Session 2
Surveying the Journey to Intimacy
Part 2
By Ken Kessler
In the last chapter, we surveyed Song of Solomon Chapters 1 through 4. In
this chapter we will continue our survey of the bride’s journey toward intimacy with
her Bridegroom King as we look at the remainder of the Song of Solomon. So, let’s
get started.
Chapter 5
You will recall that Song of Solomon 4 concludes with the bride asking God to
bring the combination of testing and blessing to her life so as to produce Christlike
character in her heart. No sooner does the bride ask for the north and south winds
to come to her life than her Bridegroom comes once again to her. Note what
happens,
I have come into my garden, my sister, my bride; I have gathered my myrrh
along with my balsam. I have eaten my honeycomb and my honey; I have
drunk my wine and my milk. Eat, friends; drink and imbibe deeply, O lovers
(Song. 5:1).
As this verse suggests, Jesus comes once again to the heart of His maturing bride.
As He comes, He gathers for the first time myrrh from her heart; that is, He takes
what the Holy Spirit has worked in her through her decisions of Chapter 4 to
embrace the cross. He also eats His honeycomb, implying that He has come to feast
on the fruit of her maturity. He drinks His wine and milk, suggesting His celebration
and delight over her maturing walk with Him. He then invites His friends to come
and eat of her fruit. In saying this, the Lord is saying to His intimate, mature bride
that the Bridegroom wants the entire church to enjoy and learn from the fruitfulness
of her intimate relationship with Him. However, He also knows that for this to occur
in its fullness, the bride must know her Savior in the fellowship of His sufferings.
Paul wrote, “that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection and the
fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death” (Phil. 3:10). To
accomplish this, the Bridegroom leads her into a twofold test to see if she will walk
in love and humility as she encounters her Bridegroom in the fellowship of His
sufferings. He knocks on the door of her heart with His head drenched with the dew
of the night (Song. 5:2). In doing this, He is revealing Himself to her as the Jesus of
Gethsemene. He knocks on the door of her heart asking her to let Him in. She
immediately opens her heart to this work of God because she now trusts Him in His
goodness (Song. 5:5). As He knocks on the door of her heart, this time He is
coming to her in her maturity. He refers to her as His sister, His darling, His dove
and for the first time—His perfect one. The Hebrew word translated here as perfect
one is tam and means complete, perfect, or one one who lacks nothing in physical
strength, or beauty. It refers to a person who is morally innocent, having integrity,
or one who is morally and ethically pure.1 To support the premise that she has now
matured in her journey to intimacy, the passage tells us that she has “taken off my
dress” symbolizing that she has taken off all defilement and compromise. Her
response of, “How can I put it on again?” implies that she refuses to walk again in
compromise. She says “I have washed my feet” suggesting that she has been
spiritually cleansed of sin. The bride has now matured in her walk of intimacy with
her Bridegroom; but, the testing of her intimacy is not yet complete. We learn from
these revelations that the Bridegroom is not leading her to these crises because of
sin in her life, but to test her loyalty to Him even when things don’t go the way she
would like.
The first test is the withdrawing of His presence from her. As she opened the
door to her heart to Him, He immediately withdrew His presence from her (Song.
5:6). She opened to Him but He had turned away and gone. Previously, He had
withdrawn His presence because of her sin. This time This time He left to test her
maturity, intimacy, and loyalty. She had not sinned. She had removed compromise
and defilement from her life. This time, He withdrew His presence from her to
determine if she would be loyal to Him whether she experienced His presence or
not. Mike Bickle writes this,
Jesus promised to never leave us or forsake us (Heb. 13:5). However, He
sometimes withdraws the discernable feeling of His manifest presence to test
us and to bring our love to maturty as she prayed in Song. 4:16. This is not
because of sin, nor is it an attack of the devil. God sometimes hides His face
from the obedient to draw out the yearning of their heart for Him in greater
ways.2
As soon as she realized He had left her, she arises to search for Him. It is at
this point that, even though the first crisis has not passed, she experiences the
second crisis. The second crisis is that she is rejected and wounded by the body of
Christ. The watchmen and the guardsmen—speaking of those in spiritual leadership,
those with spiritual authority, and those who were truly her friends in the church—
reject her by abandoning her and wound her with their words and actions (Song.
