Wednesday Good Evening!!! PLEASE give the Lord your undivided attention as you worship Him in song.
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Of Serendipity & Matrimony
Well this one had me off balance at first! As I did my due diligence studying historical references to Jewish betrothals, parental involvement, scheduled and non-scheduled visits between the engaged couple leading up to the wedding attempting to reconcile the text to Jewish customs and the morality of the Law. Finally, as I was praying (a little frustrated in how things were going) it occurred to me that these initial verses in chapter 3 were probably a dream of the Shulamite. Only later was I to discover this is a commonly held thought among theologians and scholars. So I feel as if I heard correctly.
The person speaking in the second half of chapter 3 is unidentifiable and may just be an unnamed narrator. The other options are the Shulamite or her bride’s maids, the “daughters of Jerusalem”. This depicts Solomon coming, in traditional Jewish fashion to retrieve his bride from her father’s house and speed her away in a Palanquin to his estate where the consummation of the marriage will take place just before a 7 day wedding feast.
Nearly all of chapter 4 is Solomon, giving a traditional wasfs – which is a poetic description of the beauty of his bride-to-be.
That all of this is brilliant imagery depicting the believer’s relation to Jesus as “the bride” is sobering and telling. It really calls you out of your comfort zone and challenges notions and expectations of deity, you probably didn’t even know you had.
For example, to have Jesus – the Creator of the natural universe, look at the church (also His very Own creation) and say, “You have stolen my heart, with one glance of your eye” is something serious followers of Christ will have to take time with to allow the Spirit to capture it for you in ways you can comprehend and accept… and THAT is my challenge to anyone who reads the book or listens to this message.
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The Faith the Just live by
The GOAL or “end game” of a Christian’s faith is to be matured into the likeness of Christ. This is also stated by Paul as being our great hope in the faith. These two things being true – having and maintaining an ongoing and active trust in God, that He will mature you into the image of Jesus Christ is the primary expression of faith for a believer. In fact, all other expressions of faith MUST support this primary goal!
Believers often make the mistake of taking earthly hopes, wishes and dreams into the “hope” the scriptures are talking about. This is a monstrous substitution which tends only towards thwarting spiritual growth, affirming things which Christ died to free us from and can in the most severe of cases shipwreck one’s faith.
All expressions of trust in God must have this as its central focus and underpinning – it keeps faith relational, it doesn’t lose sight that true faith originates from and in placed in God, it makes faith God focused rather than focusing on our flesh and it works towards the purpose of God in the believer’s life which is to form Christ in us!
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The Admiration, Dreams & Fears of the Shulamite
Chapter 2 of Song of Solomon starts off with the Lily of the Valley and the Rose of Sharon which contrary to its use in modern Christian circles is actually in reference to the Shulamite, Solomon’s bride, and is therefore representative of the church rather than Christ. Also, these flowers are not outstanding in beauty nor is the “rose” an actual rose – they were common wild crocus and meadow-saffron. In fact, it was due to their humble and common beauty that they were used as an illustration!
As the chapter progresses, it moves chiastically between the actual wedding feast, back to the time of their betrothal and finishes with Solomon coming to retrieve his bride for their celebratory wedding feast.
Like most of the Song of Solomon, nearly the entire chapter is from the Shulamite’s perspective. She moves from the heights of amorous admiration for her newly wed husband, to the celebration of their union in their wedding feast, to her dreams and fears during the “winter” of their separation during their betrothal to the excitement of the coming of her groom and his clear delight in her.
All of this so perfectly illustrates the various times, events and aspects of our union with Christ. There is much to learn and reconcile our hearts to in relation to the intimacy of this union, that it rejoices the heart as much as it challenges our understanding of “piety”.
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Maintaining the expectation of His return
This week the Lord surprised me by dropping two verses in my heart just before church which I knew He was pressing me to make the center of the message for today. It was on topic to what we were going to cover, only coming from an entirely different approach.
The passages were found in 1 John 3:1-3 & Romans 2.
This placed the focus of our teaching on maintaining the hope of Jesus’ return within our hearts which works to the purification of our souls. This is 100% in step with the direction our teachings have taken the past two weeks regarding all our expressions of hope in God needing to align with the overall Hope we have been given in Him which is Christ being formed in us.
As it is, I had no notes to teach from and so on our website, I have very little in terms of an associated article as we typically do.
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