelation. And they're the ones. That is an eye-opener. And I'll tell you, it's developed in the book. Her eyes were also opened. Here's the next thing. He kissed her again. And her eyes were opened for her need to be trained and disciplined.

I told you there's a lot of time between these revelations. It didn't happen all at once. And as far as the record goes, the last thing we had heard was, follow the trail, follow the steps, the path of the fat sheep.

Those who have entered in, who know where the pasture is, follow them. Bring your kids. Bring your goats. And follow them. And then camp by the tents of the shepherds. Well, it's implied there that she's camping there.

And camping with her family and with those who are under her influence. How long did she camp there? What did she learn from the true shepherds? We're not told. All we have is the record. And so what I know for sure is this.

She camped there long enough. And learned what she needed to learn. And fed on the pasture that was given by true under-shepherds. She camped there long enough that the groom could say, verse 9, to me, my darling, you are like my mare among the chariots of Pharaoh.

Now, he's not describing her physically at this point. Don't say, oh, what a wonderful revelation. It's sort of an insult. My dear, you look like a horse. That's not what he's saying. This is a special horse.

This is a horse that had to be highly trained. This is a horse that pulled the chariots of Pharaoh. See, a horse is a strong animal. A horse has power. A horse can run. A horse can buck. A horse can kick in a wall.

A horse has a will of its own. And so they trained the horse. It's a special horse. Needs to be trained. Has to be disciplined. At the end, the horse still had the power to kick the door down, but it had learned to put that power under the bridle and under the control.

The strength of the horse was now at the beck and command of the king. This is the horse that pulled the chariot. 1 Kings 4 .26 says Solomon had 40 ,000 stalls for the chariot horses. And 12 ,000 horsemen.

And there was a special horse that was selected to pull the chariot of the Pharaoh. And he looked at her and he says, you have been at the right pasture under the right leadership and feeding by God's under shepherds.

And you have been trained. And now you remind me of that trained horse who is under the command of a little pull, a little bridle, a little spur. And you are responding. Your will has now learned to obey.

And so her eyes were open to the need to be trained and to be disciplined and so on. Let me mention two more and we'll move on to the new material. Verse 13, My beloved to me is a pouch of myrrh which lies all night between my breasts.

Let me give it to you and then try to illustrate it. As the groom drew his bride in answer to her prayer, there had to be a time that her eyes were open. She had seen the King. She had seen who she was.

She had seen the system of works. She had seen the true church, the true body, the true fellowship. She had seen the freedom that was available to her in Christ Jesus. She had seen that not everybody likes that.

And there's a group of people that are going to constantly disturb your rest. But now she has to see the cross. She has to see the cross, the work of the cross. Myrrh, as you trace it through the Scripture, is constantly that picture of suffering.

The magi, you remember, in Matthew chapter 2 brought myrrh to the infant Savior. And it was myrrh that was offered up to Jesus when He was on the cross. And myrrh was used for embalming our Lord Jesus in John chapter 19.

She's coming to know her groom. And she says, you know, there's a fragrance that comes from my groom, and it's like myrrh. When I smell him, it's like myrrh. And then notice in verse 12, she adds, while the King was at His table, my perfume gave forth its fragrance.

King James says, Spikenard, sendeth forth the smell thereof. It's the same nard in John 12 when Mary anointed our Lord Jesus. Spikenard from the bush before it was processed has been called the perfume of the poor.

This bride, she was just a humble worker in the field. She didn't have any money. What could she bring to the banquet table? She said, I'll bring a fragrance. That's all I have. And so we read that they would pick the spikenard and put it down their blouse, between their breasts, and the heat of the body after a while would send forth the fragrance.

Worship. So Mary offered that to worship. It's almost like that's all she has to bring to the table. And her eyes were open to this. When I smell Him, it's the cross. And when He smells me, it's worship.

