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Song of Songs 3:1-6
Last Week Recap
This second section of the Song of Songs (2:8-3:5) is where He calls her to deny herself and make Him the center; this is because in the first section (1:1-2:7) the woman is at the center being satisfied with Jesus. This is not bad, in fact we must know He is our greatest good, but we cannot stay here where it’s all about us. She must learn that it is about Christ being satisfied. She exists to please Him. She must be the one who surrenders and allows Him to be the active one. He leads her in all of this through experiencing the cross in a personal way.
The woman is called into an intimate experience of the cross (Song of Songs 2:14). He wants her to fellowship with His sufferings and be conformed to His death (Phil 3:10). It is out of this that she cries out to catch the little foxes of her sin and the lies she believes because these will ruin her intimacy with Him. This is where we ended last week.
The Context
Chapter 2 ends in v16 with her holding onto Him. She is finding security in their relationship by possessing Him, rather than resting that she belongs to Him (seen in the fact that she starts with “He is mine”). She is still the center: it’s about her. She wants to have Him in a way that she is comfortable with, rather than following Him where He is calling her. So, she tells him to turn around and go away. Does she do this out of fear? Maybe. More than anything, it seems she does it because she is actually pridefully comfortable with where they are at.
It is disobedience to send the Lord away and she loses His presence because of it. This is where Chapter 3 starts.
3:4--this is the verse we focused on! Here are the 5 points we covered:
Reward
This second section of the Song of Songs (2:8-3:5) is where He calls her to deny herself and make Him the center; this is because in the first section (1:1-2:7) the woman is at the center being satisfied with Jesus. This is not bad, in fact we must know He is our greatest good, but we cannot stay here where it’s all about us. She must learn that it is about Christ being satisfied. She exists to please Him. She must be the one who surrenders and allows Him to be the active one. He leads her in all of this through experiencing the cross in a personal way.
The woman is called into an intimate experience of the cross (Song of Songs 2:14). He wants her to fellowship with His sufferings and be conformed to His death (Phil 3:10). It is out of this that she cries out to catch the little foxes of her sin and the lies she believes because these will ruin her intimacy with Him. This is where we ended last week.
The Context
Chapter 2 ends in v16 with her holding onto Him. She is finding security in their relationship by possessing Him, rather than resting that she belongs to Him (seen in the fact that she starts with “He is mine”). She is still the center: it’s about her. She wants to have Him in a way that she is comfortable with, rather than following Him where He is calling her. So, she tells him to turn around and go away. Does she do this out of fear? Maybe. More than anything, it seems she does it because she is actually pridefully comfortable with where they are at.
It is disobedience to send the Lord away and she loses His presence because of it. This is where Chapter 3 starts.
- 3:1--she stays in her bed looking for Him. This is disobedience and why she cannot find Him. Our sin separates us from the face of God (Isaiah 64:7). He called her to arise (Song of Songs 2:10,13). She wants to stay inside herself, like in 2:9 (the wall symbolizes a separation between her and Him because she wants to stay in the stage of experiencing Him only in her feelings, in herself, but He wants to take her to knowing Him beyond just inside herself).
- 3:2--she arises! This is good! She’s starting to leave herself (symbolized by ‘her bed’) behind and find Him where He wants her to know Him. This is the big theme I sensed for this lesson: we are to give ourselves to Jesus where He is!! We must follow His presence beyond ourselves and how we’ve known Him in the past. This is the cry of Moses in Ex 33:13-18, which we connected with Song of Songs 2:14 last week: to see God’s glory in greater measure means to know Him in a new, deeper way! If you cry out for His glory, be ready to leave more of yourself behind.
- This is like Jesus’ call to Mary in John 20:16-17; she wants to cling to the Jesus she once knew and found comfort in, but He calls her to know Him in a new way because He must ascend (same word in 3:6; see below) to the Father. Let us always be willing to follow Christ into greater maturity until the day we see Him in eternity.
