Please turn to the Song of Songs—Song of Solomon—chapter 2. We will read from verse 8 through chapter 3, verse 5.
The voice of my beloved!
Behold, he cometh, leaping upon the mountains,
Skipping upon the hills.
My beloved is like a roe or a young hart:
Behold, he standeth behind our wall;
He looketh in at the windows;
He showeth himself through the lattice.
My beloved spake, and said unto me,
Rise up, my love, my fair one, and come away.
For, lo, the winter is past;
The rain is over and gone;
The flowers appear on the earth;
The time of the singing of birds is come,
And the voice of the turtle-dove is heard in our land;
The fig tree ripeneth her green figs,
And the vines are in blossom;
They give forth their fragrance.
Arise, my love, my fair one, and come away.
O my dove, that art in the clefts of the rock,
In the covert of the steep place,
Let me see thy countenance,
Let me hear thy voice;
For sweet is thy voice, and thy countenance is comely.
Take us the foxes, the little foxes,
That spoil the vineyards;
For our vineyards are in blossom.
My beloved is mine, and I am his;
He feedeth his flock among the lilies.
Until the day be cool, and the shadows flee away,
Turn, my beloved, and be thou like a roe or a young hart
Upon the mountains of Bether.By night on my bed I sought him whom my soul loveth:
I sought him, but I found him not.
I will rise now, and go about the city;
In the streets and in the broad ways
I will seek him whom my soul loveth:
I sought him, but I found him not.
The watchmen that go about the city found me;
To whom I said, Saw ye him whom my soul loveth?
It was but a little that I passed from them,
When I found him whom my soul loveth:
I held him, and would not let him go,
Until I had brought him into my mother’s house,
And into the chamber of her that conceived me.
I adjure you, O daughters of Jerusalem,
By the roes, or by the hinds of the field,
That ye stir not up, nor awake my love,
Until he please.
Dear Lord, as we continue in Thy presence, our hearts are open. We do thank Thee for Thy tremendous love for us. Thou didst give Thy body to us, Thy blood to us. What else wouldst Thou withhold from us?
Lord, we are unworthy, but we are touched by Thy love. We do come this morning with open hearts to Thee. Lord, may we hear Thy voice. Let us see Thy countenance. We want to go on with Thee. Speak to us, we ask in Thy precious name. Amen.
For about two weeks, this section of the Song of Songs has been in my heart, and that is the reason why I feel it may be of the Lord that I should share it with you this morning.
We know that Solomon wrote one thousand and five songs, but this is the Song of Songs. Why is it so? Because this song speaks of life. It speaks of true love: the love of the virgin toward her beloved, and the love of the beloved toward the virgin.
We know that the virgin in the Song of Songs represents those who are redeemed by the blood of the Lord Jesus—those who have tasted forgiving love, who have had their sins forgiven. They become virgins; they are cleansed, and they are touched by the love of the Lord. There is first love in their hearts.
Of course, the beloved is the Lord Himself. So it is a story of two loves. The love of the virgin is real, but we find that, in the beginning, it is more of emotion than of substance. Her love vacillates, and her love increases. But the love of our Lord is everlasting; it is perfect from the beginning to the end.
In this story, we find how our God of love draws our love deeper and deeper into His life, that our love toward Him may be perfected. So it is a love story, and it is a story that concerns everyone who is redeemed of the Lord.
This story has certain movements. The part that we read is the second movement. In the first movement, we find the virgin having her sins forgiven. She is in her first love, and she desires a closer relationship with her Beloved.
You remember the prodigal son. When the prodigal son came back, what did the father do? The father kissed his neck. Why? Because the son was sitting there, reserved, and the father kissed his neck—softening him, breaking him down through love.
This is what happened to all of us. We were sinners before repentance, but our Lord, our Father, our God, kissed our neck. We are broken down by the love of God. He did not frighten us; He draws us.
Having her sins forgiven, having experienced forgiveness, she longed to have a closer relationship with the One who loved her so much. How true that is of us. After we have tasted the love of God—the forgiving love of God, what our Lord Jesus has done for us on Calvary’s cross—it is our desire that we may know Him.
We have experienced His work; now we want to know the One who loves us so much. You remember Philippians 3. Paul said that after he had the righteousness not of his own, but through faith in Jesus Christ, the first desire that rose within him was to know Him.
In Philippians 3:10, Paul says, “That I may know him.” You are not satisfied or contented just by knowing what He has done for you. You want to know the One who did so much for you. That is natural. That is what it should be.
To know Him—we want to know the One who loves us so much. This is what you find the virgin desires. She desires to have a closer knowledge of the One who loves her so much. She says, “Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth,” expressing a desire for a closer relationship.
Because of her desire, we find how the beloved responds to her. She begins to experience a closer relationship with the Lord. She sits at His table. She is brought into the banqueting house, and the banner over her is love. She enjoys more of the love of the Lord, and she begins to treasure the Beloved.
