Song of Solomon 4:13- Jesus Describes His Church as A Paradise of Fruit & Smells

This is the Truth Network. Hidden Treasures of the Song of Songs, which is Solomon's. As we now get to the Mem verse, or the 13th verse of the fourth chapter of the Song of Solomon, that Mem meaning Messiah, we're going to get a good idea of how the Messiah says we build the church. And this is just spectacular. Really, I think you're going to love this.

I know I love it. It definitely is a fascinating look at how the church is built in the next two verses. So, to read it in English, it says, thy plants are an orchard of pomegranates with pleasant fruits, campfire and spikenard. So there are some amazing things as we look into the Hebrew of this.

And our pastor yesterday said, you know, the neat thing about Hebrew is it's kind of like a handle on a door that opens up a chamber where you can get some understanding that's really, really unique. And again, we know that this is Jesus describing us, but even more so in this particular two verses, the Mem and the Nun, I really believe he's describing how, essentially, our union with him just creates this church, so to speak, because the idea that the fascinating word about plants, I mean, the fascinating thing about the first word in the verse, which is plants, is that word is actually shoots, okay? And we've talked about this before when we were talking about the neck that was built as an armory and that idea of the quivers of all these arrows that would go out. Well, the word shoots or the word plant here is actually usually translated sword. It can be translated shoots.

It also could be, which is what is translated here. But the idea of here comes all these offensive weapons are coming out in the way of plants, which is fascinating because, you know, he is divine. We are the branches.

And so we can see that this is a way that these things are connected. This idea as we are in him, we're going to send out some apparently orchards, which is just an absolutely beautiful picture because, you know, we've talked about this time and again that trees are a picture of righteousness. And trees are, you know, again, where all the offerings, you know, happen, which happens so much, you know, with our life in the church. So as we go into this, a plant, an orchard, which that word orchard, if you were to look at it in Hebrew, it almost says a paradise, okay? So you got a paradise of pomegranates, which makes sense because we're still in the garden here. The neat thing about this verse, I think, is that the Jews translate that that word plants means arid field.

That's interesting, isn't it? But there's no doubt that pomegranates grow best in an arid area that is well watered. It's really cool that they grow in sandy soil, but they create these unbelievable fruits with obviously at least 613 seeds, as the Jews believe, but this idea of so much seeds that come with fruit, which have to do with faith. And so here's this idea of, as we send out these arrows, our children, so to speak, that all these fruits are full of seeds for more fruit.

And this is exactly how the church exploded because, you know, the Acts Church, you know, it was in this unbelievable fellowship, each one individually so in love with Jesus that they devoted themselves in love with one another to where this fruit was unbelievable. So an orchard of pomegranates with pleasant fruits. And again, that idea of fruits, you know, is just, you can't help but think about the fruits of the spirit here.

And then the two fruits that are mentioned are campfire and spikenard. And so the campfire is henna, but in Hebrew, it's this very, very strong desire or the crown of the presence of the head. So it's really this idea of this spice is this unbelievable desire for the presence of God in the Holy Spirit. And so, well, that makes sense that that spice is going to give you that sense of that necessarily of that fruit, which when you think about spices, what they're doing is they're offering up a smell.

And that's a big part of what's going on here. And I think that also it also very much connects, as Jesus was talking about in the last two verses, you know, going back to chapter one, what the bride declared, right, that your love is going to be better than wine and your name is an ointment poured forth. Well, here he's telling us again, along those same lines, that as we send out our shoots, it's going to give off this smell that our name is going to be that type of perfume as well. It's unbelievable to think about that these shoots that are just full and we'll get into that a lot more in the next verse of what all those are. But here we have these two spices that are described of campfire and spikenard, which again goes back to the very first chapter where she, you know, said that her beloved was a cluster of campfire to her.

And she also made reference to it. You know, while the king sit at his table, our spikenard sent forth its smell thereof. In other words, this is all going back to that original idea of what happens is we love Christ or these fragrances are going to go out. But these fragrances have everything to do with shoots that are building this unbelievable orchard.

Okay. And so when you put all that into, you know, how does this actually look, you know, when it's working, you know, it actually made me think about the whole building blocks of this song of songs or this idea of the statutes that I've been seeking. I hope you've been seeking it with me in that, you know, throughout the 119 Psalm, it kept saying, teach me the thy statutes. What has to do with this idea of this intense closeness of our union with God. And so apparently based on these verses, when we have this intense closeness with the union of God, these fragrances are given off and we shoot out these shoots that are going to be able to create this pomegranates of fruit.

I mean, it's unbelievable as we, if we could actually keep these statutes, this is a picture of what happens to the church is just going to blossom in these orchards of fruitfulness that have these unbelievably beautiful smells. So along those lines, you know, what does that look like in our lives? You know, for me, what it looked like, because again, this isn't just my relationship with Christ, it's how that blossoms into a relationship with a number of people that actually becomes the church.

So one of the neat, neat ministries that I have dealt with for years is the masculine journey band of brothers. And so, you know, a couple years ago when my dad died, happened to be the week then we did a boot camp. And so my father's funeral was actually on the last day of that boot camp, which I attended and was there with my band of brothers as far as the boot camp. But on the day of the funeral, I'll never ever forget this.

And here's all these men that we have, you know, been discipling each other. These are the shoots, you know, if anybody thinks about, you know, the people that you've been associated with, the people that you've taught and have taught you, you know, your closest group, whatever that may be. Although I've got so many close groups, it's hard for me to pick which one is the closest, but this group was there at my dad's funeral. And I'll never forget, they were all laying hands on me before I spoke at my father's funeral. Before I spoke, and as long as I live, I will never forget the smell. As long as I live.