Song of Solomon 3

WEEK   5                                 Song of Solomon 3

WEDNESDAY  Reflections

Why does the person here seek the one they love? Is it because they are driven by love/desire? Maybe, but the issues here seem that the love may not be reciprocal. The lover has other gardens, but true love calls for exclusivity.  

However, when we awaken our love for God, we don’t have to worry about having to seek and hoping he will love us, because God will always be there and he always loves us.

Son 3:1-11
(1)  By night on my bed I sought him whom my soul loveth: I sought him, but I found him not.
(2)  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.
(3)  The watchmen that go about the city found me: to whom I said, Saw ye him whom my soul loveth?
(4)  It was but a little that I passed from them, but 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.
(5)  I charge you, O ye daughters of Jerusalem, by the roes, and by the hinds of the field, that ye stir not up, nor awake my love, till he please.
(6)  Who is this that cometh out of the wilderness like pillars of smoke, perfumed with myrrh and frankincense, with all powders of the merchant?
(7)  Behold his bed, which is Solomon's; threescore valiant men are about it, of the valiant of Israel.
(8)  They all hold swords, being expert in war: every man hath his sword upon his thigh because of fear in the night.
(9)  King Solomon made himself a chariot of the wood of Lebanon.
(10)  He made the pillars thereof of silver, the bottom thereof of gold, the covering of it of purple, the midst thereof being paved with love, for the daughters of Jerusalem.
(11)  Go forth, O ye daughters of Zion, and behold king Solomon with the crown wherewith his mother crowned him in the day of his espousals, and in the day of the gladness of his heart.

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Song of Solomon 2

WEEK  5                                  Song of Solomon 2

TUESDAY  Reflections

 

I have found a friend in Jesus,

 He's everything to me,

He's the fairest of ten thousand to my soul;

The Lily of the Valley, in Him alone I see,

All my needs to cleanse and make me fully whole.

In sorrow He's my comfort,

in trouble He's my stay,

He tells me every care on Him to roll;

He's the Lily of the Valley,

 the Bright and Morning Star,

He's the fairest of ten thousand to my soul

 

These words, written by William Charles Fry (1837–1882), were in response to his meditations on Song of Solomon chapter 2. As I wrote before, this book is an interaction between two lovers. It isn't incorrect to see some correlation between Christ and the church. St Paul, after all, said that marriage is a symbol/image of Christ's relationship with the church in Ephesians 5.

 

If this book raises your awareness of God’s love that is good. If this book raises your affection for your spouse then that can be celebrated also. After all, God instituted marriage before the fall. Marriage under God is holy.

Son 2:1-17

(1)  I am the rose of Sharon, and the lily of the valleys.

(2)  As the lily among thorns, so is my love among the daughters.

(3)  As the apple tree among the trees of the wood, so is my beloved among the sons. I sat down under his shadow with great delight, and his fruit was sweet to my taste.

(4)  He brought me to the banqueting house, and his banner over me was love.

(5)  Stay me with flagons, comfort me with apples: for I am sick of love.

(6)  His left hand is under my head, and his right hand doth embrace me.

(7)  I charge you, O ye daughters of Jerusalem, by the roes, and by the hinds of the field, that ye stir not up, nor awake my love, till he please.

(8)  The voice of my beloved! behold, he cometh leaping upon the mountains, skipping upon the hills.

(9)  My beloved is like a roe or a young hart: behold, he standeth behind our wall, he looketh forth at the windows, shewing himself through the lattice.

(10)  My beloved spake, and said unto me, Rise up, my love, my fair one, and come away.

(11)  For, lo, the winter is past, the rain is over and gone;

(12)  The flowers appear on the earth; the time of the singing of birds is come, and the voice of the turtle is heard in our land;

(13)  The fig tree putteth forth her green figs, and the vines with the tender grape give a good smell. Arise, my love, my fair one, and come away.

(14)  O my dove, that art in the clefts of the rock, in the secret places of the stairs, let me see thy countenance, let me hear thy voice; for sweet is thy voice, and thy countenance is comely.

(15)  Take us the foxes, the little foxes, that spoil the vines: for our vines have tender grapes.

(16)  My beloved is mine, and I am his: he feedeth among the lilies.

(17)  Until the day break, and the shadows flee away, turn, my beloved, and be thou like a roe or a young hart upon the mountains of Bether.

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2 Samuel 24

WEEK  5                                              2 Samuel 24

MONDAY  Reflections

"I will not sacrifice to the Lord my God burnt offerings that cost me nothing" (2 Samuel 24:24)

 

What are you giving to God? We understand that salvation through Jesus Christ is free, but what we offer the Lord after that costs us. We are asked to give him our lives, our loves, and in short everything we have so that he will be the Lord of our life.

