“The voice of my beloved, behold, he cometh leaping upon the mountains, skipping upon the hills.” Song of Solomon 2:8
The Song of Solomon has been held by many to be a picture, a glimpse, of what the relationship is between Christ and His church. Solomon begins this narrative, and illustration, by using endearing terms of affection, spoken by one called, the Shulamite. Key to the entire narrative of the beloved, and His desire for His bride, are the two simple words by the Shulamite: “Draw me.” (1:4) Well do we remember how Jesus, during His ministry on earth, said this: “No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me, draw him: and I will raise him up at the last day.” (Jn.6:44) The love relationship of which Solomon speaks, and that which the Lord Jesus alludes to in the Gospel of John, begins with the Beloved, in this case the Lord Jesus Christ, drawing out, or attracting, the one that He loves, awakening in that one the desire for the eternal. It is a drawing that begins with awareness, but then, develops into conviction and resolve. The One who draws reveals himself to the soul and heart, and mind, in such a way as to awaken the loved and perhaps, lost one, to their need of God and at the same time, the blessedness and worth knowing the love of God.
The means by which God reveals Himself, and Christ becomes a reality to the one that He loves, is His voice. It is a voice that is discerned as coming from the Beloved. It is unlike any other voice on the face of the earth, for it is good, perfect, compassionate, spoken in everlasting, unchanging love. It is as Christ, the Beloved, speaks to the object of HIs love, that He reveals something of His blessed nature, and desirableness. Solomon speaks of the spirit of the Beloved as one who comes “leaping upon the mountains, skipping upon the hills.” Christ is not the prisoner of men, according to their ways and means. He is free of Spirit, His nature ever soaring to the heights of His wonderful, sinless, goodness and strength. So, we see Him out upon the mountains, skipping upon the hills, free in spirit, filled with the joy of Life and strength. This He would impart to the one that He loves, however, we find her enclosed in her world of blessing, but not knowing this fulness of joy. She declares: “My beloved is like a roe, or a young hart (deer), behold he standeth behind our wall, he looketh forth at the windows, shewing himself through the lattice.” (Song 2:9) We discover here a tragedy, for The Beloved, whose heart is free and full, is on the outside, and the one that He loves, is on the inside, behind walls. There is great love between them, there is also great separation. Throughout the Song of Solomon, at different levels of a maturing relationship between the Beloved and His bride, we discover that the one that Christ loves, is not free to love Him in return, and to know the fulness of His love, until she comes to a certain attitude of mind and heart: “I am my Beloved’s, and my Beloved is mine.” (6:3) When all preconditions of following her Beloved are laid aside, and she goes forth, leaning on the arm the arm of this Beloved Shepherd, going forth with Him as He shepherds His sheep, then she is free to know HIs love, to be with Him. She is no longer a prisoner of the walls of her own devising.
In the book of Revelation, we find a church in much the same state as the Shulamite. This church also chose to live behind the walls of her security and satisfaction, while her Beloved was outside. However, He begins to knock at the door, and continues to do so, in order to awaken in her the desire and will to open the door. The call of the Beloved to His loved one is the call to know Him.
Dear Father, Grant us grace to fully, freely follow forever the blessed Lover of our souls. In Jesus’ name, Amen.