November 5, 2006
Song of Solomon 4; we had before us that cup which the Lord was given to drink, which is no doubt figurative, yet we understand it. It reminds us of the bitterness and that He would have to internalize everything that was so contrary to what He was and stand under the judgement of God. We were also reminded of the cup of our blessing, the communion of His blood shed. But as we turn to the Song of Solomon, hardly being able to grasp the extravagant language, we see another cup. “Thou hast ravished my heart, my sister, my spouse; thou hast ravished my heart with one of thine eyes, with one chain of thy neck. How fair is thy love, my sister, my spouse!” (vv. 9 & 10). What a contrast to the Lord at Gethsemane! We cannot enter into the depths of the sorrow there or at the cross. But He died on the cross to redeem a bride. And these words are His words to His own, and how extraordinary they are. He looks at those who were purchased and says they ravish His heart. I trust we respond and love Him in such a way. But there seems to be another cup here, yet not a bitter one. “how much better is thy love than wine!” (v. 10). Wine is a type of joy to men and God; He has found something better than wine; He has found draughts so wondrous. O beloved, can we picture Him drinking that which stimulates such affection? Does it seem too extravagant? Perhaps we are not up to it; but that is the point, may we be up to it. May it be that when we come to remember Him, our hearts are touched, and He will be able to lavish His love upon us and get a response. May the Lord find delight in us, as feeble and cold as we are at best. “the smell of thine ointments than all spices! Thy lips, O my spouse, drop as the honeycomb: honey and milk are under thy tongue; and the smell of thy garments is like the smell of Lebanon” (vv. 10 & 11.) Oh, to be such a lover that we respond as He lavishes His love toward you and me.
EG Hymn 338 – I love my Saviour, my precious Saviour, Prayer • Last time we were speaking about Noah and the ark, specifically the window in the ark. How many windows were there in the story of Noah? There was one in the ark and several in Heaven (Gen 7:11). I was thinking about how big the ark was, not just in feet, but what I could compare it to. The ark was about 470 feet long; that is about equal to the width of 10 and ½ lots. Then the ark was 80 feet wide, or about a lot and a ½ wide. But how tall was the ark? It was 47 feet, just over twice the height of a two-storey house. Now the ark was divided into three floors, and each floor was divided into rooms. When you think about it, it must have been pretty dark in those rooms in since there was only one window in the top of the ark. How did all of those animals live like that for over a year? Well, this is not in the Bible, but I believe God put them all in some kind of hibernation for that time, because normal life processes could not have gone on. God closed the door, and He was in the ark, taking care of the animals. But there is the window, in the top of the ark. If Noah looked out that window, he couldn’t see what was going on, and watch the judgement. He could only look up. And for us, whenever we have trials in our lives, we can use our window: prayer. So, Gen 8:6, Noah opened the window; why? V. 7, he sent out a raven to see if the waters were abated. But that couldn’t tell him, because the raven flew back and forth, eating the dead carrion, and never came back. So he sent out a dove, v. 8. In v. 9, the dove came back, so Noah waited seven days and then sent it out again, v. 10. This time, the dove came back with an olive leaf in her mouth. After seven more days, he sent out the dove again and she did not return. So what can we learn from this part of the story? We can see that these two birds have different appetites, because they have different natures. We have different natures too: before we are saved, we have our old sin nature, our raven nature. It only wants to feed on bad things. Then when you get saved, you receive a dove nature, one that delights in good things. But we still have our old natures, so we must feed the dove and starve the raven. The world has much bad to offer, but we must be careful to eat what is good.
Hebrews 12:1–6 • As we began this chapter last week, we said that we have come to the practical part of Hebrews, exhorting us to lay aside every weight and sin and run our race. One important word in v. 1 is patience, or endurance. Endurance also comes up in vv. 2 & 3. Sometimes, the effort of the enemy is to wear us down. We must be looking steadfastly unto Jesus. Although we have had many other examples of faith in chapter 11, Jesus is the beginner and completer of faith, and He is the supreme example. Now He is standing at the end of the race, and we are to look to Him if we are to finish victoriously. You see, this is not a competitive race; we will all get there. It is an endurance test; so we must not allow things, even though they be necessary, to hinder us, becoming habits or superfluities. If we look to Him, He can sustain us and we will not be moved (Psalm 16:8). The Lord ran with a joy set before Him; that was not the bitter cup we heard about this morning, but the Father’s will and the joy of being in glory and having us with Him. He, too, had to walk the path of faith—even though was the originator of it—and it led Him to the cross; because of that, our path leads to glory. Yet we see that his path did lead ultimately to glory: “the right hand of God.” This is the third time in Hebrews we have this mentioned: first, in chapter 1:3, where He is brought before us in His deity, God the Son. Then is chapter 8:1, we see his priesthood. In chapter 1, we see Him taking care of our sins; in chapter 8, he is bearing our infirmities. Here in chapter 12, he is sustaining us in our race. In v. 2, we can see two aspects of the cross: