Before I conclude here, the Shulamite also makes a statement related to her identity that I feel is important to note. She says, “I am my beloved’s, and he is mine.”
Do we really believe that about ourselves? Do we really believe that the Church belongs to God? More importantly, do we believe that Christ belongs to the Church? What does that even mean?
God is looking for a Bride, not a harem of individuals. The Church is His Bride, singular. We are so used to thinking of ourselves as individual Christians, we neglect to see God’s purpose in the singular identity of the Body of Christ. One of those purposes is that not only do we belong to Him alone, but that He belongs solely to the Church.
To be betrothed to Christ means that we have a unique relationship with Him that those outside the Church do not have … and cannot have. Jesus spoke about these things: “I go to prepare a place for you”, “ask whatever you will in my name, and it will be done”, etc. And Paul tells us that the “pillar of truth is in the church.”
Do we really believe that the Church is a special unique place (not the building but the gathering of saints)? That He is intimate with His people in a way that is separate from all other creation, through the indwelling of the Holy Spirit and the sharing of His divine nature? It is an essential part of our personal and collective identity that we believe this and live it out in action. He is manifestly revealed “when two or more are gathered in my name.”
This is why calling people to Christ is calling them to His Body. There is no separation there. As it says in Hebrews, contrasting the call of the Old Covenant with the New, the writer says we have not come to a mountain which can be touched or a speaker from the earth but, “to Mount Zion and to the city of the Living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, to an innumerable company of angels” – and are you ready for this? – “to the general assembly (the festal gathering) and church of the firstborn who are registered in heaven, to God the Judge of all, to the spirits of just men made perfect (complete), to Jesus the Mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling that speaks better things than that of Abel.”
To come to Jesus means to come to all that is one with Him. To separate out Christ from His Bride, from “the general assembly and church of the firstborn who are registered in heaven”, is to misunderstand and to deny that with which God has chosen to reveal Himself.
So here we come to the answer of the question from the Daughters of Jerusalem: “Where has your beloved gone that we may seek him with you?”
The Shulamite answers, “My beloved has gone to his garden, to the beds of spices, to feed his flock in the gardens, and to gather lilies. I am my beloved’s, and my beloved is mine. He feeds his flocks among the lilies.” She answers her own question from before: “Tell me .. where you feed your flock, where you make it rest at noon.”
Remember the Shulamite, the bride, is the lily of the valley, the lily among thorns. God is in the business of gathering lilies, gathering those who are fully committed and wed to Him, and feeding His flock there.
He feeds His flock “among the lilies.”
Peace.
As the love fest continues between the Beloved and the Shulamite, the Shulamite says of herself, “I am the rose of Sharon and the lily of the valleys.” Then the Beloved says of her, “Like a lily among thorns, so is my love among the daughters.”
It is the Shulamite that is identified as the lily of the valleys, a lily among thorns. This beautiful picture will be important later.
After the wedding, the Beloved comes to knock at his bride’s door, saying, “Open for me, my sister, my love, my dove, my perfect one; for my head is covered with dew, my locks with the drops of the night.”
But the Shulamite doesn’t open the door right away for him. “I have taken off my robe; how can I put it on again? I have washed my feet; how can I defile them?” In other words: I’m all ready for bed and it’s really inconvenient to be intimate with my husband right now. By the time she does respond, he is gone.
Others have taught on this, of course, but as Christ and the Church, often it is our immediate response that is required as He seeks to be intimate with us. We are told in the scripture not to “grieve the Holy Spirit,” which means we shouldn’t offend Him … which means we absolutely can.
The Shulamite goes out to look for her husband but is accosted by the Watchmen. She suffers the consequences for her slow response and cries out to the Daughters of Jerusalem for help to find him.
Here the Daughters give an interesting response: “What is your beloved more than another beloved, o fairest among women? What is your beloved more than another beloved that you so charge us?” Essentially, what makes him so special? There is a correlation between the fact that the Shulamite didn’t immediately respond when called upon by her lover and the perception of the Daughters of Jerusalem that he ain’t so hot.
