(Song of Songs 3:1-5 / 5:2-8) "All night long on my bed I looked for the one my heart loves; I looked for him but did not find him. I will get up now and go about the city, through its streets and squares; I will search for the one my heart loves. So I looked for him but did not find him. The watchmen found me as they made their rounds in the city. 'Have you seen the one my heart loves?' Scarcely had I passed them when I found the one my heart loves. I held him and would not let him go till I had brought him to my mother's house, to the room of the one who conceived me. Daughters of Jerusalem, I charge you by the gazelles and by the does of the field: Do not arouse or awaken love until it so desires…I slept but my heart was awake. Listen! My lover is knocking: 'Open to me, my sister, my darling, my dove, my flawless one. My head is drenched with dew, my hair with the dampness of the night.' I have taken off my robe--must I put it on again? I have washed my feet--must I soil them again? My lover thrust his hand through the latch-opening; my heart began to pound for him. I arose to open for my lover, and my hands dripped with myrrh, my fingers with flowing myrrh, on the handles of the lock. I opened for my lover, but my lover had left; he was gone. My heart sank at his departure. I looked for him but did not find him. I called him but he did not answer. The watchmen found me as they made their rounds in the city. They beat me, they bruised me; they took away my cloak, those watchmen of the walls! O daughters of Jerusalem, I charge you--if you find my lover, what will you tell him? Tell him I am faint with love."
Can you remember when you first fell in love and nothing else mattered except the one you loved? Life seemed a perpetual bliss in the presence of the one you loved.
(3:4) "I held him and would not let him go…"
Love came from your heart and met with the love from your lovers heart. Love had been awakened because it desired. But then it all got scheduled, programmed and managed.
(Psalm 51:12) "Restore to me the joy of your salvation…"
David had not lost his salvation but the joy of it. He woke up one morning and found his sin produced sorrow. It was not fatal but it did bruise him. Samson woke up one morning in the arms of Delilah and found his strength was gone. Like Peter who wept bitterly when was the last time you lamented for something you once had?
(Habakkuk 3:2) "…renew them in our day, in our time make them known…"
(5:2) "I slept but my heart was awake…"
Your heart will not let you forget your first love that is Christ. Your heart cannot be managed with logical responses to the beauty and affliction you experience through life. Your head tells you that that your life is no good but your heart knows there is a hero or heroin aching to live. Your head tells you to arrange life by manipulating it while watching your back. Your heart tells you God is good and can be fully trusted with your back. Your head shouts its objection and impales any lordship of Christ over you while your heart hungers and thirsts for the transcendent that sports, hobbies, extra-marital affairs, education and the accumulation of what Solomon calls 'meaningless.' The conclusion is to deaden the heart and stop longing, aching, hungering and thirsting.
"I slept but my heart was awake…"
Christ came to his own people in Jerusalem but his own received him not. She was asleep when he entered the city to 'blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.' His disciples were willing but their bodies were weak so they slept in Gethsemane when he needed them the most.
You are living in a transcendent story. Forrest Gump stood over the grave of his childhood sweetheart, 'Jenny, I do not know if we are here for a reason or just floating by accident on a breeze.' Is there a reality that corresponds with the heart? Do all your experiences of beauty and affliction make any sense? People look for cohesive to put it all together in many things. But like a movie already twenty minutes into the story we ask, 'who are these people, what do they want, what are they doing, who are the good guys, who are the bad guys, what is going on?' In the depths of your heart you know there is possibly something glorious happening that appears like random scenes. Your heart knows it is living in a bigger context even when no one points it out to you. The story is sometimes wonderful and sometimes dreadful. You do not know how to make sense of it like fragmented and isolated pages of a play. You look for meaning and interpretation to the experiences of your life but experience cannot be met by its own interpretation. Your life is not a set of propositions but a serious drama and you live in the narrative because you are the story.