5:6-7). Of course, we know that Jesus’ suffering included both of these trials. He
had His followers and even His closest friends reject, wound and abandon Him as He
endured on the cross the greatest crisis of his life. Even earlier in His ministry, the
demands of His teachings caused many of His followers to leave Him to the point
that He asked those closest to Him, “You do not want to go away also, do you?”
(John 6:67).
He also experienced the withdrawal of the Father’s presence while on the
cross as evidenced by His cry of “My God, My God, why have you forsaken Me?”
(Matt. 27:46). Not only did many of His followers turn against Him, God Himself
withdrew His manifest presence from Him as He died the most gruesome of deaths.
These two tests that Jesus went through in His sufferings are part of God’s tests to
determine if we will embrace the cross and know Him in the fellowship of His
sufferings.
In response to these tests, the bride responded in humility and love. She did
not get angry with the church and she was not offended but lovesick for her
Bridegroom. She was not offended at God and did not express anger toward those
who had rejected and abandoned her. She responded in love. She had passed the
test of loyalty. (Song. 5:6-8). Her response to this test causes the larger body of
Christ to ask why she loves Him so much and also stirs in others the question of
how can they find this type of love (Song. 5:9, 6:1).
In response to the first question, the bride responds with a long expression
of how wonderful her Bridegroom is (Song. 5:10-16). She has passed the test. She
is not offended by God for withdrawing His presence and allowing her to be
spiritually abused by others. In fact, she falls more in love with Jesus than ever
before. The tests have not pushed her away from Jesus, they have drawn her much
closer to Him. She has been transformed in love for Him from one who is self
seeking to one who would endure anything for her beloved Bridegroom King.
My wife and I can attest to the reality of embracing Jesus in the fellowship of
His sufferings. For us the decade of the 1990’s was a very difficult time. We had
surrendered to full time ministry in 1984 and the first 7 years were much like the
bride’s experience at the banquet hall. We thought the Christian life was primarily
totally about encountering the God of love and provision. We had no understanding
of embracing the fellowship of His sufferings. But in 1990, we began to see Him as
the Jesus of Gethsemene as He invited us to know Him in the fellowship of His
sufferings. My wife, Donna, shares briefly her story first and then I will share some
of my story. Here is what Donna writes.
Unitl 1993, most of my christian walk was in the banquet hall with His banner
of love over me. Every prayer was answered. We prayed for the sick, and they
were healed. However, in the summer of 1993 all of that changed. I had a
doctor’s appointment and the doctor found a knot in my throat. I left his office
and started to sing, “I know whom I have believed in and am persuaded that
he able to keep that which I’ve committed unto Him against that day.” During
this season the Lord gave me three scripture verses to hold on to. One
morning I woke up hearing the words to a popular song at the time, “I am the
Lord that healteth thee.” I listened to this song all of the time. The second
word I heard was, “I will turn your sorrow into dancing.” At the time I wasn’t
sure what God was saying to me. The third word was, “Lord, if I go down tho
the dust how can I praise you.” A few weeks later I was reading Psalm 30 and
I relaized that all three of these words were from that one Psalm. I was so
amazed at God and how all of the words were contained in that one scripture.
