Song of Solomon 8:13 Lovers Express Themselves

This is the Truth Network. Hidden Treasures of the Song of Songs, which is Solomon's. As we are coming in for a landing on the Song of Solomon, we're in the last chapter, the last couple verses. And this particular verse, the 13th verse, would be the Mem verse, which is related to the Messiah in so many ways. And this verse, honestly, it got in my heart many, many years ago, and I've reflected on it for years because it tells us something very important, because these are the last words that Jesus or the groom was going to say to his bride before the end of the book. And last words are very important, and these often ring in my ear because it means so much. But honestly, as I was studying it today, I saw something I hadn't seen before, so how excited we're going to get to talk about that.

So I'm going to read it in English. It says, Thou that dwellest in the gardens. Again, this is Jesus speaking, or Solomon. Thou that dwellest in the gardens, thy companions hearken to thy voice.

Cause me to hear it. So, you know, I've reflected many, many times that Jesus definitely wants to hear our voice, and I can't help but know that there in John chapter 15, which is very much related to this passage where, you know, he is divine and we are the branches, the whole thing, talking about the vineyard the whole time, you might know that, right, as you come into a landing on that, he says, you know, if you ask for anything in my name, you know, it'll be given to you. In other words, he's asking once again to hear from us. And so Matthew and Henry makes comments of that as well, that's very much related to this. But I think it's special to know that how dear our voice is to Jesus. But the other thing that is just marvelous to me, that stuck out to me as I was studying it today, is the fact that it says, thy companions, or thy companions, which is a very intimate word, like your band of brothers, they listen to your voice. It says, they hearken to your voice.

And when you think about it, throughout the whole book we've been studying, these daughters of Jerusalem, we've been conversing back and forth with, we're very much listening to the Shulamite and very much, you know, this is the worshippers, this is the church, and the church wants to hear your voice. They want to hearken to your voice as well as Jesus wants to hear your voice. And that's hard for us to take because, you know, I reflect back to when I, when Jesus called me to the Christian Car Guys show, and the very first thing I told him was, like, Jesus, have you heard my voice? I mean, I don't have a good voice. It's not something that should be on the radio, which is hilarious now that I've been doing this for so long. Then so many people tell me, oh, you have a voice for radio. I always laugh when I hear that because I'm like, no, I never thought that about my own voice.

And it's fascinating to me that we all have a tendency, as my friend Sam says, to hide our talents, you know, that we don't think that what we have to say is necessarily important, nor do we think that our voice even sounds good. However, it's quite obvious from this verse that Jesus considers not only do our companions want to hear from us, but he wants to hear from us. And so as you go out there and express yourself, because I love the way that that says cause me to hear it, is the word Shema, which you may know in Hebrew, you know, the Shema is this, you know, Hear, O Israel, the Lord is one. You know, the idea is that we're supposed to hear God, but here, he's asking to hear us.

He's got his own Shema going on here. And the way it says cause to me to hear it, there's a hey there. And that letter hey says, it's saying to express yourself, express your feelings to me. I want to be intimate with you. I want you to be intimate with your companions. And as we get real with people, as we get real with Jesus, right, then we touch heaven.

I mean, what we see this at bootcamp time and time again, that as the guys get real with their real requests, I mean, the real situation that's going on in their family or the real situations of sin that they can't get ahold of, or whatever it is that you got in your life, you know, when you get real with it and you get intimate and you lay it out there and truly express what's going on, what you really, really want, you know, what's really going on in your heart, then, oh, it makes such a difference in your relationships with other people, with your wife, with your children. But most of all, of course, to Jesus. And so I love, love, love the way that this comes in for a landing, these last words of Jesus in this is telling us, express yourself.

You have this amazing voice. God gave it to you. That's what makes you unique from the animals, right? I mean, they can bark or whatever they might be able to do to communicate, but they don't have the voice of the beloved.

They don't have that which you have and the heart that goes behind it in order to express that that's the way that you are made in God's image to have that heart and express it. So, you know, I'm so grateful that I had a chance to express myself throughout these many verses. And I marvel at how much I have delighted in this as I'm coming into the last two days of my word for the year, which has been delight. And to say that I have delighted in this podcast, you know, as I was doing the very thing that this verse says, I was expressing myself both to Jesus and to you. And so for that, I am so grateful for you listening because, you know, it just gives me a chance to fulfill what I think this verse teaches. Thank you so much for listening.