“A voice! My beloved was knocking”
“I was asleep but my heart was awake.
A voice! My beloved was knocking:
‘Open to me, my sister, my darling,
My dove, my perfect one!
For my head is drenched with dew,
My locks with the damp of the night.’
3 “I have taken off my dress,
How can I put it on again?
I have washed my feet,
How can I dirty them again?” Solomon’s Song of Songs 5:2-3
Context
The Song of Songs is a love poem that helps us get a better understanding of true love in marriage. The single king was anointed the Messiah of Israel. The bride desired to be married to him. He guides her to himself. They adore each other on the first date. They get engaged. He gives himself to her and she gives herself to him in love. They get married, have the best honeymoon ever and now in chapter 5 they have some differences that need reconciliation in order for the two to be closer or more one.
Reconciliation is a key component to a marriage that glorifies God and illustrates love. The happiness of the marriage is dependent upon how well the two can reconcile differences and keep peace in the relationship.
Reconciliation= the action of making one view or belief compatible with another. the restoration of friendly relations.
Some take this section to be metaphoric as him wanting to have sex with her and she doesn’t immediately let him. I take it all literal. He is literally outside, at night, with dew on his head and hair. The door is locked and he wants her to open it for him. She is inside in bed, with her feet washed and would have to put her lovely feet dirty again and put some clothes on in order to open the door for him.
In this section the bride’s love temporarily fails. In contemplating the simple discomforts within a normal marriage she misses the opportunity to experience sweet conversations and closeness with her beloved.
It is really important to notice the context here because the scene starts with them being apart. Being apart in 5:2 all the way til she learns to give herself completely to him, then they are together in the garden with him praising her in 6:2-9. Some think the Love Song to be a series of separate poems. It is a Song. A Song of Songs. The Song of Songs is one poem, yet with subsections where the two are apart and get closer or they are together and get even closer. 5:2-8:3 is one section where they start off apart both physically and somewhat spiritually and end up together physically and more spiritually one due to the growth of the brides love and ability to bring peace and reconcile differences in the marriage.
The greatest husband alive, Song 5:9, is outside at night with dew on his head wanting his wife to open the door and let him in so they could be together. Here her love sleeps and she contemplates the situation rather than being willing to do anything anytime her husband wants in order to be near him like in Song 1:7 and 3:1-3.
Last lesson was a focus on the fact that True Love Sleeps as seen in the words “I was asleep but my heart was awake.” Song 5:2
There are two sections in the Love poem where it is because of the sin or sins of the bride that are the reason for the separation. “Sin separates us from God” and those we love. Is. 59:2
Doctrines about marital roles taught in Scripture.
- The husband is the head of the wife.
“The husband is the head of the wife, as Christ also is the head of the church, He Himself beingthe Savior of the body.”
-
The wife is subject to their own husband. Since the husband is the head the wife should submit and listen to him as it says in the previous verse. 22 Wives, be subject to your own husbands, as to the Lord.“
- The manner in which she submits is “as unto the Lord”
- Therefore submission to husband is submission to God for God desires wives to submit to their husbands in love. God commands wives to obey Him. Wives must obey God. God says for wives to obey their husbands. If a wife doesn’t obey her husband then she is sinning. Sin is lawlessness. Lawlessness shows up in marriage when a wife doesn’t listen to her husband.
Her husband/Husband wants her to open the door.
Her husband wants her to open the door. Her Husband wants her to open the door. Both want her to open the door. Her husband is also God and God wants her to open the door because God commands wives to love their husbands. God is her heavenly Husband. Leaving the husband outside is not an act of love. There is a physical husband and a Spiritual Husband. Therefore I say in one sentence “Her husband/Husband wants her to open the door.
Her sins.
The text before us is an illustration of a wife not submitting to her husband. It is an example of what a wife ought not to do. The sins of the wife are various. She is not being faithful to her promise of being his. She is selfish and not preferring him over her comfort. She is autonomous in the relationship. She is prideful for humility is a proper view of herself in relation to God and her husband with a proper heart response and actions. She is not eagerly awaiting his return. Basically, he is not worth getting her feet dirty for.