But in her seeking after the Lord, the world does not understand her. The world is like the sun that makes her black, as it were. Even her mother’s children misunderstand her.
Brothers and sisters, how true it is: when you really have a deep love toward the Lord and you want Him above anything else, on the one hand, you really experience His life and enjoy Him in a deeper, closer way. But at the same time, you find that the world will persecute you. You find that even your family members will not understand you. They think you are too much.
You know, when Mary broke the alabaster flask and poured that ointment upon our Lord Jesus, the disciples criticized her. They could not understand. They thought that she was just wasting it.
So this virgin is put to work: “You do work. Do this, do that. Occupy yourself with all kinds of activities.” Then, they think, you will not be so extreme. But she cries out to know where the Lord is. She is not content beside those companions or beside other flocks. She wants to be where the Lord really is.
Thank God, because of her intense love toward the Lord, she is given satisfaction, and she rests in the Lord. Now, this is the first movement.
This morning, we are in the second movement. One who loves the Lord, who has a desire toward the Lord, has been given love from the Lord and a certain rest in the Lord—satisfaction. But on the other hand, she suffers persecution, misunderstanding, and all these things. So she really has a little taste of the cross.
If you really love the Lord, you cannot avoid tasting the cross, because our Lord Jesus is so closely knit with the cross. The Apostle Paul says, “I determined not to know anything among you, save Jesus Christ, and him crucified.” So this virgin experiences something of the cross.
In a certain sense, you find that she glories in the cross. But because of this, she enters into a kind of life that is withdrawn. She looks into herself. She wants to be just herself and the Lord, and no more. She begins to develop a feeling that it is winter—that the world around her is winter, everything cold, harsh, and bitter.
She tries to build a wall around her. She sees that she will wall herself in with the Lord and wall out everybody else. That is her feeling. So we find that she is within a wall.
She thinks that within the wall are the Lord and herself. But, to her surprise, she finds that it is not the Lord who is walled in; it is she who is walled in. Actually, she has walled the Lord out. The Lord is outside the wall.
You also find that she is in bed. A bed in Scripture can mean rest, and thank God for this. But on the other hand, it can also mean being confined and set. She has a mindset confined to a certain concept—becoming static, passive, negative.
Sometimes, when you dwell too much on the cross, you become very negative, very passive. That is just what you find here. She loves the Lord, but she is still self-centered.
In Song of Solomon 2:16, she makes a declaration: “My beloved is mine.” My beloved is mine. The Lord is for her. She is not thinking of what the Lord will get out of her, but what she can get out of the Lord. He is for her, to satisfy her.
Of course, she recognizes and says, “I am his,” too. But you can see the emphasis there. She is very self-centered. Dear brothers and sisters, we may be in the same boat.
In spite of our love for the Lord, unconsciously we find that actually we are self-centered. The Lord is for me, to satisfy me. Even though I recognize that I am the Lord’s, no doubt, still He is to satisfy me. So that love is selfish. It is not pure.
Because of the love of the Lord, you find that the Lord tries to draw her out. That is the second movement.
“The voice of my beloved.” Thank God, she hears the voice of her beloved. Not only does she hear, but she says, “Behold, he cometh.” She can see. Why? Because, fortunately, there are windows.
If there were no windows, then of course she could not see, and she might not be able to hear. But because there are windows and lattice, she can still hear the voice of the Beloved, and she can see that the Beloved is coming to her.
In what way? She says, “He is leaping upon the mountains, skipping upon the hills.” Mountains and hills must be climbed, and when you climb mountains, it takes much of your strength. But here, you find the Beloved leaping upon the mountains and skipping upon the hills.
What does this convey to you? It gives you the picture of the risen Lord. It gives you the picture of the power of His resurrection. Paul said, “That I may know him,” and immediately after that, in Philippians 3:10, he says, “and the power of his resurrection.”
It is necessary for us to see our Lord as the resurrection and the life—not only the cross, but resurrection and life. It is necessary for us to experience the power of His resurrection. That is what the second movement is all about.
The Lord comes as One who is leaping and skipping over the mountains. Mountains in Scripture represent difficulties and problems. We have problems. Sometimes our problems loom before us as mountains, and sometimes they are like hills.
I remember when I was in Denmark. They called an elevation of only about a hundred feet, if I remember correctly, a mountain, because Denmark is flat. But when you go to Switzerland, they will laugh at you and say, “That is not even a hill. How can you call it a mountain?”
Brothers and sisters, that is what we experience in our life. Sometimes we face something, and it looms up like a high mountain—an obstacle, a difficulty. We find it so difficult, so hard; we cannot cross it. Sometimes it is like a hill before us.
