Scripture Reading: S. S. 1:2-4; 4:4, 12-15; 6:4a; 7:11-12
Ⅰ
The Bible is a romance, in the most pure and the most holy sense, of a universal couple—God in Christ as the Bridegroom and God's redeemed people as the bride—John 3:29; Matt. 25:6; Rev. 19:7; 21:2; 22:17:
A
The Bible is the entire revelation of this divine romance, and Song of Songs is an abridged form of this romance.
B
The subject of Song of Songs is the history of love in an excellent marriage, revealing the progressive experience of an individual believer's loving fellowship with Christ—1:2-3.
C
Song of Songs is a marvelous and vivid portrait, in poetic form, of the bridal love between Christ as the Bridegroom and His lovers as His bride.
Ⅱ
Life is a person, Christ Himself, and there is no other way to enjoy this person but by loving Him—Mark 12:30; S. S. 1:2, 4, 7-11:
A
The beginning of our love toward the Lord is a vision of His person; we cannot go on without new knowledge of the Lord and a new vision of Him—Acts 26:14-19; 2 Cor. 4:6-7; Phil. 3:8-10a, 13; cf. Deut. 4:25.
B
Our relationship with the Lord needs to be personal, affectionate, private, and spiritual; such a relationship with Him causes us to love Him for His purpose, leading us into the church life where we can be transformed and perfected by being constituted with the Triune God for the building up of the Body of Christ to consummate the New Jerusalem—Eph. 4:11-12; 1 Cor. 3:12a.
Ⅲ
After we have been attracted by the Lord's beauty to love Him, we must learn one unique lesson—to be subdued—S. S. 1:9-11; 4:4:
A
Song of Songs speaks of the subduing of the will—1:10; 4:1, 4.
B
In 4:4 the lover of Christ is beautiful in her having a will that is submissive to Him (neck like the tower of David):
１
The neck signifies the human will under God; the Lord considers the submission of our will a most beautiful thing.
２
First, our will must be subdued; then it will be strong in resurrection and be like the tower of David, the armory for spiritual warfare—v. 4.
３
The lover of Christ has come out of her natural will, and now she is standing in her resurrected will against the enemy—Eph. 6:10-11, 13.
Ⅳ
The church life is God's garden, God's farm, so that we may grow with the growth of God and be transformed with the riches of God to become God's building—S. S. 4:12-15; Gen. 2:8; Col. 1:10; 2:19; 1 Cor. 3:9; Rev. 22:1-2; cf. Exo. 25:31-32:
A
We enjoy Christ for the enjoyment of Christ; the Lord is everything to us so that He can enjoy everything out of us—S. S. 1:12-14; 4:12-14; 5:1.
B
In this garden there are a fountain and a well of living water; God the Father is the fountain, God the Son is the well, and God the Spirit is the flowing streams so that we may become the New Jerusalem—4:15; John 4:14b.
Ⅴ
Tirzah and Jerusalem signify God's sanctuary, God's dwelling place, with God's holy city surrounding it to be its safeguard—S. S. 6:4a:
A
When the lover of Christ becomes one with God to be God's dwelling place, in the eyes of God she is as beautiful as Tirzah and as lovely as Jerusalem.
B
Through her living in Christ's ascension in resurrection, the lover of Christ becomes mature in the riches of the life of Christ so that she becomes the building of God, the sanctuary of God and its safeguard—cf. Gen. 2:8-12, 18-24; 1 Cor. 3:9-12a.
C
The lover of Christ lives in the Holy of Holies, the inner chamber of the heavenly sanctuary, within the veil, experiencing the ascension of Christ through the cross after her experience of His resurrection—S. S. 4:8.
D
By loving the Lord with the best love, we are incorporated into the Triune God to become His dwelling place—Rev. 2:4; John 14:20-21, 23; Eph. 3:17:
１
It is the love in God that gives Him the yearning to unite, mingle, and incorporate with us, and it is the same love in us that gives us the yearning to unite, mingle, and incorporate with Him—1 John 4:19, 8, 16.
２
By loving the Lord with the best love and by participating in every aspect of the divine romance, we become the New Jerusalem, which is the enlarged Holy of Holies—S. S. 1:2-3; 2:14; 4:8; 6:4a; Rev. 21:9-10.
E
To become the sanctuary of God is to be built up (related to the building up of the Body of Christ) in the growth in the life of Christ with its unsearchable riches unto maturity—Eph. 4:12-16:
１
In the Old Testament the building of God is typified by Tirzah and Jerusalem; in the New Testament it is the organic Body of Christ—v. 16.
２
The building up of the Body is organic and depends on our growth and maturity in life—v. 15.
３
Ultimately, this building up of the organic Body of Christ, which is also Christ's wife (5:25-32), will consummate the New Jerusalem, the holy city as the consummation of the Holy of Holies, the mutual dwelling of God and His redeemed in eternity—Rev. 21:2-3, 16, 22.
F
We need to work together with the Lord for His Body—S. S. 7:11-12; Eph. 4:16:
１
The work is the reaching out of the Body in growth—Acts 13:1-2.
２
The Body is the governing law of the life and work of the children of God— Eph. 1:22-23; 1 Cor. 12:4-6, 12-13, 27.
３
The work of the Triune God in us is to produce and build up the Body of Christ—Eph. 3:16-21; 4:4-6, 12, 16.