Song of Solomon 7:4a The Fence of Lillies Leads To Ivory Towers

This is the Truth Network. Hidden treasures of the Song of Songs, which is Solomon's. Oh, the nuggets we get to dig around in today in the Song of Solomon, chapter seven, verse four, with the fourth verse usually being the Dalit verse, which has to do with that servant. And we've talked about it many times, again, from the 119 Psalm, what the verses of the Dalit would indicate. And so here we have, we're just going to take the very first part of this verse in English.

And it says, thy neck is as a tower of ivory. So it's hilarious to me. It is if you just take ivory tower and Google that. And they'll tell you the history of it from their point of view, which is funny.

It's absolutely hilarious. They say that Victor Hugo came up with that, which, you know, he lived in the, I think, in the 18th or 19th century. He wrote Le Miserable. But he was also an amazing Christian, and he used all sorts of Christian imagery in what he wrote. So it's absolutely hilarious that, you know, they didn't happen to note that this was in the Bible, the whole idea of an ivory tower. And then what they talked about that ivory tower was that the ivory tower was somebody that lived such a high and mighty life that they were so clean and white that they wouldn't go to get down and get their hands dirty.

And so I think we're going to dispel what Victor Hugo thought of that. And I think we're going to certainly dispel that whole concept of what many of you may think of as an ivory tower. And hopefully at the end of this, you're going to really appreciate an ivory tower, because as I thought about it, we talked about a couple of episodes ago, that fence of lilies and that fence of lilies of worship that, you know, as we worship, we get to this place where we don't do bad stuff because we're just so enthralled with being around God.

We don't want to do anything to mess up that relationship. And so, you know, what I'm saying is here is that to my standpoint, that no doubt that that chain, that that fence of lilies leads to an ivory tower. It really does because as you get clean and white, then you get this unbelievable sense of what's going on. And also, if you think about what this says, neck here, we'll just start with that word. And that neck is the back of your neck. It's not your throat, which is completely different, because the back of your neck is what controls the tilt of your head. Okay, it just does. And, you know, when your head is looking up, right? And in fact, I've come up with this new saying that goes with this verse. If you look to the ground, you are going down. If you look to the sky, it's the only way to fly. And it's got a lot to do with that so that, you know, if we're looking down in shame, if you think about it, then what that does is it literally constricts your throat so that you cannot swallow anything.

All right. And that may not seem significant, but as we go through this, I think you'll see it's more and more significant. And so when you hold your head up, you're able to eat and drink.

And so the idea, you may have heard me teach on this before. I love the idea that Pharaoh, that word Pharaoh has to do with constriction. And allowing people, you know, let my people go is what Pharaoh said, right? Or what Moses said to Pharaoh because he was constricting them.

He was controlling them. Well, as you put your head down, you constrict your throat, okay? And when your head is down in shame, unfortunately, it's hard to swallow anything about God, okay? To use all that idea if your head is down, right? Then you're going down. You know, it's just, it's head towards the ground, you're going down.

That's what I've been thinking here today. So as you lift your head, then interestingly, you're able to swallow of faith. And when you look at the word throat, you can see that it's this great ability to take on faith. And so this is interestingly a really beautiful image of the back of our neck controls the tilt of our head, right?

And when you think about the letter Zadok, which begins the word neck, it does have to do with righteousness. And if your head is right, then you're holding your head up because you're a son. And we talked about this, I think, a couple of episodes ago where, you know, to be conformed into the image of the father, he puts his hand on your head in the blessing, right? And so you're pushing your head up into his hand in order to conform.

Well, you do that by straightening out your neck, right? And you're pushing up into the father. And the idea of that is it also at the same time clears your throat so that you are not restricting those thoughts because you may have heard that the biggest distance in the world is between your head and your heart. And what's between that is your throat, which is kind of like your pharaoh, and you need it to let my people go. All those faith things need to get down into your heart, past your head and down into your heart. And through that, it needs to come through your neck.

It's kind of a neat thing. And when you look at the letter Lamed, you get this picture of this head that is pushing up into the father to be conformed. And these light beams that we receive from the father come down through our throat.

You see, it's all a picture of that. And then when it says a tower, that word tower there is also spectacular because it also means a pulpit, okay? And, you know, your neck is a pulpit for your head, but it's more than that. It's an ivory pulpit, okay? And ivory really just means tooth, okay?

Tooth are a couple of things. Number one, they're white, right? So much of the imagery of the Song of Solomon, it's white everywhere you go. And so that idea that we live in an ivory tower that's all white and clean, that's a good thing.

That's a good thing. It keeps our heads up. And then also the idea of teeth is that that's how we, right?

They're washed with milk. They're chewing on the word of God. And in doing so, right, they're bright and shiny. It's your neck is essentially a pulpit for those teeth, right? Which are chewing this word of God so that people can see that smile.

So those beautiful white teeth, because they know how they got that way, right? If they're around you long enough, your chances are you're going to bring up the Bible. You're going to bring up Jesus.

You're going to bring up His word, right? And so this idea of your neck being a pulpit for these white, bright teeth is really a cool image for me. And so I find it wonderful that as you get excited about the word of God, however that works in your life, that you learn something and then you just got to go share it like I'm doing right this minute. And so when I do that, you know, obviously Jesus is noticing it, but people know you as the guy, the go-to person, you know, in this circumstance to, you know, gee, how could we understand this passage or, or Robbie?

You know what? If they're, if they're disciples, but if they're not, they still are coming to you. They seem, they see the wisdom, they see the joy, right? And so I actually go back to the very beginning in the, in chapter one. It's interesting that this is connected in a, in a different way, because after she asked him, you're right, you might remember, she says, I'm black, but come Leo, your daughter's a Jerusalem, right? And then she says, you know, how do I, you know, feed my sheep where you lay them down at noon? And then he says, you know, you know, make go thy way forth by the footsteps of the flock and feed thy kids beside the shepherd tents. You know, that's the verse, but the very next thing that happens, he says that the company of Pharaoh's horses and chariots, I silence thee.

Okay. And here's this idea of Pharaoh trying to restrict your throat. Well, what's the very next thing he says? He says, I'm going to make you, he says, how beautiful is your cheek with Rose and your neck with chains. And here again, he's talking about the angle of your neck as you go up, you know, and you go down with your neck, then it creates these lines that look like chains. And the idea of this neck that would look up to God and this idea of these cheeks that would be smiling because of the joy.

Right. And that's why he's going to make you, you know, borders of gold and studs of silver. That's the idea is he's going to adorn that smile you have.

He's going to adorn the fact that your neck is looking up and then looking for somebody to share that information with, you know, however that works. It's a beautiful thing that this all connects back together as we, you know, look up to him. Right. Then we can open our throats, receive the light that we can then swallow down into our hearts as we grow in our faith. We share that and we become a light for others and literally an ivory tower.

Okay. But this ivory tower, as you may know, maybe you've heard the story of the poor janitor. There was a Chinese guy was under and I've, I've written this, I read, I read the story years and years and years ago. But anyway, he, he was under persecution for sharing the gospel and they put him in this horrible cell. And then they had these horrible latrines within that cell where everybody is the bathroom. And because of who he was, they made him clean that every single day. And you can imagine the stench and all that was involved. However, everybody in the place knew that he was the happiest guy in the jail. And he was always singing in there and having the best time while he was down there getting his hands dirty. You would think he was in the ivory tower. And therein is the picture to me of what this verse is saying, right? Because of his right fence of lilies. Then, then he had an ivory tower that he lived in, in spite of his circumstances. And therein is absolutely the beauty of the ivory tower for me. Thanks for listening.