Song of Solomon 6
Chapter 6
December 29, 2022
Others
Where has your beloved gone; O most beautiful among women? Where has your beloved turned, that we may seek him with you?
Together in the Garden of Love
She
My beloved has gone down to his garden to the beds of spices,
to graze in the gardens, and to gather lilies. I am my beloved's and my beloved is mine; he grazes among the lilies.
Solomon and His Bride Delight in Each Other
He
You are beautiful as Tirzah, my love, lovely as Jerusalem, awesome as an army with banners. Turn away your eyes from me, for they overwhelm me—Your hair is like a flock of goats leaping down the slopes of Gilead. Your teeth are like a flock of ewes that have come up from the washing; all of them bear twins; not one among them has lost its young. Your cheeks are like halves of a pomegranate behind your veil. There are sixty queens and eighty concubines, and virgins without number. My dove, my perfect one, is the only one, the only one of her mother, pure to her who bore her. The young women saw her and called her blessed; the queens and concubines also, and they praised her. “Who is this who looks down like the dawn, beautiful as the moon, bright as the sun, awesome as an army with banners?”
She
I went down to the nut orchard to look at the blossoms of the valley, to see whether the vines had budded, whether the pomegranates were in bloom. Before I was aware, my desire set me among the chariots of my kinsman, a prince.
Others
Return, return, O Shulammite, return, return, that we may look upon you.
He
Why should you look upon the Shulammite, as upon a dance before two armies?
You and I who have entered into a personal relationship with Jesus Christ must remember that the Song of Solomon, was breathed out by God and it is a love story. It may have happened early in Solomon's life, but when the others ask the Shulammite women where has your beloved gone? Her answer is the answer of all who are in Christ, “I am my beloved's and my beloved is mine”. In Colossians 2:1-3, Paul talks about a struggle with this new Church, they had the same problem the Shulammite had, and you and I have, leaving our first love. “For I want you to know how great a struggle I have for you and for those at Laodicea and for all who have not seen me face to face, that their hearts may be encouraged, being knit together in love, to reach all the riches of full assurance of understanding and the knowledge of God's mystery, which is Christ, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.”
Never is there a problem in your life that God has not given you a follower of Christ a way of escape. Pay attention to Galatians 2:20, “I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.” You and I died, we became a new creation in Christ, but one thing that was not crucified was our flesh. But God has given you and me the ability to set our minds, so we are still saints, and when we allow the flesh to rule, we are not dirty old sinners, we are still saints, with a sin problem.
We must remember unlike the Shulammite women, you have Christ in you the hope of glory, and the power to live the Christ life. Paul tells us in 1 Cor. 6:12: All things are lawful for me, but all things are not helpful. All things are lawful for me, but I will not be brought under the power of any. It has everything to do with where one sets their mind! Colossians 3:2: Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. Many of us, followers of Christ, have a problem with where we set our minds. My Pastor Ray Still has been trying to get us to understand we have set our minds on the world and not above, The Scriptures are not making suggestions, they are telling us how to live victorious in this world.
From the Back Porch,
Bob Rice
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