I invite your attention to the
Song of Solomon, chapter 1. This morning, God willing, we
will be considering verses 5 and 6 in the Song of Solomon in our
continuing study of this book. Song of Solomon, chapter 1. And I'm going to begin reading in verse one. The song of songs, which is Solomon's. Here speaks the Shulamite, she who was Solomon's wife. Let
him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth. For your love is better
than wine. Because of the fragrance of your
good ointments, your name is ointment poured forth. Therefore,
the virgins, those would be the members of the church of Christ,
they love you. Lead me away. Then the virgins, or the daughters
of Jerusalem, they say, we will run after you. And the Shulamite, the wife,
replies, the king has brought me into his chambers. Then the daughters of Jerusalem
say, we will be glad and rejoice in you. We will remember your
love more than wine." Then the Shulamite, speaking to Christ,
says, rightly, do they love you? And now she continues with what
we will be studying today. She speaks of herself saying,
I am dark but lovely, or black but comely, O daughters of Jerusalem,
like the tents of Kedar, like the curtains of Solomon. Do not
look upon me because I am dark, because the sun has tanned me. My mother's sons were angry with
me, They made me the keeper of the vineyards, but my own vineyard
I have not kept. God willing, we're going to consider
those two verses this morning, verses five and six. Let me read
them again. I am dark but lovely, O daughters
of Jerusalem, like the tents of Kedar, like the curtains of
Solomon, Do not look upon me because I am dark, because the
sun has tanned me. My mother's sons were angry with
me. They made me the keeper of the
vineyards, but my own vineyard I have not kept. Consider here first her statement
in verse five. She speaks of herself physically. She says she was lovely or comely
in the King James Version. She was lovely. And we can find at least three
reasons why physically she was lovely. She had a beautiful face,
luxurious hair, and a well-proportioned body. There are descriptions
given of her of this Shulamite, of Solomon's wife, and who, by
the way, represents the church of Jesus Christ. There are at
least three rather graphic descriptions of her physical form and beauty.
Chapter four, verses one through five. Chapter six, verses four
through seven. And chapter seven, verses one
through nine. But I want you to locate chapter
four, verse one. Let's look at how beautiful she
was. This was a beautiful woman, and
we're here speaking of her physically. This is Solomon speaking to her,
and he says, behold, you are fair, my love. Behold, you are fair. By that, he does not mean You're
middling, okay. No, no, no. Fair here meant surpassing
others. She's beautiful. You have dove's
eyes behind your veil. Your hair is like a flock of
goats going down from Mount Gilead. Your teeth are like a flock of
shorn sheep which have come up from the washing. each one of
which bears twins, and none is barren among them. Now here,
thus far, he has described her hair. It is luxurious. Her teeth
are perfect, white like shorn sheep. And by the way, she's
not missing any of them. There's none of them barren.
Your lips are like a strand of scarlet, and your mouth is lovely. Your temples behind your veil
are like a piece of pomegranate, a beautiful piece of fruit. Your
neck is like the Tower of David, noted for its strength, built
for an armory on which hang a thousand bucklers, all shields of mighty
men. Your two breasts are like two
fawns, indicating her youth. Twins of a gazelle, indicating
their symmetry, which feed among the lilies. Now, he goes into
two other descriptions of her later in this book. But what
Solomon is doing here is letting her know, letting us know, This
woman, his wife, she was physically beautiful. She was a specimen
of womankind that any man would look upon and say, she is a beautiful
woman. She was also lovely like the
curtains of Solomon, we read here in verse number five, chapter
one, like the curtains of Solomon. That would have been the resplendent
tapestries and the hangings of his pavilion. Solomon would have
come to this place traveling on vacation or to visit his farmland
as it were and to visit his flocks. He would be away from the palace.
