Search
Scripture Reading: S. S. 4:12—5:1; 6:2-3
I. Through her living in Christ’s ascension as the new creation in resurrection, the lover of Christ becomes mature in the riches of the life of Christ so that she becomes a garden to Christ — S. S. 4:12-15:
А. Enclosed with a spring shut up and a fountain sealed for Christ’s private enjoyment — v. 12.
B. Full of the choicest fruit and the chief spices with their beauty and fragrance — vv. 13-14.
C. Having a fountain and a well of living water, which are streams from the resurrection and ascension life — v. 15.
D. She expects the cold north wind to awake and the hot south wind to come blowing upon her garden so that her spices may flow forth — v. 16a.
E. She wants her Beloved to come into His garden and eat His choicest fruit — v. 16b.
II. The Beloved has come into His garden, which is His sister and bride — 5:1; 6:2:
А. He has gathered His myrrh with His spice — 5:1a.
B. He has eaten His honeycomb with His honey and drunk His wine with His milk — v. 1b.
C. He invites His beloved friends, the Triune God, to eat and drink deeply with Him — v. 1c.
D. He has gone down to the beds of spices to feed in the gardens (referring to the lover and other lovers of Christ) and gather lilies — 6:2.
III. She realizes:
А. That she is Christ’s and that Christ is hers.
B. That Christ pastures His churches among His seekers as lilies — v. 3.
In God’s romance He desires to be one with man. He carried this out by becoming the same as man. God, because of His heart’s desire, became a man in incarnation, and He contacted man by the way of a romance. Before God opened up in the New Testament what was on His heart, both angels and men did not know what God was doing (Eph. 3:9). They did not realize that their God was becoming a Husband to marry a wife. This Husband was divine, and the wife He was going to marry was human.
Song of Songs is a romance between a great king and a country girl. However, these two do not match each other. In the same way, how could God with divinity marry a wife with humanity? They do not match. It must have been difficult for Solomon, the top king on the whole earth, to court a common country girl. If he had come to visit her in all his kingly glory, she would have been afraid of him. Therefore, the king became a “country man” in order to go to her village to court her, to gain her love. On the one hand, he made himself the same as the country girl; on the other hand, he made the country girl a queen. This is a type of the story of God’s romance with man. He would marry a human being, just like the king would marry a country girl. God, in order to court us, to gain us in a personal and affectionate way, became a lowly man with humanity.
Although God became a lowly man, His intention was not to remain a lowly man for eternity. His intention was to bring His humanity up to the level of His divinity. Romans 1:3-4 tells us that our Savior is of two sources: the flesh and the Spirit. According to the flesh, He was out of the seed of David. For Him to become flesh was like Solomon’s going to the countryside as a “country man” to gain a wife. God made Himself a man in the flesh. Then in His resurrection He uplifted His humanity into His divinity according to the Spirit of holiness, and in His humanity He was designated the Son of God. He had the capacity to uplift His humanity into His divinity because He was of two sources: the source of the flesh, humanity, and the source of the Spirit of holiness, divinity. Humanity surely cannot pull down divinity. Instead, His divinity uplifted His humanity into His divinity.
Through the divine power in the Spirit of holiness, Jesus’ humanity was uplifted into the divine sonship, into divinity. By this He was born of God not as God’s only begotten Son but as God’s firstborn Son (8:29), which indicates that many sons would follow. Today our Christ is God in the divine sense and man in the human sense. He is a God-man. We need to stress that our God is not only God but also a man. We wrote a hymn that says, “Lo! in heaven Jesus sitting, / Christ the Lord is there enthroned; / As the man by God exalted, / With God’s glory He is crowned” (Hymns, #132).
This God-man is the Bridegroom in the divine, universal romance (John 3:29), but His counterpart, being merely human, still does not match Him. A human without a divine source cannot be the counterpart of the God-man. Therefore, God regenerated His human elect. Regeneration is to put divinity into humanity, to uplift humanity to the standard of divinity. However, regeneration does not complete the process. We were regenerated in our spirit, but we are not only a spirit. We are even more a soul. In order to uplift our entire being, God first has to regenerate our spirit and then transform our soul. The transformation of our soul takes time.
In the romance in Song of Songs, we can see the process through which the seeker passes in order to be transformed. In chapter 4 Christ’s lover has been brought to live in His ascension (v. 8) as God’s new creation. She is no longer of Adam, who never lived in ascension. Now as a descendant of Adam, she has been transformed to be another person to live in ascension as the new creation of God in resurrection. As I am speaking these things, I realize that I am speaking another language, a heavenly language. We must learn this language, the language of the divine-human romance in the whole universe. When the seeker is living in ascension, she and Christ are living in one condition, the condition of ascension, to be a couple. Christ is divine and human, and His transformed lover is human and divine. They are the same in life and nature, perfectly matching each other.