And her eyes had to be open to that great revelation that there has to be a time, a place where the cross comes into your life. And every time, knowing Him is in terms of that. And all she could bring was this worship.

I think if we get praise close enough to our hearts, brothers, it'll warm up and bring a pleasing fragrance to the Lord. May God teach us this. Her eyes were open. One more thing. She saw Him. She saw herself.

She saw the system of works. She saw the church. She saw freedom in Christ. She saw those who would be in the body, but enemies of her rest. She saw the need for training and for discipline. She saw the cross and worship.

One more time He kisses her. Verse 16 and 17. How handsome you are, my beloved, and so pleasant. Indeed, our couch is luxuriant. The beams of our houses are cedars. Our rafters, cypresses. Let me read the same passage from Darby.

Behold, thou art fair, my beloved, pleasant. Our bed is green. The beams of our house are cedar. Our rafters are fir. I told you that in stage 1, 2 -16, where her interest was in Him. It centered around her.

All of a sudden now we see a change. Even if you weren't a believer, you're just reading it as literature. You would note there's a change right here. If you count the verses, how many times the bride spoke in section 1?

How many times the groom spoke? She can't shut up. She spoke twice as much as the groom. And when the groom spoke, most of the time in section 1, he's correcting what she said. It's an amazing thing. The bride's comments illustrates how subjective she was in section 1.

It's all about her. Me, my, mine. Even the precious things. Kiss me. Draw me. Look not at me. My own vineyard I have not kept. My beloved is to me. My spikenard went forth. Where can I eat? Where can I rest?

But the Lord's beginning to open her eyes now. And as I understand it, as they are having an intimate moment, as she lays down and she looks up, she has a new concept. She says, look at our rafters. And look at our cedars.

And suddenly, sir, our bed is green. It's alive. She's beginning to see, though she hasn't fully entered into it, her union with the groom. I'm his wife. I'm his bride. He's the king. And all of a sudden, what's his is mine.

She's beginning to see her union and that everything that he has belongs to her. And when they became one, he said to her, with all my worldly goods, I thee end now. Now, to be sure, she's going to go forward in that truth in section two and three.

But it looks like she sees it now for the first time. And she has the boldness to say, it's ours. Everything that's his is mine. And when I married Lily in 1964, everything I had, my debts, became hers.

We're one. They're our kids. They're our debts. It's our ministry that we have. It's our towels. We don't have his and her towels. And so the bride had her eyes open. And as she laid there, she just said, you know, it's true.

I'm Mrs. Jesus. This is my house, much as his. Look at our rafters. And look at our beams. And look at our house. Our bed is green. I think that's a picture of alive. Our enemies are one. Get those verses, don't touch the apple of his eye and so on.

Union with Christ and the Fruit of a Living Word

Let me tell you a little story. I won't take long on it. But do we have any chiropractors here? I probably didn't say it right. How do you say it? Yeah. Well, I can't say it now. But there was a day I didn't even know what it was.

In 1964, I married dear Lily. And we went down to Columbia, South Carolina. I was going to attend Columbia Bible College there. We needed a rent. And we took some wedding money that we had to get a rent.

And we saw this place. And it was advertised. And behind this nice house was a little tiny house, not much of a place. But we could afford it. And so the owner, I had knocked at the door. He came. He was showing me around.

I was there with my new bride. And we're going to school. And we're starting a life together. It was all wonderful to me. And as he walked in the door, he put both hands on my wife's back, shoulders, and pulled her forward and said, you could use an adjustment.

He touched the apple of my eye. I grabbed him. That's a long time ago. Things have changed. And I held him up against the wall. I said, I'll give you an adjustment. Because he touched the apple of my eye.

That's the Lord. All things. They're my rafters. They're our rafters. They're our beings. It's our house. Everything we have is ours. It's our enemies. You don't have an enemy that's your own. It's his enemy with you.

