SPRINGTIME
There are different seasons in life. God ordains every season for a purpose. Whatever you are going through today is not an accident or coincidence but a product of the wisdom of God.
One specific season we want to study today is found in Song of Solomon 2. The Shulamite woman spoke of a time her Beloved called her.
Song of Solomon 2:8-14
The voice of my beloved!
Behold, he comes
Leaping upon the mountains,
Skipping upon the hills.
My beloved is like a gazelle or a young stag.
Behold, he stands behind our wall;
He is looking through the windows,
Gazing through the lattice.
My beloved spoke, and said to me:
“Rise up, my love, my fair one,
And come away.
For lo, the winter is past,
The rain is over and gone.
The flowers appear on the earth;
The time of singing has come,
And the voice of the turtledove
Is heard in our land.
The fig tree puts forth her green figs,
And the vines with the tender grapes
Give a good smell.
Rise up, my love, my fair one,
And come away!
“O my dove, in the clefts of the rock,
In the secret places of the cliff,
Let me see your face,
Let me hear your voice;
For your voice is sweet,
And your face is lovely.”
We are told that He came after winter. While there are natural seasons, there certainly are spiritual ones too. Winter in the natural is a time where there is no outward growth. The environment seems lifeless. Trees look dead having no leaves and fruits. There are even animals that take long periods of hibernation. They simply sleep. There is barely any movement.
This can happen to us spiritually as well. There does not seem to be much life in our walk with God. It seems our times with God are dry. We may be barely hearing from God. And such times can be very discouraging. Some may even entertain thoughts that they are being rejected by God. However, we must appreciate this truth that God at times really takes a man through a winter experience for a purpose.
He takes us through periods of dryness at times to stir up in us a longing for Him. He also brings us through winters to test us if we will persevere in pursuing Him even if there are no immediate rewards for seeking Him. Winters can certainly be used by God to purify our motives for seeking Him. They can also develop our perseverance.
Therefore, the right response to winter seasons in our spiritual walk is to press on in God. It is to continue seeking God even when He seems to be quiet. It is to ask God to help us understand the reason for our dryness. Is it because there is a sin in our lives that has not been dealt with? Or is it because God is taking us to a winter season? Or both? If we will just persevere to understand and respond well to the winter, a day shall also come when we shall hear the voice of the Beloved declaring to us the winter is past!
Spring has come! In Song of Solomon 2, it was the Beloved who announced to the Shulamite that the winter is over. Winters in life too shall pass if we will seek to press on to hear His voice.
When the Beloved came He was leaping over mountains and skipping upon hills. It gives you a sense that He came at a speed and with much vibrancy. This speaks to us of how God changes seasons. There are times we feel there is very little change in our situation. We are getting weary waiting. Then God suddenly comes and brings life and deliverance to our situation.
Song of Solomon 2:9-10
My beloved is like a gazelle or a young stag.
Behold, he stands behind our wall;
He is looking through the windows,
Gazing through the lattice.
My beloved spoke, and said to me:
“Rise up, my love, my fair one,
And come away.
He stands by the wall of the Shulamite’s dwelling and tells the Shulamite to rise up and come away with Him.
Song of Solomon 2:11-13
For lo, the winter is past,
The rain is over and gone.
The flowers appear on the earth;
The time of singing has come,
And the voice of the turtledove
Is heard in our land.
The fig tree puts forth her green figs,
And the vines with the tender grapes
Give a good smell.
Rise up, my love, my fair one,
And come away!
For He says, the winter is done and spring has come. We know it’s spring time because he says the flowers are appearing and the fig tree is putting forth her green figs and the vines are with tender grapes. In our spiritual lives, spring can mean times when God begins to reveal Himself afresh to us. It is a time when it is easier to enter the presence of God. It is what the Prophet Isaiah describes “Seeking Him while He may still be found.”
