With the consummation of the marriage of the king to his beloved described in the two verses that bridge chapters four and five of the Song of Solomon, we would think that the Song of Songs should have come to its climactic conclusion. If it was a stage play, we could imagine the curtains falling as the chorus sings, eat, friends, drink, and be drunk with love. But we are only halfway through the song. Evidently there is much more to the story of the love of the king and his bride. We have previously noted in our studies in this book that the song is cyclical in its structure. There is an ascending spiral of longing and satisfaction in which love grows and is perfected until at the very end of the song the union of the lovers is anticipated. And so in the middle of the song we have union but it is not perfect. As Solomon pens this song, no doubt he is penning it from his own knowledge and understanding of the history of Israel. It is for him the story of Yahweh's love for the people of Israel, his people, his bride. At Mount Sinai he declares he had become a husband to them. But when we think of the story of Israel at Mount Sinai and in the weeks and the months and the years that follow their encounter with the living God at that mountain, it is anything but a story of harmonious union between God and his people, his bride, Solomon therefore recalls the unfaithfulness of Israel as he ponders upon this story and as he pens this song to tell its message. Israel is a people who rejected God, the God who had become her husband. Israel were a people who were wayward and rebellious. Israel were a people who though God came to them, turned their back on him. And so it is that in this chapter we have a sense of that reality. that though they have become God's bride, he has become their husband, and we want it to be, and they lived happily ever after, the reality is something different. but we also need to remember that while that is the background, those are the thoughts in Solomon's mind as by the inspiration of the spirit of God he pens this story, it anticipates things that post-date Solomon, it anticipates some of the truths that are articulated by the prophets And most of the prophets come after Solomon. And so there are messages here that are inspired by the Spirit of God that foretell the future for Israel. Though we could read the whole of the song perhaps as something that has happened before Solomon comes on the scene. It is probably better to think of it in terms of the whole history of Israel and their final anticipation still in waiting of the coming of the Messiah into the world. But if that is the only way we understand the Song of Solomon then we have certainly come up short because the Spirit of God sees even beyond that. and sees the union of the son of God with his people the church that finds a resemblance in the relationship between Yahweh and the people of Israel but only in so far as that relationship is a signpost a type of the reality that was to come And so as Solomon pens this song, by the Spirit of God he is really penning the story of Jesus Christ and his church. He has become a husband to her, she is his bride. But you may say, but isn't the marriage of the lamb to his bride something future. Don't we find in the book of Revelation that that is something to anticipate now that has not yet dawned and that would be true. As far as the book of Revelation another pictorial and symbolic story of the relationship between Christ and his people. The other thing that we need to realize is that the world to come in a sense has invaded this world already in the person of Jesus Christ and in his interactions with his people even now. And so there is a sense in which there is an already about eternal life. Those who trust in Jesus have been born again and have eternal life. But we immediately acknowledge that the eternal life that we have is somewhat unfulfilled now. We live in this world of sin. We live in this world of suffering and sorrow and shame. It isn't the kind of life that we want to live forever and ever, is it? We anticipate a time when this life will give way to something far more glorious and beautiful and satisfying. But the life has begun. It is an eternal life that we possess as believers in the Lord Jesus Christ even now. And so it's also true that we have union with him as his people now. In a sense, the marriage has already taken place. But it is somewhat wanting. We don't enjoy the fullness of it now. And this is the story of the Song of Solomon. He didn't know, I'm sure, all that he was penning. he thought perhaps that he was being inspired to write a story of Israel and the glory that awaited her and that would be true for the church is the true Israel, the true people of God drawn in from every nation and every tribe and every language drawn in and grafted in to the remnant people of Israel, into the root and stalk which is Christ himself. And so Solomon, blessed by the Spirit, tells us this story. And this passage that I want to draw your attention to this evening in verses 2 through 7 of chapter 5 is really perhaps one of the more difficult sections in the song. Commentators are baffled as to how to interpret it and the details certainly give us pause for thought and a bit of head scratching and perhaps a stroking of the shoulders. Nevertheless, I think the overarching message is clear enough, as is true of the whole song, as I've sought to encourage you to think in terms of an artist painting a picture with a very broad brush. So this isn't the art of realism where every tiny detail is painted in. But this is the impressionist artist going to work with broad sweeps of a broad brush until at last you kind of squint at it and you think, yeah, I can see it. Well, it's kind of like that with the Song of Solomon. perhaps I've exaggerated that a little bit but it is like that if we're trying to understand details if we look at every line in every verse and try to say this means that and this means that and well we'll get lost because that's not how it's intended to evoke within us a sense of the impenetrable