Scripture Reading: S.S. 8:1-14
Song of Songs 8 reveals the lover’s hope to be raptured. The Shulammite was matured in life to the extent that she became Solomon in every aspect and from every view, except for the fact that she still had the flesh.
“O that you were like a brother to me, / Who nursed at my mother’s breasts! / If I found you outside, I would kiss you, / And none would despise me” (8:1). Realizing all the troubles from her flesh, she wishes that the Lord could be her brother in the flesh who was born of grace, the same as she is, and that she could kiss Him as one who is the same as she is in the flesh and no one would despise her. This indicates her groaning for her flesh. This shortage, this problem, could be settled only by rapture.
In verses 2 through 4 we see that she is hoping to be saved from her groaning for the flesh (Rom. 8:19-25). This indicates that she hopes to be raptured through God’s redemption of her body (Rom. 8:23b; Eph. 4:30b).
“I would lead you and bring you / Into my mother’s house, / Who has instructed me; / I would make you drink spiced wine / From the juice of my pomegranate. / His left hand would be under my head, / And his right hand would embrace me” (S.S. 8:2-3). Here she hopes that she and her Beloved could meet in the heavenly Jerusalem, where she is perfected by grace, and that she could afford her Beloved a way to enjoy the riches of her experience of the divine life for His satisfaction in His embracing, as what He did to her before rapture (2:6).
“I adjure you, O daughters of Jerusalem, / Do not rouse up or awaken my love / Until she pleases” (v. 4). Her Beloved charges the meddling believers not to awaken her from her proper hope of rapture until she wakes up in the countenance of His face, that is, until she meets Him face to face in rapture.
Verses 5 through 14 are concerned with matters before the rapture.
“Who is this who comes up from the wilderness, / Leaning on her beloved?” (v. 5a). The Spirit, speaking through a third person, asks who this lover of Christ is who came up once from the spiritual wilderness by herself (3:6) and now comes up from the fleshly wilderness by her Beloved.
“I awakened you under the apple tree: / There your mother was in labor with you; / There she was in labor and brought you forth” (8:5b). Here Christ answers that she is a sinner who has repented and has been saved by grace through regeneration in Him as the Provider of life (2:3).
“Set me as a seal on your heart, / As a seal on your arm; / For love is as strong as death, / Jealousy is as cruel as Sheol; / Its flashes are the flashes of fire, / A flame of Jehovah. / Many waters cannot quench love, / Nor do floods drown it. / If a man gave all the substance of his house for love, / It would be utterly despised” (8:6-7). Here we see that when the lover hears what her Beloved spoke in verse 5, she admits that by herself she is not able to stand and live in her Beloved until her rapture. She asks her Beloved to keep her by His love and His strength, for His love is as strong as the unshakable death and His jealousy is as cruel as the unconquerable Sheol, which is like the jealous Jehovah (Exo. 20:5; 2 Cor. 11:2), who is a consuming fire (Heb. 12:29) that burns up all the negative things that can be burned. His love cannot be quenched by trials nor drowned by persecutions nor replaced by any wealth. If one would replace it, he would be utterly despised.
“We have a little sister, / And she has no breasts: / What shall we do for our sister / On the day when she is spoken for?” (S.S. 8:8). Since the lover has matured in life in pursuing Christ and in her ultimate consummation of her experience of Christ, before her rapture she with Christ is concerned for the younger lovers of Christ. She is concerned about how to perfect them to mature in life for the building up of the Body of Christ and to love Christ until they are betrothed to Him in love for the constituting of the bride of Christ (v. 8; 2 Cor. 11:2).
“If she is a wall, / We will build on her a battlement of silver; / And if she is a door, / We will enclose her with boards of cedar” (S.S. 8:9). If one is a wall for the separation of sanctification, she with her Beloved will perfect her by building upon her a battlement based upon the redemption of Christ (Rom. 3:24). If one is a door as an entry for people to enter into Christ, she with her Beloved will perfect her by building an enclosure around her with Christ’s heavenly and glorified humanity (Matt. 26:64; Acts 3:13) and His heavenly human life (Phil. 2:7-8).
“I am a wall, and my breasts are like towers; / Then I was in his eyes like one who has found peace” (S.S. 8:10). Here she testifies that she is a separating wall with two towers of her faith and love (1 Tim. 1:14), which have been developed, so she is in the eyes of her Beloved as a person who has obtained peace based upon sanctification.
