LOVE IS A ROSE
LOVE IS A ROSE
Tuesday Morning Bible Study
February 12, 2019, the Year of Our Lord
Pastor Carolyn Rose Sissom
Song 2:1: I am truly his rose, the very theme of his song. I’m overshadowed by his love, growing in the valley!
Amanda McBroom, Song writer, wrote the lyrics to “The Rose.” It is a beautiful song which is (my persuasion) a metaphor of the Divine Love of Christ for His Bride as presented in the Song of Solomon:
The Rose
Some say love it is a river
That drowns the tender reed
Some say love it is a razor
That leaves your soul to bleed
Some say love it is a hunger
An endless aching need
I say love it is a flower
And you it's only seed
It's the heart afraid of breaking
That never learns to dance
It's the dream afraid of waking that never takes the chance
It's the one who won't be taken
Who cannot seem to give
And the soul afraid of dying that never learns to live
When the night has been too lonely
And the road has been too long
And you think that love is only
For the lucky and the strong
Just remember in the winter far beneath the bitter snows
Lies the seed
That with the sun's love
In the spring
Becomes the rose
Songwriters: AMANDA MCBROOM
The Hebrew reads “a rose of Sharon.” In chapter 2, the Shulamite (Bride of Christ) is beginning to realize how much her King loves her. The Song is a journey of the Bride from the Baptism of the Holy Spirit to the Throne Room (see Bible Study (2007) www.eastgateministries.com)
Love, is too wide, too deep and too high for our language to express. Love “passes knowledge.”
Eph 3:19: And to know the love of Christ, which passes knowledge, that you might be filled with all the fullness or God.
Love is a supernatural power that is impossible to describe within the language of man because the love of Christ passes knowledge. There is the carnal love of an unsanctified soul which can be very painful. Through the love of Jesus Christ, the love of God with all the fullness of God is offered to us. The Love of God is a pain free zone.
Paul describes the indescribable in Eph. 3: 16-20: Passion Translation:
By constantly using your faith, the life of Christ will be released deep inside you, and the resting place of his love will become the very source and root of your life, providing you with a secure foundation that grows and grows. As your spiritual strength increases, you will be empowered to discover what every holy one experiences---the great magnitude of the astonishing love of Christ in all its dimensions. How deeply intimate and far reaching is his love! How enduring and inclusive it is! Endless love beyond measurement that transcends our understanding---this extravagant love pours into you until you are filled to overflowing with the fullness of God!
Song 6:3: “I am my beloveds and my beloved is mine”.
The divine poem tells the story of divine romance in our journey with Christ Jesus as our Bridegroom-King. It speaks of the journey every longing lover of Jesus will find as his or her very own. The symbol of the bride (Christians) pursuing and being given to the Bridegroom-King (Jesus) represents the community of brides, the church. For the beautiful bride overflowing with her Lover’s life is to be given to others, even as Jesus was given to us by the Father. She has become a feast for the nations, wine to cheer the hearts of others. The “city” is a picture of the local church, a place with government, order, and overseers. The King’s “vineyard” is also a picture of the church, the called-lout multitude of those who follow Jesus.
As we mature in love with Christ and in his love with us, we are able to love others unhindered by the immaturity of our issues, insecurities, feelings and expectations.
“In Song - Chapter 1, right at the start it is made clear to us that the foundation of the relationship is built on mutual attraction… If this is all the relationship is to have as a foundation, then what will happen when the thrill has faded? A true relationship of lasting love cannot be built upon physical thrills and feelings.” (Lynn Gitchel)
However, if the Lord brings two people together, the bride and groom are charged with the physical energy of nuclear fusion released when two hearts joined by their creator join in a life-long bond.
This nuclear fusion is a supernatural power; though not equal to the power of being Born Again and filled with the Holy Spirit; it is none-the-less a tangible power-force.
Song 1:4 “Draw me we will run after you; the king has brought me into his chambers: we will be glad and rejoice in you, we will remember your love more than wine; the upright love you.”
Passion Translation – Song 1:4: Draw me into your heart and lead me out. We will run away together into your cloud-filled chamber. We will remember your love as we laugh and rejoice in you, celebrating your every kiss is better than wine. No wonder righteousness adores you!
