Morning Light – January 5th, 2017 – Song of Solomon 8: Bridegroom or Brother?

Morning Light – Song of Solomon 8
Today: [Song of Solomon 8] Bridegroom or Brother? In this final chapter of the book of Song of Solomon the bride longs to have the Bridegroom as her brother. Her thought is, if the Bridegroom were her brother she could kiss him publicly without shame. In fact Jesus is our brother and we are the little sister spoken of in the chapter. In describing the little sister it speaks of the church in its immaturity as a girl who has undeveloped breasts. The breasts speak of the word of God in our lives – the sincere milk that the apostle Peter spoke of. This love between the bride and the Bridegroom overcomes all even the fierceness of death and the finality of the grave and toward that end the bride and the Bridegroom rejoice in this chapter and hasten unto one another.
[Sng 8:1-14 KJV] 1 O that thou [wert] as my brother, that sucked the breasts of my mother! [when] I should find thee without, I would kiss thee; yea, I should not be despised. 2 I would lead thee, [and] bring thee into my mother’s house, [who] would instruct me: I would cause thee to drink of spiced wine of the juice of my pomegranate. 3 His left hand [should be] under my head, and his right hand should embrace me. 4 I charge you, O daughters of Jerusalem, that ye stir not up, nor awake [my] love, until he please. 5 Who [is] this that cometh up from the wilderness, leaning upon her beloved? I raised thee up under the apple tree: there thy mother brought thee forth: there she brought thee forth [that] bare thee. 6 Set me as a seal upon thine heart, as a seal upon thine arm: for love [is] strong as death; jealousy [is] cruel as the grave: the coals thereof [are] coals of fire, [which hath a] most vehement flame. 7 Many waters cannot quench love, neither can the floods drown it: if [a] man would give all the substance of his house for love, it would utterly be contemned. 8 We have a little sister, and she hath no breasts: what shall we do for our sister in the day when she shall be spoken for? 9 If she [be] a wall, we will build upon her a palace of silver: and if she [be] a door, we will inclose her with boards of cedar. 10 I [am] a wall, and my breasts like towers: then was I in his eyes as one that found favour. 11 Solomon had a vineyard at Baalhamon; he let out the vineyard unto keepers; every one for the fruit thereof was to bring a thousand [pieces] of silver. 12 My vineyard, which [is] mine, [is] before me: thou, O Solomon, [must have] a thousand, and those that keep the fruit thereof two hundred. 13 Thou that dwellest in the gardens, the companions hearken to thy voice: cause me to hear [it]. 14 Make haste, my beloved, and be thou like to a roe or to a young hart upon the mountains of spices.
In verse 1 of Song of Solomon 8 we see the bride longing to conspicuously display her affection for the bride. She wishes that the Bridegroom was her brother so she could publically kiss Him without shame. The fact is as we know of course is that our savior is the lover of our soul but also the first born among many brethren.
[Heb 2:11 KJV] 11 For both he that sanctifieth and they who are sanctified [are] all of one: for which cause he is not ashamed to call them brethren,
How can Jesus be both the Bridegroom and still our brother? Because John 1:14 calls Him the only begotten of the Father but Paul declared as well that He is the first begotten from the dead.
[Rom 8:29 KJV] 29 For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate [to be] conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren.
Do you understand the implications of this? There is that aspect of the Master that is unique in His attributes and this part of Himself is shared with no other. There is only one Jesus. There was only one physical incarnation of Christ. However when Jesus came out of the grave Paul declared this was a birth in which every one of us who believe in Jesus will follow and therefore we become Jesus’ brethren in resurrection not only at that last trump but now because the resurrection then is in us now. There is another implication of this that few have realized. If Jesus was only begotten of Mary after the Holy Spirit overshadowed her and was 33 years later the first born from the dead what does that make Him? If you think about it you know the answer though religious tradition makes it very hard to see. He was born more than once. Did Jesus say unless a man is born again you cannot see the kingdom of God? When Jesus came out of the grave He sat at the right had of the Father as a born again man. Not born again of necessity because of sin but born again because He conquered death for us that we might join Him in the regeneration. The cry of the Bride to treat Him as a brother is a cry for immortality that is our portion in Christ.
Verse 2 tells us that the bride brings the Bridegroom to her mother’s house. Who is the mother of the bride. Our mother according to Paul in Gal. 4:26 and Heb 12:22-23 is the church. Do you understand what that tells us? When we come together we bring the Bridegroom into our midst. This is to be a celebration. Our worship times together when we go to the local church is a time of bringing our Bridegroom home to meet our mother! Jesus is in us always to be sure but when we gather together there is something called the manifest presence of God that is brought forth and in that amplified presence according to Matt. 18:18-19 there is a level of authority to bind and loose and ascend that isn’t there for us individually. That is the power of agreement that the enemy works so hard to deny us in our local churches.
The bride says that the Bridegroom holds her with his left hand under her head and with His right hand He embraces her. The left hand represents spiritual embrace and worship. The right hand encircling her speaks of power and authority. In verse 5 the Bridegroom describes the bride as one that comes out of the wilderness leaning upon her beloved. Many times we describe being in a difficult place in life as being in a wilderness. We want to find an exit as the children of Israel did into our promised land. How does that come? By leaning upon your Beloved. When you are leaning upon Him with your whole heart and your whole understanding you are coming out. When you are leaning upon Him you are on the move into your blessing place because the wilderness is not His lodging place. When you are leaning upon Him you are leaning toward the throne and toward victory over every challenge in life.
Verses 6-7 speak of the power of love. Love is stronger than death and more cruel than the grave. Has death and hell compassed you about? Do you feel the shadow of the grave crowding your life? I know what it is to feel like my life was an open grave – living every day in dread and despair of the next. The love of God in that situation was greater than death, more resolute than the grave. Ezekiel prophesied this to each of us when he declared to the people of Israel:
[Eze 37:12 KJV] 12 Therefore prophesy and say unto them, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, O my people, I will open your graves, and cause you to come up out of your graves, and bring you into the land of Israel.
Every one of us come into the kingdom in grave clothes because Jesus has declared as the Bridegroom over His bride “loose them and let them go!” What are the grave clothes? Grave clothes of sin. Grave clothes of doubt and fear, of faithlessness and the tyranny of the familiar trying to hold us back and deny us our miracle. The love the Bridegroom will not leave us there. We are coming out by the passion of His furious love for us.
Verse 8 speaks of the church as a little sister who has no breasts. This is the church in its immaturity. It is a call to the fullness of Christ. The breasts again are the Old and New Testaments of the Scripture that give us the sincere milk of the word of God. The previous chapter describes the Bridegroom desiring to fondle the breasts of His beloved. This is the place of the word of God in our lives first and foremost to beautify us to our beloved. There is not a woman among us who is not very conscience of her breasts. When a woman has a physical condition requiring mastectomy it is a profound assault upon her personhood and her sense of self. This should be our attitude toward the word of God in our lives. The word in our hearts beautifies us to our beloved. We should want the word of God in our hearts to be full and graceful just as a woman, a bride desires her breasts to be pleasing to her Bridegroom. Don’t allow the enemy to give your soul a mastectomy by seducing you from the word of God.
The chapter and the book of Song of Solomon concludes with the call of the bride to her Beloved that He make haste like a hart makes haste on the mountain of spices. Apparently gazelles and deer were known to be intoxicated by the smell of spices growing upon certain mountains and thus the comparison is made and the cry of the bride is as the second to last verse of the bible declares:
[Rev 22:20 KJV] 20 He which testifieth these things saith, Surely I come quickly. Amen. Even so, come, Lord Jesus.