She is also not actin our her nickname, Shulammite, meaning queen of peace. She is more like the queen acting like an enemy to the king.
He is doing his part in the relationship and hoping to have her right by his side leaning on him, but she doesn’t do her part here.
Yes, it is a test of the brides love for her bridegroom after the wedding. Her husband seems to know it would be a difficult time for her to express her love so he gives her what I see as encouragements for her to deny herself and express her love to him that he delights in more than wine.
- Two forms of asking are used to encourage her obedience
- Knocking or pounding
- His sweet voice
- Clear instructions are used so as to not have misunderstanding.
- Who she was in relation to him to encourage her answering him.
- My sister
- My darling
- My dove
- My perfect one
- His current suffering situation is made known to her to draw out her love.
- Dew from the dampness
- Duration of the suffering in the night
“A voice, My beloved was knocking” Song 5:2
The sleeping bride heres a voice.
The bride knows its her beloved’s voice.
The bride hears him knocking.
He implores her to open the door by giving her two different ways of wanting the same thing. He both speaks and knocks.
“A voice.”
Here again, as is often in the Song, we are invited to put ourselves in her shoes or comfortable bed as it is. She is in bed and she heres “a voice“. The poem invites us to imagine what is going on. In order for love or in this case lack thereof to be illustrated a situation or context is needed. Here the context is that they are married and physically apart, she is in bed, he has been gone a while and is outside when she hears his voice and knocking.
There is importunity in the voice of her beloved.
Now she is laying there in bed and hears a voice and knocking. A voice in the night. Hmmm, who could it be. Is it familiar. Have I heard that voice before? She is safe with the door locked and she is in bed and hears a voice.
“My beloved”
What she hears is the voice of her beloved. The voice of the one she loves. The voice of the one who loves her. To bad she doubts his love and desire or her in the moments that her and her love slept comfortable as queen of Israel.
It is quite a natural thing to open the door if someone where knocking. It would even be a greater encouragement to get up quickly and open the door for the one whom you love and it would be even a greater motive to open the door for Israel’s Messiah who loves you. This is a voice that when heard ought to enflame her love to him.
Not just anyone she loves but she says “My beloved“. The one who gave himself to her is at the door. There is a relationship here. One of that of a husband to his wife. One who loves her but her love is sleeping. He has a holy jealousy for her love.
“Knocking”
This word is more like a pounding. Which gives his knocking a sense of urgency. This is no gentle knocking like that of a door to door salesmen. Or a knocking that is up to you as to wether or not you have to answer it. This is a knocking that needs immediate attention and is sin to neglect. The level of importance to the knocking is due to the high level dignity or majesty of the person knocking! It is Israel’s Messiah, the king of kings knocking and there shouldn’t be any delay in answering his voice.
In one sense God who is the Greatest King desires her to answer the door without delay. And also the greatest type of Christ alive wants her to answer the door. The great dignity of both beings gives urgency to the knocking.
I suppose it would be similar to you being at war and the commanding general or President came to your door knocking and you would rather sleep than go through the trouble of answering the door.
Do not read into the text a normal husband!! This is no normal husband!! The one answering the door is the best husband among ten thousand other husbands. He is the king of kings, Israel’s Messiah, her redeemer 1:6, friend 5:16, her good shepherd 1:8
This offense is worthy of discipline which is why the watchmen later discipline her. The bride by not answering the urgent call of the king is like acting the enemy of the king and his will. She is doing her own will and not that of her king. In God’s kingdom any sin is worthy of eternal death in the lake of fire.
A wive ought not to delay in her answering the call of her husband/Husband! She is to do the will of God immediately and without delay like the angels in heaven obey God.
Use of information
- See the greatness of the offense.
- Exhort wives to listen to the voice of their beloved.
- Encourage wives to have a sense of urgency each time their beloved calls because of who God is and their relationship to Him.