The bride is crying out to draw closer to him. “Many people are lonely and crying out for earthly love to fill the emptiness within them”. Loneliness is a spirit. “Many believers have wandered from church to church, from relationship to relationship, looking for something that they really can’t describe. Many of them do not know what they are looking for.
For Divine love surpasses knowledge.
Some try to fill their loneliness with multiple relationships.
“Most times people interpret this loneliness as the result of the way their “brethren” in the churches (their mother’s sons – (vs. 6) have treated them. They have wandered from church to church. The sun of hard knocks has blistered and bronzed their skin, until they feel that they have taken a little more than normal from their “brethren”.
Following on the heart-cry of the bride to “draw me in your footsteps,” the bridegroom begins to answer that prayer and draws her into a closer communion with himself. This always causes a division between those who desire his nearness and those who want to stay as they are. The cause of the loneliness is not the way others treat you; it is the fact that the king is bringing you into his chambers and has begun a separating process in your life. He is drawing you and you are responding. He is separating you to be his alone.” (L.G.)
Song 1:7: (Jerusalem Bible) Tell me then, you whom my heart loves; where will you lead your flock to graze, where will you rest it at noon? That I may no more wander like a vagabond beside the flocks of your companions.
Passion Translation: Won’t you tell me, Lover of my soul, where do you feed your flock? Where do you lead your beloved ones to rest in the heat of the day? For I wish to be wrapped all around you, as I go among the flocks of your under shepherds. It is you I long for, with no veil between us!
“Much good teaching is going out today, and in many places there is a good, clear trumpet call to raise the cold and complacent believers into the army of the Lord. We must not forsake the gathering together, but to find the depth of a walk with and in the Lord himself, we have to see him alone, individually and by ourselves. “Draw me in your footsteps” will need to be the heart cry in our lips.
Song n1:8: Listen, my radiant one---if you ever lose sight of me, just follow in my footsteps where I lead my lovers
Song 1:14: “My beloved is to me as a cluster of camphire in the vineyards of Engedi”.
The Hebrew word for camphire means “price of a life, ransom, covering”.
P.T. He is like a bouquet of henna blossoms---henna plucked near the vines of the fountain of the Lamb.
By Chapter 2, some changes have taken place in the Bride. “Up until now, she has been concerned with what her beloved could do for her. Now we see a growth in her vision of him that allows her to see him for himself, not so much because of anything he has done for her.
The relationship has a long way to go and we shall see it grow to perfection by the end, but we do at least see progress. Looking out over the mountains, she sees her beloved coming, and sees him not as someone coming to do some good thing for her, but as the one she loves coming, eagerly to meet with her.” (L.G.)
Song 2:8: “”The voice of my beloved, I behold he comes leaping upon the mountains skipping upon the hills.”
“The picture of a young stag leaping eagerly across the mountains shows he wants to be with her. It has never been any difficulty for us to realize that we desire the joy of the presence of the Lord, but when it finally dawns on our realization that he actually desires to be with us then we are growing in our perception of what this relationship is all about. In any love relationship there is a mutuality of desire, each desiring the company of the other. This relationship is no less. He desires our company as much as we desire his. Since his love is greater, then He desires personal time even more than we do.” Our human nature is selfish. We are just as selfish with our time as we can be with tangible things.
Song 3: 2-4: I will rise and go through the City; in the streets and the square I will seek him whom my heart loves…I sought but did not find him. The watchman came upon me on their rounds in the City, “have you see him whom my heart loves? Scarcely had I passed them that I found him whom my heart loves. I held him fast, nor would I let him go…
P.T.: Vs.4: I found the one I adore! I caught him and fastened myself to him, refusing to be feeble in my heart again. Now I’ll bring him back to the temple within where I was given new birth---into my innermost parts, the place of my conceiving
The Bride cannot fill the void of her loneliness and emptiness by running through the City, even among the fellowship of believers. In them there is fellowship, but Jesus is found in solitude. Neither will you find him by pursuing a strict way of life that conforms to a rigid set of rules. Neither will he be found “where the merchants sell their wares,”
This is not to say there is much we can receive to help us mature and grow from others experiences and revelations. As ministers of the gospel, we are called to teach, preach, and equip the saints for works of the ministry.
