Song of Solomon 6:13 Desperate Prayer and the Restoring Mercy of God

¹³  THE BELOVED AND HIS FRIENDS Return, return, O Shulamite; Return, return, that we may look upon you! THE SHULAMITE What would you see in the Shulamite-- As it were, the dance of the two camps?

Meaning of the Two Camps

The Hebrew word for "the two camps" is transliterated into English as "Mahanaim".  It refers to a specific set of two camps.  The Song of Solomon presents a idealized vision of romance in marriage, and it is also commentary on the relationship between Israel and God.  Royalty were often depicted as "married" to their nation.  The two camps refers to Genesis 32, in which Jacob wrestles the angel the night before he returns to his homeland and meets his long-estranged brother, Esau.  There's quite a story behind this:  Esau and Jacob were twins but couldn't be more different from each other.  As the (by minutes) elder brother, Esau was first in line to gain the highly coveted blessing from their father.  He had red hair, and lots of hair, and was a good hunter who liked to be outside most of the time.  Jacob was his mother's favorite, and she helped him to deceived his father into thinking he was blessing Esau, thus stealing the blessing-and the destiny involved-from his brother.  Jacob had to leave the country and flee for his life.

 

Hard Lessons in Exile

In exile Jacob married two sisters, Rebecca and Leah, and spent years working for his father in law, Laban, who proved to be just as deceitful to Jacob as Jacob had been to his brother.  Jacob, his family and his entourage (because he became successful) decided to return home (in two caravans) and face the potential wrath of his brother, who also had an entourage that was large and armed.  The night before the fateful confrontation, Jacob wrestles with an angel until dawn.  As dawn approached, the angel prepared to leave, but Jacob held on, desperate for blessing.  The angel agreed to bless him, but then hit him in the hip, leaving him with a permanent limp.  Jacob finally meets Esau, who has managed to forgive his brother over the years, and he returns to his home in peace.  The episode with the angel serves as a vivid call to "wrestle" in prayer and seek God with urgency  bordering on desperation.  It's reference in Song of Solomon (also known as "Song of Songs") is part of a larger theme of the Lord bringing good even out of the bad in the story of His people.  He makes perfection even from the lives of very, very flawed people.

 

Solomon Was Wise, But Didn't Like Wisdom

Ecclesiastes is a sad tract, but a good example of the universal need for grace.  According to 1 Kings 3, Solomon asked for wisdom from the Lord and was rewarded handsomely for the request.  Unfortunately, in later years, he got involved in the worship of other gods, forbidden in Scripture.  His later years involved trouble and decline (1 Kings 11).  We believe that he wrote Ecclesiastes late in life, apparently realizing that for all the years of wonderful living with the Lord, he had wandered far away from his Creator and Sustainer and had regret.  He particularly seemed to regret wisdom (Ecclesiastes 2:13), but this was not the wisdom extolled in other parts of the Bible.  The wisdom criticized in Ecclesiastes is an exercise of careful, rational thought.  The wisdom of the Bible has reverence as its foundation.  The two are different, and apparently Saul had moved from the latter to the former, and later regretted it.  For all his wisdom and accomplishments, for all the piety of his early years, Solomon exemplified that humanity even at its best still needed grace, still needed the forgiveness gained by the blood of the Cross.  It also shows that even someone who has fallen away from the Lord, and stayed away for a long time, can still repent and still return.  For all its sadness, Ecclesiastes is still a book of wisdom as it gets the simple heart of a good life.

Ambitions, Plans and the Sovereignty of God

 

Proverbs 16:1-33 (NKJV)
¹  The preparations of the heart belong to man, But the answer of the tongue is from the LORD.
²  All the ways of a man are pure in his own eyes, But the LORD weighs the spirits.
³  Commit your works to the LORD, And your thoughts will be established.