After receiving these words, I shortly found out that the lump in my throat was
thyroid cancer. I received another word from a friend that I interpreted that
the Lord would heal me a the point of the knife. I was not healed at the point
of the knife. I had to go through the surgery and with that began a season of
great struggle. I went through what some call “the dark night of the soul” as I
personally began to encounter what the bride encountered in Song of Solomon
5. Of course, at the time I didn’t realize that I was in that season. The Lord
totally removed His presence from me. I could not find Him in my private
times with Him or when I went to church. I felt as though I had no faith. At he
beginning of 1994 a prophet gave us a word that Ken had been ahead of me
but I was going to catch up. That gave me hope. Suddenly, out of nowhere in
July of 1994, the Lord’s presence came back to me while due to the doctor’s
orders I was temporarily off of my thyroid medicine. During this time, I
encountered the Lord. I had a visitation from Him. I couldn’t sleep for days but
I was in constant communion with Him. I felt as though I was dead but now
alive spiritually. During this time, I had a dream in which the Lord was telling
me that if I did not deal with the sin in my life, my life would be required of
me. I rebuked the devil and went back ot sleep. However, when I awoke, I
knew that this day was the day to clean my house. At first, I thought I was to
clean my actual house since it had not been cleaned in a while. However,
suddenly I knew that I needed deliverance and the house cleaning I sensed
was to take place in my heart. I went through deliverance, and it helped me
immensely. What I learned from my personal dark night of the soul was that
as difficult as it was for me, it is an important time with God to prepare us for
intimacy with Jesus and for intimacy with Him even in eternity.
Now, for my story of my “dark night of the soul”. I too experienced these
same two tests in the decade of the 90’s. My experience with God had been much
like Donna’s. I had been at the banquet hall from the time of my salvation in 1977
until 1990. I thought the christian life was totally about God taking care of me and
making my life easier and more abundant. But my view of the christian life began to
change dramatically as the nineties unfolded. My testing began when the pastor
with which I was on staff resigned to go to an other church. The lay leadership of
the church and the committee that was set up to run the church until another
pastor could be found had told me that they would get guest preachers for the
morning services and that I would be allowed to preach each week during the
evening services . I was excited about this since I needed experience preaching and
wanted to use the evening services to get it. The people on the committee were my
close friends—people that I had gone to church with for years. It was not long after
the decision was made that they changed their mind and brought in an interim
pastor who wanted to do all of the preaching. I was pushed out of what had been
promised with not even as much as an acknowledgment of what had happened or
an apology. It hurt to be rejected by my friends. But God used it for good as we
began to sense that God wanted us to start a church. When we started the new
church in 1991—the church that we pastor now—the trials continued. We quickly
grew to about 120 attenders. But we had three groups of people in the church. One
group did not want anything other than faith being preached. Another group wanted
us to be a moderate Baptist church and a third group wanted to go the way we are
currently moving. No matter what I preached, somebody got upset with me. In
reality, it was a nightmare. Week after week, I sought God for my messages and
prepared only to be rejected by one of the groups. During the 90’s, we also had
three times when large groups of people left the church. One was when God tested
us to see if we would follow Him or follow the people. We had our first tongues
message and interpretation. It was wonderful. But not everyone thought so. Half
the church agreed with me that it was great but half wanted no part of it. I had to
make a decision. Would we allow the gifts of the Spirit to be practiced at our church
or not. When I decided that we would encourage the gifts to be utilized as long as
they were practiced in order, about half of the church left. A few years later, we had
another test. This time the Lord had spoken to us not to tolerate the woman
Jezebel. We did not know much about Jezebel at that time, but God put us on a
crash course to learn. When we did not tolerate Jezebel’s control and domination in
our midst, another half or more of our church left. Then a few years later, we had a
third “leaving” when we accepted the call as forerunners in the spirit and power of
Elijah. When I heard the call upon our ministry, I was very excited. But the
excitement didn’t last long when only a few people were at all enthusiastic about it.
Many thought I had totally missed it. Others wanted no part of it. Again, a lot of
people left. My test was to not quit and to not get offended at either God or the
people. I had been perfectly content as a businessman, and I went into ministry
because God called me into ministry not because I wanted to. Yet even though I
had responded to God’s call, I felt He was abandoning me. My test was not to get
offended at God or to lay down the call He had called me to. The other test was not
to get angry with the people. I will not lie. The experience where they did not allow
me to preach and the three times people left gave me many opportunities to get
angry at the church. And I say without any doubt in my heart, I was far from
perfect in my response. But finally I chose to love rather than respond negatively.
There are many more examples I could share about my testings of the 90’s as that
decade was filled with one time of discouragement after another, but I held on by
the grace of God. I must have passed the tests because God has now granted us
favor.
