So, today we get into the sixth verse of the fifth chapter of the Song of Solomon, and Matthew Henry says it's the saddest of the verses in the entire book, and I would tend to agree that it's a tough one to think about and look at, but nonetheless, we get to, and it being the sixth verse, is aptly the vav verse, which has to do with continuing.
And so, we know now that as of yesterday, you're right, she had myrrh on the handles of the lock, and it says here in verse six in English, I opened to my beloved, but my beloved had withdrawn himself and was gone. My soul failed when he spake. I sought him, but I could not find him.
I called him, but he gave me no answer. And so, you know, that's a pretty tough thing when you miss his call, and you can't help but see it as tough love, right? That Jesus is trying to show his beloved the importance of responding, you know, when the time is right, and when he shows up, he means to have this opportunity that, you know, you don't want to be without him, and she finds herself that, and interestingly, uses the exact language that was used there in the third chapter when she sought him in her bed.
You're right, remember, I sought him, but I found him not. Same exact language, but the big difference here is what she says here. She says she opened to her beloved and he'd withdrawn himself, he was gone, and I love the way that that being gone is written out. Like, I cried with my whole heart in the back in the kuff section.
When you put a kuff that we talked about yesterday, it's a second letter in the word statutes or hukum. There's a het and a kuff, and that kuff has to do with proximity, and when you put the huff at—excuse me, when you put the kuff—I always get those mixed up—when you put the kuff at the end of a word, it's saying that it's distant, and that's exactly what the situation is when it says that he had withdrawn himself, that he was far away, and that idea of the kuff now that was very close and ready for intimacy now is withdrawn and it's gone, it's gone. And then she, you know, she immediately says, my soul failed when he spake. And therein lies this—from my standpoint, she's giving us some really beautiful information because she's talking about her nafesh, right, which in Hebrew, that idea of the nafesh is a believing machine. It's where we have our faith, it's where we have our faith. And so what she's saying is that, you know, in the moment of truth, that when he spake, my faith, I didn't have enough faith to get up and answer the door right that very second.
And in other words, my soul, my believer, has failed. And because of that, you know, he went away, but the interesting thing is that she says, I sought him, but I could not find him. I called him, which, interesting, also starts with a kuff, meaning that she's calling out for that intimacy, she's seeking him for that intimacy, and there's the beauty of the verse from my standpoint, is in spite of the fact that he has disappeared, she is still now in a level of faith, right? She wouldn't be looking for him if she didn't believe she could find him. She wouldn't be calling for him if she didn't want to find him. In other words, seeking is exactly what she should be doing right this minute, and she is doing it. And clearly, you know, Jesus has her there, exactly where she was, again, in the third chapter, seeking Jesus. Well, the cool thing about this is the letter of means to continue on, to continue on.
And there it is. What she's going to do is continue on in her faith. In spite of the fact that the moment of truth, her fail was, her lamp was a bit out or she'd run out of oil, but she apparently now has mustered up some new oil and she's out there looking for her beloved. And I can't help but see the relationship to Luke chapter 15, where the parables that Jesus talks about, about lost things, right? There was a lost coin and there was a lost sheep and eventually a lost son. And in each case, right, the person had to have great faith. The father that was waiting on the prodigal had great faith.
The lady that was sweeping out the house looking for the coin and of course the shepherd looking for the lost sheep. All those things had to believe that they really could find them. And I think Jesus is talking about faith here when he's talking about these parables, that one of the beautiful, amazing things about our souls is they just long to believe something. If they'll just believe, we can find him, you know, that he is worth the wait. There's much to talk about in that and there's a deeper story that we'll get into as we get into these coming verses. But as far as today is concerned, you know, I don't know if you've had many days like this where you went searching for Jesus and you couldn't find him and you knew that it wasn't him that moved, it was you and you knew it was your soul that isn't believing.
In other words, it's a matter of, you know, that belief that we're going to find him. And so to illustrate this, it's going to seem like a strange illustration, but it makes perfect sense to me, that I went actually dove hunting on Saturday. It was opening seasons and one of those things I absolutely love to do, and I hope that doesn't offend you, but you know, when we were shooting doves, there's a lot to do with faith, believe me, if you think you're going to hit them because they fly extremely fast. I took 75 shots, I might have shot in two birds or three, but two of those birds landed in the cornfield or one of them I didn't see fall in the cornfield, but my friend told me at fall that it looked to me like it was just going lower. And so I spent maybe a half an hour, 30 minutes in the cornfield, no, 20 minutes in the cornfield, whatever it was, it seemed like an eternity.
But I remember looking and I just didn't have much faith. I just don't think the birds in here and I started to get actually claustrophobic in that cornfield and because I didn't have enough faith that I was going to find the bird, I ran out of there eventually, you know, without a bird. But the interesting thing is, you know, later, you know, a few hours later I shot another bird and I saw this one fall in the way it fell in the cornfield. There was no doubt in my mind that that bird was in the cornfield. Now, when I went looking the second time, it was a matter of faith.
I knew that bird was down and I knew I could find it. It was a matter of faith. So, you know, as we go looking for Jesus, and I did find it and I'm not surprised I did because I believed I was going to find it. And therein lies the idea of what we're doing here is when you go looking for Jesus, right, are you going to find him? Do you believe that? You know, that when we pray, are we praying in belief?
When we're calling out, are we calling out in belief? And there's no doubt in my mind based on the Beloved's actions here that when she went out, and we're going to find out she goes out into the city again, that she had faith that she was going to find him and you're going to see later, you know, all that transpires in that. But it's helpful to know that if we will just keep on keeping on, it's a matter of faith. Do we believe? Yes, we can still connect with him. Yes, we can still find with him. Yes, we can still get close with him. And yes, you know, if we can have that faith, if we truly believe, you know, to me, therein lies the opportunity to have the intimacy that we're talking about in these statutes where you have a het, as we've talked about, which is this union in complete closeness, in holiness, which is that kuf, and that idea of the statutes, what we've been seeking after, as we are studying this Song of Solomon from the standpoint of trying to understand what are those statutes that our lips will utter praise when we've learned thy statutes. Thanks for listening.
Whisper: medium.en / 2023-02-28 19:18:18 / 2023-02-28 19:22:10 / 4