(3:1) "All night long on my bed I looked for the one my heart loves…"
Your heart does not respond to naked facts, science or mathematics, abstract models or systematic theology. It looks for a bigger context than itself. The world used to have a bigger story that was the context in which you used to live. Think about the 44 countries of Europe or the 50 states of North America or 13 countries of South America the main geography of Christianity. It used to be filled with Christian imagery and music that glorified God. The days of the week were marked with church bells and the year was anno domini the year of our Lord. The months were the liturgical calendar. Our heroes and herons were Biblical characters that kept us on the end of our seat retold again and again to our children by faithful teachers. This was the context in which the story of your life used to live. Every birth, death, marriage, love and loss was characterized by a bigger story. This is why you did not need to be medicated because through it all your heart looked for the one it first loved. Now we have football season, fishing season, hunting season and between Memorial Day and Labor Day the body of Christ on are permanent vacation weekend after weekend. When people met it used to be 'God bless you' now it is 'have a nice day' because you no longer know how to bless. The reference points of a bigger story are lost. Our fascination is with sport and sport celebrities whose eternal word does not reach beyond 'don't do drugs.' The only story is the evening news. Yet at the birth of a child, the marriage of two lovers, the terrible news of your doctors diagnosis or the death of a loved one your heart is still awake looking for transcendent truth all night on your bed that sets a man free
(3:3) "Have you seen the one my heart loves?"
If your life is a story that lives in a bigger transcendent story then there has to be a storyteller who knew that love would come against hate, good against evil, wonderful against evil and healing against sickness.
(5:2) "Open to me, my sister, my darling, my dove, my flawless one. My head is drenched with dew, my hair with the dampness of the night."
The last night Christ spent on earth, as a man was not in a comfortable bed because the Son of Man had nowhere to lay his head. He was up all night.
(John 7:53-8:1) "Then each went to his own home. But Jesus went to the Mount of Olives."
After the Passover he was arrested and went before Caiaphas, Pilate and Herod. After being beaten he was sentenced and led away to be crucified. His hands and feet were nailed to the cross. He cried out 'Father forgive them' while people mocked and hurled insults at him. Darkness fell on the land as he cried out 'My God why have you forsaken me?' His mouth was blistered and thirsty. Then he finished it and gave up his spirit. His head is drenched with dew his hair with the dampness of night because he has been up all night dying for you. Every sin has been paid for. Every sickness and disease has been healed. The Gospel of Good News is not given to you like a 1040 form from the IRS stripped of all its adventure and mystery. The Gospel takes your breath away. To reduce it all to a set of principles is suppressing the mystery of unmerited holiness. It does not bring a man to his knees like Moses in front of the burning bush. When Christ entered the house after the resurrection doubting men like Thomas fell to their knees or like Peter who fell on his face. His presence has a mysterious effect on your heart: 'depart from me - don't leave me.'
(5:2) "I have taken off my robe - must I put it on again? I have washed my feet - must I soil them again?"
In chapter three she is a virgin bride who looks for him. In chapter five she is a much loved bride who has experienced the kisses of his mouth and the covering of his name like perfume poured out. Christ illustrated the three main reasons why we do not let him in. He told a parable of a king that invited noble men and women who responded: I have just got married, I have purchased a field, and I have purchased 12 yoke of oxen. Is your marriage and family coming before God? Are your hobbies and investments coming before God? Is your business coming before God?
(Luke 22:35) "Then Jesus asked them, 'When I sent you without purse, bag or sandals, did you lack anything?' 'Nothing,' they answered."
If you lack nothing when you are with him why do you pursue life outside of him?
God is relentless
(5:4) "My lover thrust his hand through the latch opening; my heart began to pound for him."
When you see the hand of God your heart will pound for him.
(Hosea 11:8) "How can I give you up, Ephraim? How can I hand you over, Israel…all my compassion is aroused."