The point is that these types of tests are not because of sin although God
does surface sin in our life in these seasons of testing, rather they are to determine
if we will remain loyal to our Bridegroom and love others while He is preparing us
for the day of our wedding to Him. So, just as the bride had to encounter these
tests, we will too to be drawn close to Jesus. But just as we came through them, the
bride did too, and the Bridegroom is thrilled with her respnse to these difficult
times.
Chapter 6
The bride has passed quite possibly the most difficult crisis in her spiritual
life, the absence of her Bridegroom’s presence and the rejection and wounding by
those who should have been her closest friends—the church. She was hurt badly,
not because of sin or immaturity, but because of her maturity. Even though the
tests were very difficult for her, she has passed them, and her Bridegroom is
touched mightily by her perseverance and determination to press on in intimacy
with her Bridegroom. She did not leave Him when she could not feel His presence,
and she was not offended at Him when He withdrew His presence or when the
church wounded her. With her success in these crises of her faith, her love and
maturity are beginning to be noticed by her Bridegroom and by the wider body of
Christ as Jesus progressively sets her apart from the masses. The bride’s testing
has resulted in the lives of others being dramatically changed. Because her intimate
walk with Jesus is becoming evident, the daughters of Jerusalem see something in
her that they want and they ask her where they can find her beloved (Song. 6:1).
She responds to their question, “My beloved has gone down to His garden”
(Song. 6:2). Jesus is in His church (His garden) and is building it. She tells them
that Jesus has “gone down to His garden…to pasture His flock…and gather lilies
(Song. 6:2). Jesus dwells in the church to gather and feed His people. The bride
teaches the church that they too can find Him in intimacy in the same way she
discovered Him—through Jesus’ ministry in the church. She now tells the daughters
of Jerusalem the same thing Jesus told her in Song. 1:7-8. In essence, she tells
those hungry for a deeper walk with God that they can find Him on the same
journey on which she found Him, beginning with a commitment to the local church
(Song. 6:2).
The bride has now answered the two questions asked of her in her maturity.
Next, the Bridegroom restores His presence to her life by lavishing affection on her.
He praises her profusely speaking of her beauty, her purity, and the fact that she
had overcome the issues that were set before her. He tells her that she is as
awesome as an army with banners. When an army won a battle, they would take
the enemy’s banner. At the end of the conquest, they would parade through their
hometown displaying the banners of the enemies they had overcome. She was now
an overcomer who had gathered many banners which the Lord said made her
beautiful and pure. He adds to His praise of her by telling her that she has risen far
above any other believer in His church—above the queens, concubines, and virgins
without number. (Song. 6:4-13). The numbers 60, 80, and without number
represent different degrees of glory in God’s kingdom. The queens had the highest
rank in His kingdom, the concubines were next, and the virgins without number
were part of the kingdom but were much like the foolish virgins of Matthew 25. The
overcoming bride—the one who will be the eternal wife of the Lamb—is the unique
one. She holds the highest rank in the kingdom and will possess the greatest degree
of eternal glory for all of eternity as she lives out in the ages to come her prayer of
Song 1:4, “Draw me after you and let us run together”.
Two key concepts to recognize at this point in her journey are that she is
considered very beautiful inside and out and also pure in heart. Jesus tells her that
she is as beautiful as Tirzah. Tirzah means delightful or pleasantness.3 Tirzah was
the capital and the most beautiful city in the northern kingdom at certain times after
Israel was divided (1 Kings 14:17, 15:21, 16:6). It had been a Caananite city that
was captured by Joshua’s conquest of the land (Joshua 12:24, 1 Kings 15:33,
16:61). According to Mike Bickle in his study guide on Song of Solomon, Tirzah
symbolizes natural beauty that appeals to the unsaved world. 4 The Lord also tells
her that she is as lovely as Jerusalem (Song. 6:4). Jerusalem was the spiritual
capital of Israel and the city in which Solomon built Israel’s first temple. It was the
only place in the earth at that time in which the manifest presence of God
continually dwelt. Jerusalem symbolizes the bride’s spiritual beauty. She was
beautiful spiritually to her Bridegroom and beautiful even to both the christian and
the non-christian world.