Often it is the same with the Church. How are others supposed to believe in the supremacy of Christ when His Church is slow to respond and obey when He calls? Our testimony does have consequences.
The Shulamite answers the Daughters’ questions with a litany of desperate and poetic descriptions of her Beloved. She repents by exclaiming publicly how special her beloved is. And the Daughters respond: “Where has your beloved gone, o fairest among women? Where has your beloved turned aside, that we may seek him with you?”
As the Church returns to Her first love, she cannot help but draw others to seek Him as well.
The answer to the Daughters’ question coming next …
Peace.
The Song of Solomon is so beautiful as poetry and in its ability to be applied in so many ways and areas. Most of scripture has many different levels of interpretation, and the Song of Solomon is great to use as principles for courting and marriage as well as the relationship between Christ and the Church.
As I was reading the Song of Solomon recently, God shared some things with me that I thought interesting, so I’ll share with you. Now, I’ll be using the New King James translation and its designation of who is speaking, which can differ from NIV or others. I could go into why that is, but I think the New King James is sufficient for this particular teaching.
There are several characters here in the Song of Solomon. We have the Beloved (the male), the Shulamite (the female), the Daughters of Jerusalem, the brothers of the Shulamite, and the friends of the Bridegroom/Beloved, not to mention characters that do not speak like the Watchmen. The main conversation is between the Beloved and the Shulamite, but the others are also important.
In the beginning of the poem, the Shulamite asks a question: “Tell me, o you whom I love, where you feed your flock, where you make it rest at noon. For why should I be as one who veils herself by the flocks of your companions?”
She is asking her lover where he feeds his flocks, where he makes them rest. She makes a difference between HIS flocks and the flocks of his companions, where she must veil herself. The implication is that with his flock, she will be free and not need to veil herself.
This is a good question, and a good desire to have. Should we not, as disciples, seek to know where God’s people are, where he feeds them and where he makes them rest? We absolutely should. It is a godly desire to seek after His people and His rest.
But the Beloved doesn’t directly answer the question. “If you do not know, o fairest among women, follow in the footsteps of the flock, and feed your little goats beside the shepherds’ tents.”
In other words: follow My flock, and you’ll find the answers to your question.
God often does this. He is often asked a question and does not directly answer it. God does this for several different reasons. Sometimes it’s because we’re not really ready for the answer. We still need some seeking and character to be ready for that answer. Sometimes it is because there is something more at the root that needs to be dealt with first. Sometimes it is just the wrong question. Other times it is a question that doesn’t really seek truth but seeks to criticize God. Either way, He is able to discern what the true need is and addresses it.
The Shulamite has a heart of love, but she needs to be taken to a place of revelation and identity before He can truly answer that question for her.
And often the answer to many questions that people have about God comes down to their willingness to walk in the footsteps of His people and submit to the shepherds He has placed over them. “Imitate me as I imitate Christ,” as Paul said, and this is much of discipleship, not just hearing good doctrine but seeing it walked out on a day to day basis.
Part 2 coming soon …
Peace.
If I’ve used this movie before as an example, I apologize … kinda. Only to a degree because I love the movie UP. It is quickly becoming one of my favorite Pixar movies, which is saying a lot because I think Pixar consistently makes the best and most creative movies on the market.
So I watched this movie again this weekend. In the midst of getting choked up yet AGAIN, God showed me and taught me something in the midst of it.
Let me take a moment to again say that just because God used this movie to teach me something, 1) that is only because He loves me and talks to me everywhere and in everything, 2) the makers of the movie didn’t necessarily intend the message, and 3) it doesn’t justify watching movies. Just because God uses a vessel doesn’t justify the vessel. That’s how false religion starts, and is actually more central to the message of this post than you might think.
(Warning: heavy spoilers here … so if you haven’t seen the movie and want to enjoy it without my summaries, STOP READING NOW … and read this later.)
The movie centers around an old man, Carl, who has lived a long life and is content to stay in his old house alone and stubborn against the world. While he decides to chase after a lifelong dream, he gets “stuck” with a young boy, Russel, a talking dog and a rare bird. Carl is constantly torn between the house he ultimately has to drag behind himself and the adventure he finds with Russel, the talking dog, and the rare bird.
