Tuesday, July 11, 2017
Ah, I hear my lover coming! He is leaping over the mountains, bounding
over the hills. My lover is like a swift
gazelle or a young stag. Look, there he
is behind the wall, looking through the window, peering into the room. My lover said to me, “Rise up, my darling! Come away with me, my fair one! Look, the winter is past, and the rains are
over and gone. The flowers are springing
up, the season of singing birds has come, and the cooing of turtledoves
fills the air. The fig trees are forming
young fruit, and the fragrant grapevines are blossoming. Rise up, my darling! Come away with me, my fair one!” Song of Solomon
2:8-13(NLT)
The Song of
Songs is a storyteller’s ripe field. You
can just see the flowers blooming and sense that love is in the air! Can’t you just hear Julie Andrews and the Sound of Music that fills the
hills with joy and daffodils? Young
lovers everywhere!
Solomon is
very specific to name this season as late March/early April, and since the mating
season of gazelles is closer to November, there is much more here than poetic
allusion to the primal mating characteristics of deer. This is spring, and it is the paschal season
of Passover and resurrection!
The lover is calling to his
bride, “Arise, my love”. The word has a lot of uses in Hebrew. Some authors[ii]
suggest it is the awakening call of one who has been sleeping, or in a
stupor. Solomon may have written this
beautiful love call as
an ode to his bride, but, for those of us who celebrate the resurrection of
Christ 3,000 years after Solomon lived, there is an unmistakable connection
with the one who calls us to stand-up out of our death stupor and be joined to
the One who calls and enlivens us.
This is resurrection call!
When the
lover calls His bride, it is to come
away with him. This is the
unmistakable call of God drawing time, space and eternity together, as He draws
his beloved church into the blessed paradise Jesus promised the thief who was
crucified next to him.
Paul
carried this promise in his heart and shared it with the Thessalonian church:
For the Lord himself will come down from heaven with a
commanding shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trumpet call of
God. First, the believers who have died will
rise from their graves. Then, together
with them, we who are still alive and remain on the earth will be caught up in
the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. Then
we will be with the Lord forever. So
encourage each other with these words. 1
Thessalonians 4:16-18(NLT)
Did you
hear that as in a stupor? Or did you
hear it afresh and anew? Voice of the archangel; trumpet call of God; caught up; these are the words
of an invitation as the bridegroom calls out his bride.
This is our
future, our destiny. This is not mating season; this is marriage calling!
For You Today
Whether
a Christian lies awaiting the call in the grave, or is still in the body when
it happens, there is going to be a time when the bridegroom calls:
NOTES
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