depth of the love of God for his people and the mystery of the union of Jesus Christ and his church. And it is of the church that the song speaks in reality. and as members of the church it speaks to us in our experience, in our relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ as well. And as we approach this passage then, notice the beginning of it where she says, I slept but my heart was awake, a sound, my beloved is knocking, open to me, my sister, my love and so forth. Have you ever had a dream and you weren't sure whether it was real? Have you ever woken in the middle of the night from a dream and the dream seems to have almost metamorphosed into reality and you couldn't think what was the dream and what was real? They seem to overlap and have become one entity of realness and dreamlike mystery. And I think that that's what's going on here in this section. In fact, commentators all more or less agree that there's a shift from sleeping to being awake, from being in a dream to experiencing reality. The question is where does that division take place? When does she wake up? and some say well the whole section down to the end of verse 7 is a dream and she doesn't wake up until she is adjuring the daughters of Jerusalem that if they find their beloved that they tell him she is sick with love. Others say that it's immediately at the beginning of verse 2, I slept but my heart was awake a sound and as she hears the sound she's awake And then there's a whole myriad of other divisions anywhere between those. I don't really think it matters too much how we see that. Well, we'll see. As we go through, I might let you know where I think the division is. But what I want you to see are three things. not clearly defined things, but three senses of what's going on here. And the first is that there is desire and delay. Here comes the lover. Here comes the king. Remember they're married. They've had their wedding night. And now Some time later, within days, within weeks, nothing is said. We don't know. She simply tells us that she was sleeping. Her heart was awake. She was dreaming and something happened. And he isn't there. He's gone off. He's the king after all. Perhaps he's had to go away on an international mission. Perhaps he's been receiving dignitaries and he's stayed up late into the night with these foreign dignitaries. Perhaps he's had some difficult legislation to apply and to help his governors and satraps and so on to apply it within their various jurisdictions. Whatever it is, he's been away and now he comes. and it seems to be late at night that he's coming, she has bathed and she's got into bed and he comes and his head is wet with dew and he comes to their home and to her room and he's knocking on the door and he's calling out to her Open to me, my sister, my love, my dove, my perfect one. The greatest concentration of loving terms that we find in the whole Song of Solomon. He's in earnest. He wants her. He wants her embrace. He wants her intimacy. He has come to her. And as he knocks and as he calls out, perhaps she's been dreaming of him in his absence. And in her dream, perhaps she's been hoping that he would come. And in her dream, she hears the sound of knocking. And in her dream, he hears her call out to her, open to me, my sister, my love, my dove, my perfect one. in her dream. But it's not a dream. There he is, he's at the door, he's knocking and he's calling out to her, desiring her, wanting to be with her so unexpectedly in the middle of the night. And there she is and she's all warm in her bed, all clean in her bed. I'd put off my garment, how could I put it on? I'd bathe my feet, how could I soil them? And there's a reluctance to come to him, a reluctance to get out of her warm bed, out of her comfort, a reluctance to draw near to the door, to unlock the bolt and to let him in. She didn't want to be inconvenienced at this time, he wasn't expected until the next day. Why should she get up to him now in the middle of the night, she thinks. And this is the response that she gives. It's so unexpected, isn't it? After all that we've seen in this song so far of her longings for him and his longings for her and the excitement then of the wedding procession, of them drawing near together, And then the joy of the consummation of the marriage. And then for this to happen. Well, those of you who are married, you understand perhaps the differences of longing and loving. For one, there's an earnestness. For the other, there's an indifference. And those things have to be worked out and worked upon. There's a danger of course in taking exactly what goes on in the Song of Solomon and applying it directly to marriage because the king here is the perfect king. He never takes a misstep, his demands are never wrong, his expectations are never out of order and that's not true in human marriage. There is a need for husbands to re-evaluate their expectations and their longings and their desires and to dwell with their wives with understanding just as much as there is a need for their wives to evaluate themselves and their responses. But here we're not talking directly about human marriage though we can draw out lessons like that from it. to be more understanding of one another, more patient with one another, less demanding of one another and all of those important lessons that we have to learn in our marriages. Here we're talking about Jesus Christ and his church, his people, those upon whom he has set his love, those who he comes to at all kinds of times in our lives. And don't you see how inconvenient it is sometimes when Jesus knocks on the door? Have you never experienced that, his call to you, his desire for you to walk with him? Have you never found that, well, another time maybe, not just now, I'm comfortable as I am just now. This is what Jesus himself speaks of or writes of as he asks John to dictate, to take a dictation of a letter to the church in Laodicea in Revelation chapter 3. Jesus writes to the church in Laodicea in verse 15, I know your works. You are neither cold nor hot. Would that you were either cold or hot! So, because you are lukewarm and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth. For you say, I am rich, I have prospered, and I need nothing. not realizing that you are wretched, pitiable, poor, blind, and naked. I counsel you to buy from me gold refined by fire so that you may be rich, and white garments so that you may clothe yourself and the shame of your nakedness may not be seen, and salve to anoint your eyes so that you may see. Those whom I love I reprove and discipline to be zealous and repent. Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him and he with me. And you know that that last verse that I've just read to you is so often applied to evangelism and the call of Christ to sinners to open up their hearts to him that he might come in to them but he's not talking to those who have not yet bowed the knee to him, he's talking to his bride. He's saying to her, I stand at the door and knock, let me in. Let me enter intimacy with you, let me enter union with you, let me enter fellowship with you. Let us grow together, let us talk together, let us enjoy one another's company. This is what Christ desires with his church. It desires intimacy with his church, but so often the church, so often we as individual believers who make up the church, so often we're indifferent. How often in life does apathy win the day? It's inconvenient to be with Jesus just now, It's inconvenient to talk to Jesus just now. It's inconvenient to see, hear what he has to say to me just now. And we want to remain as we are and where we are without change. This is what's going on here in the Song of Songs. Solomon tells the story of the love of the Son of God for his people. Here is his desire, but there is delay in responding, a half-heartedness rather than a wholeheartedness. But it goes on. And she says, my beloved put his hand to the latch and my heart was thrilled within me. I think perhaps this is where she wakes up. It's been a dream and it's been reality, but she's been in the dream. She's heard the knocking, but it hasn't woken her yet. It's there, it's in the background as part of her dream. He hears his voice and those sweet names with which he calls her and it's all part of the dream. And then he puts his hand to the latch and there's this clunk and there's this click as he tries to open the door and that's what wakes her. The lover's touch on the latch brings her into full wakefulness and now Now there's readiness. She says, I rose, I rose to open to my beloved and my hands dripped with my fingers with liquid myrrh on the handles of the bolt. She is ready for him. She wants him. She desires to open up to him, to have her come in. and to have him come in and be with her, I opened to my beloved. But my beloved had turned and gone. There was readiness. At last, there was readiness. After the delay, there was readiness. After the hesitation, there was readiness. With the realisation dawning on her of who it was that was at the door, her love, the one who loved her. The one who had brought her out of the vineyards where she had been labouring for her brother's enrichment. The one who had brought her from the sun-scorched earth. into the coolness of his palace, the one who had wooed her, the one who had courted her, the one who had revealed himself to her as the one who would love her and take care of her and provide for her and protect her, this one upon whom she had no claim, but who had claimed her as his own. This one who has blessed her with so many gifts. One who had beautified her and elevated her to royalty from the poverty from which she had come. This one who had done so much for her. This one who had entered into union with her and made an eternal covenant with her now here he is he's knocking at the door he's calling out her name he desires to be intimate with her and she has delayed and she has hesitated and she hasn't wanted to be inconvenienced or discomforted and after she bestirs herself having had the desire kindled within her heart, now her desire is for him, she is ready for him, but he is gone, he has departed, he has left her. Now in the Old Testament the prophets The prophets would warn Israel, carry on like this and God's not going to listen to you. Even when you cry out to Him, He will not answer you. When you plead with Him, He will not hear you. Here's the Here's the reality in this song, born out for us, and is it not true that we experience that in our own lives? Christ isn't at our beck and call, to always be there when we want him, with no obligation on us to be there when he calls upon us. Is that the way that we think of Jesus Christ the Saviour? A genie in the bottle, give it a little bit of a rub and out he'll pop and he'll do what we want him to do for us and then off we go on our merry way doing our own thing. Is that what we think of Jesus? And so we find that when we're indifferent towards him When we're unresponsive to him, when there's delay in our hearts, then he is not there when we call to him. He is not hearing us when we cry out to him. We feel as though our prayers are not going anywhere. We feel that he is absent from us because you see the feeling of his presence is elusive just as we are fickle. That's not to say that in reality Christ is not with us. Christ has promised that he will never leave us nor forsake us. I will be with you to the end of the age, he has said to us. But there are times when we don't feel his presence. There are times when we open the word of God and we don't hear his voice. There are times when we cry out to him in prayer and he doesn't answer. And why is that? Well so often it is because we haven't been nurturing our relationship with him. He's drawn near to us and we've been indifferent towards him. He's inconveniencing us. He's discomforting us. And so we hold him off at a distance. We say, oh, we want you in our lives, but not just now. I want to enjoy where I am and what I'm doing right now. I don't want it to be disturbed or disruptive. And so it is as though Christ goes. He leaves. In fact, we all see, even in this song, as she goes out searching for him, she