Powers of observation in Song of Solomon

Song of Solomon shows Solomon knew who Pharoah was and had concourse with him. He took the daughters of Pharoah to be a part of his harem and made alliances. You can read about it in I Kings.

Chapter 1: [12] While the king sitteth at his table, my spikenard sendeth forth the smell thereof.
[13] A bundle of myrrh is my wellbeloved unto me; he shall lie all night betwixt my breasts.
[14] My beloved is unto me as a cluster of camphire in the vineyards of En-gedi.
[15] Behold, thou art fair, my love; behold, thou art fair; thou hast doves' eyes.

[16] Behold, thou art fair, my beloved, yea, pleasant: also our bed is green.
[17] The beams of our house are cedar, and our rafters of fir.

“Solomon’s trying to seduce this woman and he says, ‘You don’t know where your beloved is? He’s left you. Come over here and I’ll take care of you. You can have all these things.’ He tries to woo her and call her in just to enjoy the wealth, the pleasures,” explains Richard Jordan.

“That verse in Hebrews about Moses that he didn’t count the wealth and the riches of Egypt. He was willing to bear the reproach. Here it is again—the wealth coming in.

“In chapter 2 all the way to the end of chapter 3, you see this Shulamite woman repel Solomon’s advances and push him away.

[1] I am the rose of Sharon, and the lily of the valleys.
[2] As the lily among thorns, so is my love among the daughters.
[3] As the apple tree among the trees of the wood, so is my beloved among the sons. I sat down under his shadow with great delight, and his fruit was sweet to my taste.
[4] He brought me to the banqueting house, and his banner over me was love.
[5] Stay me with flagons, comfort me with apples: for I am sick of love.

[6] His left hand is under my head, and his right hand doth embrace me.
[7] I charge you, O ye daughters of Jerusalem, by the roes, and by the hinds of the field, that ye stir not up, nor awake my love, till he please.

“She begins to brag on the details of who her lover is and she talks in verses 1-7 about how much he loved her and how she loved him.

Then in chapter 2:8: [8] The voice of my beloved! behold, he cometh leaping upon the mountains, skipping upon the hills.

“She begins to describe his coming. In fact, this is a tremendous, important passage with a lot of doctrinal aspects when you’re studying the Second Coming of Christ and compare it to the writing prophets and the things they’re talk about taking place when Christ comes.

“She says, ‘I love him; he loves me. One day he’s coming for me.’ She talks about her eager anticipation for his coming.

Verses 16-17: [16] My beloved is mine, and I am his: he feedeth among the lilies.
[17] Until the day break, and the shadows flee away, turn, my beloved, and be thou like a roe or a young hart upon the mountains of Bether.

“We have a song, ‘Until the day break and the shadows flee away,’ talking about Christ coming.

"In the first five verses of chapter 3 she’s talking about him coming: [1] By night on my bed I sought him whom my soul loveth: I sought him, but I found him not.
[2] I will rise now, and go about the city in the streets, and in the broad ways I will seek him whom my soul loveth: I sought him, but I found him not.
[3] The watchmen that go about the city found me: to whom I said, Saw ye him whom my soul loveth?
[4] It was but a little that I passed from them, but I found him whom my soul loveth: I held him, and would not let him go, until I had brought him into my mother's house, and into the chamber of her that conceived me.
[5] I charge you, O ye daughters of Jerusalem, by the roes, and by the hinds of the field, that ye stir not up, nor awake my love, till he please.

“Now Solomon picks up on that and because he sees her anxiety and anticipation for his coming, Solomon comes along in 3:6 and he does something: [6] Who is this that cometh out of the wilderness like pillars of smoke, perfumed with myrrh and frankincense, with all powders of the merchant?

“Who is that? She just spent all of chapter 2 and the first part of chapter 3 saying, ‘He’s coming! I’m looking for him! And when he comes, he’s going to come out of the wilderness and do all these things for me!’

“So here comes this guy out of the wilderness and he’s got pillars of smoke, perfumed with myrrh and frankincense.

“You take things from chapter 1 about the king sitting at his table, his spikenard and the bundles of myrrh and frankincense--you take all these perfumes you read Solomon having and go back into Exodus and you’ll find those things are repeatedly associated with the priesthood. What Solomon’s doing is he’s trying to present himself as the Messiah.

“She’s looking for the Messiah to come and Solomon tries to fool her into thinking he’s it. He pretends to be like her returning beloved but she’s not fooled by it.

Verses 7-11: [7] Behold his bed, which is Solomon's; threescore valiant men are about it, of the valiant of Israel.
[8] They all hold swords, being expert in war: every man hath his sword upon his thigh because of fear in the night.
[9] King Solomon made himself a chariot of the wood of Lebanon.
[10] He made the pillars thereof of silver, the bottom thereof of gold, the covering of it of purple, the midst thereof being paved with love, for the daughters of Jerusalem.
[11] Go forth, O ye daughters of Zion, and behold king Solomon with the crown wherewith his mother crowned him in the day of his espousals, and in the day of the gladness of his heart.

“She says, ‘Hey, that guy’s trying to make me think that’s my beloved coming; I see who it is. That’s not my beloved; that’s Solomon and I’m not going to follow him. And if you daughters of Jerusalem want to go out and make like he’s your beloved, go ahead but count me out! I’m not going.’

