Song of Solomon 6:11 - The Fruit of Your Garden

This is the Truth Network. Hidden Treasures of the Song of Songs, which is Solomon's. All right, we get to do the hoof verse today, the 11th verse of the 6th chapter of the Song of Solomon.

And you might know the letter hoof is like a crown. It fits this verse in so many different ways. It also has to do with this very strong desire. And here we go. And this is a very mysterious verse, but we'll just read it to you in English and off we'll go. So it says, I went down into the garden of nuts to see the fruits of the valley and to see whether the vine flourished and the pomegranates butted. One of the big challenges about this verse that just jumps right out at you is, you know, who is talking here? And just to add to the confusion of that, in fact, there are commentaries I read that said these next two verses are some of the most perplexing in the whole book. But nonetheless, it's fun to me to just think about where God's going with these and what he has in mind for, you know, what wonders. And God loves to have things hidden. And so there's no doubt when it comes to these verses that they are. And it's really a perplexing thing to see who is the eye that went down into the gardens.

So here's the breakdown from the way that people look at it. First of all, Rashi or the ancient Hebrews is pretty hard to say. They don't come out and say that I saw directly who was saying it, although it seemed to be inferred that it was Solomon that was saying it. You know, Solomon from the standpoint of Jesus, it's the Messiah that's saying this. That's a little bit their point of view. But again, you can't really determine that.

They don't they don't draw the line and say this is who this is. Matthew Henry clearly thought it was clearly in the way he described it. He felt like it was Jesus speaking. OK. Interestingly, the New King James version and the ESV and the Amplified all say it is she that is speaking.

And then there is a beautiful commentary called not a commentary. It's a translation. It's a passion translation.

It's a rather new one that's out. And it has she is speaking, too. And I'm going to go down on that side of the issue.

I, for a lot of reasons, think it is she that is speaking, because, again, as we read in the future verses, the only way I can make sense out of it is, you know, later on, they're going to be asking, you know, come back, come back. Well, the reason why they're asking to come back is because he or she went down into the Garden of Nuts. You know, there's there's so much that could be said about that. And I love, you know, clearly a lot of the commentaries on what the nuts are.

So we're going to dive into that in a minute. But one of the things. Well, I think in order to to get to it, you know, one of the really perplexing things is the word that is translated here, nuts. OK, because that's the only place that this word is found in the Bible. And not only that, but if you look at the word, there's no words that are close to it or in association with it that would lead you to believe that these are nuts, except that obviously, you know, this is the way that has been translated for centuries, that this is nuts. And when you look at that from a standpoint of just the Hebrew letters, I can see where you would come to the conclusion that these are some type of seeds, but they would be female seeds.

Clearly, which, you know, when you think about the idea of seeds, they're usually female anyway. But the word nuts in Hebrew ends with a Zion, which is the seventh letter in the Hebrew alphabet. And when they talk about the Zion, it has it's above it's a male energy with a crown on the top of it. And that there you get to the hoof and that crown is this idea of on Shabbat, on their Sabbath day, it is the seventh day of the week. And it's very much associated with that, because on Sabbath, you may know that always the wife of the house will say, begin the Shabbat and say a wife of valor who can find right there.

She's going to go to Psalm. I mean, Proverbs 31. And it has a lot to do with the number seven and so much to do with seeds as it has to do with nuts.

And so it's really kind of cool when you think about. And this is more the reason I think it is she that is speaking is because these seeds are the church, so to speak. In other words, the sower went to sow the seeds, the nuts, you know, the sower in the parable of the sower is Jesus. But the seeds, you know, are clearly, you know, his faith that he's being sowed out there. And of course, if we're going down there to the grove of nuts or the garden, which has this idea of of great faith.

Right. That's the place where they walked originally with God is is what the garden kind of has to do with. So it's a beautiful thing that she goes down into this garden of nuts. And I love some of what the Jews teach on the nuts, that they're very hard shelled like a Jew, but they're sweet on the inside.

And they can take a lot of beating before they crack, you know, so to speak, or they can even be dropped in the mud and not be soiled. And like they could go into exile is what actually Rashi said. They could go into exile and still have that sweet inside for the Lord. And, you know, I believe that's true.

