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Scripture Reading: S. S. 5:2-6, 8, 10, 16; 6:1-4; Isa. 53:3-4; Col. 1:24; Phil. 3:10
We have seen that the Song of Songs is clearly divided into two sections. The first section is mainly for the satisfaction and enjoyment of the seeking one. In the first three chapters she appreciates and enjoys the Lord, and she is permeated with the Lord. All the riches of the Lord are for her. By enjoying all these things, she is transformed by steps from a mare to a crown. All the natural things are gone; everything becomes spiritual. In a sense, she attains to the maturity of life, for she is a crown. If we were the writer of this book, we would probably stop here, because the seeking one has reached the utmost attainment of her spiritual life. But this is only the first section, which is for herself.
The second section is not for her but for the Lord and for others. For this she had to be transferred from a crown to a garden. This involved at least three turns. As a garden she grows all the things that she had enjoyed of the Lord. She enjoyed the Lord as the myrrh, and now she grows myrrh. She enjoyed the Lord as the henna flower, and now she grows the henna flower. She enjoyed the Lord as the frankincense, and now she grows the frankincense. She enjoyed the perfume of all the powders, and now she grows all the spices for making the powders. In the first section the Lord was everything to her, but now in the second section the Lord enjoys everything out of her. In other words, now the Lord enjoys all that He is through her and out of her.
In today’s Christianity, most of the attention is given to the first aspect, that is, individual spirituality. The second aspect is completely neglected. Christians are encouraged to work for God but are not told that the way to work for God is not by the outer working but by the inner growth. When the Lord has been wrought into us, then we will grow out something, and this something will be our working. We do not need to work, but we do need to grow something.
After the seeking one is transferred into the second section, she grows and produces all the items of Christ that she herself has been enjoying. Now her producing is just her work, and her producing becomes satisfaction, contentment, and enjoyment for the Lord Jesus and for all His believers.
Some would think that all these things are far beyond our experience and therefore are too deep, but I do not believe that this is so. In spiritual matters, it is really difficult to say what is deep and what is not deep. It is not like studying a subject that is learned lesson by lesson. It is a matter of life. A baby has all the elements of human life, but they are not fully developed. Therefore, we should not think that these things are too deep. In a sense, many of us have experienced all these turns already. They simply are not yet fully developed.
I believe that many of us are crowns to the Lord. We are, in a sense, a crown to the Lord in our home, in our school, and at our job. Even the Lord Jesus is satisfied with us. We are Solomon with the crown. But we still need a turn. In spite of our high attainment, there are still some shadows, and our day has not broken. We must get ourselves to the mountain of death and the hill of resurrection and stay there for a length of time. We should not think that this is too deep. We all need such a turn.
Let us open ourselves before the Lord. I do believe we all have the sense that our day has not yet dawned. We all realize that there are still some shadows. No matter how much we say, “Lord Jesus, I love You — You are altogether lovely,” there is still the sense that we are not clearly in the day. This is good. As long as we have such a realization, we will spontaneously say, “Until the day dawns and the shadows flee away, / I, for my part, will go to the mountain of myrrh / And to the hill of frankincense” (4:6). We all have such a longing deep within. This is a turn, and this is the Lord moving and working within us. So we must learn to stay in the Lord’s death and resurrection until the day dawns and all the shadows flee away.
We should not expect this to happen overnight. Some Christians today are urging people to fast and pray all night. Years ago, I did much of this. It was our custom during the last night of every year to stay up all night praying. We ate nothing that evening and spent all our time dealing with the Lord. We confessed all our shortcomings, failures, mistakes, and offenses during the past twelve months, hoping that the next day would find us absolutely renewed. But it only lasted about three days. We were still the same. I do not mean that fasting and praying are not good. Sometimes we need to fast and pray. The point is that we cannot be changed overnight. I do not encourage or discourage you to fast. We must go to the mountain of death and the hill of resurrection and stay there. Life takes time.
Many times we are desperate with the Lord, but the Lord says, “I am resting.” We tell the Lord that we are going to fast and pray for three days, but the Lord says, “Take something to eat and go to sleep.” Many of us have experienced this. We should not trust in our fasting and praying all night. We must learn to stay at the mountain of myrrh and the hill of frankincense. We must remain in the Lord’s death and resurrection for a length of time.
In the New Testament, especially in the Epistles, we cannot find many verses to support the teaching concerning fasting that we hear in today’s Christianity. On the other hand, the apostle Paul tells us many times how we must experience the Lord’s death. He repeatedly mentions this principle, as in Philippians 3:10: “To know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death.” Paul does not speak of experiencing a portion of the Lord’s death but of staying there until we will be “conformed to His death.” We will be continually tested and proved by our families, our surroundings, and our circumstances. All these things will test us to see if we are remaining in the Lord’s death and resurrection.
