Song of Solomon 7:7 The Church Is An Oasis Standing Tall & Fruitfull In The Wilderness

This is the Truth Network. Hidden Treasures of the Song of Songs, which is Solomon's. How fun! Back from boot camp and excited to get going on the seventh verse, on the seventh chapter, which is a whopper in so many different ways. You know, the whole idea of sevens in the Bible are always special, and this is such a special verse. And it certainly sets up the miracle verse of the seventh chapter, which is beyond spectacular. But in order to get the eighth verse, you've got to get to the seventh verse. And this one in English reads this, thy stature is like to a palm tree, and thy breast to clusters.

And we'll leave it there. It says of grapes in the King James Version, but that of grapes was just added. And I think it's important to realize that he didn't put it there because I think the clusters, clearly that he was referring to, are clusters of dates, as this is a date palm that is described here.

And if you look at a date palm and you see the clusters that are on essentially dates, you'll see that that's the stature of a woman to some extent. And it's absolutely amazing, amazing, amazing when you think of what's actually being said here. And as always, you know, this whole theme in the Song of Solomon is Jesus, you know, encouraging our beauty, bringing out our glory, helping us to see us as he sees us, not with all the condemnation that the enemy sees us.

And so it's really, really important, I think, that we let these things sink in to what he's saying about his church. And he sees it as very, very, very fruitful, okay? And a palm tree, when he says stature, that has this idea of height to it, okay? So here's this very tall, you know, for those of you who are maybe not born with all that height, I'm 6'5", so I've always had that.

But you're standing tall and you're looking good. You know, there's the idea of his church is standing tall, that it's something to look up to because you're pushing up into the blessing of the Father and being made into, you know, his son. And so I love that idea of their statue is like a palm tree, a date palm, which is, you know, that thing in the oasis, you know, where you're going across the wilderness and all of a sudden you see this tall, beautiful—you can imagine if you're dying of hunger and thirst and all of a sudden here's this tree that stands out there and it's oh so fruitful. And there's the idea, right? All these people in the world are out in the desert and they're looking for the oasis and you see you're a sign of that because you're tall as the date palm and you're not only, you know, connected to the water, the living water, but then you have all this fruit that is hanging from your branches and of course it's absolutely very much like the beauty of a beautiful woman. And he's pointing this out in so many different ways that here it is. And the really neat thing, I think it's absolutely neat, is the word palm tree in Hebrew is tamar.

And if that name sounds familiar to you, you know, David's daughter was tamar that unfortunately, you know, was raped in that whole horrible story of King David's sons. But the idea of her beauty, you know, obviously totally, you know, got this young man. But the idea still is beauty that Jesus sees us as this amazing, you know, tree that is out there as an oasis, right? That is showing that it's both fruitful, got plenty of dates on it.

It's not like the fig tree that had no fruit, right? This has got clusters. And, you know, what I would urge anybody to do, and I'm going to put it in my show notes, is look at a picture of a date palm and look at the clusters that are involved in that. And so, you know, I just think that that's absolutely spectacular. And so as I, you know, have thought about this in so many different ways, you know, what does that look like for you? And actually I just got off the phone with my brother and, you know, they had come to this boot camp and had a chance because, you know, I was so high on what God had done for me at boot camp. And because of that boot camp, both he and his grandson had some miraculous experiences with God, connections that they really, really had, because they essentially came to the oasis because of what they saw in me.

Right? And so what a neat, neat thing that people see that you're standing tall and that you're looking good. And as a result, right, there's fruit there for them to eat.

And the idea that it's connected to breasts is clearly the milk of the word, right? It's clearly this idea of, as we feed on the Word of God, as we do what disciples do and learn and love to learn and love to wonder and go into that full hearted love with God and learning more like you're doing right this very minute, then, right, the fruit just appears more and more and as people are out there in the wilderness, right? And they see the oasis, right? They see these palm trees, right? And especially if you're like with a band of brothers, like I just came back from this boot camp and, you know, you got all these guys and it's a whole stand of palm trees covered in these dates.

And of course, if you're out in the wilderness, man, that looks like something that you want because not only, right, so many of us feel like we're doing this alone. Well, the palm trees in an oasis are not by themselves usually, right? It's not just a cluster of dates.

You know, it's a cluster of palm trees. And I can't help but note that throughout the Song of Solomon, you know, it's not only about the Shulamite, it's about the daughters of Jerusalem. It's about the daughters of Zion, right? And this is a community. And of course, if you're like me and just came back from boot camp and you saw the miraculous things and you saw the vulnerability of men who got real with God, maybe for the first time or at least got real in so many different ways with their prayers. And some of the things that I saw as God was taking these prayers and bringing light to things in men's lives that they've never seen before. Believe me, when I tell you, we are an oasis in the wilderness. And what a beautiful thing that we stand tall like the palm tree and we're covered with dates. Thanks for listening.