And it's certainly true of any Christian that I know that that that, you know, no matter what they go through, they're still sweet on the inside. And it has to do with that seven. Right. And when you think about seven and how big a deal that number is, that it's so beautiful that that word nuts ends with a Zion. It just is.

This is spectacular. And so, you know, she's gone down to the Garden of Nuts. And what is she doing? She's looking for fruit. Right.

And she's looking for a vine, which we could say that's Jesus. Right. It flourishes.

Right. And and obviously, you know, that would be the branches. And then she's looking for what pomegranates. And you might remember that when Jesus is describing his beloved, he said she's a paradise of pomegranates or an orchard of pomegranates, depending on how you want to translate that. But again, you know, the fact that she's going down to look at the pomegranates gives you this idea of, wow, she is very much gone to collect fruit. I mean, that's here's what's going on. I mean, she's gone to see the fruit of what what her life is about. But it would appear that it's like on Shabbat, like she's going down there to see what has resulted from what has been planted.

And it's absolutely spectacular. And I don't know if you've ever had a chance to see or just spend some time in a garden that you planted a garden of faith. Right. That that you just sit back at times.

Right. And maybe it's a church class that you've taught over the years or something along those lines. But I'll go back to a story I've told many times. But one that, you know, I think of is we had a party for Sunday school class that we had taught for two years. And then they had gone off to college and they'd graduated from college. And so we had sort of a reunion party. It was Christmas time. And as we were sitting around talking about all those years that we had a chance to be in the garden.

Right. To to to plant seeds of faith, which, by the way, I think it's amazing when I look at this particular garden. That there was a young lady there who used to drag her boyfriend in who was not a Christian at the time when he started attending the Sunday school class. But during the time he was there, he came to Christ. And today that gardener is one of the pastors at the church where we had that Sunday school class.

I mean, just absolutely spectacular to see the the the group, the faith in that young man grow in that particular garden. In fact, there were so many of those students that have grown in their faith and done all sorts of amazing different things. But nonetheless, that that particular party that we were sitting at, they asked, you know, what was the the of all the lessons that we taught?

You know, all the time we were in a class, which one was the most impactful for you? And they all had this paper that I had done this lesson. And the idea was that they were to write on the back of their fellow students who I hung this paper by a red, very, you know, a scarlet cord.

There was a scarlet cord around their necks that held this paper on their back. And the people that students during the class time would go right on their back how they thought this other person reflected Christ. Well, when you think about someone reflecting Christ, you know, that is the whole idea of the Zion. That's the really is when we reflect Christ in some way.

That is the letter Zion. So I think it's cool that they were writing on each other's backs how these people reflected Christ. And they, you know, as they commented, many of them still had, in fact, if I'm not mistaken, they all had that paper from that particular Sunday school class. I mean, that's how important it is when you receive endorsement or you receive validation on the way that you look like Jesus.

You know, we never hear that kind of thing. And so when you have it, you cherish it. And all those people still had that paper.

I mean, that's how precious all that was to them. And so what you can see there from my perspective is it was a garden. I had something to do with God.

God works that through me based on some things that I had seen in my life that people never hear enough about what they do good. But it was a chance for me to just go down into the garden and see how the vine was flourishing in other pomegranates. Right. Because every one of those seeds, you know, I love the parable of the sower. Right.

Because, you know, when they fell on good soil, what happened? Right. A hundred times more than what was sown. Well, think about that pomegranate, six hundred and thirteen. Right. And when we get to see what God does with really good soil, when he plants his seed in really good soil, which is, you know, his word, faith, however that works.

It all comes together to make this unbelievable pomegranates. Right. And so I am sure that if she was in this garden, she was also there with Christ, because, you know, that is is pretty much a precept. In other words, when you're in that garden that she's talking about there, she isn't by herself, I can assure you. She's walking with Jesus. OK. And she's getting to see all these things that are there.

But as far as who is speaking, I think it was her. I really do. But you can think about what who you think it is and and ponder the idea of this unbelievable, you know, garden of nuts. And so, you know, I also think that's comical because almost all the gardens I've ever been involved with, when you really get to know us, we're nuts. Right. In so many different ways, hard on the arts outside, but sweet on the inside. Thanks for listening.