If we learn to stay in the Lord’s death and resurrection, we will be transferred into His ascension. The mountain of myrrh and the hill of frankincense always transfer us to the mountaintop of Lebanon. If we take this turn, the next turn will occur spontaneously. The Lord’s death and resurrection will always carry us to His ascension. We expect to stay at the mountain of myrrh and the hill of frankincense, but we find ourselves on the mountaintop of Lebanon. Here we are content and satisfied. We never want to leave. This is the Lord’s ascension! We would stay here for eternity. We were a crown, but we have now soared to the highest attainment, to be in the Lord’s ascension.
But the Lord Jesus is still not satisfied. This is still only something for us; it is not so much for Him. We have attained to the highest, but God’s purpose has still not been fulfilled. This is why the Lord calls the seeking one to leave the mountain of ascension and to behold the situation on earth. Many are still hungry and thirsty, and the enemy is still causing much trouble. Even the Lord Himself is hungry and thirsty. He has nothing to enjoy. So she must become a garden to grow all the things that she has enjoyed of the Lord. All the items that she has enjoyed of the Lord must now grow out of her for the enjoyment of the Lord and for so many of the Lord’s believers.
Our destination is not to stay on the mountaintop of ascension but to come down to the valley to be a garden to grow all the things to fulfill God’s eternal purpose. It is through the garden that a city can be built up.
Many turning points occur in this book. From the crown there is a turn to the mountain of myrrh and the hill of frankincense. Then, spontaneously, the death and resurrection of the Lord send us to the mountaintop of ascension. But then the Lord calls us to have another turn to come down and be a garden. To understand this book is to understand all the turning points. My burden is simply to point out all the turning points so that we may know the way to go. When we are driving in unfamiliar territory, we need a map. If we have a proper map, then we know where to turn in order to go on. All the turning points in this book show us how we can progress in our spiritual life.
Now the seeking one has answered the Lord’s call to come down to the valley to become a garden. But she is still not yet a city. In a sense, the garden is close to the city; yet when we consider the Bible, the garden is far removed from the city. The garden is at the beginning of the sixty-six books, and the city is at the end. She is now a garden, growing out the things she once enjoyed of the Lord; however, even in being a garden, some kind of discrepancy between her and the Lord still exists. “I sleep, but my heart is awake. / A sound! My beloved is knocking. / Open to me, my sister, my love, / My dove, my perfect one; / For my head is drenched with dew, / My locks with the drops of night. / I have put off my garment; / How can I put it on again? / I have washed my feet; / How can I dirty them again?” (S. S. 5:2-3).
We have seen the discrepancy between the Lord and the seeking one in chapter 2. But as we read the record in chapter 5, it seems nearly the same. In chapter 2 she was in the house, and the Lord was outside the wall. Now, the Lord is satisfied with her as a garden, and she is content and happy. She even declares that her outward man is dead, for she declares that she sleeps outwardly. She has retired from all her activities. Yet inwardly she is awakened. She says, “I sleep, but my heart is awake.” This poetry indicates that while she is so content, she suddenly hears the voice of the Lord. This means that she realizes the Lord is not with her. Again she is inside, and the Lord is outside.
What is the reason for this discrepancy? It seems that she did nothing wrong. She is now a garden for the Lord’s enjoyment — why is there still some discrepancy? In our earlier years, we spent much time trying to understand this point. It was not until 1935, when Brother Nee was going through this book with a few of us, that this point became clear. It was then the Lord showed us that this was a deeper experience of the cross. The Lord said, “My head is drenched with dew, / My locks with the drops of night.” What He means is that while the seeking one is content and satisfied. He is suffering. Such a picture in poetry depicts the suffering Christ. He is also shown in this manner in Isaiah 53:3-4. “He was despised and forsaken of men, / A man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief; / And like one from whom men hide their faces, / He was despised; and we did not esteem Him. / Surely He has borne our sicknesses, / And carried our sorrows; / Yet we ourselves esteemed Him stricken, / Smitten of God and afflicted.”
He is really the man of sorrows. Especially at the garden of Gethsemane, He was under the dew of the night. The Lord’s words to the seeking one reveal Himself as such a suffering One. He is “a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief.” And now He is calling her to be such a suffering one with Him.
Before the Lord became man, He was in the heavenlies. Then the time came for Him to be incarnated, and He put on our human nature as a kind of cloak. He became the “man of sorrows,” and He was suffering under the dew of the night.
Now the seeking one is in the heavenlies, and the Lord calls her to come down out of the heavenlies to put on something to suffer for Him. But she tells the Lord, “I have put off my garment; / How can I put it on again? / I have washed my feet; / How can I dirty them again?” In other words, she is saying, “I have put off the old nature. I am in the heavenlies; therefore, how can I put it on again?”