What is striking about this passage is what the Beloved invited the Shulamite to do. He called the Shulamite to come away at a time of spring. Spring time is the time crops are beginning to form and are being prepared for harvest. And I personally would have thought this would be a time of great work. After all, a harvest is coming. Yet, the Beloved was telling the Shulamite to come away, to seize from her efforts and go with the Beloved to be with Him. Oh how we need to understand the ways of God!
What does it mean to come away? Song of Solomon 2 gives us some understanding of this. For one, the Beloved called the Shulamite to come out of her dwelling. The winter has kept the Shulamite within the confines of her house. But now that the spring has come, the Beloved gave two instructions - to rise up and come away.
After long periods of dryness in our walk with God, we can simply get used to routine devotions and seeking God where we simply read the Bible and pray our own prayers and really not contend for God to come because you do not expect Him to show up anyway. Yet, when spring comes, God will call us to rise up from our lethargic ways and come out of our comfort zones to seek Him. Perhaps you are very comfortable doing your devotions at night in your bed while lying down until you fall asleep. But when spring comes, God may call you to wake up in the morning and find a place where you can sit up and wait on God.
Coming away with God requires rising up and leaving our comfort zones because unless we get out of our comfort zones, we will not see the beauty of spring.
Spring is such a beautiful season! Flowers bloom and lands start to become lush again. Animals are going to come out from their hiding places and birds will once more fill the air. Nature will come back to life! But all this wonder will escape a man who stays inside his house. And so it is with our spiritual springs. We will miss out on fresh encounters with God if we will not heed the invitation of the Lord to come out of our comfort zones to be with Him.
Coming away may also call for a cutting away, a letting go of certain things God may ask of us. We see this more clearly when we consider where the Beloved wanted to take the Shulamite.
Let us consider for a moment what the cleft of the rock is. It is like a narrow cut on a big boulder of rock. It is described in the passage as a secret place of the cliff. Spiritually this can imply our secret place, our hidden lives. This is the part in our day that is away from the public eye. It may also refer to our inner life. And when I browsed through the Scriptures that mentioned the cleft of the rock, there were two main things people did there. It was either a place where people encountered God or it was a place where people did idol worship perhaps to conceal it. And the same goes for our hidden lives. Being away from the eyes of others, it can be a place where we are most real. And the question then is, in those areas of our lives that are concealed from others, where only God can see what is taking place, are we meeting God or are other loves and passions reigning?
The Beloved is calling out to the Shulamite to come away with Him to the cleft of the rock. But as you see, the cleft of the rock is quite narrow. There is very little place for bringing other things along. When God invites us to come away with Him, it may also mean cutting away from things we cannot bring along in the cleft. These can be other loves and passions that are preoccupying us too much. You see a cleft does not have much space. It can only have you and God in it. If you bring other things along, you can crowd out God.
That narrow cleft where God wants to bring us can mean coming before God bare, not bringing along past victories or even ministries in the hope this can win the Lord’s heart. Yes, the Lord desires to see us victorious and fruitful but in that secret place of intimacy with God, more than anything He is interested with our hearts. More than anything God is after relationship. And there in that cleft, He does not want us to strive to earn His approval by bringing in our accomplishments. He simply desires two things – to see our face and hear our voice.
He desires to see our beauty. What is that beauty? It is seeing His image in us. He desires to hear our voice. He desires to hear us pray and worship Him. Essentially He desires to hear our voice because He delights in communicating with us.
But there is more to spring than just a revival of our personal walk with God.
The latter rain here speaks of the spring rain. There were two rains that came each year in Israel, the former rain which took place every autumn that softened the soil preparing it for sowing seeds and the latter rain, which is the spring rain that prepared the crops for the harvest. The prophet Joel prophesied the coming of the former rain and latter rain. This means the outpouring of the last days, the greatest revival the world will ever witness.
But I submit that this coming revival in the church will begin with those who will heed the invitation of the Bridegroom to come away now, those who will seek the Lord while He may be found, those who will be choosing to be intimate with God and letting go of other loves, those who will reflect His face and communicate with Him to harness their relationship with the Lord.