But here you find the power of resurrection leaping and skipping, as if these are nothing. These obstacles, these problems, these difficulties are nothing so far as the life of the Lord Jesus is concerned. How He overcomes all these things.
He comes to the virgin, and He calls. He says, “Rise up, my love, my fair one, and come away.”
The risen Lord is calling her to rise up. He is calling her to come away. It is the call of resurrection. It is a call to experience the power of His resurrection. It is a call to come out of herself: “Come away from yourself, and come to the Lord. Be with Him, leaping and skipping over the mountains and the hills.” That is the call.
The Lord assures her that the winter is past. The rain is over—the winter rains, cold, freezing, mixed with ice—it is over. There is a time for winter, but the winter is over. The spring has come.
You find all kinds of descriptions: the birds are singing, the flowers are blooming, and the fig tree ripens her green figs. I have two fig trees in my yard. Through the winter, they are dead—nothing there, just their branches, withered.
But to my surprise, within the last two days, suddenly I saw that they were budding. In Palestine, there are winter figs, and the winter figs are very small—very small.
That is why our Lord Jesus, when He saw a fig tree with leaves but no figs, cursed that tree. It was not the time for the fig harvest. Why? Because usually, through the winter, you will find a fig tree still has some small figs that last through the winter. These figs are the food of the poor.
If you do not have these, then when the spring comes, or when the summer comes, there will be no fruit. So it is said that the winter figs have ripened. In other words, these winter figs, very small though they are, are now mellowing for growth.
The vines begin to blossom, and their fragrance is given forth. In other words, it is spring. Everything comes back to life.
There is a time for winter, but there is a time for spring. There is a time for death, but there is a time for resurrection, for life. So the Lord says, “Arise.”
Do not be introspective, just looking within yourself and looking at the difficulties, the mountains and the hills. Rise up in the power of His resurrection, and come away with Him. That is the calling.
Brothers and sisters, sometimes we need to hear that call. Sometimes we are, as it were, quite satisfied with where we are. We have the Lord with us. We experience something of His love. We look around us and see winter. We want just to remain within our wall and be in bed through the night.
Yet the call of the Lord is, “The time has come. Arise and come away.”
What is the reaction of this virgin? You find that it is very hard for the virgin to initiate. She is in bed, within the wall, thinking it is night and it is winter. So when the Lord calls her to come out and says that it is spring, she cannot believe it.
She is, in a way, set in her situation. You know what her response is? She says, “Lord, return. Be like a gazelle and a young hart. You go, but now You come back to me.”
Instead of going out to the Lord, she asks the Lord to return quickly to her. She knows there is a separation. There are mountains of Bether; Bether means separation. She knows that she is not with the Lord. The Lord is outside, but she wants the Lord to come back quickly to her.
So here you find that she says, “On my bed, in the night, I sought him whom my soul loveth.” But she cannot find Him. Finally, she decides, “I will rise up.”
Where will she find Him? She will no longer remain alone. She says, “I will go about the city, in the streets and in the broad ways, to find my beloved.” The city most likely would be Jerusalem.
The street and the broad way in Scripture always speak of fellowship. So where can she find the Lord? She finds the Lord in the house of God, in His church. She finds the Lord through fellowship.
While she is seeking the Lord in the city, in the broad ways and in the streets, she cannot find Him. But the watchmen of the city find her. There are watchmen in the city; they watch.
She asks them, “Saw ye him whom my soul loveth?” In other words, she is asking for help. She is beginning to open her heart. Immediately afterward, she finds the Lord.
You find how she holds Him and will not let Him go, as if she is afraid of losing Him again. Then she enters into another rest. This is the second movement.
Brothers and sisters, I think that, so far as we are concerned in our experience, we may go through the same thing. We may be so set in our situation, so introspective, looking within ourselves. We may be so occupied with the problem that we think it is winter, it is night, and the only safe place is to wall ourselves in.
But the Lord says, “Arise and come away.” We need to be delivered from ourselves, out of ourselves, and just see the Lord and go along with the Lord. That is what the Lord wants us to do: to experience the power of His resurrection.
Who can know the power of His resurrection? You find in Scripture that the power of His resurrection is considered the exceeding greatness of His power. You find that in 2 Corinthians 4 and in Ephesians 1 and 3: the exceeding greatness of His power.
The power of resurrection is the greatest power in the universe. Why? Because it overcomes death. Our Lord Jesus said, “I am the resurrection, and the life.” That is the greatest power on earth, and resurrection overcomes the power of death.
When I was thinking about these things, immediately two incidents in Scripture came to me—one in the New Testament and one in the Old Testament. The one in the New Testament our brother already read before we broke bread: John 11.
Here you find Lazarus. He was sick. Martha and Mary sent a message to our Lord because, at that time, our Lord was not in Judea. Because of the persecution and the intention of the people to kill Him, He had retreated to the east side of the Jordan.