I realize that this point is not so easy to understand, but we must see it very clearly. For the seeking ones of the Lord to deny the world is a marvelous thing; to deny themselves is even more glorious. But one day the Lord will call us to deny our spiritual attainment, even as He did. He was the very God, but in a sense He put His divinity aside to come down to earth to be a man (Phil. 2:5-8). By becoming a man, He denied what He was as God; yet He still was God. He became not a glorious man but a man of low estate. He sacrificed all that He was in order to come to the earth to accomplish God’s purpose by suffering as a “man of sorrows.”
Perhaps we also have reached a high attainment. We are now so spiritual and heavenly. This is sufficient for us, but it is not sufficient for the Lord’s purpose. So in a sense, we must deny our spiritual attainment to come down and take a low estate with the Lord.
Paul the apostle did many things that caused the religious people to misunderstand him. It seems that he relinquished all his attainment to fill up the lack of the afflictions of Christ. He speaks of this in Colossians 1:24: “I now rejoice in my sufferings on your behalf and fill up on my part that which is lacking of the afflictions of Christ in my flesh for His Body, which is the church.” We have no share in the Lord’s suffering for redemption — only the Lord could suffer for our redemption. But we can suffer for the building up of the Body. We need to fill up the lack of the Lord’s affliction for His Body’s sake. Many times people thought that Paul was rejected by God, but he was suffering for the Body of Christ.
Today, in principle, it is exactly the same. So many Christians in Christianity are seeking spirituality in a general way. But after they reach the highest attainment of spirituality, if they really mean business with the Lord, the Lord will call them to deny their spirituality for the eternal purpose of God. Many so-called spiritual Christians would not offend anyone. They like to keep themselves continually in the heavenlies — so high, so wonderful, so spiritual — like angels. But the Lord will say, “Let us leave Lebanon and go down into the valley. I am the suffering One under the dew, and there is still a lack in My suffering which needs to be filled. You are spiritual, and everyone admires you, but where is My Body? Where is My church?”
If we stay in the heavenlies, we will be spiritual and never offend anyone. We will be gentle and nice to all and never get ourselves involved with others. But what about God’s purpose? I have been warned many times by dear friends not to mention the church. Then everyone would be happy with me, and all the groups would invite me to come and speak to them. They have told me that I should not be so much for the church, that this will only create many enemies, and I will just sacrifice myself.
The Song of Songs makes it very clear that if we only care for the Lord’s eternal purpose and not for our spirituality, we will be a man of sorrows. Not only the world but also Christianity will persecute us. Even many spiritual Christians will persecute us. But we must open ourselves to the One who is under the dew and the drops of night. This is the filling up of the lack of Christ’s suffering for His Body.
The seeking one who reached such high attainment in her spiritual life still has some discrepancy between her and the Lord. She is much with the Lord, yet there is still some unwillingness. He calls her, and she hesitates. She gives the Lord a very good excuse. She says, “I have put off my old way of being. How can I put it on again? I have washed my feet from the dirt of the earth. How can I defile them again?” These are good excuses, but when the Lord calls, He does not care how good the excuses are.
At this point, she realizes that the Lord is gone. “I opened to my beloved, / But my beloved had withdrawn; he was gone. / My soul failed when he spoke; / I sought him, but found him not; / I called him — he answered me not... / I adjure you, O daughters of Jerusalem, / If you find my beloved, / What shall you tell him? / That I am sick with love” (5:6, 8). She seeks the Lord, but she cannot find Him. She calls, but the Lord does not answer her. Others try to help her, and she tells them that she is sick with love for the Lord.
She is asked by all the others, “Where is your beloved gone, / O you most beautiful among women? / Where has your beloved turned, / That we may seek him with you?” (6:1). While she is telling them about the Lord, she realizes that the Lord has not left; He is still in His garden. “My beloved has gone down to his garden, / To the beds of spices, / To feed in the gardens / And gather lilies. / I am my beloved’s, and my beloved is mine; / He pastures his flock among the lilies” (vv. 2-3).
We all have had this kind of experience. Sometimes we feel that the Lord is gone, and we begin to talk to others about Him. But while we are talking, we realize that the Lord is still with us. We thought He was far away, but He is still in His garden, pasturing His flock among the lilies. He is still in us, and we are His, and He is ours.
At this time a further and deeper transforming work is done in the seeking one. Now the Lord says to her, “You are as beautiful, my love, as Tirzah, / As lovely as Jerusalem, / As terrible as an army with banners” (v. 4). After the turn in chapter 4, the Lord likens her to a garden. But after this deeper turn, the Lord likens her to a city.
I do not believe that any other teachings or instructions could help us in our spiritual growth as much as all these points. We do not need to learn this book in a way of knowledge, but we must see all the turning points for our spiritual growth that this book opens up. We need to fellowship and pray over these points many times. All these lessons will be repeated again and again in a kind of cycle as we go on with the Lord. By all the cycles we will grow from the crown to the garden, and then from the garden to the city and the army. This is the way for us to fulfill God’s eternal purpose and to build up the Body of Christ.