“Because she has her mind so fixed on who her beloved is, she’s not seduced by the counterfeit.

“In chapters 4 and 5, you’ll see that she’s absolutely captivated and occupied with what her beloved had to say. She remembers his words: [15] Behold, thou art fair, my love; behold, thou art fair; thou hast doves' eyes.

“She remembers what her beloved said to her about his love and how he expressed their espousal and the fact that their marriage was at hand.

“She says in the last verse of chapter 4: [16] Awake, O north wind; and come, thou south; blow upon my garden, that the spices thereof may flow out. Let my beloved come into his garden, and eat his pleasant fruits.

“She’s just longing for him to come because she remembers what he says. Again, she’s focusing on his words to her.

5:2 [2] I sleep, but my heart waketh: it is the voice of my beloved that knocketh, saying, Open to me, my sister, my love, my dove, my undefiled: for my head is filled with dew, and my locks with the drops of the night.
[3] I have put off my coat; how shall I put it on? I have washed my feet; how shall I defile them?
[4] My beloved put in his hand by the hole of the door, and my bowels were moved for him.

“Even when she’s asleep she’s dreaming about him. Absolute, total occupation.

[5] I rose up to open to my beloved; and my hands dropped with myrrh, and my fingers with sweet smelling myrrh, upon the handles of the lock.
[6] I opened to my beloved; but my beloved had withdrawn himself, and was gone: my soul failed when he spake: I sought him, but I could not find him; I called him, but he gave me no answer.
[7] The watchmen that went about the city found me, they smote me, they wounded me; the keepers of the walls took away my veil from me.
[8] I charge you, O daughters of Jerusalem, if ye find my beloved, that ye tell him, that I am sick of love.

“She says, ‘I’m just heartsick for him.’ Notice the activity. When he said, ‘Open to me, I want to come in,’ her response was, [3] I have put off my coat; how shall I put it on? I have washed my feet; how shall I defile them?

“She said, ‘Wait a minute.’ There was a time when he came and said, ‘Open,’ and she didn’t get up. He said it’s not convenient. He came. In Matthew, Mark, Luke and John He comes and says, ‘Here I am.’ Early Acts period, He comes and says, ‘Here I am,’ and they said, ‘No, we’ll not have this man reign over us.’

“When he puts his hand in at the hole of the door, that’s what he does in the Book of Acts. He’s fertilizing it, he’s working on it, he’s putting forth the effort and she says, ‘Oh, man, that was him! I’ve been over her dreaming about him and that was him!’

“She ran to the door to open but he was gone. Too late. No Israeli would read that and fail to understand what they’re reading. Because he says over and over to them, ‘I’m going to go hide.’

“What he says in verse 6, you go in Micah and Hosea and Daniel and Isaiah, all the prophets that come and they say, ‘Hey, He’s gone away. He’s hidden Himself.’

“That’s what He does; He ascends back into heaven as a royal exile and they can’t find Him. What this woman’s doing now, here she’s dreaming about what had happened to him and why he’s gone.

“But she knows he’s going to come back and so she’s going to be faithful. She’s going to be there and stay faithful to him and she longs for him. She says, ‘Boy, if you see him, you tell him I’m waiting on him.’

“For the history of the nation Israel, this book fits that ‘day of the Lord’ for the Believing Remnant over there because they had the opportunity, they missed it, He’s gone away, they can’t find Him and they have to wait on Him coming back.

5:10-end of chapter: [10] My beloved is white and ruddy, the chiefest among ten thousand.
[11] His head is as the most fine gold, his locks are bushy, and black as a raven.
[12] His eyes are as the eyes of doves by the rivers of waters, washed with milk, and fitly set.
[13] His cheeks are as a bed of spices, as sweet flowers: his lips like lilies, dropping sweet smelling myrrh.
[14] His hands are as gold rings set with the beryl: his belly is as bright ivory overlaid with sapphires.
[15] His legs are as pillars of marble, set upon sockets of fine gold: his countenance is as Lebanon, excellent as the cedars.
[16] His mouth is most sweet: yea, he is altogether lovely. This is my beloved, and this is my friend, O daughters of Jerusalem.

“The only physical description of Jesus Christ in His earthly life in the Bible is that passage right there. Look at verse 16.

“Songwriters use that as a title about Him. No question that anybody would recognize what that is. You want to compare that picture of him to Revelation 1--the resurrected, glorified Lord with this. Here is the picture of him during his earthly ministry, and in Revelation 1 you see His heavenly appearance after His resurrection and glorification.

“By the way, in Isaiah 53: 1-2 you see how the unsaved, apostate Israel viewed Him: [1] Who hath believed our report? and to whom is the arm of the LORD revealed?
[2] For he shall grow up before him as a tender plant, and as a root out of a dry ground: he hath no form nor comeliness; and when we shall see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him.

“They said there’s no comeliness in Him. This gal says he’s the most beautiful thing: ‘He’s altogether lovely,’ and she can detail everything about him.

“That’s called the powers of observation. You look at this lady’s observation of him in verses 10-16 and she had studied him closely, carefully, and she’s longing for him.”

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