March 1, 2017

Song Of Solomon 5:10, 16

(All scripture is from the New King James Version unless otherwise indicated.)

Ok, I am adding one more blog to the Selling Our Product series.  As I thought about the whole subject, I don’t think I emphasized enough one point I want bring up more thoroughly now.  And for our featured Scripture I have chosen Song of Solomon 5:10 and 16:  “My beloved is…the chief among ten thousand….His mouth is most sweet, yes, he is altogether lovely.  This is my beloved, and this is my friend….”

While this is a poem expressing the love between King Solomon and his Shulamite bride (see Song of Solomon 1:1; 6:13), it has also been seen to portray two other spiritual relationships:  The love of God toward His wife Israel (see Isaiah 54:5, 6; Hosea 2:16-20), and (since the early Church Fathers) the love-relationship between Christ and His Church, His bride! (See II Corinthians 11:2; Ephesians 5:25-27, 32).  It is this last relationship upon which this blog is based – Christ and His Church.  And I want to emphasize that aspect which relates to Selling Our Product, that is, we have an absolutely superior ‘Product’ to offer people!  So let’s take Song of Solomon 5:10 and 16 phrase by phrase and see what we can learn:

•      Verse 10 – “My beloved….”  Paul refers to Jesus Christ as Beloved in Ephesians 1:6 when he writes that we are “…accepted in the Beloved.” (See also Matthew 3;17; 17:5).  What the apostle means is, if the Father accepts Jesus and what He did on Calvary (and, of course, He does), we – in Him – are just as accepted !  Why is Jesus our Beloved?  The answer is in I John 4:19:  “We love Him because He first loved us.”  Further, in Romans 5:8, Paul declares, “But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.”  He showed us His love by dying for us!  Also, in II Thessalonians 2:13 (KJV), Paul calls believers, “…beloved of the Lord….”  Is it then any wonder that the ‘Product’ we are offering people would be called my Beloved?

•      Verse 10 – “…the chief among ten thousand….”  Among ten thousand?  Jesus Christ is utterly unique – One among billions!  That’s why God Himself had to come to earth incarnate!  There has never been another human being who could be perfect enough to pay the penalty for sin!  As it is written in Acts 4;12 (International Standard Version):  “There is no salvation by anyone else, for there is no other name under heaven given among people by which we must be saved.”

•      Verse 11 – “His mouth is most sweet….”  When officers of the temple police were sent to arrest Jesus, they came back empty handed.  Their excuse? “No man ever spoke like this Man! ” (John 7:46).  When asked if the twelve disciples wanted to leave Him after Jesus laid down some very hard teaching in John 6, Peter answered, “Lord, to whom shall we go?  You have the words of eternal life.” (John 6:68).  As Job said in Job 23:12, “I have treasured the words of His mouth more than my necessary food.”  Oh, the sweetness that flows from the lips of Jesus!

•      Verse 11 – “…yes, he is altogether lovely.”  As a small child, I once knew a woman whom I thought was absolutely beautiful.  But she was not that physically attractive.  She just had such a wonderful personality that it made her total person altogether lovely!  It is prophesied of Jesus Christ in Isaiah 53:2 that, “He has no form or comeliness; and when we see Him, there is no beauty that we should desire Him.”  But so many were attracted to Him – even little children! (See Mark 10:16).  It was His beauty that drew people to Jesus – the beauty of God Himself come in human flesh! (See John 1:1, 14).  So altogether lovely is He that, over the centuries, millions have counted it joy to suffer for Him (see I Peter 4:12-16), even to lay down their lives for Him! (See Revelation 2:10).

•      Verse 11 – “This is my beloved….”  Yes, He’s mine!  Jesus said in Revelation 3:20, “Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and dine with him, and he with Me.”  This becomes very personal – so personal that I can truly say, “This is my Beloved !”

•      Verse 11 – “…and this is my friend….”  Jesus told His followers in John 15:13 through 15:

      Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his
      friends.  You are My friends if you do whatever I command you.  No
      longer do I call you servants, for a servant does not know what his mas-
      ter is doing; but I have called you friends, for all things that I heard
      from My Father I have made known to you.

Paul tells us in Colossians 1:21 that “…you, who were once alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now He has reconciled…to present you holy, and blameless, and irreproachable in His sight….”  Jesus Christ, the Son of God, God the Son, the Savior of the World, “KING OF KINGS AND LORD OF LORDS ” (Revelation 19:16) is my Friend !  And He can be such a friend to anyone who opens themselves to His Saviorhood and Lordship!

So as we go out to others as ‘sellers’ of Jesus Christ to those who obviously need Him, is there any greater ‘Product’ that we can offer?  Go confidently, and ‘sell’ Him to the lost!