Song of Song 2:2 - Thirsty People Grow Thorns

Hidden Treasures of the Song of Songs, which is Solomon's. Another spectacular verse we get to dig into today, the second verse in the second chapter of the Song of Solomon.

And clearly this has much to do with our quest to understand the statutes of the 119th Psalm, but also in so many ways just to get some other ideas, dots that connect throughout the Bible as we learn these things that are taught so beautifully here in this love song. And so here in response to what we talked about yesterday, that I am the Rose of Sharon and the Lily of the Valleys is what we the beloved said to Jesus being again, maybe I should have focused in more on the idea that the plains of Sharon are sort of a deep place. In fact, there are many swamps there, but it's certainly flat and it's low and it's almost as if he's taking us deeper. So he goes from the plains down into the valleys with the Lily of the valleys, you know, where like John Bunyan pointed out so well in Pilgrim's Progress that, you know, the soil is so much better in the valley and it certainly is in the bogs and the swamps. And, you know, the whole idea of the parable of the soils comes into a clue here is that, you know, the soil that's washed down from the mountains, you know, comes down into the valley of humiliation and down there in the valley of humiliation. The soil's wonderful. I'm sure if you're like me and you spend some time down there, you do tend to sink your roots down deeper into that particular soil. And so the second verse, you know, Jesus gives us more understanding of that same idea of what we called ourselves lilies.

He was like, oh, yeah. He says in the second verse in English as the Lily among thorns is so my love among the daughters. And so I had a lot of fun this morning studying thorns and that whole idea of, you know, what's the real purpose of thorns and what might be Jesus talking about here. And of course, you can't help but think about the crown of thorns and and oh my goodness, all the books that have been written about the Lily among the thorns. Because it's just wonderful imagery in that there's such a stark, you know, contrast between a lily and thorns. Well, I decided well, you know, what is up with thorns?

How does that exactly work in a plant and what do they actually do? And it's an interesting thing because as I as I started to think about what's actually going on here is quite often especially in desert climates cactuses grow thorns. And of course that whole area around Jerusalem is covered in desert. So they're probably a lot more familiar with thorns and those who live in North Carolina, although we have our share of thorn bushes, but not like these we don't have. And so the idea of thorns and a cactus is you got this idea. This is very dry arid situation.

And I am shocked to know this but it's kind of cool. The number one purpose for thorns on a cactus, especially certain kinds of cactuses is to break the airflow, you know, the wind from stealing the moisture. Okay, and it creates sort of a humid little atmosphere down there for the plant to survive. And so what a cool thing that they do that and the second thing they do is they drip moisture. In other words, as the dew would come, you know, the moisture will collect on the thorns and then drip down to where the roots can gather it.

I mean, pretty ingenious stuff. The third thing that they do is they provide shade. Again, the idea is this is a thirsty plant, or really, really thirsty plant. And so it's doing everything it possibly can do to conserve water in every way, shape and form. And the last thing that they do, which I think we can all relate to, is they keep away predators, people that would steal their water, or animals or, or bugs or whatever else might steal their water, there are those thorns to protect them.

So, you know, what a neat defense, but why are they doing all that? It's because they are there, they do not have an abundance of water. And when you think about thorny people, you know, that joy doesn't, you know, the idea of the lily is this idea of rejoicing, and the joy of our Lord is our strength. Well, unfortunately, thorny people are hoarders that they think that they're going to run out of water, right?

They're thirsty, thirsty, thirsty. And so they're so thirsty, that they become thorny in order to protect what little water that they have. Well, you know, when you think about what water is in the Bible, it is the Word of God.

And so, as the more that we feast on the Word of God, you see, we get into this abundance, this flow that's amazing. And so of course, we rejoice because we have all the water in the world we need, we don't have to have thorns to protect it. We don't have to have thorns to try to gather it. In other words, we have sunk our roots down deep into the living water. And as thus, we don't have to be these thorny characters. So clearly, the contrast here of what our beloved is telling us is that you have gotten through the good soil down into the water and you're not hoarding it being that you're, you know, self protecting, because you don't think that God's holding out on us.

And you know, there's there's some beautiful teaching that john Eldridge does on, on, on the mothering of God from Isaiah 66 on how, you know, mothers provide an abundance and poor children that don't have are separated from their mothers at birth, that don't see that abundant that they're just going to get all they need, especially at their mother's breasts. You know, those children tend to be the ones who become kleptomaniacs and that kind of thing stealing and all that because they're afraid they're not going to have anything. And as we get that orphan spirit, you know, we begin to hoard things and we get scared that we're not going to have enough.

And so we start growing thorns. That's the deal. And you know, it's not a present. It's not a pretty thing. It just isn't pretty compared to that person who's rejoicing the Lord always.

And again, I say rejoice. So you just picture, you know, all these Israelites down in the desert. And, you know, some of them were so terrified and grumbling, we're not going to get off water, they were thorns.

But then there were some of them that were beautiful flowers saying God's going to provide, it's going to be great, man. I mean, here, study his word some more, you can have all the water you want. It's living water, and you can get all you want. It's amazing stuff. Okay. So there's the imagery. And so what does that look like?

You know? Well, I was thinking a lot about it this morning. And I've got lots of illustrations. But one of my favorites is always been, you know, long before I got involved in special needs. One day, I was sitting in a Burger King. And this was probably five years, 10 years before I started teaching special needs. So I had very little experience with Down syndrome or autism or anything like that. But anyway, I was sitting in this Burger King, and I was observing two different families.

Okay. One family had it was clearly a Down syndrome child that they were delighting in. And this child was delighting. In other words, this look, they were just having so much fun. They were delighting in their food. They were delighting in each other's company. And you could just see the smiles and the joy.

And believe me, these were the lily, unfortunately, among thorns. Because right next to them was what would be, you know, quote, unquote, a normal family. These people were not delighting in each other in any way, shape, or form. You know, they were, you know, when they would look up from their phones, they would scream and be nasty at each other, especially, you know, the kids feeling the need, they began to, to, to get attention, of course, you know, do what they need to do to get attention.

And then the parents, of course, respond horribly to all that. And it was just a ugly scene versus from from this, what would consider to be the family that had it all right, compared to this other family, that, that, you know, would think that they'd been slighted by God. But that isn't what happened at all. And again, I didn't talk to either one. I was just a casual observer.

I was maybe maybe in Christ two or three years. So I did. All I knew is I said, there's something deep here. There's something to pay attention to. I've never forgotten it. Like, man, those people were the lily among thorns. And so you know, even this morning, I my daughter had gone to Birmingham yesterday and been praying all day for whatever reason, I really felt the need to pray for her.

I was scared about her trip. And, and, and she arrived there safely, which was delightful. And I realized this morning, man, I just hadn't been grateful to God to you for for delivering my wife, my daughter, actually, for all my whole family through the night. I mean, he protects us every single night.

And how often do I just thank him like, man, God, this is so awesome. That we would delight in thy law. In other words, these words to me, and I hope to you, I'm sure they are just an absolute delight to see Wow, how can we help people sink their roots deeper, so they don't have to grow thorns.

So they don't feel like they have to protect what little water they have. Lord, I pray that you would help us to do that today. In Jesus name. Amen.