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Scripture Reading: S. S. 3:6-11
I. Moving with God — S. S. 3:6:
А. As an overcomer, a representative of God’s elect, as a person in the unshakable power of the Spirit (pillars of smoke — cf. Exo. 14:19-20).
B. Coming up from the wilderness of Egypt — the world.
C. Perfumed with the sweet death and fragrant resurrection of Christ and with all the fragrant riches of Christ as a merchant.
II. United with Christ — illustrated by three items:
А. The bed — S. S. 3:7-8:
1. The lover of Christ, signified by the bed, and Christ, signified by its sleeper, are in a union of love.
2. The bed is for rest in the night — v. 8b.
3. It is in the wartime, signified by the sixty mighty men surrounding the bed — vv. 7-8a.
4. The bed for the night in the wartime indicates that the lover of Christ is an overcomer along with the sixty mighty men who can afford Christ a resting vehicle in the fighting with victory.
B. The palanquin — vv. 9-10:
1. The lover of Christ, signified by the palanquin, and Christ, signified by its rider, are in a union of triumphant celebration.
2. The palanquin is for travel in the day.
3. As the palanquin for Solomon to be manifested in the triumphant celebration of his victory, the lover of Christ is composed of:
а. Christ’s renewing resurrection, signified by the wood of Lebanon, as the palanquin’s main structure.
b. Christ’s redeeming death, signified by silver, as its supporting posts.
c. God’s divine nature, signified by gold, as its base.
d. Christ’s kingship, signified by purple, as its seat.
e. The inside of the palanquin is inlaid with the love of Christ’s seekers, signifying that the lover of Christ is one with all the seekers of Christ in love in the principle of the Body of Christ.
C. Solomon’s espousal — v. 11:
1. The lover of Christ, signified by the Shulammite, and Christ, signified by Solomon, are united to be one in the bridal love and marriage life.
2. This portrays the church and Christ being united to be completely and fully one organically in the mingled spirit (1 Cor. 6:17):
а. In the present church age as a precursor.
b. In the coming kingdom age as the practical wedding for one thousand years.
c. In the eternal age as the full marriage life signified by the New Jerusalem for eternity.
D. The union of the lover of Christ with Christ has made her God’s new creation in Christ’s resurrection:
1. Her union with Christ is in Christ’s resurrection.
2. Christ’s resurrection has made her God’s new creation.
Song of Songs is a romance of Christ with His elect, written as poetry. Let us review the crucial points, or “crystals,” that we have covered thus far. First, there is the initial pursuit by the lover. Second, the lover is brought into the inner chamber of fellowship. Third, the lover is directed to enter into the proper church life. Then in the church life there is the transformation to transform us, the saved ones, absolutely in the divine life, making us the new creation. Fifth, there is the mutual gain and enjoyment of Christ and His lovers. Sixth, Christ calls His successful pursuer to go to the cross that the self might be broken and the natural man might be terminated. Seventh, the lover of Christ is brought into the full realization of the flourishing riches of the resurrection of Christ by which she is encouraged and empowered. This corresponds with Philippians 3:10 — to be conformed to Christ’s death by the power of His resurrection. After passing through the above stages, the lover of Christ is worthy of God’s economy. At this juncture she is seen as one who is moving with God and united with Christ. We may talk about God’s economy and yet not be in it because we are not the proper kind of persons.
Song of Songs 3:6 says, “Who is she who comes up from the wilderness / Like pillars of smoke?” Such an illustration is used only twice in the entire Bible. Exodus 14 refers to God as the pillar of cloud who brought Israel out of Egypt unto Himself for the fulfillment of His economy. Now in Song of Songs the seeker of Christ has become like a pillar of smoke. She is spiritual and steady, unshakable, so she is qualified to move with God.
After this vision Song of Songs presents two other signs of the lover of Christ. One is the bed in the night during the wartime (3:7-8). The other is the palanquin in the day for the celebration of the victory in war (vv. 9-10). Following this there is a call for the daughters of Jerusalem to come to see Solomon in his bridal love (v. 11).
At this point the seeker of Christ has passed through the cross and entered into resurrection. In resurrection she has been transformed to be a spiritual person, not a physical person; she is like smoke, but she is a pillar that can stand on the earth touching the heavens. In experience she has become God. This is the experience of God becoming man that man may become God in life and nature but not in the Godhead. She is a spiritual person standing on the earth as a ladder, bringing heaven to earth and joining earth to heaven (Gen. 28:12; John 1:51). The heaven needs her and the earth also needs her. All of Christ’s believers, His members, should be like Him. He is the pillar, the ladder, that brings heaven to earth and joins earth to heaven. We should be the same. We should be unshakable and spiritual like God, who is Spirit.
Paul in 1 Corinthians 6:17 says, “He who is joined to the Lord is one spirit.” Paul was qualified to be such a pillar. When we study Paul’s Epistles, we sense that this man was just like God. He was a spiritual man, not a natural, soulish man nor a fleshly or fleshy man. Because he was such a person, like God, he was the only writer of the New Testament to touch the economy of God. In 1 Timothy 1:3-4 he exhorts Timothy to charge certain ones not to teach different things from God’s economy. Then in Ephesians 1:10 he says that in the economy of the fullness of the times, all things would be headed up in Christ. In Ephesians 3:8-9 he also says that he had been charged to announce the unsearchable riches of Christ to the nations and to enlighten all to see God’s economy.
