FELLOWSHIP WITH CHRIST (Song 5:2-8)

FELLOWSHIP WITH CHRIST

That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, Becoming conformed into his death” —Philippians 3:10

I went to sleep, but my heart stayed awake. I dreamed that I heard the voice of my beloved as he knocked at the door of my mother’s cottage. Open to me, my sister, my love, my dove, my spotless one, he said, for I am wet with the heavy night dew; my hair is covered with it.

But weary from a day in the vineyards, I had already sought my rest; I had put off my garment–how could I again put it on? I had washed my feet–how could I [again] soil them?

My beloved put in his hand by the hole of the door, and my heart was moved for him.

I rose up to open for my beloved, and my hands dripped with myrrh, and my fingers with liquid sweet-scented myrrh, which he had left upon the handles of the bolt.

I opened for my beloved, but my beloved had turned away and withdrawn himself, and was gone! My soul went forth to him when he spoke, but it failed me and now he was gone! I sought him, but I could not find him; I called him, but he gave me no answer.

The watchmen who go about the city found me. They struck me, they wounded me; the keepers of the walls took my veil and my mantle from me.

I charge you, O daughters of Jerusalem, if you find my beloved, that you tell him that I am sick from love simply sick to be with him —Song 5:2-8

We have in the Song of Songs various photographs, so to speak, of the One in whom dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily. The Spirit flashes the light on him, first from one point of view and then from another, so that the we can have a complete revelation of him and be brought into full conformity to his image.

We saw him first unveiled as King, taking possession of the throne in the heart and bringing her will into full surrender and obedience to him as Lord.

We saw him next as The Risen One, approaching the maiden from his resurrection glory, inviting her to come out of herself into her hiding place in the cleft of the Rock, her crucified Lord, so that she can know that she is joined to him who was raised from the dead.

Then we saw him as the Lover of the soul, rejoicing over the hidden one in her newness of life, and we heard from his lips the characteristics of that life, and of its manifestation to others.

Now we come to his revelation of himself as the Man of Sorrows, as he invites the bridal soul to prove her heavenly calling by choosing—by her own free will—to follow him in his path of rejection, and to be conformed to his likeness as the Lamb.

Even though the only begotten Son was appointed Heir of all things, and was the effulgence of the Father’s glory, and the “very image of his substance” (Hebrews 1:3), yet, “being found in appearance as a man,” he learned obedience by the things he suffered, and was made “perfect through sufferings” (Hebrews 2:10). The disciple has to be perfected as the Master. We are “heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory” (Romans 8:17).

The hidden one is suggesting to us her spiritual experience at this point when she says, “I slept, but my hear is awake.” Her whole being is possessed by her Beloved and dominated by the Holy Spirit, so that she knows now that she is hidden in the cleft of the Rock—the wounded side of the Savior on Calvary’s cross. As a result, the selfish life is so displaced in her consciousness that like Paul, she can say, “I have been crucified with Christ, and I no longer live . . .” (Galatians 2:20). She is so indwelt and surrounded by the Lord himself, she is kept in an indescribable peace. Nothing breaks her rest; she is in perfect peace as she fixes her life on him. The fruit of the Spirit—“love, joy, peace, patience, an even temper, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, meekness, humility, self-control” (Galatians 5:22-23)—is so manifested that she is visibly like a “well-watered garden, like a spring whose waters never fail” (Isaiah 58:11). The living waters flow spontaneously, and she has heavenly abundance for all the weary hearts who seek her out—drawn to her by the Holy Spirit.

Her cooperation with the Risen Lord is like that of the branch receiving nourishment from the vine: she lives in him, and he produces the fruit. She often sees herself as nothing but on onlooker, watching the Lord doing things through her as she relies on him. There is no struggle or effort, on her part. She is, so to speak, asleep as to her own separate activities, yet there was never a time when she was more awake to him, listening for the faintest indication of his will through the Spirit; for the cry of her whole being “That I may know him the power of his resurrection . . . if by any means I may attain to the resurrection from the dead. Not that I have now attained this ideal, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me” (Philemon 3:10-14).

If interested, you can download the entire study of The Song of Solomon.
Other Bible Studies and Commentary are available at http://doulos-studies.info and Flotsam and Jetsam.

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