Song of Solomon Chaper 4: Seeing The Church Through Jesus Eyes

Well, I wasn't terribly surprised this morning when God put me right back in the fourth chapter of the Song of Solomon, as I know we went through each of the verses, but clearly God still has some more stuff for me in that chapter, and so he had me revisit actually the beginning of the chapter, specifically the first verse. And so as we talked about yesterday that as the chapter ended, it ended in an I in verse, the 16th letter of the Hebrew alphabet, which has to do with the vision, the vision of, you know, having, you know, open the eyes of our heart, essentially, help us to see things as Jesus sees them, and specifically then what would Jesus like us to see in the fourth chapter, and clearly it starts out with an idea that also has to do with vision, because as you might remember, the first verse reads, right, Behold, thou art fair, my love, behold, thou art fair, thou has dove eyes, and thy hair appears behind thy locks as a flock of goats on Mount Gilead. So you know, as I thought more and more about this, it would appear that what God has in the fourth chapter is trying to help us to see a vision of the beauty of the church, and he repeats it twice, because it's not, it's just one thing to know something with your head, but it's quite something different to know it with your heart. So I wonder how many of us really think we're beautiful, right? I mean, you look in the mirror, or you think about how much you weigh, or you know, what your teeth look like, or whatever the situation may be.

If you ever see my teeth, you'd know why that's an issue. You know, I don't get the picture that I'm beautiful, but it would appear that Jesus considers that we are, and it's very important from his perspective that our hearts see that, and also that we get a vision that would be his eyes on how beautiful the church is, especially when it reflects him, and we are in a passionate state of the relationship, right? That we are very close to each other, that we are practicing the statutes for which we are studying this whole verse, this whole book, as, you know, the idea as we went into this is all through the 119th Psalm, you know, David cried out, teach me thy statutes, and our lips will utter praise when thou has taught me thy statutes. So, you know, I surmise that the Song of Solomon has something to do with statutes based on the idea of our union, and so that's what we're working on, and apparently a part of that is this fourth chapter where we are to catch this vision of how beautiful we are, and I had missed something clearly in this first verse that I wanted to share today, briefly, about the flock of goats that appear on Mount Gilead. We had talked about the first time we passed through this verse that clearly Gilead is Jesus, okay? And I'll explain again how that is, but it's a beautiful thing in Jeremiah 8.22 where, you know, so many of us when we are praying, we're always asking God why, and I fall into this category, why is this happening with my daughter?

Why am I going through this? Why is that? Why is that? And so Jeremiah 8.22 is an amazing verse where Jesus kind of, or God, kind of turns the table on us and asks this question, which is a famous question when you think about it, is there no balm in Gilead? In other words, why aren't you going to the doctor?

You know, why didn't you go see the physician? You know, my daughter is hurting, and is there no balm in Gilead? And so as we think about this idea here of is there no balm in Gilead? And the idea that our house, that our hair appears behind this veil as a flock of goats on Mount Gilead, you know, is this amazing thing the more I've thought about it. And actually Michael Carbone, who's our CEO, pointed this out to me as we were talking about it, that your hair covers your head. It is kind of the crown of your head, and to some extent in a woman, you know, it's kind of her cover.

And certainly a lot of people consider beauty has to do with hair. And so what could be more beautiful than the balm of Gilead? I mean, for our hair to look like or reflect Jesus.

In other words, his blood is our cover. And so as you think about your hair coming down and is your cover, that like, okay, just to begin with, you know, Jesus has us covered, behold, thou art fair, right? We're trying to get that picture that we are beautiful, and we can somehow or another make that transition between just knowing that with our heads and understanding it with our hearts. And how important is it that we get these eyes to see the beauty when we see it, especially because so many people in the church are so discouraged, right?

And so we can certainly reflect Christ when we have that believer, whoever it may be, and we go, behold, thou art fair, you know, behold, thou art fair. And I've told this story before in the 119th Psalm, but I'll tear it again because I've never forgotten it. You know, I taught high school Sunday school class years before. I taught special needs.

And this one time God just put it on my heart to do what was called mutual admiration society. And the way that worked was that I had each student, like, put a sign on their back. It had bright red ribbon, actually, or it was wool. It was a yarn thing that held the sign on their back and each student, and if you can imagine, these were high school seniors at the time, each had a pen and they were to write on the back of their fellow student how they felt like they reflected Christ. And although my little kids at the time saw me with all these red yarns thinking, daddy, there's no way these high school kids are going to do this, as I explained it to them. But when I explained it to the high school kids on the contrary, oh my goodness, did they engage in this as they went around the room once I, you know, everybody had their sign on and everybody had their pen and everybody went right to one person and wrote, wrote, wrote, and then they went to another and this went on for the entire Sunday school hour they were writing and they didn't want to stop writing as the time came to a close. And then, oh my, as each person was able to turn that piece of paper around and see what the other people had written about them, right? And so very, very cool part of that story is that two or three years later we had a reunion with that Sunday school class after they'd all gone into college and they were two or three years in the college and, and most of the students came to this reunion and it was a pretty good class, you know, size class, 2030 students, something like that. And they were all there at the reunion. And so, you know, we had five or six teachers and who knows how many lessons because we'd had those kids for two years we taught, but somebody said, you know, of all the Sunday school lessons, you know, that you were taught, which one do you remember the most or which one had the most impact on you? Right. And the first child, you know, they raised their hand and they said, well, you know, that one that Robbie did where we all wrote on each other's backs about how we reflect Christ, she said, you know, I still have that, that sheet that I had on my back is a precious remembering and I keep it with me.

You know, it's always in my dresser drawer. And then one by one, the students all confess that they had kept those sheets with the point being that, oh my goodness, do we need to know how beautiful we are. Boy, do we need to know how we reflect Christ.

Right. And so, you know, since everybody can't go read the Song of Solomon all day long, every day, you know, it's kind of our opportunity to be the mutual admiration society for the church. And so when you see somebody reflect Jesus, maybe you got a pen, you can write it on their back, but it would be nice if you told them or put it in writing as something that they might have, because it is so important, apparently, that we get this vision that Jesus is trying to share with us, that he sees his church as absolutely beautiful. Satan tries to tear that away, but behold, thou art fair, my love. Behold, thou art fair, thou has eyes, and thy hair appears like a flock of goats on Mount Gilead.