As the hurricane approaches . . .

Lately, when I've felt lonely or homesick, craving companionship, I've been finding solace in a book from 1916 called, “Christ and his Bride: An Exposition of the Song of Solomon.” I feel a real kinship with the writer, Cora MacIlravy, who displays a thoroughly endearing inner fortitude with her intimately poetic observations and extrapolations.

Just today, I read her interpretation of Song of Solomon 6:3: [3] I am my beloved's, and my beloved is mine: he feedeth among the lilies.

MacIlravy writes, “As the bride describes the beauties of the Bridegroom, and as she remembers that He has gone to His garden, a stronger encouragement arises in her heart. She recalls the precious experiences that she has had with Him, how she has walked and talked with Him by the way. There is a new assurance that springs up in her heart, and she declares with joy and holy exultation: ‘I am my Beloved’s and my Beloved is mine; He feedeth His flock among the lilies,’ or literally: ‘I am for my Beloved and He is for me.’

“No matter how the storms blow our little barks about; no matter how the hurricanes carry us down into the deep valleys between the mountain waves; through the darkness of testing, there is a rock of defense and comfort to the soul that can say: ‘I am for my Beloved and He is for me.’

"Though it seems that the winds will never cease, and the waves be still, and the storm abate; if we can say: ‘I am for my Beloved and He is for me,’ we can breast the worst storm, we can ride the highest billows, we can be undismayed in the midst of the shipwreck, knowing that the Lord will not let us be put to shame. God will always provide at least ‘a plank’ or some ‘other things’ to bring the trusting soul to shore; and it takes more faith to reach shore on a plank, than it does to sail in on a water-tight vessel. In this way does God increase and perfect our faith.

“Only comparatively few of God’s children can say from the heart, that they are for their Beloved. It does not mean being for Him in some things and for ourselves in other things, but being for Him in everything and in all we do and say; letting this relation have the preeminence in our hearts and lives.

"If we apprehended this, and it were as true in our lives as God would have it, how changed many things would be; how many words and acts would be cut off. How many times the hand of our Beloved would turn us aside, when we would decide for ourselves and choose that which was unworthy of Him who died for us. And as our fleshly energy was subdued, we would leave our plans and desires undone while we walked with Him and did the will of God.”

*****

Here’s an old blog entry from January of 2014:

In my copy of “The Complete Idiot’s Guide to the Bible,” the chapter on the Song of Solomon has the headline parenthesis (Parental Warning: Explicit Lyrics). Imagine the Bible being censored by today’s standard of what’s “too sexual”!

The authors, supposed experts in the Bible with all kinds of accolades to their credit, have no real idea what the book means. They even admit as much, writing, “And what is the song about? Love, obviously—but is it about ordinary romantic love, or is it an allegory? Some say the song is about the relationship of love between God and the nation of Israel, or Christ and the Church his bride, or Christ and the individual.”

The passage goes on, “These days a woman might not be as happy to hear that her hair is like a flock of goats, her teeth are like a flock of sheep, her temples are like the halves of a pomegranate, her neck is like a tower, or her breasts are like two fawns. (Song of Songs 4:1-7).  The description sounds like Picasso’s kind of woman. Really, the Lover (the man) is praising the Beloved’s flowing black hair, lovely white teeth, rosy face, majestic bearing, and soft, enticing body.”

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Of course, the writers don’t even touch on any prophetic value of the book, which happens to serve as one of God’s many biblical “dress rehearsals” for the last days and the Second Coming.

As Jordan explained in last week’s study in Hosea, “The Song of Solomon is one of the songs of Israel and it’s a prophetic song about the last days of Israel. It’s about the ‘little flock’ or the ‘believing remnant’ in Israel resisting being seduced away by the Antichrist and how the Lord Jesus Christ, the real bridegroom, keeps their heart fixed on Him. It describes how they face the seduction attempts and how the Lord Jesus Christ, the real Christ, will protect them from it.

“When you study a book like Song of Solomon, it’s not just a love story to tell a man how to love his wife or a wife how to love her husband. Now, you can do that stuff, I’m not recommending against it, I’m just saying that’s not what it’s for in the Bible.