His love for you will not be bated by your excuses. Paul told Timothy he is faithful to you even when you are unfaithful to him because he cannot disown himself. His hand is powerful when you see it through he latch opening.
(Acts 11:21) "The Lord's hand was with them, and a great number of people believed and turned to the Lord."
While Paul was preaching his hand opened people's hearts.
(Acts 14:16) "One of those listening was a woman named Lydia…the Lord opened her heart to respond to Paul's message."
When the Word of God is preached the eyes of your heart are opened as you look upon the one that was pierced as his hand is thrust in the latch opening.
(5:5) "…my hands dripped with myrrh, my fingers with flowing myrrh, on the handles of the lock."
Once Christ has knocked at your door his name is like perfume poured out that leaves it mark. She did not take it to the door but she found the fragrance of Christ all over the entrance.
The cost of hungering for God
(5:7) "The watchmen found me as they made their rounds in the city. They beat me, they bruised me; they took away my cloak, those watchmen of the walls."
In chapter three we read that the watchmen were protective now they seem to be barbaric. But in chapter three she was a virgin looking for her lover. Now she is a bride who has tasted the kisses of his mouth but she is not with him. The watchmen are those who minister God's Word. When the Word was preached it covered you and protected you. But when the backslider hears the same Word preached it now beats them. It is not the minister of the Word that changed and got anger but the bride who became faithless to her lover.
(Psalm 69:26) "…and they talk to the grief of those who you have wounded…"
The ministry of the Word today is to get in God's way and prevent him from disciplining those who he loves like Peter standing between Christ and the cross. The watchmen understand the difference.
(Isaiah 50:4) "The Sovereign Lord has given me an instructed tongue, to know the word that sustains the weary."
The believer who hungers for God does not fear the Word of God.
(Psalm 141:5) "Let a righteous man strike me--it is a kindness; let him rebuke me--it is oil on my head. My head will not refuse it."
The power to pray may not always be present when you should pray. The power to worship may not be there when the musicians play. The power to give may not be there when your pockets are full.
(5:8) "…if you find my lover, what will you tell him? Tell him I am faint with love."
If you looked at her from a distance you would conclude she is a good woman hungering for God.
(2:5) "Strengthen me with raisins, refresh me with apples, for I am faint with love."
It looks the same but it is not. She is faint with love because he has withdrawn because of her hesitation. She wants to pray, worship and give but she cannot. He is not there with her. But she is also faint with love being held close in his loving arms and can pray, worship and give because she stands in his banqueting hall with his banner of love flying over her.
Are you lovesick for his presence and power? It is time to get up and put your robe on again and dirty your feet. It is time to let your heart pound for him as you open the door for the one your heart loves.
Are You Hungry Part 4 Andrew K. Fox
Listen to this teaching as given on Sunday evening May 14th.
(Song of Songs 10-14) "Your cheeks are beautiful with earrings, your neck with strings of jewels. We will make you earrings of gold, studded with silver. While the king was at his table, my perfume spread its fragrance. My lover is to me a sachet of myrrh resting between my breasts. My lover is to me a cluster of henna blossoms from the vineyards of En Gedi."
The King offers his bride anything she desires. There are gold earrings studded with silver and strings of jewels for her neck. It is a glimpse of the generous heart of God. It appears that the gift she exchanges for his abundance is simple perfume looking like a white elephant that no one really wants.
This is a love story like you have never seen or thought of before. It is the story of God's own heart. We know he has power to create the universe and suspend it in perfect harmony with its weather systems. He can orchestrate armies or destroy them with their governments. But when we look at our lives is it too much for him to intervene? Would our lives be any different if there was no God? Christianity is seen as a group of practical agnostics 'perhaps God will come through or perhaps he will not?' The rope of faith is just not long enough to lower the bucket into the well the actually reach the water. Scripture calls this attitude 'godless' acting like a lover who has been wounded. Everyone has been betrayed by someone so we treat God like he has ultimate power but no heart. Christianity treats God like a great brain, a mastermind supernatural and supreme power but not someone with a heart.