Arguing from the great dignity of lesser type of Christ to the Greatest Infinite Dignity of Jesus Christ, the Bridegroom of the Church.
The greater the dignity of the person offended the greater the offense.
If I were to hit my brother, in anger, it would be a great offense. If I were to hit my father it would be even greater. Greater still is an offense to a police officer. And imagine if I were to hit the President of a great country. Greater still would be if I were to hit, in anger, the wisest king who ever lived who ruled all other kings. And Greatest of all offenses is if I were to hit in anger the LORD of Glory, Jesus Christ! At his death people turned a blind eye and spit on him, similar to how the bride so to speak turned your nose up to the her beloved knocking at the door and didn’t answer his voice.
See how the offense gets greater depending on the dignity and worthiness of regard to the person!!
Brother, Father, Police officer, President, Solomon (king of kings), to the King of kings, the LORD, Jesus Christ!
All sin is evil, yet sin against our Great God is the greatest of evils. Husbands ought to be grieved when their wives don’t listen to God. When a wife disobeys, the husband ought to love her by forgiving her and keeping no record of wrongs like Jesus did for us.
Wives what great motive you have to obey your husband. Here love to your husband and love to God is on display. Also other’s can see the reflection of the churches love to Jesus by your loving your husband. Love is on display when you love your husband. We all want to see and delight in the love of God on display in every marriage.
We don’t audibly here the voice of God but we do read His Word the Bible and learn His will for us. Read your Bible and invite Jesus to come rule your heart. Shepherd your soul and save you from hell.
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Saved in 2000 at age 27. Nearly immediately I fell in love with the Song and grew very fast the first two years memorizing large portions of scripture purifying my mind the started chewing on meat to soon and struggled for 12 years and Christ has me on track like always but I just took the long way around and now I love leading others closer to Christ by seeing His love reflected in Solomons love for an enemy slave girl.
I have experienced God's love to me in the Song in ways that words can't express. There are many portion of the Word where she experiences extra ordinary outpouring of the Holy Spirit of God. If you have a burning desire for a close intimate relationship with God by experiencing His Love to you over and over again at greater and greater heights, depths, lengths and breaths then The Song of Songs is where you need to be.
I can help you with this process of Growing in the experience of God's love. As of 7-23-16 I have experienced everything prior to chapter 8. The Song of Song is progressive in experience. Meaning that if you are mature then you can experience the joys and extraordinary outpourings of God's Love shed abroad in your heart.
If you are not so mature then the delights in the first chapter of the Song will satisfy your thirst for experiencing the Love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Many Christian are living in sin because they do not know how to experience God's love and get hooked on Loving Him. It feels good to be loved and to love Him. His burden is not heavy and His yoke is light, Jesus said in Matt. 10:28
I believe God wants to use me to help beautify His Bride through the Song of Solomon.
If you see the book literally you will not understand nor grasp the Love God has for you. If you see the book and the verses in it relating to Christ's love to you then I would love to show you how to experience this Love to the fullest. I will pray for you daily and guide you every step of the way.
16 I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, 17 so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, 18 may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, 19 and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.
20 Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, 21 to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.
I grew up going to church but was a hypocrite. I lived my life how I chose but went to church on Sunday because my family went.
Mom and Dad divorced when I was about 5.
About this time I was sexually abused by "Bob" a made up name. This incident changed my life for the worst. I had no clue how to deal with it.
As I got older I grew in my hatred for Bob. I didn't blame anyone of my family because I was to young to know any better. Some of what happened during the abuse was in a bathroom. So overtime I would use the bathroom and look at my private parts that night would replay in my mind. My hatred for Bob would continue to grow each time.
Now I know this only happened to me one night. I can't image the pain other's go through who have had this happen to them over and over. Even as I write this now I cry with many tears for those hurting. God love you even though you may not know it or feel it. Go to Him in your time of need.
I was a really bad teenager. I only cared about myself and not even my family. I always came first in my mind. Even at the expense of hurting others. I was growing in my hatred for God by now.