And she began to see that for the first time. Our bed is green. Our bed is alive. She'd been trying to produce so much apart from that living union with him. If it starts in the flesh, it ends in the flesh.

That which is flesh is flesh. And she's seen now for the first time the fruit of union. You know, in the Hebrew society, that was a big thing. Childbearing and all. And that's what she has in mind when she says, our bed is green.

She saw where fruit comes from. If there's any brothers here that have opportunities to teach, let me give a little application of our bed is green. Someday, God's going to call you as He has called me many times.

You've got to give a message. You've got to share a word. Give a ministry. May God deliver you from a sermon. And may God deliver those that hear you from sermons. Here's God's way. It's always our bed is green.

It's the implanted word. You're in union with Him and He implants a word in your heart. And like a little baby, that word begins to develop in you and to grow in you. And there's times you don't even know what it is.

But it's there. And it's from the Lord. And it's growing. And it's His word that's in you. I remember when Carrie was ready to deliver, she kept dictating to the baby when to be born. No, the baby tells you when it's time to be delivered.

And I have found when God implants a word in your heart, and sometime it's a year or more than a year, that thing develops and develops and develops. And God will tell you, that word will tell you when it's time to be delivered.

And everyone will see it. Our bed is green. You've got to learn, as she had to learn, that it's the fruit of a union, and that He implants it, and then it grows, and then it's delivered. And that's how she needs to learn how to live her entire life.

Entering the Second Stage Through Surrender

Well, that's section one. She's seen all those things. Now she needs to enter into it. So with the time we have left, see, I keep pushing section one, because that's all I know. Alright. She's moved from chapter 2, verse 16, My Beloved is Mine and I'm His, to chapter 6, verse 3, I am My Beloved's and My Beloved is Mine.

In stage one, her eyes had been opened to a whole new world. She never dreamed that that world was even out there. But it was a subjective world. I suggested as we closed this morning, that she was just sort of clinging to Him, but not with a good clinging, the kind that says, if I let go, He's gone.

Our union, our relationship depends on my holding Him. But now this section ends with her clinging desperately to Him, rather than reading the entire section, verses 6 to chapter 610. Let me just home in on what I think is the chief story in this section.

You'll see in a moment why this is going to be my yearbook and maybe longer than that. You go through this section, there's more than the story I'm about to give you. I went through this section and I saw 31 references to plants and animals.

I have an idea they all mean something. In this section, we read about the fragrance of Lebanon, the forests of Carmel, the pools of Heshbon, the tents of Kedar, the mountains of Gilead, the beauty of Tizra, the crown of Solomon, the royal bed of state.

See, I'm jumping over all that because I have nothing to tell you. I don't know what it means. Wonderful! I know there's spiritual reality in all of that. But there's one story in this section that just stands out.

And I'll tell you that story. In stage two, it seems like the truth revolves around the story of the groom and his garden. And so let's look at that story together. Up until this time, the bride has been very insecure.

She has had many self-depreciating comments. She keeps cutting herself down. She thinks she has to make herself attractive. In order to be accepted. She's constantly trying to beautify herself. She's always primping up and using the fragrances and trying to make herself lovable.

The groom, on the other hand, has been desperately trying to communicate his heart. I love you as you are. You're already beautiful. You smell fine. You don't have to try to improve. I love you just like you are.

But she had been so burned in the vineyards and she had such a low self-image in her mind that she thinks that she has to do all of this work to make herself acceptable. What a shock when she heard these words.

Chapter 4, verse 12. A garden locked is my sister, my bride. A rock garden locked, a spring sealed up. Your shoots are an orchard of pomegranates with choice fruits, henna, nard plants, nard and saffron, calamus, cinnamon, with all the trees of frankincense, myrrh and aloes, along with the finest spices.

You are a garden spring, a well of fresh water, streams flowing from Lebanon. And the groom just piles it on. Up until this time, because of the vineyard work she had done, her view of herself is, I am everybody's gardener.