When you read a book or watch a movie is it the characters your heart is caught up with or the author or screenplay writer that created it? We are caught up with the characters that actually 'live' the story because they are 'in' the story. The author created it but he does not live it and he is not in it. He has ultimate power but he is separate from it. When we read about Job our hearts caught up with him in his calamities losing his home, family and company he had founded. Our heart is also captured by his success when he is blessed at the end with double what he began with. Ruth whose husband dies captures our hearts. We feel her words to Naomi 'wherever you go I will go' and our heart melts when Boaz falls in love and marries her. The hero and heroin capture our hearts because they actually live the drama. Job's heart, Ruth's heart but not God's heart. But what about God's heart? Do not start in Genesis because many things have already taken place. John's Gospel is the place to begin.
(John 1:1-3) "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made."
God is not alone but has a Son. He would only be God, Almighty, Jehovah, and Yahweh without the Son. But with him he is Abba Father. He also has to Spirit. It is a relationship words cannot express. It is a relationship of pure heart. God did not have to create something to have anything because this relationship was everything. Perfect love was already happening. But it was not love, as we understand that is a closed system to outsiders. It was a love God had to share. Have you ever been somewhere and experienced something wishing that your spouse or children were with you to share it? The best things are always meant to be shared.
(John 17:24) "Father, I want those you have given me to be with me where I am, and to see my glory, the glory you have given me because you loved me before the creation of the world."
God created them although we are not sure when. It was before Genesis. God opened his heart and home to the cosmic host. He gave them a free will because without it his love cannot be really shred. But there was a divorce and betrayal by Lucifer the archangel. John Milton tells the story in Paradise Lost that the Father threw his Son a banquet and Lucifer was unable to stand it. He mounted a rebellion through an idea that is still alive today: God has power but no heart. He convinced one third of the angels that God was holding out on them so there was war in heaven. God stopped the insurrection with his power casting Lucifer and his angels out of his home and heart. Once more God shows his power. But what about his heart? Is God someone who just wants to be in charge?
God creates the earth and on the sixth day he creates man in an incredible drama. But is God on the rebound after the angels with a hurting heart? Eden was more than the Yosemite Park or Niagara Falls or Swiss Alps but pure Paradise
(Job38:7) "…the morning stars sang together…"
Was God trying to buy his way into the gift exchange through extravagance? Was Adam a replacement for fallen angels? God puts Adam in the Garden of Eden and takes off the blindfold. He tells him to enjoy it, take it for a spin because it was a gift. When a husband comes home with flowers for his wife she wants to know his intensions. What were the intensions of God in doing this for Adam? Like the angels God gave Adam freewill. In a POW camp power can make you renounce your faith, curse God, work for no pay and dig the grave of your best friend and then kill him. But power cannot make you love back. To say the angels had broken God's heart and then give Adam a free will is staggering. God did not want puppets but lovers. But Adam opened Pandora's box by sleeping with the enemy.
(Genesis 3:13) "What is this you h ave done?"
Now God's heart has been broken twice. But in that moment of heartbreak he tells Eve that from her seed he would come back. She expected one of her children to fulfill that.
(Genesis 4:1) "With the help of the Lord I have brought forth a man."
But Cain kills Abel, Lamech threatens murder and things get worse. God makes an incredible statement that shows more heart than power
(Genesis 6:7) "…for I am grieved that I ever made them."
But God was relentless through Noah, then Abraham and Israel.
Like listening to a lovers quarrel through the apartment walls we read the voice of the prophets to Israel.
(Isaiah) "I have summoned you by name; you are mine… Since you are precious and honored in my sight, and because I love you, I will give men in exchange for you, and people in exchange for your life….but forsaking me, you uncovered your bed, you climbed into it and opened it wide; you made a pact with those whose beds you love, and you looked on their nakedness…but as a bridegroom rejoices over his bride, so will your God rejoice over you."