I was going to church and was learned that God was in control. I thought well, if God was in control then He must have let me be sexually abused. I didn't understand this, How could a good and loving God allow this. I hated Him for it. My hatred for Bob grew as well. I was still using the bathroom and memories kept coming back. My heart grew even harder for Bob and God. As far as I was concerned God would have nothing to do with my life so I lived even worse. I thought I would be in jail or dead and I really didn't care, I thought it could be much worse than reliving your painful past over and over again. Little did I know that God's plan later would be to use these events to give me a burning passion for the closest most intimate love relationship with Himself through Christ mainly through the love poem in the Song of Songs in the Bible.
I remember hating Bob so much that the only thing that would relieve my pain was actually thinking he would suffer forever for what he did. I grew so much in my hatred for him that I had to continue to think that he would get even worse than what I imaged before. After some time I would only be relieved of hatred for him unless I thought he would burn in a hotter and hotter hell for all the suffering he put me through.
I never told my mom or family what happened, although I think some of them knew something had happened.
I grew up quite rebellious and even went to jail at the age of 20. I was living the fast life pursuing all my sinful desires and wanting more. It never seemed to be enough. I was quite happy in my sin but I just wanted more of it.
I lived life thinking I would die at a young age, riding motorcycle and living on the edge put me in the hospital many times and I should have been dead.
California at age 26.
I moved to California for a job opportunity at the age of 27. While trying to figure out what radio stations to program in my car, I ran across a RC Sproul talking about "people who have the faith that saves and people who only say that have faith" only the people who have the faith that saves will go to heaven. I thought "I don't think I have the faith that saves because my life was so bad." I searched the scriptures to try to get this faith. I found a church and thought people there could help me get this faith that saves. All along God kept showing me how sinful I was and that I deserved punishment from Him for living my life hating Him.
One weekend I read Matthew, Mark, Luke and John desperately trying to find out how to get this faith that saves. By now I knew that if you had the faith that saves that Jesus would be saving you from a life of sin. I still liked my sin and Jesus sure wasn't saving me from a life of sin, so I rightly concluded that I didn't have the faith that saves.
By the time I got to John, I saw "believe" everywhere. John 3:16 and other verses and wow the whole book was written so that you may believe. John 20:31 "these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name." So at night I would pray "I believe Jesus died for me, I believe, I believe. This was just an intellectual belief. I knew that in history and the Bible that Jesus died for everyone, so I believed it. But this belief did not change my life.
I would go on night after night saying the same prayer only to wake up the next day wanting to fulfill my sinful desires. The prayer wasn't working so I started to word it different each time hoping some prayer would work. After about 2 weeks of this I was fed up with it all, nothing was happening. I still was living in my sin and wanted more of it. A Christian hates their sin and does something about it, and certainly they don't continue to make plans to sin. The prayers weren't working so I gave up. I thought to myself "God, I tried with all my might, I searched the Scriptures, went to church, read the Bible and prayed all to no avail. If Im going to be saved your going to have to do it because I tried."
So I quit praying but still the Bible kept calling me so I read more. 3 Days later I was laying in a tanning bed and God convicted me really hard that I had offended Him by the life I was living. I was so scared of God, where could I run. You can't hide from God. It seemed like forever that I was under these terrors of being punished by a Holy Angry God. This lasted about 10 minutes then this is how I understood it. God let me understand that all that anger that He had for me for all my sin should come my way but He had poured that anger out on Jesus 2,000 years ago. I immediately started weeping an couldn't stop for about 20 minutes. All the sins that I could think of I confessed for that 20 minutes one after another after another, I was so sorrowful and grieved it physically hurt inside.
After I stopped crying I thought that was the weirdest thing that ever happened. I walked out of the tanning salon and stood outside and everything seemed so beautiful, the tree's, the birds, even the air seemed pleasant. Now I was really wondering what was going on.
I pondered all of this as I drove to work that day. I brought my Bible to work and was thinking what am I doing, I want to take my Bible to work so I can read it. As soon as I got to work I started reading my Bible. I couldn't believe what I was reading!! It all was so wonderful. It felt so good to just read my Bible. My client showed up and as I was training them the only thing I could think about was getting back to my Bible. I read all night and slept about 2 hours and was reading again.
