Now, a couple of weeks ago we
looked at the first verse of Song of Solomon chapter 7. This entire passage down through
verse 9 is a description that Solomon gives to Shulamith and
it demonstrates to us how the Lord Jesus Christ perceives us,
his bride. And it can all be summed in what
we see in verse six. How beautiful you are and how
pleasing, oh love, with your delights. Now that we would think
that of the Lord Jesus is no surprise to us, for he is in
truth everything good that could be imagined all put together
into a single person. He is everything that God could
desire, and he's certainly everything that we need. And when our mind
is fixed, when we're thinking correctly, he is all our desire. He's all we need and all we want. And we find every beautiful thing
in him. As Shulamith said earlier, he
is altogether lovely. but that the Lord should turn
around and describe us in similar terms. Now in chapter seven,
these first verses, this isn't the first time that
Solomon has described Shulamith in glowing terms, but here he
uses some different metaphors to describe her. Now we spoke
about graceful legs, sandaled feet and graceful legs the last
time, and likened that to the church, who is the agent in this
world to preach the gospel and is written, how beautiful upon
the mountains are the ones who bring good news. And indeed,
the church, in that respect, has beautiful feet as she goes
about the world delivering the good news of the gospel. Now
verse two, it says, your navel is a rounded goblet that never
lacks blended wine. Now in studying for this, it
was difficult for me to come up with some kind of spiritual
parallel to everything that is mentioned here. And I consulted
with commentaries. And most of them said that this
is not describing her body as though she were naked. It's rather
describing her as she is clothed. And so when it says your navel
is a rounded goblet, it's not speaking of her navel specifically,
but a belt that would have been found there. And they say in
those days that it was common in elegant clothing. There was an ornament that they
would put right there around the belly on a belt. And it had a circle of jewels. And in some ornamentation, that
is, like when they would have parties and such, they would
have a statue. And sure enough, there would
be a statue of a woman standing there and she's got that kind
of belt on, and wine would flow out from the navel or from that
ornament, you know, on the belt around the statue. And that may
be the reference here. But the point is that it says
it never lacks blended wine, which would have been wine made,
I suppose, from various different grapes and whatnot, but wine
is always or commonly a symbol of the blood of the Lord Jesus
Christ. When he took the cup, He said, this cup is the new
covenant in my blood. Now, one commentator noted this.
He said, your navel is a rounded goblet, and he pointed out that
not so much through the mother's navel, but certainly what eventually
becomes a navel on us, that's how our mother nourished us when
we were in the womb. through the umbilical cord, which
of course was cut, and what remained of it became the navel. And they
pointed out that the church nourishes its children that way. Which
one you want to put on it will not really matter a great deal. The point is, again, her beauty
in the eyes of the Lord Jesus Christ, but certainly, The church
is beautiful in the eyes of the Lord Jesus Christ when what flows
from her is the testimony of His shed blood. It says, your
waist is a mound of wheat encircled by lilies. Now again, I was stumped
here. I know that body shape, what's
considered a desirable body shape, changes from culture to culture. We can tell from the paintings
made back in the Renaissance era, in times like da Vinci and
such, that what was considered beautiful was a much heavier
person than what is considered beautiful in our day. And so
what would be counted beautiful changes And so I was thinking
a waist, a mound of wheat, would be the kind of thing that a person
would find beautiful, a mound. And then I thought, well, maybe
does that refer to his wife in a state of pregnancy? But then
again, the commentators pointed out wheat in that area, or the grain,
whatever kind it was, that when it was stacked up like that,
as they would harvest it and put in mounds, it was considered
to be what would be the most beautiful of colors for human
skin. Once again, all I can do is rely on what these commentators
say concerning historical customs of this day. And so his point here, again,
is her beauty. It's the color there. And encircled
by lilies, they said that the peasants, as they had harvested
the grain stacked it up in big heaps, that they would encircle
it with flowers, kind of as a celebration of the harvest. Now, having said
all that, it could all be pointing back to fruitfulness of one way
or another. You know, the church, in the
absolute sense, the church does not give birth to anything. The
new birth is a work of the Spirit of God. But this work of the
new birth always comes about through the preaching of the
gospel. It says, he chose you to be born
again by the word of truth. And therefore, in kind of a secondary
sense, the church does give birth to new converts. as the seed
of the word is within the church, and as she declares the gospel,
that gospel works in the hearts of people to bring them to spiritual
life, and therefore more children are brought into the church.