However, the watchmen---God’s ministers---did not have the answer for her loneliness and emptiness. This can only come through continually seeking him, pursuing him and desiring him above all else, that he was found by her. When she found him, she held him and would not let him go.
This does not mean that we have to have a ritual of set time for prayer, bible study and quiet time. It means that we are continually in fellowship with the Lord and we voluntarily join him in prayer and Bible Study. If you had to dutifully join your husband in fellowship because of obligation, it would not be joyful to him or for you.
Song 4:1: “How beautiful you are, my love, how beautiful you are!” (Jerusalem Bible)
‘One thing we never seem to be able to grasp is that the Lord loves us and is pleased with us! Our spirit, which is the part of us that makes contact with God is of the same substance (Spirit) as its Creator and so is therefore untainted by this world system. The redemption of our soul and body is, of course, in progress, but God deals with us in our spirit to bring this about. The spirit part of man is birthed by God, and because this is the case, has no spot in it at all.”
This is why we are not to judge one another and there is no condemnation for those who are led by the Spirit of God.
When we learn to think in terms of our spiritual life, and not humanity, we learn that Jesus is totally pleased by what we are because we are his to love and to respond to. He does indeed take pleasure in his people, and not only that but he takes pleasure in you and me. To him in this growing love relationship, we are “wholly beautiful” and “without blemish”.
When we really “know” this, we can enter into the realm of Divine Love. Once we grasp that “Love”, our spirits will burst within us with joy unspeakable and full of glory, the half which has never yet been told.
Song 4:15: “A fountain of gardens, a well of living waters, and streams from Lebanon.”
Passion Translation 4:15-5:1: Your life flows into mine, pure as a garden spring. A well of living water springs up from within you, like a mountain brook flowing into my heart! Then may your awakening breath blow upon my life until I am fully yours. Breathe upon me with your Spirit wind. Stir up the sweet spice of your life within me. Spare nothing as you make me your fruitful garden. Hold nothing back until I release your fragrance. Come walk with me as you walked with Adam in your paradise garden. Come taste the fruits of your life in me.
“When Jesus talked to the little woman beside the well in Samaria, Jesus said to her, “Give me to drink.” The woman replied, “How is that you, being a Jew, ask drink from me, a woman of Samaria?” The Jews had no dealings with the Samaritans because they were not of Jewish descent. Back when the Jews were taken into captivity from that area, the captors had filled the area with foreigners. The foreigners had been taught by Jewish priest about God, but they were not Jews.
Jesus answered the woman, “If you only knew who it is talking to you, you would have asked him to give you a drink, and he would have given you living water” (John 4: 7-10).
Jesus uses almost the same words as the verses in the Song of Solomon when he says he would have given her living water.
“Living water” is spring water, fresh and pure as it springs from the source. God is the source of all love and he it is who puts that longing within our hearts for him.
A “garden enclosed” is the setting for this “living water” that flows from him to the bride and then is found springing up, back to the source, in a love relationship with him.
Jesus promised that the water he would supply would be a well of water springing up into everlasting life---the word “well” is actually “fountain”. He gives that living water to us, deep inside our hearts. It creates a deep longing, a desire for the Lord. We then seek him and grow into a deep love relationship with him which brings joy to his own heart.”
6:3: “I am my beloveds and my beloved is mine…”
“Earlier in the song, 2:16, she said, “My beloved is mine and I am his.” She was putting herself first, whereas now she turns it the other way around and puts him first as she says, “I am my beloveds and my beloved is mine”.
It is now becoming more important to her that she is pleasing to him and that she belongs to him than what he can do for her.
Song 6:4: “You are beautiful, O my love, as Tirzah, comely as Jerusalem, terrible as an army with banners.”