By passing through the adequate process of transformation, the lover of Christ is worthy to be involved in God’s economy, to move with God. She is linked to God and united with Christ as one. In this union with Christ she is likened to a bed for rest in the night during the wartime. Christ cannot have rest without her. Song of Songs 3:7 says, “There is Solomon’s bed; / Sixty mighty men surround it, / Of the mighty men of Israel.” She is among the sixty mighty men, indicating that she is a leading overcomer, fighting for Christ in order to keep Christ at rest during the night, even in a time of war. What a comfort and a joy she is to the Lord! In typology night signifies the church age. In the church age Christ needs the overcomers so that He may have a resting place.
After the church age there will be the age of the kingdom, an age of triumphant glory. Christ in the age of the church fought and gained the victory over all the enemies. But He needs another age, the kingdom age, for Him to celebrate His victory, His triumph. In the kingdom age everything concerning Christ is triumphant. In the church age the lover of Christ is a bed to Christ in the night during the time of war. But in the kingdom age she will be a palanquin for Christ’s triumphant celebration.
Song of Songs 3:11 says, “Go forth, O daughters of Zion, / And look at King Solomon with the crown / With which his mother crowned him / On the day of his espousals, / Yes, on the day of the gladness of his heart.” The mother crowned Solomon on the day of his espousals. This refers to the day of Christ’s engagement.
The subject of the entire Bible is a romance between God and His elect. John 3:16 says that God so loved the world. The world here is fallen mankind. In eternity God fell in love with man, so He made a choice. He selected some among men to be His sons (Eph. 1:4-5). The entire Bible is consistent in speaking about one thing — God’s economy. The content of God’s economy in brief is God falling in love with His chosen man. This is the subject of the entire Bible.
One day God became a man to court man. Incarnation was God’s courtship. When a man courts a woman, he does not come to her in his original way. Instead, he makes himself “another person” so that he can reach and gain her. God’s courting was in the same way. In His courtship God did not remain in His original form; He became incarnated. Incarnation was a “mother” who gave Christ, her Son, a crown, a treasure, that is, His humanity.
As Christ’s human wife transformed into His divinity, we are a part of Christ’s crown. He was God becoming a man by incarnation. We are fallen men becoming part of Christ by transformation. God did not court us in His original form. He was incarnated to be a man. We respond to His courtship not by our original man but by our regenerated, transformed man. Proverbs 12:4 says, “A worthy woman is the crown of her husband.”
Christ’s espousal lasts from the day of incarnation through the entire church age. The church age is an age of “dating.” Christ’s wife then becomes a palanquin to Him for His triumphant celebration in the kingdom age. The kingdom ministry of Christ is to terminate all the opposers of God on the negative side. But on the positive side it is to make an exhibition of Christ, to celebrate His glorious triumph. In the kingdom age the overcomers will be Christ’s palanquin. The celebration of Christ’s victory is His thousand-year wedding day (Rev. 19:7-8). His marriage life will be the New Jerusalem in the new heaven and new earth for eternity (21:1—22:5). The New Jerusalem is the wife of the Lamb. Christ became a man to be the small Lamb, a humble figure, but the New Jerusalem is a great figure. That will be the Lamb glorified, exhibited, and celebrated triumphantly in an eternal marriage life.
Here we can see three ages: the church age, the kingdom age, and the eternal age. In the church age we are betrothed to Christ. Our wedding day will be the kingdom age of one thousand years. Then our marriage life will be in the New Jerusalem for eternity. These three ages are the story of the union of Christ’s lovers with Him. The entire Bible is a condensed photo of this divine romance. Song of Songs is an abridged form of this romance, and the Bible is the entire revelation.
After the lover of Christ has experienced the breaking of her self, her natural man, by the cross of Christ and after she has seen the flourishing riches of Christ’s resurrection by which she was empowered and encouraged, she became a spiritual, steady person signified by the unshakable pillar of smoke, the same as God was to the children of Israel in their exodus from Egypt to the wilderness. Thus, she was linked to God in His moving for the accomplishment of His economy and united with Christ in His three prominent attainments:
(1) His marvelous victory over all the enemies of God in the church age, signified by a bed in the night with sixty mighty men during the war. She is the bed, and Christ is the sleeper in the bed. This implies the union, the oneness, of the lover with Christ.
(2) His glorious triumph in His kingdom, signified by the palanquin in the day in the triumphant glory.
(3) In His espousal and marriage life. His espousal began from the time of incarnation, when incarnation as His mother crowned Him with His humanity, and goes through the church age in which all His believers are espoused to Him as virgins (2 Cor. 11:2). Christ’s espousal and marriage life cover the church age, the kingdom age, and the eternal age. In the church age Christ has been fighting. This is the time of His espousal. In 2 Corinthians Paul was fighting, and at the same time he was betrothing the believers to Christ. He fought to gain us. Even Paul’s fighting was a part of God’s “dating.” When we preach the gospel, we go out to represent God in His “dating” of His selected sinners.
Christ’s espousal also includes His wedding in the kingdom for one thousand years (Rev. 19:7-8). Ultimately, His marriage life will be in the New Jerusalem in the new heaven and new earth for eternity (21:1—22:5). The bed in the night (signifying the church age), the palanquin in the day (signifying the kingdom age), and the marriage life in the ages all refer to the one lover of Christ — the Shulammite. Eventually, the New Jerusalem will be a corporate Shulammite, including all of God’s chosen and redeemed people.
This is the significance of moving with God and being united with Christ. Today we should be people linked to God in His moving in union with Christ and eventually united with Christ in His victory over the enemies in His celebration in the kingdom age and in His eternal marriage life, that is, the New Jerusalem.