And I'm speaking of children in a spiritual sense. It says,
your breasts are like two fawns, twins of a gazelle. Once again there, the reference
is to her beauty, but it's also referring to the way by which
a woman in those days would certainly nourish her child, and the church
nourishes the people within it. Now I realize on one hand, we
are the church, and on the other hand, each of us is a member
within the church. And we can look at it both ways
without it disrupting the concept that Christ perceives the church
as a single body. Nonetheless, this single body
ministers to one another, and in particular ministers the word
to one another by which the children born into the church are nourished
and made mature in the things of God. It says, your neck is
like an ivory tower, which I would assume means she has a regal
bearing about her. You know, a tower doesn't bend
over. Tower is straight. Her bearing was the bearing of
a person with dignity, a person of substance. And so it is that
the Lord sees us. Your eyes are pools of heshbon
by the gate of Bath-Rabin. And again, that's just an indication
of her beauty. And of course, one great part
of the beauty of the eyes of the church, as the Lord sees
it, is that those eyes are on Him. In the book of Hebrews it
says, fix your eyes on Jesus, the author and finisher of our
faith. The church sees things that the
world does not see. You know, commonly we think of
faith as believing things that the natural, or believing things
that have not been seen. And that's true, but what we
mean is believing things that are not naturally seen. But the believer sees. It says
of one of the Old times, I can't remember right now whether it's
Abraham or Moses, but it says, he saw him who is invisible. So it's correct when Paul says
we walk by faith, not by sight, because he's speaking of natural
sight. Yet, because we've been born again by the Spirit of God,
we have a spiritual sight. We see things the rest of the
world does not see and cannot see unless and until God gives
them eyes to see. And the fact that these eyes
of the Church of God are looking to Christ and can see him and
are enraptured with his glory, that makes those eyes to be beautiful
in his sight. It says, your nose is like the
Tower of Lebanon looking toward Damascus. Now, we normally, well,
I've never heard of anybody liking someone's nose to a tower. and I'm not sure exactly why
that metaphor would have any particular significance to us,
except that I do know this, that Jesus Christ is called the fragrance,
a sweet-smelling fragrance. And the church has a nose that
can detect that fragrance and counts it pleasing. Paul says
that wherever they went preaching, no matter the circumstances,
they were a sweet-smelling savor of Christ unto God. Always, whenever
we preach the gospel, it is a sweet aroma, a beautiful smell in the
nose of God. But among men, Paul says this,
to some, we are the savor of life unto life, and to others,
we are the savor of death unto death. So again, the church is set forward,
or set forth, and identified according to how she perceives
the Lord Jesus Christ. And then it says, your head crowns
you like Mount Carmel. I think it's interesting he doesn't
say there's a crown on your head. It says, your head crowns you. Once again, I think there's a
reference here now to what the church, we've seen what does
the church see, what does the church smell, what does the church
know? It points to the wisdom and knowledge
that the church has. Since there are things we see
that the rest of the world cannot and therefore does not see, and
since we have experienced the wonderful fragrance of life unto
life that is Jesus Christ. Our minds have been awakened
to truth. We have been taught. It's prophesied
that no more shall a man teach his neighbor, saying, know the
Lord, but they shall all know me. They shall all know me. And then the Lord Jesus Christ
says, He that has heard and learned from the Father comes unto me. So the church is well taught,
is made wise unto salvation through the gracious working of Christ.
Therefore, he said, your head crowns you. Now, it is good to
be able to perceive the Lord Jesus Christ It is good to experience
Him as one may take in a fragrance and enjoy it. But all this, even
this is subservient to the knowledge of Christ. The Lord says, you
will know the truth and the truth shall set you free. Well, what
is the truth? Later He said, I am the truth. We know Him. Now this is not
necessarily a scholarly knowledge. There is plenty in the Bible,
plenty in the revelation of God. It will occupy the minds of the
greatest scholars for all their lives, and they would never exhaust
the truth of it. But this is more than a scholarly
knowledge. This is a kind of wisdom and understanding that
even the most ignorant, naturally ignorant, among the people of
God can nonetheless understand it in a way that, quite frankly,
many seminary professors of the Bible don't understand when it
comes to the knowledge of Christ. I've known a few like that. I
wasn't able to get the clip on this microphone on and it keeps
sliding away from my mouth. I have to keep adjusting it.
Maybe that'll help. But I've known some people that
you'd wonder if they had enough sense to come in out of the rain.
But you turn to the subject of Christ and they can speak with
plainness and often they are quite willing to stand up and
defend the Lord Jesus Christ more readily than those whose
understanding of him consists more in just their understanding
of doctrine. He said, your hair is like a
royal tapestry. The king is held captive by its
tresses. Now a royal tapestry certainly
would have been a beautiful work of art. And throughout history,
a woman's hair has been considered a matter of her glory and a matter
of her beauty. And he says of this woman, your
hair, it's like a royal tapestry. Those careful artisans in the
king's court could not produce anything so beautiful. with their
weaving and sewing and whatnot, could not make anything, something
so beautiful as the hair that this woman possessed. And he
says the king is held captive by his tresses. Now, our hearts
are held captive to Christ, aren't they? And well, they should be.