Note:  My reading of this passage is that it is ok, even good, to make plans for one’s career and life, but to pray and present the plans to the Lord first before acting on them.  The Lord checks, not so much the plans themselves, but the intentions-He “weighs the spirits.”  The action point in verse three; to “commit your works to the Lord,” echoes other passages, like Psalm 37:5 and Proverbs 3:5-6.  The verb “to commit” includes a sense of relief in that they now fall under the leadership and strength of the Lord to bring to completion.  The verb was used to describe a camel being relieved of its load after a long journey.  Make plans, pray about them, see what come to mind and then check your options and see what works out.

 

Psalm 37:5  Commit your way to the Lord, trust also in Him, and He shall bring it to pass.

Proverbs 3:5-6

Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct your paths.

Brevity and Eternity in Psalm 102

 

I've been reading the Psalms these days and find that, if read as the thoughts and prayers of the Savior, there is so much to consider.  Psalm 102 is 28 verses long, apparently written by someone suffering affliction and very conscious that life on this earth is over quickly compared to the vast time of the earth and stars, and they are short compared to the eternity of God.  But my faith in Christ reminds me that all those who trust in Him as Lord will likewise live with Him forever.  So the brevity of my earthly life is tempered by my view of eternity before us (cf. Hebrews 12:22-24).  Verse twenty three starts with weakness and fear:

 

²³  He weakened my strength in the way; He shortened my days.   
²⁴  I said, "O my God, Do not take me away in the midst of my days; Your years are throughout all generations.
²⁵  Of old You laid the foundation of the earth, And the heavens are the work of Your hands.

Genesis 1:1  "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth."  Our Lord is the Creator at the beginning of time.
²⁶  They will perish, but You will endure; Yes, they will all grow old like a garment; Like a cloak You will change them, And they will be changed.

He is also present at the end of the created order and of time as we know it.

Note:  Verses 25-26 are quoted in Hebrews 1:10-12 in reference to the Lord Jesus.

Our days are so short compared to the eternity of our Savior.  But consider also that the regenerated person in Christ has all of eternity stretched out before him.  The brevity of these days beacon us to be wise, but the eternity ahead of us informs our values even more than the brevity.  Prayer, the Scriptures, the Gospel, mercy and care invested into others, especially the "least of these" become of primary importance in  light of these verses.

²⁷  But You are the same, And Your years will have no end.
²⁸  The children of Your servants will continue, And their descendants will be established before You."

Identify with the Weak and Don't Judge

 Job 4

¹²  "Now a word was secretly brought to me, And my ear received a whisper of it.
¹³  In disquieting thoughts from the visions of the night, When deep sleep falls on men,
¹⁴  Fear came upon me, and trembling, Which made all my bones shake.
¹⁵  Then a spirit passed before my face; The hair on my body stood up.
¹⁶  It stood still, But I could not discern its appearance. A form was before my eyes; There was silence; Then I heard a voice saying:
¹⁷  'Can a mortal be more righteous than God? Can a man be more pure than his Maker?
¹⁸  If He puts no trust in His servants, If He charges His angels with error,
¹⁹  How much more those who dwell in houses of clay, Whose foundation is in the dust, Who are crushed before a moth?
²⁰  They are broken in pieces from morning till evening; They perish forever, with no one regarding.
²¹  Does not their own excellence go away? They die, even without wisdom.'

 

(bible blog entry for March 9, 2021

I'm now in the Book of Job, the great book about perseverance.  The only reference I know of the Book of Job in the New Testament refers to his perseverance (James 5:11).  The traditional author of the Book is Moses, in addition to the five books of Moses at the beginning of the Old Testament.  I suspect that the story of Job may have existed for some time as oral tradition, memorized carefully by scribes for many years on end.  In the story Job, a prosperous man who suffers one disaster after another, is visited by friends to try to make sense of his suffering but consistently come to the wrong conclusion; that is, Job must have done something wrong and is being punished.  There is a long debate between Job and his friends until God shows up at the end of the book.  In the first speech in the long conversation among Job and his friends, a young man, Eliphaz, tells of a vision he had in the night.

