Song of Solomon 6:1 - Fishing With Peter

Oh, it's so fun to be back from vacation, and you might guess I have a new favorite verse. As we head into the first verse of the sixth chapter, it's very much a review of everything that happened in the fifth chapter, but also kind of a review of how I spent my summer vacation in so many different ways. God has just blown my mind this morning with all that he has shown me about this verse and about many things, and so we'll dig into that.

I think you're going to just buckle up your seat belts for what a ride this is. So the first verse in the sixth chapter appears to me to be the fruit of the fifth chapter, and so when we read this, this is the daughters of Jerusalem responding now to all that she has just now described her beloved. And see what happens as they say, Whither is thy beloved gone, O thou fairest among women?

Whither is thy beloved turned aside, that we may seek him with thee? And so this is an amazing thing that's happened now. You had one believer that wanted to follow the tracks of the sheep back in the first chapter, and as she's gone on her faith journey, then all of a sudden, wow, she ends up leading all these others with her testimony to the point where they want to seek him as well.

And I love what Matthew Henry says about it. It's kind of interesting. He says that this shows that it's a spiritual thing, because who would want a bunch of other people going after your beloved?

So, you know, that's kind of a cool thing. And Rashi's explanation of this, in other words, the ancient Hebrew scholar, is that this is the nations that are, you know, chasing after God because they see what's happening with the Jews. And hopefully, you know, this is not a bad thing, which he perceives it to be, but this is a good thing that we actually want to seek thy beloved. In other words, he was saying that those who are trying to sabotage the wall building in the time of Nehemiah and all, or the nations there, and it was sabotage, it was a lie.

They didn't really want to seek him. But in my heart, I really think this is clearly the way that it works. And I can show you that, maybe I can't show you, but I hope you'll hear and see what I think God has taught me in this. As we've talked about a number of times, years ago, the Lord showed me how the fifth chapter is very much the journey of Peter. In other words, he was in the Garden of Gethsemane that night. His head, you know, Jesus called out, you know, stay awake with me. And his head was dripping with great drops of blood, which is very much with this idea of, you know, my head is filled with the drops of the night.

And then, you know, he put his hand through the lock in the door, and she goes out following him, right? And so, as Peter that night followed, you know, to try to go find Jesus as he'd been arrested and he saw his own failures, the watchman on the wall called him on who he was, and he denied Jesus three times, getting his veil removed. They beat him, they bruised him, they took away his veil. Well, that was the best thing, in my opinion, that ever happened to Peter, and it may be—no, I shouldn't say maybe—it is the best thing that ever happens to me all the time when the watchmen catch me in my pose, and they beat me, and they bruise me, and they take away my veil, because once that veil is off, then I can truly seek after Jesus with all my heart, which is what Peter ended up doing, you know, on the tomb and all that happened, which was beautiful. And then, you know, the next thing that she does in the fifth chapter, as we've talked about many times, is she goes on to describe how beautiful Jesus is. Well, if you follow Peter's story, obviously he's restored in the Gospel of John, and, you know, Peter, do you love me?

Peter, do you love me? Well, and then, if you follow it into the book of Acts, what happens is the Holy Spirit comes, right? And the next thing you know, he is preaching.

How beautiful is Jesus' face? If you look carefully into the sermon that Peter preached in Acts chapter 2 that led to 3,000 people saying what actually the Song of Solomon chapter 6 says, there were 3,000 people who said, who said, where is your beloved gone that we might, you know, seek after him with you. I mean, it's absolutely a beautiful thing that as a result of what was said, and again, if you look for me, it's just more than spectacular to look in the Acts chapter 2, you'll see Peter quotes the 16th Psalm, you know, when he says it will make shown known to us his countenance will be fullness of joy. Well, that countenance, again, is what we talked about, you know, in coming through in some of the final verses of the fifth chapter.

And then what happens? 3,000 people, after Peter gives this explanation of how beautiful Jesus is to them, 3,000 people fall in love with Jesus, and then they seek after him just like we see here in the first verse of the sixth chapter. Where is thy beloved gone, O thou fairest among women? And whether is thy beloved turned aside?

That word gone there in Hebrew is really, really, really spectacular because that would be much better translated, in my opinion, whether as thy beloved walked, because that word walked is what God did in the cool of the day in the garden. In other words, Adam and Eve got to walk with God, and then later Enoch walked with God, that very word which has to do with, and this is where God just took me on this unbelievable journey. This idea of asking, where do we walk? Where do we walk with God?

The same question that she asked, where do I, you know, how do I find you? And, you know, follow the tracks of the sheep. It's the same idea of walking. Well, that word walk, or where is translated gone here, is halak, which is a het, which is, again, the letter that we keep saying is an expression of the idea of, excuse me, it's not a het, it's a hei.