“So when you find a passage like Hosea and he says, ‘Come, and let us return unto the LORD: for he hath torn, and he will heal us; he hath smitten, and he will bind us up.’ The issue here is, ‘Come back, Lord, come back, and save us and deliver us and revive us up.’

“Song of Solomon 6:13 says, ‘Return, return, O Shulamite; return, return, that we may look upon thee. What will ye see in the Shulamite? As it were the company of two armies.’

*****

“I don’t think I understand it all perfectly; in fact, I don’t think I understand it through a glass darkly. It’s there; I understand a little of it. I’m not trying to be the one who knows everything; I don’t know nearly enough about it to say that. But it’s just fascinating things to study.

“Now, having said all that, the reason I study these things is because it’s in the Word of God and I study the Word of God. And I’m fascinated by some of these things. They are interesting, and when you get fascinated about these kinds of things, and you get involved in them and you begin to see how the Lord thinks about these things, that does motivate you to do the weightier matters of your Christian life.

“That’s how grace motivates you, with that internal compulsion of appreciation in valuing and esteeming and setting your affections on the things of your Savior.

“They’re talking about Him coming back. When they see Him coming, what are they going to see? There’s a whole bunch of things involved in what that two-army thing is, but I read that verse just so you can understand last time when I talked to you about the Lord coming. I just refer to it as flight path down the Mediterranean Sea and the reason I did that is you have to understand there are two issues in His coming as far as the methodology.

“One, He’s going to be flying. Isaiah 28 has three different kind of vehicles He’s going to be associated with in the aerial attack. Then He’s going to have a ground attack where He’s on the ground. 

“When they see Him coming, they’re going to see two armies. From the perspective of that, the ‘believing remnant,’ when they’re watching the Lord’s coming, it’s going to be, you know, the allies of World War II had General Patton and his army, then they had Montgomery and his army. They’re one bunch of allies but they had different theaters of operation. There’s going to be a theater of operation that comes down the Mediterranean coast. Amos 1 starts it up in Damascus up in the north. He Comes down the Mediterranean coast and goes all the way down to Sinai. He comes to defend and deliver Israel.

*****

“When you study the prophetic scripture, you can understand that all scripture has a historical context in which it’s written. It means something historically but it also means something in connection with every other thing in the Bible.

“That’s why when you study some of these passages that most people back here look at historically or devotionally, if you study them doctrinally or dispensationally, you’ll see that they’re not just little ditties to help you get through the day without being depressed and down in the dumps.

“They’re not just little principles for you to guide your life by. The issue isn’t you guiding your life anyway. The issue’s God’s Word guiding your life and it’s not you finding a bunch of principles in God’s Word that are going to tell you how to have a successful, wonderful, sweet, kind of life that never has a problem. It’s finding what God’s doing and getting in line with it.

“When you’re studying the prophetic program, you’re studying Israel’s history; it’s a rehearsal of something God’s going to do in the future. We looked at those passages back in Judges where He talks about, ‘I’m going to rehearse for you,’ and He talks to them about the battle and it’s like a dress rehearsal of the things that are going to come in the future.

“That’s why you find numerous psalms—Psalm 105, 106, 78 and so forth—that are just whole big psalms about the history of Israel. They knew their history. The reason those psalms are there are because the events in history, and the things those psalms say about them, are designed to help--especially for that remnant in the last day to understand what’s going on and how to respond to it.

*****

The Book of Proverbs is called a book of prophecy. I’ve heard people teach proverbs all my life. They talk about reading one chapter a day and that kind of thing. You know, 31 days. I think if you want to be instructed in wisdom in the law program and Israel’s prophecy program, you want to find out how Israel’s educated to manipulate and matriculate through the last days.

“There’s a whole bunch of stuff in Proverbs that have nothing to do with you and me and will absolutely confuse you if you try to apply them in the dispensation of grace!

“The whole pattern in Proverbs is not consistent with what Paul is preaching to us, as far as its appropriateness for us today, but it’s great to know about; it’s great to learn. I’m nosy like anybody else; I like to read someone else’s mail.”