 

What was the spirit that Eliphaz saw?  An angel?  The Holy Spirit?  I would imagine an angel.  This happened "when deep sleep falls on men", similar to the sleep in which Abram encountered God in Genesis 15.  In one way or another he had a riveting encounter with the righteousness of God.  It was true, but did not fit the situation for Job was not being judged.   Eliphaz speaks and makes an erroneous application of a theological truth.  No one is righteous before God, which is true, compared to the holiness of God.  He also states that people suffer misfortune only because of sin, which isn't true.  The innocent suffer misfortune all the time and the unrighteous often prosper (cf. Habakkuk 2).  The questions the spirit asked Eliphaz are questions we do better to ask ourselves than to ask  others, especially if they are suffering.

 

The Spirit Filled Life Bible study note for verse 17 is helpful.  "Mortal" in this verse is one of four words for humans.  One refers to man in his full strength, or man as a champion of his people.  The other refers to "man" as a species.  There is also a word for "man" meaning man as an individual.  Then there is the word for "man" as a mortal, literally meaning one that is weak, sick, frail, sad and in need.  It is this last word used in this verse.  Later, Daniel 7:13 will use the Aramaic equivalent "son of man" as a title for the Messiah.  Jesus often called Himself the "Son of Man".  He identifies with humans even in their weakest and most frail. 

 

What the Acts of Worship Mean

2 Chronicles 2:1-18 (NKJV)
¹  Then Solomon determined to build a temple for the name of the LORD, and a royal house for himself.
²  Solomon selected seventy thousand men to bear burdens, eighty thousand to quarry stone in the mountains, and three thousand six hundred to oversee them.
³  Then Solomon sent to Hiram king of Tyre, saying: As you have dealt with David my father, and sent him cedars to build himself a house to dwell in, so deal with me.
⁴  Behold, I am building a temple for the name of the LORD my God, to dedicate it to Him, to burn before Him sweet incense, for the continual showbread, for the burnt offerings morning and evening, on the Sabbaths, on the New Moons, and on the set feasts of the LORD our God. This is an ordinance forever to Israel.

 

Note: The two books of Chronicles covers much of the same historical events as the four books of Samuel and Kings, but does so after the Exile to Babylon ends and there is more of an emphasis on grace than on the sin and judgment of the earlier books.  Compare this to the Christian Gospels, which cover many of the same events but with differing emphases.  I read recently that the Jewish Bible ends with the two books of Chronicles, giving a hopeful view going forward. 

          When reading these books, I try to compare and contrast the religious acts recorded with what we do in church buildings on Sunday over much of the world.  In so doing I found verse four of this chapter interesting.  Here Solomon is beginning work to build the Temple in Jerusalem and he writes the king of a neighboring country for skilled workers and raw materials for the project.  What struck my attention was verse four, which outlines the purpose and activities of the Temple.  They are...

to dedicate (purpose)

burn incense

present showbread, made fresh regularly.

offerings morning and evening, and on Sabbaths, New Moons and great feasts outlined in Scripture.

          The fact that this describes the great Temple of Jerusalem contrasts greatly with the humble congregation, one of many in my town, that I serve.  The priests of the temple represented the whole nation of Israel, and my congregation is one of many thousands scattered across the country.  Still, the symbolism of the activities of the temple speak to the values of worship in any Christian congregation.  First, the place was dedicated, that is, it is declared holy and for sacred use.  Christian theology would maintain the same for the place we gather for worship, and for the congregation itself.  The image of a temple made of people to house the Lord is part of the New Testament (cf. Ephesians 2:19-22).  Incense symbolizes the prayers of the people; showbread represents the life-giving presence of the Holy Spirit; the sacrifices remind us to be living sacrifices unto Christ (Romans 12:1-2).  With this in the back of our minds, I strongly hope that our participation in worship this Sunday will bring encouragement and a refreshed presence of the Holy Spirit.  We don't worship in order to receive, but God does reward people who see Him.  (Hebrews 11:6).