Through her living in Christ’s ascension as the new creation in resurrection for her growth in life and transformation by life, Christ’s transformed bride becomes four things: a garden to satisfy Christ (4:12—5:1; 6:2-3), God’s dwelling place with its protection (v. 4a), the heavenly bodies as the universal light (v. 10a), and a terrible army, which is the corporate overcomer — the Shulammite (vv. 4b, 10b, 13). This Shulammite, who is the duplication of Solomon, is a figure of the New Jerusalem. Revelation reveals that the overcomers will be collectively a bride to marry Christ. In 17:14 and 19:11-21 we see that following their wedding this bride will become an army to fight with Christ, her Husband, to defeat Antichrist, a human opponent to God, with all his human followers. Antichrist with all his human followers will be absolutely defeated by the bride helping her Husband, who will cast them into the lake of fire.
Through her living in Christ’s ascension as the new creation in resurrection, the lover of Christ becomes mature in the riches of the life of Christ so that she becomes a garden to Christ (S. S. 4:12-15).
This garden is enclosed with a spring shut up and a fountain sealed for Christ’s private enjoyment (v. 12). The spring is the Spirit of life and is seen in Revelation 22:1 as the river of water of life. The fountain is the source of the spring, which is God’s throne. The sealed fountain is for Christ’s private enjoyment. As seeking Christians, in experiencing Christ we must have something private, hidden, shut up, and sealed that is just for Christ. This is different from the practice of Pentecostalism, in which everything is on the surface for open exhibition and hardly anything is sealed. We must have something sealed for the One whom we love the most.
The garden is also full of the choicest fruit and the chief spices with their beauty and fragrance (S. S. 4:13-14). A rich garden grows many kinds of plants, which produce fruit and are full of fragrance and color. This becomes the lover’s beauty to the Lord. Eventually, this holy garden becomes the green couch (1:16b) for the lover and Christ to live together in mutual rest and enjoyment. The lover of Christ is now rich in life, producing fruits to nourish and refresh, giving forth sweet fragrances, and displaying beautiful colors to become a restful couch of green for Christ’s rest and enjoyment.
In the garden are a fountain and a well of living water, which are streams from the resurrection and ascension life (4:15). The fountain and the spring stream out from the overcomers. They flow out from what they are and from where they are. We need to be such people in resurrection and ascension, flowing with the essence, the flavor, the fruit, and the beauty of resurrection and ascension.
The lover of Christ expects the cold north wind to awake and the hot south wind to come blowing upon her garden so that her spices may flow forth (v. 16a). The wind from the north is cold and harsh, but this causes the apple trees to give forth the best fragrance. If she has only the north wind, everything will die. There is also the need for the hot south wind to come and blow upon her garden so that her spices may flow forth. The flowing forth comes from these two kinds of winds. No one likes to be sick, but sometimes our days of sickness produce a very positive result. On the other hand, our easy days may produce a bad result. It is not easy to say, “Awake, O north wind; / And come, O south wind!” (v. 16a). We have to learn of the lover of Christ in Song of Songs to appreciate both kinds of winds.
Her desire is for her Beloved to come into His garden and eat His choicest fruit (v. 16b). The goal is that she would become a garden to meet her Beloved’s need.
The Beloved has come into His garden, which is His sister and bride (5:1; 6:2). He has gathered His myrrh with His spice (5:1a). He has eaten His honeycomb with His honey and drunk His wine with His milk (v. 1b). The garden is the Bridegroom’s garden. He is eating His own things, and He invites His beloved friends, the Triune God, to eat and drink deeply with Him (v. 1c). The Bridegroom, Christ, the Son in the Divine Trinity, invites His beloved friends, God the Father and God the Spirit, to enjoy His garden. Furthermore, He has gone down to the beds of spices to feed in the gardens (referring to the lover and other lovers of Christ) and gather lilies (6:2).
At this point the lover of Christ remembers her source. She realizes that she is Christ’s and that Christ is hers. She says, “I am my beloved’s, and my beloved is mine” (v. 3a). This is their private and affectionate love. She also realizes that Christ pastures His churches among His seekers as lilies (v. 3b). Those who are lilies have lives of trusting in God and looking unto God with a single eye. This is different from the thorns. In chapter 2 Christ appraised the lover as a lily living among thorns (v. 2). All the worldly people today are thorns who hurt others, but the lilies suffer all ill-treatment while trusting in God and looking unto Him with a single eye.