- The beauty in this is that it’s always BETTER! He says it’s better that He goes to the Father and gives us His Spirit than if He physically stayed on earth (John 16:7).
- The beauty in this is that it’s always BETTER! He says it’s better that He goes to the Father and gives us His Spirit than if He physically stayed on earth (John 16:7).
- This is like Jesus’ call to Mary in John 20:16-17; she wants to cling to the Jesus she once knew and found comfort in, but He calls her to know Him in a new way because He must ascend (same word in 3:6; see below) to the Father. Let us always be willing to follow Christ into greater maturity until the day we see Him in eternity.
- It is good to go be with God’s people and seek the Lord with them. This is humbling for her. She admits she cannot find His presence. She cares more about finding His presence than acting like she knows it for the sake of looking good to other people. She will no longer try to cover her inner emptiness with outward works. She wants intimacy!
- She does not find Him with the people, but they help her along her way.
- 3:3--the guards find her. These are the people who the Lord has given watch over our souls as we submit to them (Heb 13:17). Leaders are a gift to God’s people! In this situation, they do their job and help her!
- Note that she still didn’t find Him when she was with them. Verse 4:1 says that she just passed them when she found Him. The point is always to go to Jesus Himself! Go with a leader only as far as they bring you to Jesus. Never stop at them. Go directly to the Lord. A leader, or anyone for that matter, can never bring you to intimacy with Christ; you must encounter Jesus for yourself.
- Note that she still didn’t find Him when she was with them. Verse 4:1 says that she just passed them when she found Him. The point is always to go to Jesus Himself! Go with a leader only as far as they bring you to Jesus. Never stop at them. Go directly to the Lord. A leader, or anyone for that matter, can never bring you to intimacy with Christ; you must encounter Jesus for yourself.
3:4--this is the verse we focused on! Here are the 5 points we covered:
- It is the absolute kindness and generosity of God to let her find Him even when her motives are not pure (trying to hold onto Him how she wants instead of following Him where He’s calling her to). He does not test us beyond what we can handle; He allows her to find His presence and rest for now. We compared this to James 1:4.. Only God knows when our endurance has had it’s “full effect” and in each trial that “full effect” is different. Watchman Nee uses the analogy in Ezekiel 47:3-5 to say God measures us and knows when His testing waters are at their maximum capacity for where our hearts are at the time.
- God’s humility is on display in that He allows Himself to be “held on to” and gives her the feeling of His presence even though He’s calling her out of finding her security with Him in her feelings. He allows her to bring Him to the chamber’s of the Spirit, where she was reborn (John 3:5). Here she experiences love and grace like she had at first. However, the call remains that God doesn’t want her to stay in these beginning stages of salvation, but press on to maturity (1 Pet 2:1-3). He is calling her to FAITH; to take Him at His Word that He is good whether or not she tastes/sees/feels Him. She has tasted His goodness in 1 Pet 2:3 and now is called to let faith be the substance/evidence of His goodness, not feelings (Heb 11:1). Faith actually knows God deeper than feelings.
- Do not hold onto Him out of anger (or fear/pride). She needs to live out Psalm 4:4-5--to rest and surrender to Him, not try to protect herself. She wants to feel His presence for her own sake.
- She experiences a loss of naivety. She realizes she can lose the feeling of the Lord’s presence. It was so nice for her in section 1 (1:1-2:7) that it was all about her being satisfied with Him. She now realizes it’s about Him. She’s also realizing deeper the call to die to herself in order to live (Matt 16:25).
- Denial of the root problem: The way she responds in this verse (in holding Him tightly), makes it clear she still thinks their relationship is based on her strength to hold Him. In Near East culture the mother of the bride arranged the wedding; in essence, the Woman is trying to hold Him in the chambers of the Spirit until the wedding comes so that He cannot escape. She clearly does not know Jesus loves her first and is the Author and Finisher of their story (1 Jn 4:19; Heb 12:2).