(Jeremiah) "I remember the devotion of your youth, how as a bride you loved me… See how you behaved in the valley; consider what you have done… sniffing the wind in her craving--in her heat who can restrain her… I have loved you with an everlasting love; I have drawn you with loving-kindness. I will build you up again and you will be rebuilt, O Virgin Israel."
Then there was 400 years silence between Old and New Testaments. God was not calling and we were not concerned that the phone did not ring.
There is now no doubt that God has a heart not just power. His heart was broken by the angels who rebelled and by Adam and then Israel. But God's heart is relentless. If you think it is us who pursue God then you are mistaken. Our pursuit would lose heart. When life is up to us we would suffocate. His problem was that he is King and we are his subjects. If God became one of us then perhaps we would love him and the gift exchange would be complete. The King is majestic and noble. He has proven great power. He is in love with a peasant girl who could be ordered into his presence but would she love him back freely? The incarnation of God leaves no shadow of doubt that God has a heart that is incomparable to anything else. He did not just author the story but he lives in not as 'a' character but 'the' character and our hearts are forever caught up with him because he actually lives it because he is in it.
(Philippians 2:7-8) "…but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death--even death on a cross!"
God is not on the rebound after the angels that rebelled, Adam that slept with the enemy or Israel who prostituted herself. The story began before anything was created in a three-fold heart of Father, Son and Spirit. It was a love that had to be shared in a gift exchange.
(v12) "While the King was at his table, my perfume spread its fragrance."
Do not be mistaken that our love is a good exchange for his love. He gives us his love.
(v13-14) "My lover is to me a sachet of myrrh resting between my breasts. My lover is to me a cluster of henna blossoms from the vineyards of En Gedi."
His love is carried over our heart like a sachet of myrrh and a cluster of henna blossoms. When the Holy Spirit breathes over a congregation the fragrance of Christ in you is presented at the King's table.
(Song of Songs 4:16) "Awake, north wind, and come, south wind! Blow on my garden, that its fragrance may spread abroad."
Christ is the combination of all fragrance. His names, titles, graces, attributes, words and works are all in the sachet of myrrh resting over the heart. Paul refers to it as 'unspeakable and full of glory.' It is not a sachet of ability, wealth or talent because that would quickly fade away. It is his love that never ends. Like the widow in Zeraphath her pantry never ran dry. Like the widow and her sons the oil kept pouring out of the vessels. It is not a garment put on and taken off again but worn around the neck always. Christianity is not just wearing his names, titles, attributes, graces, words and works but Christ himself.
Sachet of Myrrh is Christ: Advocate, Amen, Arm of God, Branch, Bread of life, Bright morning star, Captain of salvation, Chief shepherd, Cornerstone, Door, Desire of nations, Eternal life, Faithful, First, Fountain of life, Glory of God, Good shepherd, Great high priest, Head of his church, Holy, Heir of all things, Immanuel, Image of God, Just, Judge, King of Kings, Lamb of God, Light of the world, Lion of Judah, Mediator, Messiah, Mighty one, Only begotten of the Father, Offspring of David, Prince of Peace, Redeemer, Resurrection, Ransom, Savior, Son of God, Son of man, Teacher, Truth, Vine and the Vineyard, Wisdom, Word of God and Wonderful.
He offers you everything. You neck with strings of jewels and gold earrings studded with silver. What he is looking for is the fragrance of his love from your heart. It will capture the king. It is what the angels could not do. It is what Adam failed to do. It is what Israel could not do because of the law. But you can do it because of his grace. The king was at his table in the house of Simon the Leper and a woman came in with an alabaster jar and poured out her love for him with tears. The king was at another table in the house of Simon the Pharisee and another woman came in with an alabaster jar pouring it with tears. Break you alabaster jar and let the fragrance of his love come to the kings table.
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