Ecclesiastes 3:1However, simply knowing that there must be a reason for the season we are going through is not enough. We are told that the sons of Issachar had an understanding of the times and seasons.
To everything there is a season,
A time for every purpose under heaven:
1 Chronicles 12:32They did not just know that there is a purpose for their season. They knew what it was. We need to be the same. We must seek to be apprehended by the truth that there is a purpose for our experiences and seek to understand it. While appreciating that there is a purpose to all our experiences can bring encouragement, knowing what that purpose is not only provides encouragement but also wisdom. Because they had an understanding of the times, the sons of Issachar also knew what their people ought to do.
of the sons of Issachar who had understanding of the times, to know what Israel ought to do, their chiefs were two hundred; and all their brethren were at their command
One specific season we want to study today is found in Song of Solomon 2. The Shulamite woman spoke of a time her Beloved called her.
Song of Solomon 2:8-14
The voice of my beloved!
Behold, he comes
Leaping upon the mountains,
Skipping upon the hills.
My beloved is like a gazelle or a young stag.
Behold, he stands behind our wall;
He is looking through the windows,
Gazing through the lattice.
My beloved spoke, and said to me:
“Rise up, my love, my fair one,
And come away.
For lo, the winter is past,
The rain is over and gone.
The flowers appear on the earth;
The time of singing has come,
And the voice of the turtledove
Is heard in our land.
The fig tree puts forth her green figs,
And the vines with the tender grapes
Give a good smell.
Rise up, my love, my fair one,
And come away!
“O my dove, in the clefts of the rock,
In the secret places of the cliff,
Let me see your face,
Let me hear your voice;
For your voice is sweet,
And your face is lovely.”
We are told that He came after winter. While there are natural seasons, there certainly are spiritual ones too. Winter in the natural is a time where there is no outward growth. The environment seems lifeless. Trees look dead having no leaves and fruits. There are even animals that take long periods of hibernation. They simply sleep. There is barely any movement.
This can happen to us spiritually as well. There does not seem to be much life in our walk with God. It seems our times with God are dry. We may be barely hearing from God. And such times can be very discouraging. Some may even entertain thoughts that they are being rejected by God. However, we must appreciate this truth that God at times really takes a man through a winter experience for a purpose.
He takes us through periods of dryness at times to stir up in us a longing for Him. He also brings us through winters to test us if we will persevere in pursuing Him even if there are no immediate rewards for seeking Him. Winters can certainly be used by God to purify our motives for seeking Him. They can also develop our perseverance.
Therefore, the right response to winter seasons in our spiritual walk is to press on in God. It is to continue seeking God even when He seems to be quiet. It is to ask God to help us understand the reason for our dryness. Is it because there is a sin in our lives that has not been dealt with? Or is it because God is taking us to a winter season? Or both? If we will just persevere to understand and respond well to the winter, a day shall also come when we shall hear the voice of the Beloved declaring to us the winter is past!
Spring has come! In Song of Solomon 2, it was the Beloved who announced to the Shulamite that the winter is over. Winters in life too shall pass if we will seek to press on to hear His voice.
When the Beloved came He was leaping over mountains and skipping upon hills. It gives you a sense that He came at a speed and with much vibrancy. This speaks to us of how God changes seasons. There are times we feel there is very little change in our situation. We are getting weary waiting. Then God suddenly comes and brings life and deliverance to our situation.
Song of Solomon 2:9-10
My beloved is like a gazelle or a young stag.
Behold, he stands behind our wall;
He is looking through the windows,
Gazing through the lattice.
My beloved spoke, and said to me:
“Rise up, my love, my fair one,
And come away.
He stands by the wall of the Shulamite’s dwelling and tells the Shulamite to rise up and come away with Him.
Song of Solomon 2:11-13
For lo, the winter is past,
The rain is over and gone.
The flowers appear on the earth;
The time of singing has come,
And the voice of the turtledove
Is heard in our land.
The fig tree puts forth her green figs,
And the vines with the tender grapes
Give a good smell.
Rise up, my love, my fair one,
And come away!