All of this reminds me of a conversation I’ve had with people recently warning of a pattern that I’ve seen in the Kingdom of God. And it is a negative pattern.
People in the Kingdom have monumental experiences, spiritual experiences where they grow and find joy and live a good life. But God is always doing new things, and instead of continuing on as the cloud or pillar of fire moves on, they hold on to these old experiences and refuse to consider that a new adventure awaits them.
American Christianity is one of the most segregated cultures in the world. Not just racially but in regards to age and generation as well. And institutions, by their very nature, can only encourage and deepen such segregation.
The generational segregation exists exactly because the older generation rests on the laurels and the experiences of the past instead of realizing their new role in what God is doing now.
We are all guilty of it, at least to a certain degree. It is a very common temptation. I’ve had several situations/experiences that I’ve had to let go of to move on to what God has for me next. Personally, from Happy Hollow to the Trammell house church to our time in Korea to the Hospitality House and now on to Gwinnett Church. And there will be things after this, as well.
Being thankful for the past and what God has done is one thing. Holding onto it to the detriment of investing in where God has you now is another thing altogether.
In the movie, there is this amazing scene where Carl has to make a decision. Russel decides to go to save the rare bird and leaves Carl and Carl’s house behind. Carl looks at this adventure journal his wife had since they were kids, and he sees how she filled the blank pages with their life before she died. And she leaves him a message: Thanks for the adventure! Now go have a new one!
Carl needs his house to go after Russel but it won’t get off the ground. So he dumps all of his treasured belongings to make the house lighter so he can fly after Russel to save Russel and the rare bird.
Too many of the older generation of believers are so tied to their previous experience in the Kingdom that they are bound to the past and unable to see the need for them in whatever God is doing today. And the Church does need them.
But the Church doesn’t need the older generation to recreate what God did in the past. They need the older generation as guides and someone to encourage the younger generation as the younger generation acts on their passion and the vision they’ve received from God.
In 1 John, the apostle makes three distinctions of his audience: young children (people glad for the forgiveness of sins), young men (those who are overcoming the evil one), and fathers (who walk with Him who is from the beginning).
There is a whole generation who is now overcoming the evil one, and they will not overcome the evil one and be saved from this wicked generation by using the past as a formula. That is the evil of religion. The Spirit is new and fresh; God does a new thing and desires new songs. Yesterday’s manna rots and produces worms.
But while we shouldn’t use the past as a formula, the testimony of those who have gone before us is necessary. Otherwise we should throw our Bibles away.
The role of the older generation in the Kingdom is to be Fathers. This has two main aspects: first, to be a living testimony of those who “walk with Him who is from the beginning”, a testimony of a mature walk, and second, to encourage and guide the unique spiritual vision of the current generation, to be able to remind the younger generation that all is temporary and there are some principles which are timeless and true regardless of expression.
The younger generation longs for this role. They need it. This is the family of God, where the young realize their own temptations to spiritualize worldly things like music and buildings (or lack thereof) and structures need to be tempered. But instead they see a testimony of an older generation that holds on tooth and nail to the past and the worldly things they associate with Christianity … so why should the young be any different?
In the movie, Carl ultimately takes ownership of the talking dog and Russel and while he loses his old life, Carl finds new satisfaction in a new adventure.
With my own son, is it being a good father to say, “This is how you grow up to become just like me,” or to say, “I want you to be whatever God wants you to be and I’ll do my best to help you realize that reality”? I say the latter and that’s what the Church today needs.
Unfortunately, I don’t know how many older saints read my blog. But if I could say one thing to them, it is this: There is no retirement in the Kingdom of God. Roles change and evolve, and we need you. We need your encouragement and guidance, friendship, involvement and testimony. There is a whole younger generation that needs you to stop meeting with other older saints of God to try and relive the glory days. Encourage the younger generation in their calling by walking through it with them. Take ownership of this new role God has for you. We want you and we need you. In some ways, your true ministry might not be behind you … it might be just beginning.
It’s time for a new adventure.
Peace.