Okay, I'm sorry, I got my hei to sound mixed up. A hei means, you know, God's expression, and so an expression of the lamed, which is his heart. So the expression of your heart is where you walk, by the way, and the last letter is this hoof, which is the idea of your crown or your strongest desire.

So you're going to walk where it is that you want to go, you just do. And so if you will go walking, if you go after Jesus, you're walking with Jesus, it's exactly what happens. And so as we talked about here a few verses ago, we talked about it in the 119 Psalm many, many times, is this idea of the statutes is what we're really searching for. And I think I've found my connection now to statutes and the seven anointings in Isaiah chapter 11, that all kinds of come together in this verse with this het, because we talked about that a het, now not a hei, but a het, the other h sound means reunion, and a hoof is that idea of desire is the word taste.

And when we talked about Jesus's mouth at the end of the fifth chapter, that was taste. But we talked about also that when you put a hei on the end of that het and that hoof, and then you got a hei, then that is hooked. Well, that has everything to do with my summer vacation, because I went fishing. I went fishing for some beautiful, unbelievable steelhead trout. And oh, as I hooked on fishing for steelhead, I can tell you that in so many different ways. But one of the things that happened is that, you know, obviously, you're fishing for these fish based on what they taste. So the first day we fished, we didn't catch anything.

We worked and worked, went up and down these roads, a lot of work running around in the river with these heavy waders on and all this stuff, and not to even get a bite that was significant, whatever. Eventually, we caught a fish. And once we caught that fish, I guess the Lord gave me some wisdom that I had seen them use these egg sacks and together with the man that was guiding us, who had shown me how they could take the roe out of these fish, which is what he had done before. In other words, take the fish eggs out of the fish I caught and put them in these little sort of webbed things that you could then make for bait. And then, oh my goodness, what happened when we use those for bait? Those fish have a taste for fish eggs. I'm just telling you, especially fresh eggs that came out of a fresh fish. And when we put those on, all of a sudden, we started catching these fish like crazy.

Well, here's where God comes into this. It was my biggest desire on this trip that I walked. In fact, I was studying this whole idea of walking with God. And I wanted to walk with him through the fishing experience. But these fish were so huge and so exciting to catch. Every time I would hook one, I would totally forget about God. And of course, I'd thank him after I brought it in, but I wanted the experience of actually reeling in the fish while I was with God.

And I wanted to catch one on my fly rod. It was really important to me. And so the last day that we were there, we took our guide friend, Terry, with us. We took him to lunch at a barbecue place. And there I confessed my struggle that I had really wanted to walk with God in this. And I really wanted him. I wanted to experience catching one of these fish with him in the moment while that's all going on.

I explained that. And both my friends, Jim and Terry that were with me, listened. And it wasn't long that afternoon that we had actually made up more of these egg sacs.

And this was the last day that we were going to be there. And that day, I wanted to try to catch one of these monsters, which are about seven pounds, about 25 inch trout, on my fly rod. A very light fly rod that I use, that I've used for years and years. And I just thought what an adventure it would be to try my best to land on these fish because they take out tons of line. I mean, these are hard fighting fish and you can't pull too tight or you break the line.

So it wasn't long as I went in the river with my fly rod that I hooked one of these monsters. And here's the beauty of this verse for me. Like, wow, when I hooked this monster, my friend Terry, who was aware of my struggle, starts praying. He's like, thank you, Lord.

What an amazing idea. Robbie, you know, has caught this fish. And as he prayed, obviously, you know, that we may seek him with you. In other words, once I had shared my struggle, my friend then helped me to go into the moment and wrestle with this fish like I was doing it with God. Well, then to explain this for those who have ever watched a river run through it, you know, in that movie, when the brother catches a steelhead, this very fish, and it takes him clear down this river. He goes down a waterfall and all this, but this fish takes all this line off his reel.

Well, this fish did exactly. I mean, it ran way down the river. And when it did it, my reel just sung because all you could do is like go and let the fish go.

And so it just went like way down the river. And I was horsing him back and I was just, man, me and God were having a blast with this fish. And it took probably the better part of twenty minutes to get that fish to the shore.

But I experienced the whole battle. And oh, by the way, these fish jump in sometimes five, six feet out of the water. This particular one only jumped about three feet out of the water. But oh, the fight that was in this fish. And oh, my goodness, as I brought this fish in. There I was just like in the moment of here, I can actually say that I came when I got what I came for, you know, to actually experience catching one of these fish on a fly rod. But to do that with God saying, you know, you are a fine fisherman.

