Song of Solomon 3:1 - The Empty Bed

How fun! We get to dig into the first verse in chapter 3 today as we're beginning a new chapter, actually, in our study, which is really, really cool. I'd like to share a few of my compositions with you. Number one, that we were studying the Song of Songs in an effort to understand better the statutes. As we finished our study in Psalm 119, the idea that David made time and again was, you know, teach me thy statutes, which clearly have to do with our proximity to the Lord and our marriage to the Lord.

And so what better than the Song of Songs, because, you know, there's a relationship to song in that as well. And so, you know, we're definitely seeking to understand the statutes, but also as we realize that there are eight chapters in the Song of Solomon and the idea being marriage, that it seemed to line up with the letter Het, which is the eighth letter in the Hebrew alphabet, the miracle letter, some people say, and it has to do with our union with God. And so if we follow along with that logic, then we would be doing the other seven letters of the Aleph Bet on our way. So we start off with the first section being the Aleph, and we discussed that a lot during the first chapter and the second chapter we finished yesterday with the idea of the Bet and the house that we feel like Jesus was building by, you know, coming after his bride. And so now we would reach the letter Gimel today as we are heading into the third chapter and the ideal of Gimel to a great extent is to prosper. And so it's going to be interesting to see what all we learn about that letter and statutes as we dig into this chapter. And certainly this verse is along those lines.

I think you'll see that. So to read it in English, verse one says, by night on my bed, I sought him whom my soul loveth. I sought him, but I found him not. And so, you know, clearly there's a couple of times that we're seeing seeking, right? Because to sought is to past tense of have sought, have seeking.

Are you going to put that? And so, you know, that idea that Jesus talked about that seek and you shall find. Well, at this point in time, she sought twice, but didn't find. And then it's interesting by night on my bed. And so as I was studying this, the word bed has got a lot of sexual ramifications to it. And there's no doubt that that is part of what, you know, a marriage is, is a marriage bed. And so here she is on her bed and she is longing for her communion with her beloved.

And he's not clearly the ear. But interestingly, when you think about this with the idea of prosper, that in order to prosper, you have to seek, right? And, you know, what a neat thing for me personally is I just this week realized that, you know, I had asked God every year for a word of the year. And for the last number of years, I've been on this track where the word that I got, I think it was four years ago, was prosper. And so that has everything to do with the letter Gimel. And then interestingly, the next thing, it was love like God, which is the letter Dalud to some extent, because the beloved, right, is that Dalud, Vav Dalud, we've talked about through all this. And so what I was realizing is that God had given me these letters in order, like the Gimel, then the Dalud, and then the hey would be to engage. And then this year, my word for the year is delight. And so, you know, as I started to think about how is the Vav connected to delight, when you read the Vav section, right, you'll see that there's plenty of delight that happens in that, in the 119 Psalms. So the idea that I found in spending a year on prospering, and the idea of the letter Gimel, was that it's very much connected to him who asks, receives, right. And this idea of seeking, and oh my goodness, is that, you know, in order to really enjoy our gifts, it helps if we have to have some anticipation. Is all I have to say, well, maybe not all I have to say, but anyway, that, you know, Christmas Day just ain't the same without Christmas Eve. If you're a little boy, and you're hoping for a bike, or in my case, I was hoping one time for this army set that I was really, you know, 300 to some odd pieces, and would have these missile launchers all night long. I had visions of sugar plums dance through my head, and then when I got up Sunday, I mean, Christmas morning, and there were those toys laid out. Oh, you know, it was that much sweeter.

You know, had I just gotten it as soon as I wanted, it didn't have the same effect. And so, you know, there's nothing like earning, or not earning, but really, really wanting, and then it being provided. And so we see here, and we're going to see through the next couple of verses, that there's a whole lot of seeking going on. And the fact that it's in this bed, I think is kind of another thing that I want to land on here, is the word bed in Hebrew starts with a mem, and the second letter is a shin. Now, that combination is extremely powerful, because when you say Mashiach, you can hear a mem and a shin, right? In fact, when you say Moshe, which is Moses in Hebrew, again, you're hearing a mem and a shin. And so, you know, fascinatingly, I don't know if you ever thought about the connection between Mashiach and the idea of the anointing, and the idea of Moses being drawn out of the water, and all these things begin with that letter mem, and then they have a shin. And so interestingly, very interesting, so does your bed, okay?

Has this mem and then a shin. And so you can see the power of that, and the power of what happens, right? As we're going to build this house in order to prosper, we got to have a marriage bed, right?

Because otherwise, how are you going to have children? That's how that works. And so, you know, it's interesting, very interesting to me, that here we find, you know, as we're fixing to enter into this idea of prospering the house, and I think that you'll see that this bed is not the first time it's going to get mentioned in this chapter, but it starts out right here, right? As we enter into this idea of prospering and the marriage bed, and what an amazing thing if you think about, obviously, many of us have, you know, anticipated our marriage night, right? And what a beautiful, beautiful thing, nothing like picturing the wedding supper lamb, right?

And the prosper that's going to happen at that particular event. But, you know, every bride, you know, they wonder about that night, and here we are. They're still, at this point in time, in their relationship, in the Gimel section, or in the third chapter, you know, she's not got the one who her soul loveth. But then when you even think about that, you know, what a neat thing that she says, you know, I sought him whom my soul loveth. You know, it's a beautiful thing when you even think about that, obviously, as Solomon was writing those words, his soul did loveth Jesus.

I mean, and he got to see that in spite of some of the mistakes that Solomon made in his life. But here he understood what it's like to be without Jesus, because he found him not. And again, we're going to go on further in this, but I don't want anybody to miss the idea that in order to find, we first have to seek. In fact, the first place you find grace in the word, in the Bible, is there when Noah came, and it says that Noah found grace in God's eyes. Well, in order for Noah to find grace in God's eyes, he first had to be looking for it. And so, you know, the question is, as I was talking about the dream that I had here a couple episodes, and how I sought Jesus and didn't find him that night until I'd recited a whole bunch of the verses. In other words, the harder you have to look for something, the better it is when you find it. And you remember Jesus talked a few parables about that idea, that, man, when you really, really, really search, and then you find it, then there's a lot more value to what it is that you're looking for. And so, what anticipation we have as we go into this prospering of this relationship in the third chapter of the Song of Solomon.