only paused and thought. No search would have been necessary, but that's for another week. For us now, having seen that there was desire on his part to draw near to her and a delay in her response, having seen that when there was readiness to respond, her heart having been touched by the sound of his voice and his attempts to enter, having seen now the regret that she has over her delay. Oh, if only she could turn the clock back, she thinks. If only she hadn't been so slow. If only she hadn't been so worried about soiling her feet or getting cold for a moment. If only the inconvenience of his calling at that hour hadn't overwhelmed her. Oh, if only, if only. And that regret now stirs her to action and she sets out on a search. I sought him but found him not. I called him but he gave no answer. She went on the search earlier, do you remember? chapter 3 and the opening verses there again she was on her bed in the night this is before they're married this is when he is just a longing in her heart I sought him whom my soul loves I sought him but found him not. I will rise, she said to herself now, and go about the city in the streets and in the squares. I will seek him whom I so love. I sought him, but I found him not. And here again she's in the city streets. Here again she is searching for her lover. Here again she fails to find him. In her desperation, in her yearning. She seeks, she calls, but she doesn't find, and there is no answer. There in chapter 3, though she did not find him, she was found by the watchmen. The watchmen found me as they went about in the city. Have you seen him whom my soul loves? she asked them. And scarcely had I passed them when I found him whom my soul loves and I held him and would not let him go. Have you seen him? And no doubt they'd given her directions and said, yes, he's just down the street and round the corner there you will find him. And she passes them and there he is just exactly where they had said for the watchman are the guides and the protectors of the city. They are repeatedly referenced in the Old Testament, referring to the prophets of God, who call out warning sounds of danger, who are watchers over the city to protect it. And here they are, and they've watched over her, and they've protected her, directing her to where her lover may be found. But here, here is such a different story, as in verse 7 she tells us, the watchmen found me as they went about in the city. They beat me, they bruised me, they took away my veil, those watchmen of the walls. And this is perhaps the most difficult part of this section. What's going on here? Are these watchmen, evil people taking advantage of this lone woman in the darkness of the night to abuse her? Or are they truly watchmen? guarding the city and the people in the city who encounter this woman who appears to be a prostitute walking the streets of the city seeking whom she may catch and waylay. Here we encounter the shame that she feels Here is the reality of what she's done, coming home to roost as it were. The shame of her rejection of him, the shame even of her subsequent ill-conceived search. What is she doing? The Queen? Walking the city streets at night? It may be as some commentators suggest that they don't even recognize who she is. She is veiled in the darkness of the night. To them she's just another prostitute that needs to be taught a lesson and sent off packing. Or is there more here? Certainly that she should be in the streets by herself in this way was foolishness on her part. She opened herself up to danger and to abuse. And while the watchmen find her and beat her and bruise her and take away her veil, that may not be with evil intent, but it may be a good thing. This is her chastisement, her correction. And off she is sent by the watchmen of the city back to the palace, back to her home. And she calls upon the daughters of Jerusalem. If you find my beloved, tell him I'm sick with love. Rightly or wrongly, the watchmen have treated her with this firmness. perhaps we would say it's worse than firmness, but remember this is a song, remember this is a picture, this is broad stroke painting, that is telling us that whom the Lord loves, he chastens. You know sometimes the chastening of the Lord may seem severe to us, but it is what we need to correct the folly in our hearts and drive it from us. Sometimes it may seem overwhelming, the way that God sets about correcting us, but God always deals according to knowledge and goodness. and we must realize that if we fail to respond to Christ in his overtures of love and peace then we will feel the hand of correction. She has failed to respond and now she feels the shame of her folly and this This is the Christian experience. This is the way of the pilgrim in this world. And this is a lesson that we must take to heart, that we may be more attentive to our lover, more responsive to his knock upon the door of our hearts, more ready to welcome him in, when he's there calling out our name with love in his voice. Let us learn from this that there is real danger, real loss to be found in delay and indifference and apathy. Let us learn from this though that we're not at the end of the story. It doesn't end here with this beaten and bruised woman. There is hope. There is hope for the failed Christian. There is hope for the sinner in the Church of Jesus Christ. There is hope for the one whom the Lord corrects, for he corrects in love, in order to reconcile, in order to refresh and renew the union and the intimacy. Here then is hope, for though the lover seems to have gone, He is not far away and he will be reunited with her in due course. Let's pray. Lord God, we need to hear you, the truth of your word. We need to hear the hard words, the hard sayings, the difficult lessons. We need to be corrected far too often. And so, Lord, we pray that you will not withhold the rod of correction from us, but that in your mercy you will deal with us as your wisdom discerns is necessary, so that we might be reunited to you in love. Bless us, we pray. Even when we go astray, do not let us go. We ask in Jesus' name. Amen.