Jesus speaks of her, “Who is this that grows like the dawn, as beautiful as
the full moon, as pure as the sun” (Song. 6:10). He is speaking of her growing
purity of character. As she overcomes her flesh struggles, defeats the enemies who
come against her and passes the tests that the Lord puts before her, she grows in
purity. Just like the sun becomes brighter as it rises in the morning, she is becoming
brighter in her Christlike character as she overcomes. She is beginning to reflect the
nature of Christ as the moon reflects the light of the sun, and she has now like the
sun become Christlike reflecting Christ in her heart and actions.
The bride loves Jesus deeply. She has demonstrated her love by passing the
tests set before her, by becoming an overcomer, and by growing in purity as she
has become more Christlike. Her mature love results in a much deeper and more
intimate relationship between her and her Bridegroom. He expresses how her
maturity affects Him with these words, “Turn your eyes away from me, for they
have confused me” (Song. 6:5). His heart is overwhelmed by her love for Him as
evidenced during her seasons of testing. It is exciting to know that our devotion
moves Jesus’ heart in this same way. As we continue to persevere in determined
love for Him and as we grow in maturity and intimacy with Him, the demonstration
of our love moves Jesus very deeply. As a result of her growing intimacy with Jesus,
she now desires to minister in greater partnership with Him. She shares her heart to
minister as follows,
I went down to the orchard of nut trees to see the blossoms of the valley, to
see whether the vine had budded or the pomegranates had bloomed. Before I
was aware, my soul set me over the chariots of my noble people (Song. 6:1112).
She goes to the orchard to see if the vines have budded (Song. 6:11) and before
she even knew it, her soul was set over the chariots of the noble people (Song.
6:12). As she has matured and drawn closer to Jesus, she has taken on a greater
burden for the global church. She has discovered a new found desire to disciple,
help prepare believers, and to minister into the church. As she draws closer to the
Lord, she begins in a much greater way to experience His heart and to take on His
burdens for His church and the world.
Chapter 7
As Chapter 7 unfolds, the bride is once again affirmed in her walk with Jesus-first by the daughters of Jerusalem (Song. 7:1-5) and then by her Bridegroom
(Song. 7:6-9). The focus of her praise this time is not her character as it was earlier
in her journey but her ministry capability as the mature, intimate bride. The chapter
begins with, “How beautiful are your feet in sandals” (Song. 7:1) refering to her
participation in the Great Commission. As the daughters of Jerusalem compliment
her, they begin with her feet and then emphasize other features of her beauty that
speak of tools needed for effective ministry (Song. 7:1-5). Her thighs (NKJV) speak
of the strength to walk out effective ministry. The navel speaks of her ability to
nourish little ones in the faith. The sincere believers who are affirming her at this
point tell her, “Your belly is like a heap of wheat fenced about with lilies” (Song.
7:2). Her waist being compared to a heap of wheat speaks of her being pregnant
with an abundant harvest and the reference to lilies suggest that her ministry to
bring in the harvest is characterized by integrity and holiness. Her will is compared
to an ivory tower implying that her determination to be used by God in ministry is a
rare commodity in the world. Her eyes provide her with keen spiritual insight, and
her nose is set to discern the voice of the Lord so as to minister in power.
Not only do the daughters of Jerusalem affirm her, the King praises her. He
is very pleased with His bride and her journey toward intimacy and maturityas
evidenced by His agreement with what the daughters of Jerusalem have said about
her. He commissions the bride to go forth in anointed ministry as He tells His bride,
“Oh, may your breasts be like clusters of the vine, and the fragrance of your breath
like apples, and your mouth like the best wine!" (Song 7:8-9). With this statement,
the Bridegroom is commissioning His bride in three distinct ways. First, He is
commissioning her to nurture others in power (breasts). Second, He confirms that
she now can teach, preach, and minister the anointed word (breath). She has
feasted upon His word at the banquet hall and now she is able to minister in power
the word she has been taught. And, third, He encourages her that from her mouth
she can speak to others from her personal experience that His love is better than
the wine of worldly pleasures.
