Song of Solomon 3:6- Here Comes The Bride

Oh, what a picture of delight we get to do today in the sixth verse of the third chapter, which would be the vuv verse, which often has to do with delight. So this one is again a mouthful and such amazing stuff is in here.

So we'll read it in English. Who is this that cometh out of the wilderness like pillars of smoke perfumed with myrrh and frankincense and with all powders of the merchant? So that's a little cryptic, there's no doubt. And I'll be completely transparent and say that in my previous readings of the Song of Solomon and all my study, I always thought this had to do with Solomon. But I can assure you that it isn't.

It's completely the bride. This is us coming out of the wilderness. And, you know, that's actually the way that is interpreted by Rashi and Matthew Henry and by Spurgeon. So I think they're all three in agreement that this is in fact the church. And again, if we think about the allegory of, you know, the Israelites in the desert, and clearly the pillar of smoke. But this particular pillar, very interestingly, in Hebrew, is an extension of the word palm tree. And so if you can see this pillar of smoke looking like a palm tree, you can't miss if you're in our generation, that is a mushroom cloud.

Okay. And so here you see this literal mushroom cloud or this palm tree looking pillar of smoke. And what's interesting about it is it's perfumed with myrrh, frankincense, and all the powders of the merchant.

And so there's a lot of ways that we can look into that. And clearly, this is a picture of, in so many different ways, the sacrifices, right, that, again, the prayers of the saints have always been considered a sacrifice, and they go up like incense. We were familiar with this, but also, you know, the smoke that rose up from the altar was often, you know, the fat of animals that went up in a delightful smell to the of the Lord, you know, where he would, you know, be pleased with that aroma, like he was with Noah's sacrifices.

And so I don't know if you ever thought about this, but as Spurgeon puts it so beautifully that all those saints who literally gave their lives for the church, right, they're part of this pillar of smoke, that goes up almost like an atom bomb or a mushroom cloud, and you see it coming out of where it's coming out of the wilderness. And I'm sure you see the picture that, you know, Israel came out of the wilderness as they came into the Promised Land, Jesus went into the wilderness to be tempted for 40 days, they were in there for 40 years, he got it done in 40 days, again, he came out in all his splendor, you know, ready to ready to go into his ministry as he came out of the wilderness. And the neat thing about the word wilderness, if you're a Maflin Journey fan, like I am, and the idea of Wild at Heart by John Eldredge teaches that adventure is critical to a young man's heart in that it stretches him, it teaches him. And when you look at the word wilderness, you can see that it has to do with testing or proving or stretching. And so we're stretched when we go into the wilderness. And just like Jesus was tested as he went into the wilderness, but the idea is that as we take on the wilderness, and we survive, then we know that we have what it takes. And more importantly, we know that Jesus has what it takes, and how to turn to him.

And just a beautiful picture of what adventure is about in so many different ways and why, you know, we love to go to the wilderness, because there we get a chance to take that. So here, we see the bride coming out of the wilderness after she's been tested and all the sacrifices and this plume of smoke. And obviously, the frankincense and murder make reference to Jesus and you can't miss that. But also, there's this really cryptic one at the end, from my perspective, it says the powders of the merchants, which, again, that the Rashi says that, you know, that has to do with what the perfect perfumer would buy these spices in order to, to get these things that go up in the incense that went up in the temple.

And Matthew Henry makes similar statements about that. But But the interestingly, Spurgeon had a really different take on it in his now excuse me, Matthew Henry said that that it was Jesus that was the merchant, and that he was far fetched. I never thought about that word before other than meaning, you know, something that wasn't believable, but the Jesus went far in order to fetch us. And so merchants would go far to get these spices and from Matthew Henry's point of view, you know, Jesus went far in order to provide us the sacrifice that we needed to be that pillar of smoke coming up out of the wilderness. I think that's beautiful. And then what's really cool from my standpoint is what Spurgeon had to say about that is back in the day, that Solomon lived when he was writing this, that they would purchase from the merchants, drugs, and medicine, medicinal things that they would burn with the incense in order to reach euphoric stamp, or euphoric things, you know, almost, you know, you might think of, you know, the most high God, so to speak, like, they literally would take these things medicinally, in order to feel better or to rise spiritually.

You know, you can go there wherever you want to go. But at the end of the day, that's really something that connects, I think, to what the passage is actually speaking to. So the question, you know, that you ponder, I pondered a lot on it, in and finally asked the Holy Spirit, I like I'm read all this, I've thought I just can't understand completely why the powders of the merchants, what what does that have to do with? And and the Holy Spirit really pointed me back to Revelations chapter three, when he Jesus tall told the church of Leah Cynthia, he counseled them to buy gold, and raiment of white, and ointment for their eyes, because they needed to be able to see well, when you look into the it's an interesting thing, the word mer has to do with bitterness. And as we've talked about that word before, and it's throughout the Song of Solomon, but it's very close to the word Mary.

And most sacrifices have to do with bitterness. And the frankincense could be translated white. It's the same almost word in Hebrew, as frankincense itself, when you see it, I've got some at home, it's absolutely white. And so it almost looks like a white stone honestly, you know, and this idea of white raiment or incenses, it all seems to fit together. And then there's this idea of the ointment of the eyes, which is a medicinal powder, so to speak, this is something that you would, you know, have to purchase from a merchant. But what Jesus says is I counsel you to buy from me.

Right? How are we going to get this stuff? And it gets back to what Matthew Henry said, Jesus is the merchant and we have to get from him, raiment, white raiment, we have to get from him gold and we have to get from him the ointments that we need the medicinal things in order to be able to see not through euphoric spiritualism, but through the real thing, right, the real ointment that we need for the real medicinal thing that and so the powder from the merchant mean Jesus, I love that I love the thought of Jesus.

The only way I know to get these things is from you. And just like the virgins went out to buy oil, you know, Jesus is the merchant clearly in this picture. And I think that really is going to provide me a lot of stuff to think about as I go to Jesus to understand how to get these things.

But, you know, clearly there's there's some two or three things going on here. You know, number one, that in the book of Revelation, there is going to be a mushroom cloud that's unbelievable as the church comes out of the wilderness all these years that we are being tested. It's been a long time, OK, but it's coming out and there is going to be a wedding supper of the lamb and all these things that we've seen are going to take place. But in the meantime, for me personally, you we all go through these times of testing. And as we come out of that testing, right, people see the sacrifice and it's like a pillar of smoke that they know that, wow, man, that smells really good. And so as they see your pillar, as you come out of your testing, whatever that may be. And I can't help but think that a lot of the times I was asked to speak initially was as I came out of the hospital after my leg was crushed and after I had cancer and all these things, because people wanted to smell that incense. They wanted to see what God had done to heal me. They wanted to see that that glory, that white that Jesus had done through the testing that he'd given me. And what does that look like in your life?

Right. And how does it that just like the daughters of Jerusalem are the ones who say, who is this? Well, when people look at your life, right, and they see the testing that you go through, maybe you're going through some right now. The beauty is, is that if we go to Jesus by these white raiment, you know, continue the sacrifices and of course get the eye ointment so that we can see what he's actually doing. When we come out of the wilderness, right, people are going to say, hey, who is that? It's like a palm tree of smoke, right, coming out. And it's going to be beautiful. Thank you for listening. I appreciate it so much.