Song of Solomon 5:16C - The Fullness of Fun

So, it's kind of bittersweet for me again as this is our last episode in the 5th chapter of the Song of Solomon as we've spent three episodes on this last verse in English. It's the 16th verse and it is the ION verse which really we understand today. You'll see I think clearly with me why it's the ION verse and also why it's now my favorite verse. Oh, this verse blows me away. So, we've talked about it a lot. Let's talk about it some more.

So, again, we get to this last part. This is my beloved and this is my friend. And as I said, this has everything to do with the letter ION. And so, let me spend a little time on that letter for us because to me it is so such a magical letter because it is one of the key ingredients of the word friend, which interestingly and I would agree with Spurgeon that when it says that he's all together lovely, that's a burning altar from the throne of God himself.

Like, man, I mean that's something that is more than amazing, more than beautiful, but actually when you think about it from a personal standpoint, my favorite part of the verse is when it says he's my friend, and I'll explain why. Because the letter ION, you might know, looks like a Y if you were to see it, and it's meant to be like your two I's. And so, you have at the end of a Y, if you could picture that in your mind, there would be an I on each of the tops of that Y. Well, the interesting thing about that is you got two sites that you would see with your eyes if you're standing there looking at me right this minute, you would not see two Rabi's, you would see one Rabi because those two visions come together to form one vision. And therein is the wonder of the letter ION.

Is it how in the world did we take these two pictures that you see with your left eye and your right eye and your brain matches them together to create one vision? And the idea of the Y when you look at it is also that of a yoke and a servant, and it has everything to do with that letter ION. If you go look at the verses of the ION section of the 119 Psalm, you will see, you know, be merciful to my servant. We are thy servant. Throughout that section, you're going to see the idea that a servant is to have your vision.

Without a vision, the people perish. So, this idea of having the same vision or being yoked, which was very important in the Jewish civilization, that the Rabi's would yoke their students to them. And so when Jesus said, take my yoke, it's light and all that, that had a lot to do with that. But the word friend ends with the letter ION, in Hebrew, which is significant. And then the first letter in the word friend in Hebrew is a reish.

And if you go look at the 119 Psalm with the reish section, a reish has to do with the headwaters of something or the beginning of something or the head of something or to consider something. And the point is that Jesus is always considering who's going to be his friends. He picked them like before the time began. But the thing of it is, before you go be friends with somebody, you consider, is this person trustworthy? Is this somebody that it'd be fun to be around? You have all these decisions that you make that you decide to be friends with somebody. But once you do become friends with somebody, you begin to share the same vision.

It's just what happens with good friends. Well, if you look in Luke chapter 15 to me, when you really look at that, what Jesus is telling us there, he's like fulfilling the prophecy of what was said here in the fifth chapter. This is my beloved.

But then she ends this unbelievable verse with, this is my friend. In other words, Jesus chose me because I'm his favorite. He considered and he chose me to be his friend. Again, when you look in the 15th chapter of the book of John, you'll see I'm the vine and you're the branches, right? But remember all that he said, you know, no greater love does a man have than to lay down his life for who? His friend. And then Jesus says clearly, he couldn't say it more clearly. You didn't choose me, but I chose you.

Right? And he says, I no longer call you my servants, but my friends. And so that 15th chapter gives us an understanding of how important is it that Jesus thought and he considered and all those things to share his vision with us. Like what an amazing thing that the same person that we just spent 10 verse 10 ideas of describing from the hands of that hold the stars and the moon and the sky and the head of pure finest gold and the bushy locks and the, and the eyes that are washed in milk and all that ivory stomach and the sapphires and all these things that we've just described. And he's all together lovely in his countenance as excellent as the cedar and all these things that we described. Oh my goodness. All of that.

The person that owns all that, he considers you his friend. Like how spectacular is that? And so, you know, one of my favorite stories, for a long time has been, you know, when Jesus showed me on many occasions that he's right on my best friend, he just is. But anyway, I have a granddaughter by the name of Lila and Lila, um, loves to fish. And since she was a little bitty girl and I used to take her out by the pond, you know, that we lived in Poff town where we would go fishing for a little bluegills and things like that.

And she just loved it. Her mother loved to go fishing in Colorado. So when Lila was about eight years old, maybe nine, we took her out fishing in Colorado, which seemed like a great idea. But after two days of fishing with Lila, you know, she was eight years old and trout aren't like catching a bluegill. It takes some patience to catch a trout. And so unfortunately she wouldn't leave her line in the water long enough to really, you know, give the fish a chance to get on the, on the, on the lure. And so, you know, it's, it's, it's really cute when you hear them say, I got when I got when they go reeling in their line, even though they don't have one, that's cute.

Maybe the first 10 times it happens, but about the 450th time it's not secured. And so I had lost patience with my granddaughter. And when I did, you know, I looked at her and very harshly said, you know, Lila, you have got to leave your water, your lure and your, your bait in the water long enough for the trout to see it and try to bite it. You, you can't just keep reeling it in until you actually have one.

You'll feel it on the, on the end. And she looks at me very sternly and says, Papa, you have violated the first rule of fishing. Yes. I thought, you know, who's the only person who's ever taken Lila fishing in her whole life. That would be me. And if she has an understanding of the first rule of fishing, what in the world is the first rule of fishing? Is it just totally escaped me right at that moment.

And although I know I had to have taught it to her at some point in time, it escaped me. What is the first rule of fishing? And so I was like, Lila, okay, I'm sorry.

What is the first rule of fishing? And she looked at me again, sternly, and she goes, have fun. I went, Oh yeah, that's right. And I thought for a minute and I went, you know what, Lila, you could not be more right.

You could not be right. I am so sorry. I have in fact violated the first rule of fishing. I said, let's do this. Let's pray right now. I'm going to pray that God will give me more patience with you to teach you fishing and I'm a while we're at it. We're going to pray that you'll have more patience with the fish to leave your bait in the water long enough for a fish to get on it. And while we're at it, why don't we pray that God will let us catch some fish because she hadn't caught any fish for two days.

So, you know, I, we prayed, we did all that. It was a sweet moment. And then she cast her water line back in the water. And I turned to see my other, my daughter was down the stream and she had a snag and, and I was like, Oh man, I got to go fix that. And as I take two steps towards my daughter and not my granddaughter, all of a sudden, once again, I hear the familiar, I got one, I got one. And I turned and, and Lila did have one, a really nice trout. And she was just like, I got you, you little dickens. And she was, she was fighting that trout all over the river. And I'll never forget the scene. As long as I ever live that Jesus had clearly, right.

He's my friend. And he gave me this moment, right. With my granddaughter to see her, you know, catch that fish. Well, what happened was her probably next five or six casts in a row, she caught a fish on every single one until her mother came up and everybody started catching fish. And it was like what had been a, you know, a moment of stress and tension.

You know, God had turned into this unbelievable memory that will last all of us for the rest of our life. Always known as the first rule of fishing. Well, I add that to the first rule of podcasting, have fun.

Okay. Or the first rule of listening to podcasts is let's have fun. You know, like, Oh my gosh, Jesus is our friend. He is, and he wants us to see, right. The sun and the moon and the stars and the bellies and all he wants to see as he does every time we get a glimpse, man, it's, there's so much fun involved in that because he, he knows right that he's gonna, it says he's going to graze among the lilies and our praise, right? This, this is where the whole song of Solomon is. It's like, man, if we can be with him, we are going to be living the first rule of fishing. Okay. We are going to have fun because in his presence is fullness of fun.

I mean, that's right hander pleasures forevermore. Thanks for listening.