Song of Solomon 6:1 Whither is thy beloved gone, O thou fairest among women? whither is thy beloved turned aside? that we may seek him with thee.
God is a good God. He gives people who do not know Him abilities that would be such a blessing if they knew Him. There is a young woman that I came across a while back who has a very beautiful voice. She is a young woman that was born with some very serious health issues. You would never know that when you listen to her singing. She has a very strong voice. The problem is that she has not been guided to use that voice for God’s glory. Her parents and whoever is guiding her in the development of her voice, choose songs that are completely secular and some even destructive.
As I have observed her, I am also reading a book that examines the life and times of two men who were instrumental in developing perversions of the Word of God for the English speaking world — Westcott and Hort. They began with tampering with the Received Text that is the basis of the King James New Testament. Those two men were given sharp minds by the Lord. They were thinkers. The trouble is they did not allow God to guide them in their thinking. They limited their guidance to their own abilities and to those of others who were of a similar mind as they were.
They began as all people — lost sinners in need of a Saviour. They were raised around religion, but not the truth. They took an interest in spiritual matters, but did not allow God to draw them to Himself. They chose to use “science” as their basis of determining truth. That science was based on what they believed to be true. Lost people have no capacity to determine truth. It is the Holy Spirit of God, Who works in the hearts of lost people to show them the Truth and that they do not meet up to the requirements of the Truth.
Those two men are long gone. However, their souls are very much alive and in torment at this time. Thousands of people have been negatively affected by their efforts at corrupting God’s Word. Thousands of people will join those two men in torment for all eternity. There is no opportunity to recant or repent where they are. They have sealed their doom.
In the book of the Song of Solomon we are given a picture of the beautiful relationship that is possible for the person who submits to God and trusts in the Lord Jesus Christ for salvation. We have seen the daughters of Jerusalem on several occasions in this book. The bride is seeking to guard her man. She wants him to be her man alone. That is as it should be in any marriage. I do not understand how Mormon women can be content to share their man with several other women. Muslim women are subjected to the same cruelty. Then of course there are the many men who go out and buy intimacy at the expense of their wives at home.
God gave us the book of the Song of Solomon to help us to see the blessing there is in a monogamous relationship. As we follow the bride in this book, she is not content to let her man stay away too long. She is not a nagging wife. She is a loving wife who is dependent upon her groom to complete her.
We have noted before that when God made the woman, He made her to be the help meet for the man. Not all women marry, but the majority are designed to marry. The woman was not made first. Adam was made first and God showed him that he was not complete without a particular help meet for him. The woman was not created to be independent. God put Adam to sleep and took one of his ribs and used that rib to form the woman. When Adam awoke and saw this woman that God had made for him, he was pleased. He willingly took her to himself and she became his wife. They had a beautiful relationship for a short time.
Later on, God chose a man named Abraham and told him He would make a great nation out of him. Abraham had a wife named Sarah. They grew impatient with God and tried to help Him fulfil His promise to them. What they did is make a mess for themselves and the world. God kept His Word and Isaac was born when it was beyond human possibility for Abraham and Sarah to have a child. What seems impossible with man is not impossible with God. When He makes a promise He keeps it.
God designed the nation of Israel to be as a wife to God. He would provide all that was needed for the nation to be strong and respected among the nations of the world. All they needed to do is trust Him and let Him lead them according to His will. That seemed a difficult task for them and eventually, they ended up in exile and then under Roman rule for a number of years. Eventually they were scattered across the face of the earth and did not even have possession of the land that God gave to Abraham.
At just the right time, God sent His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ to come and present Himself to His nation as their Messiah. They rejected Him. They refused to see the blessing they could have in knowing the true God.
God established true churches through His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. True churches are promised great blessings in submitting to the authority of the Lord Jesus Christ. A true church is made up of redeemed individuals — individuals who have been born again. They become sons of God through the new birth.
There is a beautiful relationship to be had through the new birth. Sadly, as with the nation of Israel earlier, many times, those who claim to be born again, want something different than what Jesus Christ promises. Each time a true child of God tries to interfere with what God promises, they just make a mess of things. The problem is, we seem to be slow learners.
As we see in our verse for today, the daughters of Jerusalem were wondering where the groom had gone. They suggested they wanted to help her find him. As we have noted before already, he did not have the same value to them as he did to his bride. The world is interested in religion, but not in truth. The Lord Jesus Christ does not hold the same value among the world as He should to those who are His bride. Those who are His bride need to be reminded of Who Jesus is and they need to be reminded of who they need to be. As we have noted before, the blessing is in submitting to Jesus Christ as the Head of the local church. He alone knows how to direct the saints to the place of blessing. He is not hard to find. We find Him through His Word. His Word is Truth. The Holy Spirit will guide the true child of God into all truth. We will grow and become more Christlike as we spend time in His Word.
Pastor Bartel