Another major transition has happened in her life. Now, she does not have t
be exhorted to participate in the Great Commission. She desires to be used by God
and asks the Lord to allow her to partner with Him in evangelism, discipleship, and
ministry. The bride tells her Bridegroom,
Come, my beloved, let us go out into the country, let us spend the night in the
villages. Let us rise early and go to the vineyards; let us see whether the vine
has budded and its blossoms have opened, and whether the pomegranates
have bloomed. There I will give you my love. The mandrakes have given forth
fragrance; and over our doors are all choice fruits, both new and old, which I
have saved up for you, my beloved (Song. 7:11-13).
She wants to work in the fields and is willing to pay the price to get up early and
spending the night in the fields of ministry in order to partner with Jesus in His
mission. She desires to go to the villages—the remote places where the people are
poor, forgotten, and spiritually hungry. She has choice fruits from the fruitfulness of
her ministry that she desires to give to her Bridegroom. She also affirms that she
will give Him her love in the fields of ministry and not only at the banquet hall. Her
cry to go into the country not only expresses her desire for ministry, it is also an
expression of her intercession on behalf of the church and the world. Her prayer and
ministry focus has moved far beyond her own personal needs to the place where
she has taken on the burden of her Bridegroom King to partner with Him for the
nations (Ps. 2:8) and for His word to spread rapidly and be glorified in the earth (2
Thess. 3:1).
Chapter 8
With the coming of Chapter 8, the bride has fully matured and is in an
intimate partnership with her beloved, her Bridegroom King. Her love has grown to
the point that she is now passionately in love with Him. She has learned to walk out
her faith in obedience, and she has allowed God to transform her character so that
she is now considered pure in heart. She has matured not only in her inward nature,
but she has also matured in her desire and effectiveness of ministry. She has taken
up the Lord’s burden for intercession for the church and the world, and she has
come to the place of asking the Lord to send her into the fields of ministry to be
used in partnership with Him. She desires to encounter Jesus both in the banquet
hall of her secret time with Him and in the harvest fields of evangelism and
ministry. It is at this point that the book says about the intimate bride, “Who is this
coming up from the wilderness leaning on her beloved?" (Song. 8:5). She has
emerged from her preparation passionately in love with her Bridegroom and leaning
on Him in intimate partnership. He has fulfilled her request to be drawn close to Him
in intimacy and to run together in partnership. The objective of her journey has
been achieved. She now is passionately in love with her Bridegroom and has been
drawn to His side in great intimacy ready to partner with Him in mighty ways. But
there is more. The Bridegroom now invites the bride to seal this intimate love
relationship with Him so that it never fades or is stolen and to make a fiery love
relationship with Jesus her life vision so that it continues to grow throughout her
life. The scriptures record the Bridegroom’s invitation as,
Put me [Jesus] like a seal over your [the bride] heart, like a seal on your arm.
For love is as strong as death, jealousy is as severe as Sheol; its flashes are
flashes of fire, the very flame of the LORD. Many waters cannot quench love,
nor will rivers overflow it; if a man were to give all the riches of his house for
love, it would be utterly despised (Song. 8:6-7).
God’s love for us is a jealous love as strong as death and as demanding as the
grave. It cannot be quenched by anything, and it is more valuable than anything
else in the world. Jesus desires us to love Him in the same way in return. The bride
has experienced this reality. She has arisen far above the masses of believers
worldwide to know Jesus in an intimate love relatonship. God has supernaturally
sealed the bride’s heart with His fiery love. The journey began with the cry in her
heart for the kiss of intimacy and ended with the seal of fiery love in her heart. The
love she has been granted is a love that is strong, passionate, and determined. She
is now living in the reality of this type of love relationship; nonetheless, she is also
being given a fresh invitation to seal her love relationship so that it never fades but
only grows deeper. Therefore, this passage becomes a statement where she asks
her Bridegroom to never let her drift from passionate love for Him and an invitation
for more.