The Bride is an awe-inspiring, bannered host. The Shulamite is as Mahanaim, the place where God camps or dwells! “Two Armies” = #4624 = Mahanaim; two camps, two hosts, armies, encampments”. She is dancing between the armies of Heaven and the armies of the earth. The dance of Mahanaim is the dance of Victory over all enemies (Rom. 10: 14-15)
Passion Translation 6:4: O my beloved, you are lovely. When I see you in your beauty, I see a radiant city where we will dwell as one. More pleasing than any pleasure, more delightful, than any delight, you have ravished my heart, stealing away my strength to resist you. Even hosts of angels stand in awe of you.
Song 6:10-13: “Who is she that looks forth as the morning, fair as the moon, clear as the sun, and terrible as an army with banners? 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 budded. Or ever I was aware, my soul made me like the chariots of Amminadib. Return, return, O Shulamite; return, return that we may look upon you. What will you see in the Shulamite? As it were the companies of two armies.”
Fair as the moon, and clear as the sun – This is the lightning and bright shining of Jesus appearing in his saints. “The light of the moon shall be as the light of the sun, and the light of the sun shall be sevenfold as the light of seven days, in the day that the Lord binds up the breach of his people, and heals the stroke of their wound.” (Isaiah 30:26)
He has come to dwell in her heart by faith that she might be filled with all the fullness of Christ. Now the King leads his bride forth. He went into the garden of nuts looking for signs of new life. He is looking for the fruit of her womb…a son or a man child who would be his heir and possessor of His name. This is the Third garden mentioned in the Song.
You have not been brought to My side to sit as a Queen and be served. You and I together must lay down our lives for our people. Our tears must fall with their tears; our hands must be stretched out always to meet
Song 7:10: “I am my Beloved’s and his desire is toward me…”
In chapter 7, she is no longer talking about what he could do for her, or even what she feels because of him; she is now talking only about her Beloved and what she can do to show him her love.
If we look at the sequences of the other times she has said, “I am my Beloved’s, we can see the progress.
First of all it is most important to her that he belonged to her. Next it became important to her that she belonged to him. Finally it is only important to her that she belongs to him and that he desires her; her own feelings in the matter are no longer important at all.
Song 8:5: “Who is this coming up from the desert leaning on her Beloved?”
The Lord delights for us to lean on him. He is our source of total supply. The Lord uses sources such as a job and businesses to supply our needs, but he always wants us to recognize that he is the one who is supplying even though it may be through someone else
Sometimes the need is emotional, sometimes physical, and sometimes financial, but whatever it is, if we will let God work on it in our lives, he will bring us to the place where we are fully and completely “leaning on our Beloved” for the meeting of every need.
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Song 7: 10-13: “I am my beloveds and his desire is toward me. Come my beloved, let us go forth into the field; let us lodge in the villages. Let us get up early to the vineyards; Let us see if the vine flourish, whether the tender grape appear, and the pomegranates bud forth: There will I give you my loves. The mandrakes give a smell and at our gates are all manner of pleasant fruits, new and old, which I have laid up for thee, O my beloved.” (She is speaking to Him)
The Shulamite had been made ready to be a co-laborer with her Bridegroom. She was not able to initiate a work in His behalf. She may not, dare not, go on without Him. She is now ready to go forth with Him into the fields of the world! The field is the world. Now that the Bride and the Bridegroom have become one, all creation will feel the impact of that union! The Song has come full circle: In the beginning, He was drawing her; now she is drawing Him! She who was invited now offers the invitation! This is the more excellent ministry which operates by the creative spoken word in the areas of forgiveness and blessing. They will continue in that priesthood for it is immutable and unchangeable! The field is ripe!
The royal couple continues walking down the road. The Daughters are following, but at a distance. But the King and His Bride know where they are going.
The mandrake indicates that it is time for the Bride to become the mother of the King’s child. The moon is under her feet and on her head is a crown with twelve stars. This son is the hope of a groaning creation.
As the Daughters of Jerusalem wait and wait and wait, one day there seemed to be someone walking up the highway. It was more than one person...it looked like two people...and again it looked like three people! It could have one, two, or three. It is hard to tell. ‘It is the King!!!” The Daughters cry. He has returned!!! The Shulamite is clinging to His arm so closely that the two appear to be one!