But he's the king. He's going to live in a royal
fashion wherever he is. Now he's going to come with his
tent. It's not going to be an ordinary
tent. It's going to be a beautiful
tent. A tent You do not put up permanent walls, but you do make
divisions with tapestries and hangings, and these would be
beautiful. I have a tapestry that was made
in Germany, and when I lived there in the early 70s, I purchased
it and still have it. My son brought me a tapestry
one time from Afghanistan. And these people have made some
beautiful tapestries. I marvel at the way that they're
able to take all the different colors and just weave them in
together and make them so beautiful. Well, Solomon, when he pitched
his tent, there would be divisions in the tent, and these divisions
would be these tapestries. Now, they're the king's tapestries. They're his hangings. You can
imagine they were the best you could find. And when Solomon
looks at this woman who is his wife, he lets her know, you are
like the tapestries in my tent. You are beautiful. He had described
her as a very beautiful woman. But the Shulamite was dark, black
in the King James Version. She is lovely, but she is dark. because she had been required
to work outside. The reason she gives in verse
number six, do not look upon me because I am dark, because
the sun has tanned me. She had been required to work
outside where the sun's rays had darkened her complexion. This denies the claim of those
who identify her as the Queen of Sheba, or Pharaoh's daughter. She was a light-skinned woman
like, I suppose, any Jew in that land would have been. But she'd been required to work
in the sun. And because of being required
to work in the sun, the sun's rays had deeply darkened her
complexion. Her skin color was therefore
like the tents of Kedar, she tells us. Like the tents of Kedar. Those tents were made of dark
goat's hair. Furthermore, people lived in
these tents. They quite often did their cooking
in these tents. maybe had a hole up here in the
top where the smoke could come out, but as you would well know,
that even with a hole for the roof, a hole in the roof for
the smoke to escape, you're going to have soot all over that tent. And she says, I am dark like
the tents of Kadar, made of dark goat's hair, and probably covered
with soot on the inside. That is her physically condition.
But here we consider her spiritual condition because remember, this
Shulamite, Solomon's wife, is typical of the church who is
Christ's wife. And the church is lovely or comely
because of Christ's grace to her. This is described in great
detail in Ezekiel 16, verses 3 through 14. Locate that passage
if you will. Ezekiel chapter 16. Ezekiel chapter 16. Again of the word of Jehovah
came to me saying, Son of man, he said to Ezekiel, calls Jerusalem. typical also of the church, to
know her abominations and say, thus says Adonai Jehovah to Jerusalem,
your birth and your nativity are from the land of Canaan.
That was an idolatrous land. An idolatrous land. and your
father was an Amorite and your mother a Hittite. That's speaking
of us spiritually. We were conceived in sin, born
in iniquity. Canaanites and Amorites and Hittites. The most idolatrous, the most
adulterous, the most wicked of people. That's where you and
I came from, spiritually speaking. This is the church. As for your
nativity on the day you were born, your navel cord was not
cut, nor were you washed in water to cleanse you. That's what they
used in those days to cleanse baby as soon as they were born.
And you mothers will vouch for the fact that when that baby
is born, about the first thing you need to do is clean it. It
needs to be cleaned. You were not rubbed with salt.
They did not have the means of antibiotics and the creams nowadays
that we would use to make sure that the germs were killed. When
a baby was born, they washed it in salt water, and the salt
would kill the germs to the best of their ability. No one swathed
you in swaddling clothes. No, I pitied you to do any of
these things for you, to have compassion on you. But you were
thrown out into open field when you yourself were loathed on
the day you were born. And when I passed by you and
saw you struggling in your own blood, I said to you in your
blood, live. Yes, I said to you in your blood,
live. That is regeneration. This is
Christ coming by his people, dead in sins. And he says, live! And they are born again in regeneration. I made you thrive like a plant
in the field, and you grew, matured, and became very beautiful. Remember
the Shulamite. She is beautiful. She is beautiful. and you became very beautiful.
Your breasts were formed, your hair grew, but you were naked
and bare. When I passed by you again and
looked upon you indeed, your time was the time of love, and
I fell in love with you. So I spread my wing over you
and covered your nakedness. Yes, I swore an oath to you and
entered into a covenant with you called a marriage and you
became mine, says Adonai Jehovah. Then I washed you in water, the
washing of regeneration. Yes, I thoroughly washed off
your blood and I anointed you with oil. I clothed you. Notice, I did this. Where is the beauty of the bride
of Christ? It is His beauty. I clothed you
in embroidered cloth. I gave you sandals of badger
skin. I clothed you with fine linen. I covered you with silk. I adorned
you with ornaments. I put bracelets on your wrists.
I put a chain on your neck. I put a jewel in your nose. I
put earrings in your ears. And I put a beautiful crown on
your head. Thus you were adorned with gold
and silver, and your clothing was of fine linen, silk, and
embroidered cloth. You ate pastry of fine flour,
honey, and oil. You were exceedingly beautiful
and succeeded to royalty. Your fame went out among the
nations because of your beauty. For it was perfect through my
splendor, which I had bestowed on you, says Adonai Jehovah. The church of Christ is the most
beautiful woman in all this world. The most beautiful woman. And
every bit of her beauty comes from her husband. Every bit of
it. Christ is gracious to her and
the Shulamite here as representative of the Church of Jesus Christ
is a very lovely, comely woman. The church is also dark or black
because of men's afflictions against her. Notice, she's lovely
because of Christ's grace to her. She's dark because of men's
afflictions against her. And this is indicated in the
next verse. In verse 6, we looked at it a
moment ago. Many commentators attribute her
darkness to sins she committed, but observe this, she does not
do so. Some people say that there is
a darkness and a blackness about the church of Christ that is
not a pleasant sight and that is her sins. That is not what
the Shulamite says. She attributes her darkness and
the blackness of her skin to others and what they have done
against her. Sins result in self-inflicted
darkness. but her darkness came at the
hands of others. She says so in verse number six.
