2021-07-16
Good Morning Dear Ones,
The Song of Solomon (Song of Songs) is in the OT and can be read on two levels. The first is a sexually explicit narrative, and the second level is an allegory of Israel’s relationship with God. SOS 1: ,9, & 15, “Let Him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth-for your love is more delightful than wine…I liken You, my darling, to a mare harnessed to one of the chariots of Pharaoh…How beautiful You are, my darling! Oh, how beautiful! Your eyes are doves.” God wants Israel to love Him as no other people have loved Him before, with devotion, faithfulness, and obedience to His teaching. He sees an obedient Israel as beautiful and sleek as an Arabian horse. Israel allows the Holy Spirit (symbolized by a dove) to lead the life of these people of God.
1 COR 7: 3-6, “The husband should fulfill his marital duty to his wife, and likewise the wife to her husband. The wife’s body does not belong to her alone, but also to her husband. In the same way, the husband’s body does not belong to him alone but also to his wife. Do not deprive each other except by mutual consent and for a time, so that you may devote yourselves to prayer. Then come together again so that Satan will not tempt you because of your lack of self-control. I say this as a concession, not as a command.” [See EPH 5: 21-25]. One can say the Husband, (bridegroom, or Jesus Himself) owes it to the wife (Israel, His people, or the church) to be faithful, as does His wife (Israel) to Him. Except by mutual consent brought on by the situation, Christ should not hold back from His people or His people from Him, so that devotion to prayer comes about. They should come back to each other, so that Christ can give Israel (or the church) the power to avoid Satan’s temptation. This should be done as a concession and not as one commanding the other.
1 PET 3: 8, “The man who plants and the man who waters have one purpose, and each will be rewarded according to his own labor.” The first question should be Who rewards and Who causes a plant to grow? Only God has the right to determine the reward a man gets; He alone can give a plant the miracle of growth. But that is not all that is said here. God alone has the right to determine what labor equals which. One must see that RO 12: 4-5 helps us to have a better understanding of these concepts. “Just as each of us has one body with many members and these members do all have the same function, so in Christ we who are many form one body, and each member belongs to all the others.” Serving God is the function of all, even though we all have different skill sets to bring about serving the One, Who is our Lord and Savior. In the beginning, God teaches us to use a skill set we must discover. As we practice with it, we become better at it. LK 14: 10-11, “But when you are invited, take the lowest place, so that when your Host comes, He will say to you, ‘Friend, move up to a better place.’ Then you will be honored in the presence of all your fellow guests.
For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.” The better we become at discovery of one’s skill set, the more adept he will become at serving God. To find that the Lord has led us to a skill we didn’t know we have is a humbling experience. Those people we serve will desire to have us continue that service. It has been humbling to me, for example, that other adults have sought me out to be their Bible teacher. It is God’s advice to me all along is that I never go to class unprepared and that I be in the habit of asking open-ended questions that lead to interesting discussions. LK 15: 8-9, “Or supposed a woman has ten silver coins and loses one. Does she not light a lamp, sweep the house and search carefully until she finds it? And when she finds it, she calls her friends and neighbors together and says, ‘Rejoice with me, I have found my lost coin.’” Upon making her discovery, she is humbled that God loves her so much that He makes this discovery possible.
PRAYER: O Lord, both self-control and humility are taught to us by You. You have numerous ways of teaching them to us, sometimes by allowing us to act without them and to discover the error of our ways. As we age, we learn just how important to us they are. We all are encouraged to serve You, to use the skills You gives us. Different people have been given different skills, and each person is judged using the same standard. Your fairness and equity are amazing. You deserve great praise and thanks for the love You show us. It is by Your wisdom that we are made to mature, by Your teaching that we learn what pleases You. Our hearts are open to Your direction; we are humbled by the profundity of Your direction, by the love You show us, and by the example of obedient self-control that Christ demonstrated before a kangaroo court. As we discover the ways You engender us to function in serving You and serving others, we are truly taught to humble ourselves before You. Once again, thanks and praise for the great love that is in Your word and shown by Your actions. In Christ’s holy/mighty name, we pray. Amen.
NEXT WEEK: I’m commanded by the Holy Spirit to begin writing about the example Christ gave us as He was betrayed, mistreated, crucified, sent to hell, and resurrected. His behavior was a demonstration of faithful obedience, humility and self-control. SOS 4: 6-7, “Until the day breaks and the shadows flee, I will go to the mountain of myrrh and to the hill of incense. All beautiful you are my darling; There is no flaw in you.” This is the description of obedient Israel, the land that has received Elijah and has brought about peace, the land that has prepared itself to welcome the end times. This is the Israel that has finally welcomed justification, eternal salvation, and forever forgiveness for past sins.
Those are the gifts brought to a peaceful land that only Jesus Christ can bring. We can only look forward with eager anticipation to the days when Arab Hamas and Hezbollah, the PLO, and Israel herself, will stop lobbing rockets and the need to use the “Iron Dome” to fight one another. The third temple will be completed, and Israel will lead the world in faithful obedience to God. These are the things for which we hope, the things that will give us assurance of the world’s confidence that our lives are safe. PS 122: 6, “Pray for the peace of Jerusalem: ‘May those who love you be secure. May there be peace within your walls and security within your citadels…’”
Grace Be With You Always,
Lynn
JS 24: 15
© Lynn Johnson 2021. All Rights Reserved.
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