8:5: “Who is this that comes up from the wilderness, leaning upon her Beloved? I raised thee up under the apple tree: there your mother brought you forth: there she brought you forth that bare thee.” (The Daughters of Jerusalem are speaking)
This sounds like a child was born to me. “Just where you were swaddled, a babe, just there, by your mother – Moffatt; The King (Jesus) is the Apple Tree, the Tree of Life; “Mother”= Shulamite. “Brought forth” – to travail to bring forth (in birth).
A man, a maid and a man-child. Just like Abraham, Sarah, and Isaac; just like Boaz, Ruth and Obed; so we have the King, the Shulamite and a man child. The man child is the Joseph Company, David Company, Joel’s Army, the overcomer, the 144,000, the Benjamin Company, etc.
8:6: “Set me as a seal; upon your heart, as a seal upon your arm: for love is strong as death; jealousy is cruel as the grave: The coals thereof are coals of fire, which has a most vehement flame.”
“The flashes thereof are flashes of fire, a very flame of the Lord”
8:7: ‘Many waters cannot quench love, neither can the floods drown it: If a man would give all the substance of His house for love, it would utterly be condemned.”
This is the message of the sons of God in their manifestation: the Love of God! The word and ministry of reconciliation. The first work of restoring this groaning creation starts with the Daughters!
The King is jubilant…the Bride is radiant…the son is magnificent…the Daughters are joyous…the little sister is resplendent in shining silver...and the rest of creation stirs itself in the chains of corruption.
She was the one who opened the way and brought forth the seed that had bruised the head of the enemy. She has a place at the King’s side that no other may have. She is eternally the Bride of the Lamb of God.
8:11: “Solomon had a vineyard at Bal-Hamon; he left out the vineyard unto keepers; every one for the fruit thereof was to bring a thousand pieces of silver.”
Some say the thousand pieces of silver are souls others say this is in reference to a vast amount of wealth. The supplier of every need, the bastion against all storms, and the cry against every creditor stands before her. He has a vineyard and she has a vineyard.
8:12: My vineyard, which is mine, is before me: thou, o Solomon, must have a thousand, and those that keep the fruit thereof two hundred.” (She is speaking)
8:14: “Make haste, my beloved, and be you like to a Roe or to a young hart upon the mountains of spices.” (She is speaking to Him)
P.T: Arise, my darling! Come quickly, my beloved. Come and be the graceful gazelle with me. Come be like a dancing deer with me. We will dance in the high place of the sky, yes, on the mountains of fragrant spice. Forever we shall be untied as one.
The mountain of spices is metaphorical of the fullness of earthly love and Divine Love which has become the love of Christ.
We again see Jesus in the power of His resurrection. Her heart cry joins the cry of all the redeemed of the ages: Maranatha - “Come, Lord Jesus that all the Kingdoms of this world may become the Kingdoms of our Lord and of His Christ.) (Rev. 11:15) This is her desire to see Him in His second coming! “The Spirit and the Bride say Come!
Hallelujah – the King is Here and He is Coming!!!!
Carolyn Sissom, Pastor
Eastgate Ministries, Inc.
I entered into the labors of Lyn Gitchel, “This Is My Beloved”; “Solomon’s Secret” by C. R. Oliver and Principles of Present Truth by Kelly Varner. Bible Teaching by Carolyn Sissom on The Song of Solomon VI; Quotes from King James Bible and The Jerusalem Bible
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There is no way to explain love. Great writers have tried. One must fall in love for oneself and actually experience love. “For love is strong as death; jealousy is cruel as the grave; the coals thereof are coals of fire, which has a most vehement flame. Many waters cannot quench love, neither can the floods drown it; if a man would give all the substance of his house for love, it would utterly be condemned.” (Song 8:6-7).
To love and be loved is the greatest gift life can give us. This Gift of Unsearchable Love is available to every human on the face of the earth through Jesus Christ. I have preached a lot of sermons on love. I do not have an adequate command of language to express this love. I, like you, am still on the journey of exploring and experiencing the love of Christ.
However, I have loved, experienced love and continue to love through the journey of life.
So it is with experiencing Jesus, one must meet Him, fall in love and “marry” Him. After that comes years of exploring the oceans of His gentleness, mercy, kindness and generosity. Jesus is so wonderful; it takes time to discover what a truly marvelous Savior and King He is.