The bride’s journey closes with the bride taking up a deep sense of
responsibility for the church to mature as she has. She knows who she is and she
has taken on the same burden that the King has for His church. She has learned a
very valuable truth. The King has assigned her responsibility for a portion of His
vineyards and she knows that she will be held accountable for the fruit that is
produced from her vineyard. Notice how it reads, “Solomon had a vineyard at Baalhamon; he entrusted the vineyard to caretakers. Each one was to bring a thousand
shekels of silver for its fruit. My very own vineyard is at my disposal; the thousand
shekels are for you, Solomon, and two hundred are for those who take care of its
fruit” (Song. 8:11-12). She knows now that she is capable of tending the vineyard
for which she has been placed in charge. She says that her little sisters have no
breasts but that hers are like towers (Song. 8:8,10). In other words, she knows of
others in the body of Christ who are immature but she knows that she is now able
to nurture them with what she has learned on her journey to intimacy.
The book concludes with the Bridegroom saying “My companions are
lisitening for your voice “ (Song. 8:13), exhorting her to go forth in ministry
because the church is looking for and needs her ministry. At the same time the
Bridegroom cautions her to not to get so busy that she forgets Him and the intimacy
they have shared (Song. 8:13). The final verse in the book records the cry of the
bride for the Bridegroom to return. She says, “Hurry, my beloved, and be like a
gazelle or a young stag on the mountains of spices" (Song. 8:14). Just as the bride
is recorded as saying to Jesus in the Book of Revelation, “Come”, the bride here
asks for her Bridegroom to hurry and return to her. At this point the journey is
complete. The bride’s cry to be drawn to Jesus in intimacy and to run in partnership
has been answered. She has been drawn to Jesus in deep intimacy and out of
intimacy has begun to partner with Him in intercession and ministry. And He gives
us an invitation to join Him in a similar journey to intimacy.
Times and Seasons
Seasons
Paul wrote, “But concerning the times and the seasons, brethren, you have no need
that I should write to you” (1 Thess 5:1, NKJV), and Jesus spoke to His disciples, “It
is not for you to know times or seasons which the Father has put in His own
authority” (Acts 1:7, NKJV). Clearly, there are times and seasons in God’s plan for
history and for His followers. He works in our lives in a variety of times and
seasons. My understanding of times and seasons as they relate to the life of an
individual is that “times” refers to the general time frame or events in God’s plan
whereas “seasons” carries the meaning of a special shorter time span within a more
general time frame. There are times and then there are multiple seasons within a
time. As we apply the idea of times and seasons to our journey toward intimacy, we
must understand that there are both times and seasons. To conclude this chapter,
let’s first examine the idea of seasons in the bride’s journey to intimacy, and then a
look at “times”.
Three times in the Song of Solomon (Song. 2:7, 3:5, and 8:4), God exhorts
the chorus surrounding the bride not to disturb her in the season in which she finds
herself until God has completed the work He intends for her in that season. Observe
the following passage as the Lord speaks to the daughters of Jerusalem telling them
to leave the bride alone until He is finished with her in the season she is in,
I adjure you, O daughters of Jerusalem, by the gazelles or by the hinds of the
field, that you do not arouse or awaken my love until she pleases (Song. 2:7).
The Bridegroom gives a similar exhortation in Song. 3:7 and Song 8:4. In all three
examples, this warning is given at the end of a specific crisis or encounter that the
bride has had with her Bridegroom. In Chapter 2, the bride has encountered the
Bridegroom at the banquet hall where she has been feasting in His presence. He
tells those who might challenge her to go do something else not to bother her until
she is ready. In Chapter 3, she has just discovered the purpose the Lord has in
taking her through crises and struggles—to prepare her for the Marriage Supper of
the Lamb. In Chapter 8, she has discovered the great joy of partnering with God in
the Great Commission. Each time, the Bridegroom wants the bride to remain in that
season until she is ready to go on to something else. Of course, we recognize that
God is working in the unseen spirit realm to make her ready for a new season when
He is ready, but He does have seasons ordained for us to learn certain truths—and
He wants us to remain in those seasons until He is ready for us and we are prepared
to go to a new season.