- He will lead her in a life of faith; she will learn to let Him go where He chooses in faith that the feeling of His nearness may come and go, but His Word says He is always with us (Matt 28:20). After all, His very Spirit is within us (John 14:23)!
- He will lead her in a life of faith; she will learn to let Him go where He chooses in faith that the feeling of His nearness may come and go, but His Word says He is always with us (Matt 28:20). After all, His very Spirit is within us (John 14:23)!
Reward
- 3:5--He gives her an experience of His presence to which she cries out: “don’t make me leave this yet. Don’t awake or stir me from resting in God! I want to stay here.”
- 3:6--this is the start of section 3! Section 3 (3:6-5:1) starts with experiential union with God. This whole Song is about personally experiencing in the depths of your person the truth of Christ--from being satisfied in Him, to experiencing the cross, to denying yourself and now to tangibly knowing union with Christ.
- This experience of union with Christ is the gift God gives her because she gives herself to Him, albeit with impurity/sin motivating at times. She experiences the cross (2:14), calls for greater sanctification (2:15), and then in the midst of her sin from 2:16, she desperately seeks Him (3:1-3).
- Greater union is clear from the fact she looks more like Him.
- Columns of smoke reflect that she has the power/fire of the Spirit burning in her (Acts 2:3-4)!
- Jesus gave Himself as a sacrifice for sins (John 1:29) and now she is a living sacrifice back to Him (Ro 12:1-2). The word “coming up” is the word used in Lev 3:5 and Gen 8:20 referring to the smell of an offering going up as a pleasing aroma to God. We are now a pleasing aroma to God in Christ (2 Cor 2:15)!
- She is “coming up” from the wilderness of 2:2, where she was living amidst sin. Thorns represent the curse of sin in the world (Gen 3:18); she is a lily, but was still living a lot like the world. Another analogy is that she was free herself, but still living in Egypt (the land of slavery). Jesus is calling her to ‘come up’ from Egypt into the Promised Land.
- Now, through experiencing the cross, she died to sin and the world in greater measure. She is experientially ascending (one of the literal meanings of this Hebrew word) with Christ to live from her seat in the heavenlies (Col 3:1-3).
- Now, through experiencing the cross, she died to sin and the world in greater measure. She is experientially ascending (one of the literal meanings of this Hebrew word) with Christ to live from her seat in the heavenlies (Col 3:1-3).
- Another note about the words “who is this coming up from the wilderness”: this same phrase is used only 1 other time in the Song (8:5) and it’s in reference to the Bride; this is one reason we interpret 3:6 as being about the Bride.
- She is “coming up” from the wilderness of 2:2, where she was living amidst sin. Thorns represent the curse of sin in the world (Gen 3:18); she is a lily, but was still living a lot like the world. Another analogy is that she was free herself, but still living in Egypt (the land of slavery). Jesus is calling her to ‘come up’ from Egypt into the Promised Land.
- She is scented with myrrh first. She has been conformed to His death. Myrrh is associated with death (John 19:39). This reveals that Jesus’ call in 2:14 to fellowship with His sufferings in the cross happened!
- She is also scented with frankincense. Frankincense is the oil that was used on sacrifices in the temple (Ex 30:34, Lev 2:1-2). She must die first and then rise to be a living sacrifice of worship to God.
- Jesus lived a life of sacrificial worship for His entire life and then His life ended with death. The order of the spices reveals the person in this verse is the woman not Jesus.
- Jesus lived a life of sacrificial worship for His entire life and then His life ended with death. The order of the spices reveals the person in this verse is the woman not Jesus.
- Columns of smoke reflect that she has the power/fire of the Spirit burning in her (Acts 2:3-4)!
- This experience of union with Christ is the gift God gives her because she gives herself to Him, albeit with impurity/sin motivating at times. She experiences the cross (2:14), calls for greater sanctification (2:15), and then in the midst of her sin from 2:16, she desperately seeks Him (3:1-3).