CARACT RÍSTICAS D AMBOS M TODOS D VALUACIÓN

Her Response

She’s going to come back with a great response. In essence she’s going to say, “In the early days I loved You because of what You did for me. But I’ve seen You, and now I love You because of who You are.”

This is most amazing. God seems to have abandoned her, the body of Christ is reproaching her, she is wounded and feels naked and exposed, and everything inside is screaming, “Run and hide! Get out of here!” But this time she doesn’t leave. She stays in the body of Christ. Contrary to every impulse, she just stands there, without reviling her accusers, and pleads in 5:8, “I can’t find my Beloved. He has left me. If you find Him, please tell Him that I am lovesick for Him!” She comes out of this test awesomely -- with a tenacious love for her Beloved. She is truly becoming a mature Bride.

The other members of the body of Christ are mystified by her. They’re thinking, “What’s with you? After all He’s done to you, Honey, we wouldn’t fault you one bit for being angry with Him. He’s forsaken you and caused you to be wounded by leaders you respected. But instead of being angry at Him, you’re more lovesick than ever!” So in 5:9 they begin to wonder, “What is your Beloved more than another beloved, that you so charge us?” They’re asking, “What is so wonderful about your Beloved, that you would still love Him like this after all He’s put you through? We think He’s admirable, but you must see something in Him that we don’t see. We don’t understand this kind of love. What do you see in Him?”

The following seven verses (5:10-16) are her reply, and they are an awesome description of the glory and beauty of the Lord Jesus. Each phrase is full of symbolic meaning. This is one of the most extravagant eulogies of Jesus in the entire Scriptures. She feels like the presence of God has been removed from her life, but the Bride has been so captured by His love that even under great duress she is absolutely preoccupied with His beauty. Far from being angry or disenchanted, she is swift to extol His virtues.

The other members of the body are so taken with her description of her Beloved that they begin to ask in 6:1, “If He is who you say He is, then where is He, that we can seek Him with you?” Her love has become an effective witness. Now others are being drawn toward the same fervent, extravagant relationship with the Beloved that she has.

It’s at this point in the narrative that the Bride has come to the third phase of her spiritual progression. In 6:3 she says, “I am my Beloved's and my Beloved is mine.” The order is reversed. Before, she was saying that He was hers, and she was His. Now she is recognizing that she is first

and foremost His inheritance, and then of course He is hers as well. Her priorities have been radically revolutionized through the extreme test of Chapter Five. Above all, she wants to be totally His. This represents a complete change in her heart motivations.

The Beloved’s Response

When the Lord sees this incredible change in her heart aspirations, He comes back to her with the most awesome declaration of affirmation you could ever imagine. He vindicates her before those who thought she was compromising and imbalanced. He cries out, “O my love, you are as beautiful as Tirzah, lovely as Jerusalem, awesome as an army with

banners! Turn your eyes away from me, for they have overcome me” (6:4-5a).

“Awesome as an army with banners” -- armies in those days would carry banners back to their capital city after a great victory. He is

describing her as a victorious army. He is saying, “You’ve been victorious over the enemies within. You've conquered the foes within your own heart that have led you away from pure love.”

And then He looks at her and says, “Turn your eyes away from me, for they have overcome Me” (6:5). She couldn’t feel His presence or affirmation for such a long time, and during that silent period she

constantly wondered, “What does He think of me? Is He mad at me? Have I displeased Him somehow? Has He cast me aside?” And now He breaks the long silence and says to her, “Let Me tell you what I was thinking when you couldn’t feel my presence. My heart was being ravished over you! You didn’t understand what was happening to you, but you just stood there and loved Me anyways. I can’t tell you how moved I am over you. Your love is so pure. Oh, turn your eyes from Me, I am overcome with the devotion of your love for Me!”

This is the Captain of the Lord’s hosts speaking here. This is the King of kings and the Lord of lords who will one day destroy His enemies with the sheer splendor of His presence. All of earth’s forces cannot stop Him. All of hell’s powers cannot defeat Him. Nothing in heaven or earth can conquer Him. He cannot be overcome by anyone or anything --

except this: this Bride who adores Him through her pain. Only one thing can overcome and conquer the heart of God the Son, and that is the Bride of Christ who loves Him when everything is against her.

I can hear Jesus saying to His Father, “Father, You did it. You promised Me a Bride from the nations who would love Me like You love Me. You said she would share My passions and heartbeat, and would carry My values. You said she and I would have many things in common, and here You’ve given Me a Bride who shares My cross. She’s compatible to Me, she’s so much like Me, and I love her so much. O holy Father, this is the Bride You promised Me! She is mature and prepared to be My co-

equal partner, running with Me in the nations to bring in the harvest. Thank you, Father!”

Motivated By Grace

The Lord has poured such effusive praise and love upon her that she erupts in a response (6:11-12) that surprises even her. His affections have so inflamed her heart that she finds herself reaching out to the needs of the church with zeal like she’s never experienced before. The imagery of these verses refers to the body of Christ and to the relative growth of individual believers. Instead of being exasperated with young, immature believers, she finds herself greatly interested in their spiritual welfare and continued growth in the Lord. She is seeing the same

potential in the immature believers that the Lord saw in her.

As swift as a chariot, her soul is caught up with zeal for the work of God. Never before has she been able to love others with such an

unconditional love -- with the very love of God. She finds herself able to love angry, envious, ungrateful people. She now cares deeply for those in the body of Christ who once mistreated her. Her heart has been enlarged to care for the entire church. She recognizes that God, by His grace, is channelling a quality of love through her life that was not inherent to her personality.

Two Responses

As zeal fills her heart for the church, she encounters two responses. In 6:13a, sincere believers who appreciate what God has done in her call to her and say, “Come to us! Come help us.” They see an anointing on her life to impart grace by the Spirit, and they want to receive from her.

The second half of 6:13 describes the response of cynical or jealous people in the church who don’t acknowledge what God has done in her. Instead of affirming her, they are critical of her. They are offended by her zeal, and they say, “Listen, we don’t think you people should have anything to do with her. She’s legalistic, narrowminded, imbalanced, and she’s a bad example. Why are you looking at her anyway?”

This is “the dance of the two camps.” It’s the tension that has always existed between sincere believers and insincere believers. There will always be an insincere church -- those who don’t want to be

challenged to holiness and purity, to greater consecration, and to a deeper intimacy with the Lord Jesus. Saul and David have danced all through church history. The fervency and consecration of the Bride will always cause division in the church because there will always be those who won’t like the conviction her presence brings.

She Is Vindicated

In 7:1-5, the sincere church begins to answer the question posed by the sarcastic church: “What would you see in the Shulamite?” They

praise the virtues that are ever growing in her by the grace of God. They recognize that King Jesus is held captive by the glory of her attainments.

In 7:6-9, the Lord Himself vindicates her. He is ravished with the delights that her love brings Him. As a palm tree, she has grown to great stature. Her breasts are likened to palm tree clusters, referring to her ability to nurture spiritual babes in the milk of the word. He is validating her ministry.

Chapter Twenty-Three