God has ordained strategic seasons in each person’s spiritual life during
which He desires to establish us in specific truths or works of the Holy Spirit. Often
these seasons take time to produce the desired effect. The daughters of Jerusalem
represent the larger body of Christ, many of whom do not have the spiritual
discernment to recognize that the Lord has a person in a certain season for their
own preparation. When the Bridegroom first spoke the warning not to awaken His
bride, the bride was at the banquet hall being fed and nurtured by Jesus, His Word
and His presence. The Bridegroom did not want her disturbed from this place until
He had worked an important truth in her heart—in this case, He wanted to raise the
banner of love over her so that she knew deep within that He loved her and she
became lovesick for Him. In other words, until she was confident in the love of her
Bridegroom and until she could not live without Him. This is a very important
season in her journey because He will soon invite her to join Him in some difficult
seasons of preparation. God knows she must first be secure in His love and hers for
Him before she can progress. Therefore, He tells the larger body of Christ to leave
her alone until she is ready. She will know when the time comes because He will put
a divine discontent in her heart so that she is prepared and ready for a new season
and a new challenge in her walk.
We have just surveyed the entire book of Song of Solomon in two chapters
of this book—only a few minutes of reading. Nonetheless, the seasons we described
can take days, months, and even years to make us ready for the next season in our
journey toward intimacy. As I have stated repeatedly, this journey is a lifelong
journey. So, we must understand that we might be in a season for a while, but also
know that God is perfectly able to lead us to the next season when the time is right.
So, please understand that in your personal journey toward intimacy with Jesus,
you will go through a variety of seasons whereas some of these seasons might be
short and some long. But also know that God desires to perform a great work in you
in each and every season no matter how long it might last.
Times
Another reality of our journey toward intimacy is that just as there are four
seasons in a year and then those same four seasons repeat the next year, there are
times—longer periods of time that include more than one season--in our journey to
intimacy in which we will repeat similar seasons through which we have previously
gone. As I write this chapter, we are having a cooler summer than last year, but it
is still summer. As we go through a season, the second time in that season will
most likely be different from the first, but it is still a season during which the Lord is
working on us in a particular way. We might go through seasons in which God is
working on us in one or more of these ten pursuits. The season might last a while
and then a few years later we might encounter a similar season for a second time.
Don’t be surprised if that happens—and happens throughout your life. If we don’t
allow Him to work in us as He desires in a particular season, He will at a later date
lead us to repeat the same season with the hope this time we will allow Him to
complete His intended work in us. Be assured though that as we cooperate with the
Holy Spirit during each season, then the next time through will be to take us deeper
in the truth He is working in us. Spiritual growth is much more like peeling an onion
than peeling an apple. The apple has one peel and then the meat. An onion has one
layer and then another and then another. God must address us layer by layer until
we have a deep walk with Him and have grown close to Him in intimacy.
Please understand that as you pursue intimacy with Jesus, God will take you
through many seasons in which He is embedding a truth deep within you. Even so,
please know that even though you have learned a truth in that season, at a later
time, He will take you through another season to teach you a similar truth but at a
much deeper level. Therefore, please view the Song of Solomon as a lifelong guide
that you will experience at many times and many ways over your personal journey
of intimacy with Jesus.
Now that we have a foundational understanding of the Song of Solomon, in
the remainder of this book we will explore ten life pursuits that will produce
intimacy with Jesus as our Bridegroom King. Let’s take these topics very seriously
so that we can draw close to Him in these exciting and urgent times.
1
Perfect, (from The Online Bible Thayer's Greek Lexicon and Brown Driver & Briggs
Hebrew Lexicon, Copyright (c)1993, Woodside Bible Fellowship, Ontario, Canada.
Licensed from the Institute for Creation Research.)
2
Bickle, p. 107.
TIRZAH, from The New Unger's Bible Dictionary. Originally published by Moody Press of Chicago,
Illinois. Copyright (c) 1988.)
4
Bickle, p. 118.
3