My mother's sons were angry with me, and they made me the keeper
of the vineyards, but my own vineyard I have not kept. That's
why she was dark. That is why that this aspect of her that was not lovely
had now come upon her. She had become dark through beatings
and malnourishment, evidently, because we know that skin is
made to be dark not only by the rays of the sun, but by beatings
from others upon us and from disease. Many a person who has
contracted a disease, and if he has a pale skin, when that
person contracts certain diseases, the skin turns dark. When a person
is malnourished, the skin turns dark. And this is true of this
woman. She is dark because of what others
have afflicted upon her. She says, do not look upon me
because I am dark, And her meaning appears to be, when you look
upon me, behold my loveliness, and do not disdain or scorn me
because of my darkness. And now she describes how she
came to be dark. She says, the sun of heaven has
tanned me, in verse number six. The sun of heaven tans the physical
skin. The sun of persecution darkens
the spiritual skin. If you'll go to the prophecy
of Isaiah, you'll read that the sun and the heat strike us. Now, when you are stricken, in
that place where you're stricken, you are bruised. Well, so it
is with what men do to us. It's one of the great delights
of going to heaven. The sun and the heat shall never
strike us again. But she says, do not disdain
me because of my darkness. She says, the sun has tanned
me. And as the sun of persecution
darkens the spiritual skin, As the sun of heaven darkens
the physical skin, so does the sun of persecution darken the
spiritual skin. Consider that as Christ's skin
was darkened by the bruises inflicted upon him by his persecutors,
so will it be with this church. He says that he was wounded for
our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquities. The sight of Jesus Christ on
that cross, oh, if you could have seen him. His skin, while
he was on that cross, was far darker than it ever had been
before because of the bruises and the wounds that had been
inflicted upon her. And so it will be with the church
of Jesus Christ. As malnourishment and disease
darken the skin, as in Job chapter 30, verse 30, so it is when Christ's
church is afflicted by the apocalyptic rider on the black horse shouting,
enough wheat! To feed one man will cost you
a day's wage. Do not ask for oil and wine because
you cannot afford it. Revelation chapter 6 verse 5
paraphrased. This is that rider on the black
horse who comes against the children of God. and makes life difficult
for them with economic hardship. There had been times when children
of God were forbidden to purchase food, they were forbidden to
sell food, they were forbidden to go to the marketplace, and
it was very difficult for them to feed their families. And when
you are malnourished, the skin turns dark. And so it is with
the church of Jesus Christ. And all these elements are found
in Romans chapter 8, verses 35 through 36. Christ's church is
darkened by tribulation, distress, persecution, famine-ness, nakedness,
peril, and sword. If you'll notice, there are seven
things And she therefore exclaims, for your sake, we are killed
all day long. We are accounted as sheep for
the slaughter. This is why Christ's church is
dark. Oh, she's lovely because of Christ's
grace to her, but she's dark because of what men do to her
and afflicting her in this present world. She says, my mother's
sons were angry with me. And here is given the reason
why Christ's church was forced to suffer the son of persecution. Notice she does not speak of
my father's sons. No, no, no. She says it was my
mother's sons. The sons of our heavenly father
do not afflict his church. She says, my mother's sons, meaning
those of my own family, meaning other members of humanity. She's
not speaking of Christians doing this to her. She's speaking of
people of the world having done this to her, fellow humans and
even family members. We need to remember that as Christ
was persecuted by both Jews and Gentiles, so does he warn this
church that you will be hated by all for my name's sake, Matthew
chapter 10 verse 22. Hated by all men, his own countrymen. The citizens of his own city
did not want anything to do with him. And so it will be with his
wife as well. Christ also warns believers that
a man's enemies will be those of his own household. Matthew
10, verse 36. She says, furthermore, they made
me the keeper of the vineyards. And as the Shulamite was forced
to keep the vineyards of those who were angry with her, so has
Christ's church been forced to do the same. Now these vineyards
are false religions which hate Christ's church, and they are
in contrast to Christ's vineyard, which is his church. The Shulamite
speaks of Christ's church when she calls it my own vineyard. Later in this verse, my own vineyard,
meaning that among the children of her mother, it appears that
the sons had their vineyard and the Shulamite had hers. But her
brothers, the sons of her mother, would not let her take care of
her vineyard. They made her go work in their
vineyard. This is what false religion does.