I had sinful things in my apartment and I rounded everything evil up and threw it in the garbage. It was weird I was thinking but it felt good so I left it all in the garbage. I called my girlfriend to break it up and she thought I had another girl, I said no, I just think this is wrong we shouldn't be sleeping together. She didn't understand so I told her I was a Christian now and she still thought I had another girlfriend. She said "Im glad your a Christian, so am I" I thought to myself, "I have a strong conviction that sleeping together is wrong and she thought it was okay" I wondered how she could think that. Anyway we broke up.
I kept reading my bible and repenting, there was so much to repent of and I had lived a very sinful life. I was a thief for some part of my life and all the people I stole from kept coming to mind. I owed so much money. I was instantly in debt about $80,000. As I could I paid them back. As of 7-18-2016 I still owe about $25,000 but it sure is a joy to be paying them back.
The first week of being saved a car just about ran me over, they hit me but I wasn't hurt at all. The guy in the car felt so bad. I just looked at him and said "God bless you and have a great day, I am okay" smiled at him and moved on. Now I was really wondering what was going on because I normally would have cussed him out left and right and instead of cussing I blessed him. That was so weird. But again it felt good. I learned to do good by what my conscience told me was good and that it felt good. I got hooked on this feeling good by doing good and did it more often.
About two weeks after being saved I thought of Bob. I immediately prayed for him, something like "Lord help him.." then I stopped praying and said out loud "What am I doing?" I'm praying for a man that I hated my whole life, but it feels good and right, so I did it again. I stopped again midway in the prayer and started pacing around. I was trying to make sense of what was going on and couldn't figure it out. But again it made me happy to pray for him so I did. Bob would often come to mind when I went to the bathroom and each time I would pray for Him. The more I did this the less weird it got. And the greater my love grew for him.
I started memorizing large portions of scripture and this was wonderful because it felt like the words were cleaning my mind and as Proverbs 2:10 "For wisdom will enter your heart, and knowledge will be pleasant to your soul." I wanted more and more of this pleasantness. So I memorized even more and the joy got more and more.
Then this life changing advice came:
A friend from church told me to find a book of the Bible and really understand it. Read through the Bible and pick one and read it over and over and study it and really get it. So I started in Genesis and read through. When I got to Proverbs I really liked it so I thought that would be the book. I started by memorizing all of Proverbs chapter 3. After that I thought maybe there is a better book than Proverbs. So I read on. Then I came to Song of Solomon. I read it with quite some confusion. It wasn't as good as the other books, I didn't know why. So I bought a commentary on it. George Burrowes commentary on the Song of Solomon.
In the commentary I found that George and other saw the book as illustrating God's love to the Church. And not only illustrating it but displaying the Love of Christ better than any other book. This caught my attention big time, because I was having a burning desire for a closer relationship with God and desperately learning about His Love so that I could Love God. You see I had hated Him for so long that God used that old hard heart to spur me on in loving Him. I so much did not want to hate God anymore that I was on fire to learn to Love Him as much and as fast as possible. So here was a book that would help me do that. So I landed on the Song of Solomon. I committed to learning as much of this book as possible.
I memorized the first chapter and would repeat it often throughout the day. I didn't know much of what I was repeating but it sure made me happier and on fire for God. I grew so fast repeating the first chapter over and over again all day, like a dozen times a day at least. It felt so good and I never found any other book that caused me to weep so much. I would often weep everyday just reading it. I was to immature to know what was going on. Even though it hurt to weep so much, I felt like my heart was being cleansed from the filth that was in it by repeating it over and over again so I did. As I read the commentary I understood more and more. What God was doing in me through the Song was greater and faster than any other portion of Scripture so I tended to stay there often. I was so excited about God that I thought it funny that other's in church weren't the same way. Some where happy but it seemed most of them didn't seem to care much about God. They would talk about work, football the weather. The only thing I wanted to talk about was Jesus and God and how can I grow closer to Him.
