Song of Songs 2:14 - You Can Run But You Can't Hide

This is the Truth Network. Hidden Treasures of the Song of Songs, which is Solomon's. Oh, the depths of verse 14 in the second chapter of Song of Songs, and this may be the verse that Matthew Henry was talking about that an elephant could swim around in it, because there are so many different angles to this verse and so many different meanings. I'll read it in English. We'll dig in. We may have to do two episodes.

We'll just see how it goes. So verse 14, you know, we've been talking about he'd asked twice previously to come away, and so here we're going to have the third time in its own way. So verse 14 says, O my dove that art in the clefts of the rock, in the secret place of the stairs.

Let me see thy countenance. Let me hear thy voice, for sweet is thy voice, and thy countenance is comely. And so, oh my goodness, it's hard for me to know the angle for which to go first, because there is a really, really, really deep meaning, and I wish I could be absolutely certain of all that it says, but I think that's part of the beauty of just wondering about it, because clearly, as you noted in the last probably eight verses, you can see that, you know, as we charge, O daughters of Jerusalem, don't awaken love till it pleases, that this has everything to do with timing. As we went through, you know, that the winter is over, and now the spring has come, and then the fig leaf, and again, Jesus is asking us to come, and he's asked twice, and now he's apparently addressing the actual problem that the dove is hiding in the clefts of the rock, in the secret places, and so the question is, is it hiding there of fear of, like, you know, Peter was, you know, get away from me, I'm a sinful man, like, just a shame of our sin, or is it hiding from something else that's scaring it? You know, that's all part of what's going on there, and so clearly Jesus is trying to coax us out of the cliff, and the other thing that's very interesting about the verse is the idea of stairs. They could be translated steep place, but here in King James, it's replete, it's said as stairs, and I like to think about that myself, is it, you know, a dove could have two different ways to get to heaven, though it could try to climb by the stairs, which will never make it, or it can fly on wings, but those wings would only be with Jesus, and so I almost have a sense here myself in that the dove, or us, you know, we've attempted to climb to the high place on our own merit, unfortunately, and so we're ashamed, and thus we're in the secret place, and the other thing that the Jews teach on this verse, which I think is spectacular, is that if we're in the cleft of the rock, we can't spread our wings, and that in and of itself is a huge picture of what our life quite often is, is that we see ourselves as, you know, with our wings in a position where we can't see them, but Jesus doesn't see this way at all, and so his answer, however it is that we found ourselves hidden in this cleft, and however it is we got there, the answer is still the same, that we are to look full in his wonderful face, and the things of this world, i.e.

the clefts of that rock, will look strangely dim, and the idea, to me, that makes the most sense about explaining this, is this is the place the prodigal found himself, right? He attempted to climb to a place that he was, you know, gonna have pleasure and enjoyment all on his own, and that's when he found himself in the pigsty, right? And he was in a bad place, and he did not realize that he always had the wings to fly back home, and at the point that we realize how much the Father loves us, and we return home as the prodigal did, then all of a sudden, we get lifted up as the prodigal was lifted up, not by our merit, and not by anything we did, but other than we just turned to the one who really does love us, and I love that, so let me see thy countenance, in other words, turn into his face, and then let me hear thy voice, and again, that word voice, we've talked about it two or three times, starts with the letter kuf, and has to do with, you're gonna have to be close to him if he's gonna hear your voice, and clearly that in there is the prayer, and the idea that he sees this as beautiful in spite of the fact that we do not see ourselves this way, and that's, you know, as Adam and Eve, you know, we were afraid, so we were naked, so we hid, and I think this is where we find ourselves. He's asked us twice to come away, but not unlike Peter, the third time we're trying to get straight, and Jesus is still being patient with us, again saying how beautiful we are, and how lovely is our voice, so to me as we look at this timing, it leads to really more questions than I've got answers, is it clearly as we're looking at this is the time that only Jesus knows, although he gives us all these hints about the, you know, the fig tree is going to be, you know, budding with these green figs, and that the grapes are coming out to bloom, and the time of the birds singing, and all this is happening, is to give us signs of the time, but the actual moment, you know, it's kind of nice to know that Jesus is going to come calling, and when he does, he's going to be patient with us, and he wants to see our face, but what we want most of all is to see his face, because again as we look full at his wonderful face, you know, the things of this world will turn strangely dim, and that is so, so, so true, so last night, interestingly, before I taught this, I had a dream, as I, you know, often God gives me these dreams, as I think he's trying to teach me something, as I've been thinking, and thinking, and pondering, and meditating on these passages, and this particular one really for about two weeks, as I knew it was coming, but it's always been a great mystery to me as, you know, what is this dove doing up here in the cleft of the rock, and, you know, and then what does this have to do with the timing of what, what Jesus is trying to teach here, so as I mentioned, I had a dream last night, and in this dream, I had a man in a car with me, and we were lost, we were trying to make our way to some errand that we were supposed to do, and for whatever reason, I felt the need to impress this man that was in the car, and he was very nice, a bit older than me, and I, I was trying to be as cordial, and trying to get him to where he needed to be, and all this stuff, and all of a sudden he turns to me, and he says, you're just wasting my time, which really kind of hurt my feelings, and at this point in time, I think I got an answer to the prayer, Lord, let me hear your voice in the night, and keep your law, you might remember that verse in the 119th Psalm, there in the Zion section, I remember thy name in the, in the night, O Lord, and kept thy law, and so I heard the Holy Spirit say, he is not what you think he is, although he looked very nice, and, and, and, and very influential, and, and my kind of guy, and very, you know, I felt like I was his favorite, he, the Holy Spirit said, well, just, just tell him that, that, that wasn't right, what he just said to you, just tell him that, and see what happens, and so, you know, I turned to him answering, you know, what I knew the Holy Spirit was telling me, and I said, you know, the way you just said that, it just wasn't, it wasn't very kind, and when I said that, he turned on me like Satan himself, and it, I mean, a chill went down my spine as I realized that I'd been driving around with a demon, and it was evil, and, and it really, really, really scared me, I mean, woke me up in the dream, and I was just like terrified, and looking for some comfort, and fortunately for me, I was remembering this very verse that Jesus said, let me see your face, and so, once again, I pictured that my pillow in my bed was his left hand is under my head, his right arm embraces me, which means that I'm looking full in his wonderful face, and he's saying, Robbie, you know, let me see your voice, let me hear your voice, let me see your face, let me hear your voice, and as I, as I got this look from, from Jesus, as I've, as I felt his arm, you know, around me, and his head, his hand under my head, there was this warm like, oh, you know, Robbie, where are your accusers? You got no problem, because Jesus is there, and in his presence is fullness of joy, and I remember thinking, oh, I'm all good, and I went right back to sleep. I woke up with a full memory of, I can't remember exactly what the errand was, but I do remember the dream enough to say, okay, you know, I don't know how I get myself in these clefts in the rock, but I do that quite frequently, but the neat thing is, no matter what, and no matter who I've, you know, in the middle of a relationship, you can turn to Jesus, and he wants to look you in the eye, and he wants to tell you, you're beautiful, he wants to hear your voice, at what point in time, you can let go of that, you can put on his blood, and see, you know, you can come away with him. That's the idea, is to walk with him, right? That's what he's been asking for the last two verses, and so now here we got a chance to go walking with Jesus, and oh my, what a chance that is. I know it's a bit confusing, all this in this verse, and much to think about, and to say, I know for sure what it says, I don't, I don't, but these are the things I've been pondering, and so thanks for listening.