And Christ's church here laments being made to be the keeper of
false religions. False religion always forces
itself on other people. I'll give you some examples.
Judaizers in Galatia made Christians keep the law of Moses after being
liberated from it by Christ in Acts chapter 15 verses 1 and
5. These Judaizers came and they
saw Gentiles that were believing in Jesus Christ. These Gentiles
had never been circumcised. And furthermore, they ate like
Gentiles ate. They did not observe the Jewish
dietary laws and regulations. And these Judaizers were men
who said, these Gentiles must act and live like Jews. And so
they came into the church of the Gentiles And they saw that
the men had been uncircumcised and were eating pork or whatever
else it was they were eating. And they said, no, no, no, you
can't do that. You must live according to the
law of Moses. And the law of Moses, of course,
required circumcision and required dietary regulations. And they
forced this on believers. until Paul the Apostle and others
at the Jerusalem Council said, no, we gave no such commandment. We have liberty in Christ. But
there are men even to today who meet on Saturday, they say it's
the Sabbath, and they say, you must keep Sabbath with us in
order to be saved. That's what false religion does.
It forces itself on other people. Rome made Christians in Asia
Minor show allegiance to its Caesar and gods or lose their
membership in the guilds in Revelation chapters 2 and 3. And in that
instance, there were believers in churches in Asia Minor. Some
of them were craftsmen. They were stonemasons, they were
carpenters, and they were following this trade and such as that,
maybe tent makers and whatever. Well, in those towns and in those
cities, the workers of a trade would band together into a guild
or a trade union as it were. But before you could join it,
you had to swear allegiance to Caesar and perhaps burn incense
to him or to the God of Rome. And these believers in Christ
said, oh, no, no, no. We will not swear allegiance
to Caesar as though he is God. And so, therefore, they were
kicked out. Well, when you're kicked out, you cannot make a
living. False teachers made Christians
follow the doctrines of Balaam and the Nicolaitans in Revelation
2, verses 6, 14, and 15. A female preacher made Christians
follow her false doctrine and immoral requirements in Revelation
2, verse 20. By the way, she is the only female
preacher who is ever mentioned in the Church of Jesus Christ.
The only one. And Jesus Christ said, she's
Jezebel She is a harlot, and I will destroy her. But here
she came. She came and she had gained ascendancy
in this church, and having done so, she was requiring men to
live immoral lives, or else you'd get kicked out of the church.
And in all these instances, Christ's church was darkened by what was
forced on her. But then she says, my own vineyard
I have not kept. False religions tell the church
of Christ, you cannot go into your vineyard. You must live
in ours. And they force themselves and
their practices upon the people of God. And this darkens us. It turns us dark. But it is what men do to us. Imperial Rome. did so during
the 10 persecutions under Nero to Diocletian from 64 AD to 303. You can read about it in Revelation
2, verse 10. Ecclesiastical Rome did so during
the Dark Ages. Our forefathers, during the Dark
Ages, they had impositions raised against them. They were taken
to the rack which was a means of tying your hands to these
two ropes, and tying your feet to those two ropes, and then
tying the ropes to horses, or making the horses go in different
directions, or putting you on a machine that would begin to
pull your bones apart. And they treated people like
this. They ripped, they ripped, unborn babies from their mother's
wombs and all because they wanted to follow Jesus Christ. Read
about our forefathers, the Waldensians. Read about the massacres and
you can read about the terrible things that were done against
them. Would not let them worship. as they wished, made them worship
according to ecclesiastical Rome. Communist regimes have done so
in more modern times. How many of our brothers and
sisters have been killed in communist lands? All because they followed
Christ. And anti-Christian governments
do so yet today. In the schools and offices of
some governments, Christians are forbidden to display a Bible,
forbidden to tell others about Jesus Christ, forbidden to pray,
forbidden to assemble for Bible study. They're even forbidden
to mention Christ's name. They forbid it! Those governments
accuse Christians of being intolerant and non-inclusive, which is ironically
what those governments are to Christians. And we're seeing
this in the schools of even our own country. Teachers forbidden to keep a
Bible on their desk. teachers, being forbidden to
tell a student, I will pray for you or I will pray with you. Forbidden. What's going on? This is what the Shulamite said.
I am dark. because of this persecution,
the wounds and the bruises of others against me. The persecution
has been great. I am lovely because of Christ's
grace to me, but I am dark because of men's persecution against
me. O God, our Father, how gracious you are to your
church. How ungracious is the world to
her. We pray that you'd be pleased
to bless our study of your church. Help us to see her here in the
Shulamite. Let us see Christ in Solomon. To your glory in Jesus' name
we pray, amen.