Martha and Mary sent a message to the Lord, saying, “He whom thou lovest is sick.” The word for love that these sisters used speaks of feeling: “The one for whom You have a real affection is sick.”
They thought the Lord would certainly rush over and put His hand upon the sick man. But strangely, the Bible says that the Lord loved Martha, Mary, and Lazarus. Yet the word for love there is agape. The Lord loved them with absolute love.
Because of this absolute love, instead of merely acting on a feeling, He remained behind for two days and allowed Lazarus to die. When He came over, Lazarus had already been in the grave for four days.
Why? Because the Lord wanted to show them the power of His resurrection. You do not see the power of resurrection until you see death. So the Lord allowed Lazarus to die.
When Martha came and said, “Lord, if thou hadst been here, my brother had not died,” she believed in the Lord, but she complained. The Lord said, “Thy brother shall rise again.”
Martha said, “I know that he shall rise again in the resurrection at the last day.” But the Lord said, “I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth on me, though he die, yet shall he live; and whosoever liveth and believeth on me shall never die. Believest thou this?”
Martha said, “Yea, Lord: I believe that thou art the Christ, the Son of God.” In other words, she believed in the Lord, but she had no idea of resurrection. Mary did the same thing: “If Thou hadst come earlier, my brother would not have died.”
But the Lord demonstrated the power of His resurrection. He is the resurrection; He is the life. The Lord called Lazarus out of the tomb. What a testimony!
Tradition says that after Lazarus was raised from the dead, he never talked. We do not know whether that is true or not, but he sat there as a testimony. Perhaps because of him, many believed in the Lord Jesus. What a testimony.
The other incident that came to my mind is Ezekiel 37:1-14. The Spirit of the Lord took Ezekiel and gave him a vision of the valley of dry bones.
He was taken to a valley full of bones. These bones were scattered around and very dry. There must have been a battle before, and because of the battle, many were killed. Perhaps the battle had taken place some time before, so the bones were already dry—very dry.
Of course, we know that it speaks of Israel, but spiritually it applies today. There is a spiritual battle going on. It is a centuries-long battle between the Lord and the devil, and mankind is involved.
God’s will for man is glorious, and the enemy of God tries to destroy man. So a battle is going on, especially with the Lord’s people. Their spiritual enemies are out to kill. The battle is fierce, and they are defeated.
You find these bones—defeated, slain, dry—in that tragic, defeated position. The Spirit of the Lord led Ezekiel to that valley, allowing him to see the situation. Then God asked the prophet a question: “Son of man, can these bones live?”
Humanly speaking, it was impossible. They were dry—very dry. All the bones were scattered. But the prophet was wise. He knew God. He knew that with God nothing is impossible. So he said, “O Lord God, thou knowest.”
Then the Lord revealed His mind. He said, “Prophesy over these bones.” That is the mind of the Lord. Man’s judgment is, “They are dead,” but God’s will is that they should live. But how?
God said, “Prophesy. Prophesy over these dry bones. O ye dry bones, hear the word of the Lord.” Is that not marvelous? Dry bones can hear. “Hear the word of the Lord.”
Ezekiel prophesied as he was commanded. When he prophesied over these bones, there was a noise. Bone began to come to bone. Sinews and flesh began to grow, and skin began to cover them. But there was no life.
So the Lord said, “Prophesy unto the wind.” The word is ruach—breath. “Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe upon these slain, that they may live.” They stood up and became an exceedingly great army.
Brothers and sisters, this shows us the power of His resurrection. Our God is the God of resurrection. I think it is important for us to believe this.
Sometimes we may be so weighed down that we forget that our God is the God of resurrection. Resurrection is His will. We need to experience the power of His resurrection, and that power overcomes death.
It is just like this virgin. She should not be all bogged down with death. Even her understanding of the cross at that time was superficial and external. The cross had not really worked deeply into her life to deliver her from self.
But the Lord tried to help her—to get her out of herself and into the life of Christ, into the resurrection life of Christ. No one can limit that power. Thank God for that.
Dear brothers and sisters, for the last two weeks, this portion of the Song of Songs has been upon my heart. I have been asking the Lord whether He wanted me to share this with you today. I prayed and prayed, and I feel that perhaps the Lord has something to say to us.
May we look away from ourselves. Look away from our problems. Rise up above them. Skip and leap over the mountains, and come away with our Lord Jesus.
Dear Lord, we want to thank Thee because Thou art the God of resurrection. Thou art the resurrection and the life. It is Thy will that we should know the power of Thy resurrection.
Lord, teach us how to arise and come away with Thee, skipping and leaping upon the hills and the mountains, that we may rise up and become the army of the Lord to fight the good fight. We know that Thy battle is already won, and we want to be in the train of Thy triumph.
We worship Thee in the name of our Lord Jesus. Amen.