About this time there was a mission trip to Ireland.
I started to have convictions that I should try to find Bob and witness to him. I kept praying for him but how could he be saved if he hadn't heard the Gospel that has power unto salvation. So I asked family if they had any information. Like me before, my family hated him and thought he deserved hell. After some time I got his name but no location or phone number. Either they didn't know where he was or didn't want to tell me. I prayed some more and then started to get stronger convictions to do something about finding Bob.
So I went on the internet and typed in "his name and child molestation sex offender court" thinking that some court record would have some info leading to where I may find him" I even talked to a private eye and he couldn't help. So I googled some key words and spent hours each day looking through each page. I believed it was God's will for me to witness to Bob. I wanted him to be saved. Really bad. So much so that I thought God would save Bob if I were to witness to him. So I didn't stop searching for him. I kept my computer on each day and went page by page. It took two years to go through about 15,000 pages but I found someone who matched his name in a prison for molesting his grandchildren. I wrote the prison and he wrote back. All kinds of emotions went through my body when I saw his letter from the jail. I didn't open it right away but two hours later God gave me enough courage to face my fears again and I opened the letter. He admitted to being the one who molested me. We wrote back and forth I told him I was angry before but now I was saved and that I loved him and believed God wanted me to talk to him. He read my letters over and over again. I shared the gospel in each one.
I got mad at Bob 2x. Once he said that he love me. I got really angry with him. He didn't love me. That night it was hard to love Bob, I had to call a friend to pray for me to repent, after he prayed I felt greater love for Bob. Then I wrote him back saying "I'm sorry but you can't say that you loved me. You did not love me you lusted after me." He admitted he didn't love as he should have and admitted that it was lust and sinful. Finally some conviction. Yet I only thought he was saying that because I was being nice to him. All his family had left him and he said I was the only "friend" he had.
Wether or not it was true Bob said that he had cancer in his arm and that the help the prison gives was not enough and if he had money he could see a different doctor and get help. I sent him some money and since I was in jail before I knew what it was like to be in there without money, so I sent him money.
About 4-5 months in the economy went down, it was 2008. Work was hard. I still sent him money and I had to work harder. This was a really good lesson for me because I had to "work hard for the benefit of someone who did not deserve it." This was one of the greatest blessing ever because I realized with great certainty that Jesus was in me. This is what Jesus did. Jesus worked his whole life for me and I didn't deserve it!! Christ was in me! This was one of the best feelings ever and it put me in worship for months.
Then a mission trip to Croatia.
Each time I had to leave my business and amazing as it is I was completely okay each time. I am a self employed personal trainer and it is normally absurd to just leave and start over, but each time I had enough work within 2 weeks of coming back. This is a flat out miracle. I trusted God to provide and he did. How many people can start up a business in 2 weeks. Only with the help of God. God was teaching me early on in my walk that as long as I did what He wanted me to do then I had nothing to worry about.
About 3 years saved now.
I Taught the 4 year old's at church Sunday morning for 10 years.
Left my business 2x for mission trips and God miraculously provided when I came back.
I taught 5 x a week plus held a job.
Sunday morning to the kids.
Sunday night with the 5th graders
Friday afternoons at Good News Clubs. Sponsored by Child Evangelism Fellowship.
Friday Nights with the Kids teaching through Pilgrims Progress, I did this 2x
Teaching Monday afternoons at a nursing home. I taught through the Song of Songs once then John, then Romans then back to the Song again! I love the Song of Songs.
I grew up hating God for what happened to me, and now I love Him because He first loved me. My passion is for children to grow up loving God and not hating Him.
My other passion which has become ever greater is to help others see the Love of Christ to His Church in the Song of Songs!!
I would love to help you, just let me know and I will lead you and pray for you.
God demonstrates His love to us in sending His one and only Son to suffer in our place, taking our sins upon Himself so that whoever believes they get to heaven because of what He did for us will not perish but have everlasting life.