But here, it says that Christ is held captive to us. Such beauty
does he perceive in us Beauty that we can't perceive,
but he sees it. He is held captive by it. How
beautiful you are and how pleasing, oh love, with your delights. I don't suppose that any married
person has any greater desire than to
be pleasing to the one they're married to. I say any married
person, I guess maybe I'm talking about people that truly are possessed
of love. I know that there are folks that
are in marriages, they don't care about anything, anything
about their spouse, and it shows, and it's very unfortunate. But among believers, certainly you would
think, and even among all who bear true love toward their spouse,
there is nothing they would like or love or seek more than
the knowledge that the one they're married to is pleased with them
and takes delight in them. And so the Lord assures us here,
we are beautiful to him. We are pleasing to him. We are
delightful to him. Now, I can see a hundred reasons
why he would count me to be ugly, disgusting, something he would have no interest
in, whatever, a huge disappointment. But such is not the case. despite
what I see myself to be. Once again, we're walking by
faith and not by sight. We don't even esteem ourselves
according to what we see. Rather, we take in the estimation
that Christ has of us and relish, and as it were, rest in the truth
that he finds all things in us. Wonderful. Said, your stature is like that
of a palm, and your breasts like clusters of fruit. And so here,
I don't think he's saying she's tall. He's just saying that if
you imagine you like a palm, then the clusters of fruit upon
a palm tree would be what he would liken her breasts to. Now
notice what he says in verse eight and you'll understand the
significance. I will climb the palm tree and take hold of its
fruit. May your breasts be like the
clusters of the vine, the fragrance of your breath like apples, and
your mouth like the best wine. Now there's no question here
that he is talking about engaging in physical, sexual intimacy
with Shulamith. And of course, that's a delightful
prospect to him. So I will take hold of its fruit.
And then he says, may your breasts be like clusters of the vine.
Once again, what's he told me? The grapes, which when the juice is squeezed out,
you know it's made into wine. Once again, we're directed to
a picture of the blood of Christ. The fragrance of your breath
like apples, and apples in many cultures are the fruit of love. That is, they are symbolic of
love. Even as recent as World War II, there was a very famous
song out during that time as thousands of our men, thousands
upon thousands of them, went off to war, and it was, don't
sit under the apple tree with anybody else but me. And, of
course, the concern of the woman singing this song to her boyfriend
or husband who's going off to war is, don't want to be crude,
but don't mess around while you're over in a foreign land. Because, quite honestly, a lot
of that went on. But she says, don't sit under
the apple tree, the tree of love, with anybody else but me. And
he says, the fragrance of your breath is like apples. When we pray to our Lord Jesus
Christ, pray to God through our Lord Jesus Christ, that is the sweetness and fragrance
of love in his estimation. If we withhold our prayers, we
withhold our love. If we withhold our praise, We
are withholding that fragrance of apples that Solomon speaks
of. Now, in this day and age, that
is, in which Song of Solomon was written, dental hygiene wasn't
a big deal. I mean, you know, you couldn't
go down to the local drugstore and buy a toothbrush and toothpaste,
and I don't even know that they realized that Dental disease was caused, or
certainly enhanced, by them not taking care of their
teeth and cleaning them. And so most people had teeth
missing, teeth that were decaying, gums that were in bad shape,
and that always gives rise to bad breath. But he says of this
woman, Your breath, that's exactly what she said, your breath. The
fragrance of your breath, it's like apples, it's sweet to me. And then goes on to say, and
your mouth like the best wine. And here, I think he's just likening
the mouth as an instrument for kissing, because he has turned
his attention now just not to a description of her, but to
physical closeness to her. And the best wine, I don't know
that we would hear say that the wine pictures any specific thing. I've often referred it to the
blood of Christ. But the best wine, that's just something that
would be enjoyed. You know, people drink
wine primarily because they enjoy it, they like it. And so that
would be one of the things here that our Lord's saying, intimate
interaction with my church is to me like the best wine. And so we come here to the end
of Solomon's description of Shulamith. He has described her in her beauty. As a prophet says, all my comeliness
is from you. and everything beautiful about
us comes from Christ. He saw her as beautiful, and
in his intimate engagements with the church, he finds great delight. He takes great delight when we
gather like this for worship, because we are then opening ourselves
to him, and as a collective body, we lift up our praise to him, And then this is also with regard
to the acts of worship that we as individual believers do, as
each of us enters in to an intimate union with the Lord Jesus Christ. And next week. We'll see what Shulamith
has to say in response to it, and I think it's kind of funny,
because it says in the first part of verse 9, your mouth is
like the best wine, and the woman responds, may the wine go straight
to my lover. Go straight to his head. May
he be drunk with his interactions with me. All right, until next
week.