Song of Solomon 2:10-13

Song of Solomon Chapter 2 Let me read verses 8 through 13 Our focus will be on verses 10 to 13 The voice of my beloved Behold, he cometh leaping upon the mountains, skipping upon the hills. My beloved is like a row or a young heart. Behold, he standeth behind our wall. He looketh forth at the windows, showing himself through the lattice. My beloved spake and said unto me, Rise up, my love, my fair one, and come away. Below the winter is past, The rain is over and gone. The flowers appear on the earth. The time of singing of birds is come, and the voice of the turtle is heard in our land. The fig tree for the tree, forth are green leaves, and the vines with the tender grape give a good smell. Arise, my love, my fair ones, come away. Now, bride here in verses 8 and 9 is mourning the loss of the intimate fellowship she had with Christ. But then Christ takes the initiative, doesn’t he? He comes over the mountains, leaps over them, like deer bounding over them. Christ is at the church’s very wall. He’s at the window. He’s at the the latticework, looking through it. Just in the revelation, as in revelation, he looks through, he knocks on the door. And on chapter 5 of Song of Solomon, he will also be at the door asking for entry. So he’s coming, seeking to restore fellowship with his beloved. Your Christian life, as I said, is a series of visits and withdrawals by the Lord, revivals of grace, and then there’s the drifting away. The first thing we see here in verse 10 and verse 13, notice that some of it’s repeated. First phrase and the last phrase here, verse 10 and 13, Rise up. The winsomeness of Christ. Love. Rise up. Rise up from what? Well, two things we can talk about. Rise up from your spiritual slumber. Because sometimes the Christian is asleep on a bed of carnal security, indulging in ease and sloth and not advancing the kingdom of God. And as Paul writes in Romans 1311, knowing the time that it is high time now to wake out of sleep, for now is our salvation nearer than what we believe. Wake up as Christians. But secondly, and perhaps more to our point, and perhaps in this case, from your state of dejection, the Christian is cast down in soul. and depressed under a sense of sin and the loss of intimate fellowship with Christ. And he’s feeling all is hopeless. And the psalmist in Psalm 42.5 says, why art thou cast down on my soul? Why art thou disquiet in me? Hope thou in God, for I shall yet praise him for the help of his countenance. Don’t be cast down. Rise up. And then he says, come away. Leave everything that, might dishonor Jesus Christ and join the Savior. And your peace and your comfort and your sweet fellowship with him will be restored. And then he says, my love, my fair one here. He notice how at one point he withdraws. Notice how kindly and gently and gently he speaks to us as his people. He makes you feel that he loves. He loves you nonetheless despite his temporary withdrawal. Despite your failures, despite your weaknesses, he comes to revive you. He comes to stir you up and say, I still love you, I still care about you. And he wants you to rise up out of your state of spiritual slumbered ejection. As you hear Christ’s affectionate call here, my love, my fair one. Since he loves you so much, he wishes to have you in close fellowship with him. And he reminds you of that here. We’re encouraged by the winsomeness of Christ’s love. He wins us over. Notice something else, he tells us here, the winter is past. Verse 11, for lo, the winter is past. The rain. is over and gone. When we think about winter, winter is a time of bleak conditions of chilling rain, in our case snow, coldness. He said, that’s past. That’s gone. The fearful apprehensions of the storms of impending wrath because of our spiritual condition, perhaps spiritual coldness, are declared to be over by our savor. Put that behind you, he says to us here. He has interposed its grace to lift the clouds, to lift the darkness. Hey, springtime is here. The winter’s past. A new and brighter day awaits you. Boy, this is good news, isn’t it? This is glad tidings to the burden’s soul. It’s reason to greatly rejoice. The winter is past. and then we see the welcome of spring. Versus 12 and 13. For the flowers appear on the earth, the time of singing of birds is come, and the voice of the turtle is heard in our land. The fig tree poured forth her green figs, and the vines with the tender grapes give a good smell. The flowers here speak of, I think, the revival of spiritual life. It’s like the believer is like the springtime flower during the winter season. It’s buried in the soil. And then all of a sudden, when things warm up, it springs to life. It comes out of that soil. We read about Israel and Nahalm, 1-4, the flower of Lebanon languisheth. Yes, we were languishing, but Israel shall blossom and bud. Isaiah 276. God’s people blossom and bubble like a flower. When spring of spiritual revival comes, the wilderness and the solitary place shall be glad of them, for the desert shall rejoice and blossom as the rose. It shall blossom abundantly. Isaiah 35, 1, 2. These flowers are of God’s raising. He lifts us out of our spiritual sluggishness, and it gives us. way to now the progression of the soul in growth, in development, spiritualness, something fragrant and lovely appears. The flowers, the revival of spiritual life, the singing of birds, the renewal of joy and praise to God. The singing of birds. Now the turtle here is not the little turtle that crawls on the ground, this is the turtle dove. when he talks about birds he specifically mentions the turtle dove because the bride is often compared to a bird it was in chapter one or chapter 14 excuse me chapter one in verse excuse me chapter two here in verse 14 my oh my dove he says oh deliver not the soul of thy turtle dove under the multitude of the wicked the psalmas says Psalm 7419. So when springtime comes, how do you know it’s spring? Well, the birds are out there. They return. They’re chirping. They’re singing. And there’s sort of a joy and happiness about that, isn’t it? And in the same way, the same manner, the believer, when Christ’s fellowship is restored, there’s joy and happiness that returns. The time of mourning and weeping has been suppressed. time of joyful singing has come. Don’t we have every reason to be joyful? In this sing, the grace of God has been granted to us. Christ’s blood has washed us clean of our sins and transgressions. The spirit has filled us with joy. Thus put praise upon our lips. The singing of our own. birds, the renewal of joy and praise. And then, lastly, fruitfulness abounds. Fruitfulness abounds. The vine and the fig tree are used to portray the people of God. I found Israel like the grapes of the wilderness. I saw your fathers as the first fruit in the fig tree. Josea 9. 10. You remember. in Isaiah chapter 24, he sees a good basket of fruit, ripe fruit. And the indication is they are those who are the good Israelites who receive God’s divine favor. The basket of bad fruit are the evil ones that receive his disfay. For the vineyard of the Lord of hosts is the house of Israel and the men of Judaism’s tender plant, Isaiah 5.7. So abundant fruitfulness, then is the result of restored fellowship with Christ. I am the vine near the branches. He that bided in me and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit. Now we’re abiding in Christ as we ought to be. Fruit here refers to the graces of the spirit. The fruit of the spirit is love and joy and peace and long suffering and gentleness and goodness and faith and meekness and temperance. Against such, there is no law of Galatians 522 and 23. So the Holy Spirit here causes you to bud and blossom and bring forth sweet spiritual fruit, pleasing to the Lord. This is the result of Christ restorings. That’s what we see here. What need you have of Christ granting spiritual renewal in your life? And stirring up your spirit, do you ever pray to that end? Do you ever look at yourself and say, boy, I’m languishing spiritually? Revive my spirit, Lord. What incentive you have then to come to the table of the Lord and seek renewed fellowship with Jesus Christ? Doesn’t he sweetly encourage you to come here? Does he use the kindest words, rise up, and come away with me. I want to have fellowship with you. So let us come to the table with that in mind this morning. Well, this time I’ll have the mark to come. If you would, serve, the Lord’s supper. Let me have a word of prayer.