May 14, 2006
Scripture:
Can we look at a familiar passage in the second chapter of the Song of Solomon; I was thinking of the words of the bride about the Bridegroom, in v. 3. But how do you talk about love? It is an emotion; it warms and touches the heart. May our thoughts of his love do that! In v. 3, I just want to point out what the bride calls “his”. “As the apple tree among the trees of the wood, so is my beloved among the sons. I sat down under his shadow …” This was an apple tree. Our beloved hung on a tree; we come together today to sit in the shadow of it and think of his love, endless, free, divine. “… his shadow with great delight, and his fruit was sweet to my taste.” We think of the fruits of his life, love, joy, peace, compassion, and so on. “He brought me to the banqueting house, and his banner over me was love.” The banner speaks of all that He is, all that we rally around; His is love. “Stay me with flagons, comfort me with apples: for I am sick of love. His left hand is under my head, and his right hand doth embrace me.” The left hand is the hand closest to the heart; the right is the hand of strength. There is so much that opens thoughts for us to enter into how much we have been loved. “God is love,” and he loves us with a boundless, divine, perfect love. May our hearts want to respond!
EG Hymn 336– We are little children, very young indeed, Prayer Jonah 4 • How did Jonah feel about God’s mercy on Nineveh? He was upset that God changed His mind. He explained to God that this was why he went to Tarshish in the first place; he knew God would forgive the Ninevites if they repented. But Jonah himself had just been shown mercy; God didn’t have to get Jonah out of the fish, but out of mercy, He did. So after seeing that God was not going to destroy Nineveh, Jonah went out to the east side of the city and sat down. God prepared a gourd that grew over Jonah to shade him. Jonah was very thankful for the gourd, because the sun would have been hot. Then God prepared a worm that ate the gourd and killed it. Now Jonah was angry. Then God prepared a wind that added to Jonah’s discomfort; Jonah now wished he was dead. But God did all this to show Jonah something important: he was more concerned for a gourd—which he did not even make—than he was for people whom God had made. What can we learn from this? The gourd can be a picture of a comfort or joy in our lives. But God might use a “worm” to take that away and then send a trial, the wind, to test our faith. Through this we can ask God for help and strength and in the end it will bring us closer to Him.
Hebrews 10:32–39 • Last week we were talking about endurance and patience. V. 35 now tells us that our endurance, or confidence, has a reward. For the Jews, rewards were a sign of God’s blessing here on earth. For the Lord’s people today, rewards are future blessings in heaven. This passage is exhorting us to continue here for the reward there. The question is, how can we invest our lives so as to get a reward. This question should not be our highest motive, but the Lord did bring it out in some parables. How wonderful to be able to hear, “Well done, thou good and faithful servant.” The path of faith is one that looks ahead to eternity and its rewards. We will see many who did walk that path in our next chapter. How many times is the word faith mentioned in the Old Testament? Only twice. Yet the Old Testament is where we get our examples of faith. “After ye have done the will of God, ye might receive the promise” (v. 36). Have we done the will of God? Jonah didn’t, and he suffered; then he did, and was blest. A few weeks ago, we read of the One who said, “I come to do Thy will, O God.” Amazingly, Jonah in disobedience became a picture of the Lord in obedience. We were previously warned about those who were enlightened, but didn’t actually accept the grace of God; they cast it away. Now the real Christians are being admonished to be sure they do not backslide. To “cast away” and “draw back” are not passive; they are not accidents or failures. They are actions of the will and the flesh. Casting away would not be considering the future, which holds promises; it takes faith to continue until that time. In Revelation 22:12, Jesus says, “Behold, I come quickly; and my reward is with me, to give every man according as his work shall be.” He will come and bring us our rewards. Whenever a father comes back from a trip, his children are always eager to see what Daddy brought home with him. They enjoy the trinkets, but it’s really Daddy they were waiting for. So it should be with us. And yet we say that the “little while” does not seem so short. God sees time in respect to eternity, though, so to Him, time is nothing. That the Lord is coming is the Christian hope, a hope we cannot know completely, “The half was not told me.” “Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him” (1 Corinthians 2:9). Mrs. K. Hayward always believed that “It could be tonight!” Mr. E. Stevens lost most of his memory in his later years, but one thing he remembered was that the Lord was coming. A rather short man who printed tracts said, “I’m standing on my tiptoes waiting for Him!” Every one of the Lord’s people should be waiting as they did. But there are Christians who have unsaved loved ones; there is the consolation that “the Lord … not willing that any should perish,” EG Hymn 200 – ‘Tis the hope of coming Prayer