 

Too often people want things from God but they don't want it to cost them anything. It is like the person who wants the benefits of owning a car without buying it, maintaining it, or putting any gas in it. It doesn't work that way, and neither does salvation. Salvation is free, we can't pay for it nor can we ever earn it, but part of salvation is surrendering all of our life to Jesus. This action of surrender costs us, it costs us selfish desires and sinful actions, but the benefits outweigh the costs. It is like surrendering a broken-down bike for a new truck. Yes, you don't have a bike but you don't need it. You have something better.

 

David understood the sacrifice he was offering needed to come from him. He needed to give up something that cost him something and so do we.

2Sa 24:1-25
(1)  And again the anger of the LORD was kindled against Israel, and he moved David against them to say, Go, number Israel and Judah.
(2)  For the king said to Joab the captain of the host, which was with him, Go now through all the tribes of Israel, from Dan even to Beersheba, and number ye the people, that I may know the number of the people.
(3)  And Joab said unto the king, Now the LORD thy God add unto the people, how many soever they be, an hundredfold, and that the eyes of my lord the king may see it: but why doth my lord the king delight in this thing?
(4)  Notwithstanding the king's word prevailed against Joab, and against the captains of the host. And Joab and the captains of the host went out from the presence of the king, to number the people of Israel.
(5)  And they passed over Jordan, and pitched in Aroer, on the right side of the city that lieth in the midst of the river of Gad, and toward Jazer:
(6)  Then they came to Gilead, and to the land of Tahtimhodshi; and they came to Danjaan, and about to Zidon,
(7)  And came to the strong hold of Tyre, and to all the cities of the Hivites, and of the Canaanites: and they went out to the south of Judah, even to Beersheba.
(8)  So when they had gone through all the land, they came to Jerusalem at the end of nine months and twenty days.
(9)  And Joab gave up the sum of the number of the people unto the king: and there were in Israel eight hundred thousand valiant men that drew the sword; and the men of Judah were five hundred thousand men.
(10)  And David's heart smote him after that he had numbered the people. And David said unto the LORD, I have sinned greatly in that I have done: and now, I beseech thee, O LORD, take away the iniquity of thy servant; for I have done very foolishly.
(11)  For when David was up in the morning, the word of the LORD came unto the prophet Gad, David's seer, saying,
(12)  Go and say unto David, Thus saith the LORD, I offer thee three things; choose thee one of them, that I may do it unto thee.
(13)  So Gad came to David, and told him, and said unto him, Shall seven years of famine come unto thee in thy land? or wilt thou flee three months before thine enemies, while they pursue thee? or that there be three days' pestilence in thy land? now advise, and see what answer I shall return to him that sent me.
(14)  And David said unto Gad, I am in a great strait: let us fall now into the hand of the LORD; for his mercies are great: and let me not fall into the hand of man.
(15)  So the LORD sent a pestilence upon Israel from the morning even to the time appointed: and there died of the people from Dan even to Beersheba seventy thousand men.
(16)  And when the angel stretched out his hand upon Jerusalem to destroy it, the LORD repented him of the evil, and said to the angel that destroyed the people, It is enough: stay now thine hand. And the angel of the LORD was by the threshingplace of Araunah the Jebusite.
(17)  And David spake unto the LORD when he saw the angel that smote the people, and said, Lo, I have sinned, and I have done wickedly: but these sheep, what have they done? let thine hand, I pray thee, be against me, and against my father's house.
(18)  And Gad came that day to David, and said unto him, Go up, rear an altar unto the LORD in the threshingfloor of Araunah the Jebusite.
(19)  And David, according to the saying of Gad, went up as the LORD commanded.
(20)  And Araunah looked, and saw the king and his servants coming on toward him: and Araunah went out, and bowed himself before the king on his face upon the ground.
(21)  And Araunah said, Wherefore is my lord the king come to his servant? And David said, To buy the threshingfloor of thee, to build an altar unto the LORD, that the plague may be stayed from the people.
(22)  And Araunah said unto David, Let my lord the king take and offer up what seemeth good unto him: behold, here be oxen for burnt sacrifice, and threshing instruments and other instruments of the oxen for wood.
(23)  All these things did Araunah, as a king, give unto the king. And Araunah said unto the king, The LORD thy God accept thee.
(24)  And the king said unto Araunah, Nay; but I will surely buy it of thee at a price: neither will I offer burnt offerings unto the LORD my God of that which doth cost me nothing. So David bought the threshingfloor and the oxen for fifty shekels of silver.
(25)  And David built there an altar unto the LORD, and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings. So the LORD was intreated for the land, and the plague was stayed from Israel.

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