Song of Solomon 5:3 - Naked and Afriad

This is the Truth Network. We'll be right back. was awake that the disciples were sleeping when they should have been awake. And, you know, here we can see another aspect of that night for the disciples as we read this verse in English. Verse three says, I have put off my coat. How shall I put it on? I have washed my feet.

How shall I defile them? And hopefully you heard yesterday's episode, but you might recall it says, I sleep, but my heart waketh. It's a voice of my beloved that knocketh, saying, Open to me, my sister, my dove, my undefiled for my head is filled with dew and my locks with the drops of the night. I put on my coat. How shall I put it on? I've washed my feet.

How shall I defile them? So that's to give the whole thought and kind of order that it was, or that it is written. And so, you know, the overarching thing, you know, as you think about the 119 Psalm on that verse in the hay section that says, you know, turn my eyes away from beholding vanity and quicken thou me in thy way. In other words, this verse is all about vanity in so many different ways. And it's, you know, it starts out with this idea that she's asleep and clearly asleep spiritually, like the bridesmaids that were asleep when they should have been awake, waiting on the bridegroom bridegroom to come knocking as, as the case may be. And clearly you can see that she's run out of oil, right? That there's no oil in her lamp. It's not burning as she is consumed. She is just consumed with her own needs rather than the needs of her savior. And she doesn't get up and answer the door, which is something that obviously when you think about the disciples that night, they couldn't stay awake either.

There wasn't enough oil in their lamps. And so it gets you to where do you get that? But also the part that I really wanted to unpack completely, and I'm still working on it, but I have parts of it is what does this mean? I've put off my coat. Well, when you look at that in Hebrew, it literally means to strip naked. All right. So she's saying I'm naked and afraid.

Okay. And that is, again, our thoughts are not our thoughts are not on the larger story or what Jesus is doing. Our thoughts are on self-conscious thoughts. I'm naked.

I'm ashamed. And clearly, you know, the disciples were there apparently three times. If you read the gospel accounts of what happened in the garden in Gethsemane that night, they were, Jesus kept asking them to pray that they do not fall into temptation. Right.

And so they were, um, clearly in a situation where they couldn't stay awake. But in this case, she doesn't want to be caught naked. And, you know, how many times in our lives are we afraid to go out on ministry or do whatever else?

Because we're going to, people are going to see how naked we really are. And again, we're, we're not having faith that Christ can get us covered. And then it moves on to, I've washed my feet.

How shall I defile them? And the idea of feet spiritually, and, and, and, you know, you can find it throughout the scriptures, even in Genesis, Abraham would wash the, the, the feed of those angels. And it was a common thing for the, you know, for, to be asked to wash the feet. And the idea of that spiritually is before you can go do anything, you know, you got to move your feet. In other words, beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news because they've made a choice to move, to engage, to do something.

All right. And the idea is we're supposed to get up and do ministry, but unfortunately we think that we're going to be defiled. Aren't we doing enough? And there's not enough oil in our lamp to stay awake. But the real thing for me and often is fear, fear that I'm going to fail. So there's the fear that I'm going to be caught naked. And then there's the fear that I don't have what it takes to be successful, right? That in my own way, right, that it says I'll be defiled.

And again, that the, the problem here is fear and vanity. I'm considering what is happening with me and I'm considering what it's going to feel like to fail. And, you know, this, this story has played out in my life so many, many, many, many, many times. I mean, almost there's every day, there's something that I wish I would have gone and done that I didn't do because I was afraid that I was going to fail or in somehow or another be exposed to something I couldn't handle. So I can remember one time the worst fight I ever got in with my older sister was we went to go get gas at a grocery store. She wanted me to go in and pay for it and go get the gas. But I used to be afraid.

I really was very shy boy that I know that may be hard to believe, but it's very true. I was terrified, literally frozen in fear to get out of the car and go talk to that man behind the counter. You know, I might've been 12 or 13 at the time. And if I had ensued, it was very ugly.

Okay. But this, this same scene would play out later in my life. And a very critical time is I was married to a young lady by the name of Brenda, and we'd been married about a year and a half. And we actually lived at the time in Savannah, Georgia. And we had gone to the grocery store to get some dog food, actually for our dog, as we're leaving to go to North Carolina to visit her son.

And as we get to the grocery store, I ask her, could she go into the grocery store and get the dog food? Because once again, for whatever reason, that's hard to explain all the fears that I had prior to come to Christ, but I had them. I was terrified with fear. I did not want to go into that store.

I didn't want to see the people I didn't want to pay for. In other words, I asked her to go do it. And she's like, no, you go do it. And I was like, no, you go do it. Well, another fight ensued because I just wouldn't go do it. And she literally got out of the car and started walking. And truth be told, she walked from Wellington Island all the way into Savannah. I would, based on all that I know, I tried to follow her as much as I could and tried to get her to get in the car.

She wouldn't do it. But that was the end of my first marriage was because I would not go buy dog food. And that may sound absolutely as crazy as it is, but the bottom line is, man, I was paralyzed in fear. I couldn't call like an insurance agent or call some, you know, anything like that. I can remember sitting there, terrified girls that I wanted to ask out and I would try to dial three or four numbers.

I couldn't get through it. In other words, how many times was I don't know if it's a failure or failure or fear of being exposed. It's all these things that I think this bride is feeling this right this minute, which is, you know, I don't want to be exposed and I don't want to fail. And I don't want to risk, essentially is where this comes down to. Like, you know, you've got these talents and you're supposed to use them, but you're afraid to risk, you know, being exposed, afraid to risk the failure. And there it is, right?

It is that it just is a risky thing to be exposed. And so, you know, I'm so grateful that Jesus's blood covers us so that we will never be exposed. And He washed the disciples feet that night, that their way would be made, that they would be fruitful for Him.

Right. And so the only way that I stepped behind the mic the very first time was that Jesus asked me to do that. He covered me and it happened. I still can't believe that it did because, you know, like really Robbie Dilmore on the radio after all the fears that I had when I was a younger person. But oh my goodness, if you walk in faith with Him, He not only covers you in His blood, but He washes your feet so that you can go forth, not worried that anybody, that you might fail because if you're doing what He asked you to do, you know, you can't fail. Thanks for listening.