And then, OK, here's the here's the and I know I'm long on this one, but I think it'll be worth it. OK, for those people who know me well and know I love, love, love Isaiah 11, which gives us this idea of wisdom, understanding, counsel, might, knowledge, fear the Lord and delight in the fear of the Lord. These are the seven anointings that the Holy Spirit that that God, that Jesus would get, as you would see, you know, of this branch is going to receive these wisdom and power and understanding, OK, wisdom and understanding, counsel and might, et cetera. So this morning, as I was thinking about that and God just put this, he hooked me, OK, he just did. He said, OK, well, just think about wisdom a minute, which is Hachma. And I went, oh, my goodness, Hachma. When you just hear that sound, hear that H and then the hoof, you hear the Hach, you know, that idea of Hachma is, by the way, very close to statutes. But we'll get into that in a minute. But this idea of Hachma is wisdom. Well, see, the idea of wisdom is you get a little taste of God, right, because of your union. And here's your desire that all of a sudden you get a flash of insight.

You can't do anything with it yet, but you get this insight. Well, you actually that's what hooks you, because the letter ahead in the hoof, it's just like that. It's very much connected.

When you put the ma, you hear that Hach, it's the same thing. It's mouth. Take the beginning of that. That same thing is mouth is altogether sweet. A hat and a hoof. OK, and then a ma'am, which is Jesus or water.

Take your pick and then expressed. And so it's like when you taste the living water, that's wisdom. It's like when you have that flash of insight, well, you're tasting the living water. Wisdom is that whole idea.

And where does it happen? In your mouth. And so taste and see that the Lord is good. You're hooked. OK, but when you're hooked, it's something that you're hooked. Somebody is going to do some reeling.

And I've thought about that. Is this the Holy Spirit reeling? Am I reeling? Is God reeling? And I think it's all of us together. We're reeling.

We're united because it is a union with our mouths. And we're reeling in to try to get understanding now that we have this wisdom. We need understanding, which is Bina is the word in Hebrew. OK, which begins with a bet.

And the idea of Bina is this idea of faith coming home. OK, and when you reel that, OK, let's just take the idea of these fish eggs. OK, that was the wisdom.

Now we put the eggs in the bag. Once we put them in the river, that was showing some understanding. OK, well, when we did that understanding, then that was counsel. OK, because counsel is kind of like bringing light.

It's the primary letter in the word. Counsel is Zaddy, and that Zaddy is saying we're going to we're going to take this understanding now and use it, which is counsel. OK, and so all of a sudden I realized that this whole thing is like catching a fish. And so it starts out with your mouth. You get them hooked.

You begin to reel the Bina. And then when you go to the council. Right. And due to that counsel.

Right. What was happening? We were hooking fish, which showed the might. Well, all these people come down the river like, why are you catching all these fish? Well, they didn't have the little sacks. They didn't use their eggs. Or if they'd caught another fish, they didn't know.

They didn't have the wisdom and the understanding and the counsel. And now we had the might. Well, with that, after that comes knowledge. Right. So we clearly had the knowledge of how to do this again and again and again because we got more fish, which happens. Why?

Because the next the next one of those anointings is fear of the Lord. Understand that God is in charge of this deal and he knows how it works. And so he's the one who's going to show you how to catch the fish. More than that, he's going to catch. He's going to teach you or allow you to be fishermen enough to take a flight fly rod and catch a steelhead trout, which are just unbelievable fish to catch.

Just unbelievable. And you can live a river runs through it. If you watch that scene, you'll know what I'm talking about. And you can live that based on the wisdom he gave you, the understanding, the counsel, the might, the knowledge, the fear of the Lord. OK. And the last one, as you may know, is a delight in the fear of the Lord. And if you don't delight in that, in other words, now you got your fish.

It's on the stringer. OK. You can just delight on on how God did that. Right. And you got the whole experience in your memory as I do. Right.

It's landed. The whole thing has landed wisdom, understanding, counsel, might, knowledge, fear of the Lord and delight in the fear of the Lord. Right.

As a result of other people that have come into my life. Right. Because I love the end of this verse. It's such a significant thing about this. My new favorite verse in the Bible is. Right. Where is your beloved that we may seek and that word seek right is a bet and a cuff and a shin.

So this idea is so connected to statutes. Right. Which is our whole quest that we've been on.

I'm not going to spend any time on that today, maybe for another episode. But oh, my goodness, what a what an amazing time I had, as you can tell. But also what an amazing thing that we get to walk with God if if we could just do it in our all these moments.

I mean, but what I saw is it takes it takes all of us doing it. We need somebody else like Terry did for me. And Terry, so many times during the trip, he would stop and pray. What a man of God.

He would stop and pray. And he was such an example of to me, you know, walking with God, which is the deal, man, if we do the wisdom of that is beyond me. It's not beyond understanding. If we just understand it, use it again. He's got us hooked.

And if we can land that fish, oh, baby. Thanks for listening.