“Solomon had a vineyard at Baal-hamon: / He let out the vineyard to keepers; / Each was to bring a thousand shekels of silver for its fruit. / My vineyard, which is mine, is before me. / You will have the thousand, O Solomon; / And those who keep its fruit, two hundred” (S.S. 8:11-12). In the work of Christ He is the Lord of all the works (Baal-hamon and vineyard). The lover of Him participates in one part of the work (one vineyard) and gives to Him what He requires (a thousand shekels), and she as one joined to her Beloved gives to herself as a keeper of the fruit (not of the vineyard) two hundred shekels as a reward. This indicates that Christ as our Beloved is the Lord of all, possessing all things (Acts 10:36), and we as His lovers share in all His possessions (1 Cor. 3:21-22) freely in the grace of Christ (Rom. 3:24) which is the issue of the love of God (2 Cor. 13:14). Yet, we as His lovers still should give Him as our Beloved what we should give, not as a duty but as a matter of love (cf. Gal. 5:13). Christ as our Beloved, joining Himself to us as one, still likes to give us, as His lovers joined to Him as one, a reward of righteousness (2 Tim. 4:8). This implies that Christ as our Beloved gives us a reward for the residue of our labor as an incentive to our faithfulness in our labor for Him in love (cf. Matt. 25:20-23); hence, it is a reward of righteousness.
Solomon as a great lord, possessing many vineyards, rented the vineyards to gain produce. The vineyard keepers would pay Solomon one thousand shekels. Each vineyard keeper had helpers to keep the fruit. Each vineyard keeper had to pay those who kept the fruit two hundred shekels. We also have received a part of the Lord’s work. According to the Lord’s requirement, we should pay Him the one thousand shekels, that is, pay Him what He requires. Because we do not have helpers, we as the vineyard keepers are able to keep the fruit ourselves. Thus, instead of giving the two hundred shekels to others, we give it to ourselves. This is the same as the Lord giving us two hundred shekels as a reward.
Today, we work with the Lord, and He requires that we pay Him something. If we are faithful, we pay what the Lord requires. Yet we still have a residue, which becomes our reward.
To fulfill the Lord’s requirements in our working with Him, we must have some residue. With this residue as the basis, the Lord will reward us when He comes back. According to Matthew 25 the Lord requires not only what He has delivered to us but what He has given to us with interest (vv. 26-27). This interest is the residue. In this parable the Lord says to the faithful one, “Well done, good and faithful slave. You were faithful over a few things; I will set you over many things. Enter into the joy of your master” (vv. 21, 23). This is to enjoy the millennial kingdom as the Lord’s reward. However, in this parable the slothful slave, who did not have any interest or residue was disciplined and punished (vv. 28-30).
Song of Songs 8:11-12 shows us that our work with the Lord must exceed what He requires. Then we will have a residue, and this will be the reward which He will give to us righteously. In 2 Timothy 4:7-8 Paul said, “I have fought the good fight; I have finished the course; I have kept the faith. Henceforth there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, with which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will recompense me in that day.” Here we see that the reward is not according to the Lord’s grace but according to His righteousness.
Song of Songs 8:13 says, “O you who dwell in the gardens, / My companions listen for your voice; / Let me hear it.” The lover of her Beloved asks Him who dwells in the believers as His gardens to let her hear His voice as her companions listen for His voice. This indicates that in the work, which we as the lovers of Christ who express Him as our living outwardly do for Him as our Beloved who indwells us as our life inwardly, we should fellowship with Him in His speaking. As we are working with Him, we need to maintain our fellowship with Him, always listening to Him.
“Make haste, my beloved, / And be like a gazelle or a young hart / Upon the mountains of spices” (v. 14). The lover of her Beloved prays that He would make haste to come back in the power of His resurrection to set up His sweet and beautiful kingdom which will fill the whole earth (Rev. 11:15; Dan. 2:35). Here we should note that the prayer of this lover of her Beloved is the concluding word of this poetic book, portraying the union and communion between Christ as the Bridegroom and His lovers as the bride in their bridal love, as the prayer of John, a lover of Christ, is the concluding word of the Holy Scripture, revealing God’s eternal economy concerning Christ and the church in His divine love (Rev. 22:20).
The poem, as a type, in this poetic book as the story of the love between a king and a country girl is a marvelous and vivid portrait, as the fulfillment, of the bridal love between Christ as the Bridegroom and His lovers as His bride in their mutual enjoyment in the mingling of His divine attributes with the human virtues of His lovers. The correspondence of the progression with its stages on these two sides of the poem and its portrait is the intrinsic revelation of the Holy Word of the omnipotent, omniscient, and omnipresent God. The progress begins with the first stage of Christ’s lovers’ being drawn to pursue Him for satisfaction, continues through the following stages of (1) their being called to be delivered from the self through the oneness with the cross, (2) their being called to live in ascension as the new creation in resurrection, (3) their being called more strongly to live within the veil through the cross after resurrection, and (4) their sharing in the work of the Lord, and ends with the last stage of their hoping to be raptured. May such a progress with its stages be a landmark to us in the course of our pursuing of Christ for His and our mutual satisfaction!