For He says, the winter is done and spring has come. We know it’s spring time because he says the flowers are appearing and the fig tree is putting forth her green figs and the vines are with tender grapes. In our spiritual lives, spring can mean times when God begins to reveal Himself afresh to us. It is a time when it is easier to enter the presence of God. It is what the Prophet Isaiah describes “Seeking Him while He may still be found.”
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What is striking about this passage is what the Beloved invited the Shulamite to do. He called the Shulamite to come away at a time of spring. Spring time is the time crops are beginning to form and are being prepared for harvest. And I personally would have thought this would be a time of great work. After all, a harvest is coming. Yet, the Beloved was telling the Shulamite to come away, to seize from her efforts and go with the Beloved to be with Him. Oh how we need to understand the ways of God!
What does it mean to come away? Song of Solomon 2 gives us some understanding of this. For one, the Beloved called the Shulamite to come out of her dwelling. The winter has kept the Shulamite within the confines of her house. But now that the spring has come, the Beloved gave two instructions - to rise up and come away.
After long periods of dryness in our walk with God, we can simply get used to routine devotions and seeking God where we simply read the Bible and pray our own prayers and really not contend for God to come because you do not expect Him to show up anyway. Yet, when spring comes, God will call us to rise up from our lethargic ways and come out of our comfort zones to seek Him. Perhaps you are very comfortable doing your devotions at night in your bed while lying down until you fall asleep. But when spring comes, God may call you to wake up in the morning and find a place where you can sit up and wait on God.
Coming away with God requires rising up and leaving our comfort zones because unless we get out of our comfort zones, we will not see the beauty of spring.
Spring is such a beautiful season! Flowers bloom and lands start to become lush again. Animals are going to come out from their hiding places and birds will once more fill the air. Nature will come back to life! But all this wonder will escape a man who stays inside his house. And so it is with our spiritual springs. We will miss out on fresh encounters with God if we will not heed the invitation of the Lord to come out of our comfort zones to be with Him.
Source: pixabay.com
Coming away may also call for a cutting away, a letting go of certain things God may ask of us. We see this more clearly when we consider where the Beloved wanted to take the Shulamite.
Song of Solomon 2:14He wants to bring the Shunnamite to the clefts of the rock. Have you wondered why that was the place the Beloved chose to bring her to?
“O my dove, in the clefts of the rock,
In the secret places of the cliff,
Let me see your face,
Let me hear your voice;
For your voice is sweet,
And your face is lovely.”
Let us consider for a moment what the cleft of the rock is. It is like a narrow cut on a big boulder of rock. It is described in the passage as a secret place of the cliff. Spiritually this can imply our secret place, our hidden lives. This is the part in our day that is away from the public eye. It may also refer to our inner life. And when I browsed through the Scriptures that mentioned the cleft of the rock, there were two main things people did there. It was either a place where people encountered God or it was a place where people did idol worship perhaps to conceal it. And the same goes for our hidden lives. Being away from the eyes of others, it can be a place where we are most real. And the question then is, in those areas of our lives that are concealed from others, where only God can see what is taking place, are we meeting God or are other loves and passions reigning?
Source: pixabay.com
The Beloved is calling out to the Shulamite to come away with Him to the cleft of the rock. But as you see, the cleft of the rock is quite narrow. There is very little place for bringing other things along. When God invites us to come away with Him, it may also mean cutting away from things we cannot bring along in the cleft. These can be other loves and passions that are preoccupying us too much. You see a cleft does not have much space. It can only have you and God in it. If you bring other things along, you can crowd out God.
That narrow cleft where God wants to bring us can mean coming before God bare, not bringing along past victories or even ministries in the hope this can win the Lord’s heart. Yes, the Lord desires to see us victorious and fruitful but in that secret place of intimacy with God, more than anything He is interested with our hearts. More than anything God is after relationship. And there in that cleft, He does not want us to strive to earn His approval by bringing in our accomplishments. He simply desires two things – to see our face and hear our voice.
He desires to see our beauty. What is that beauty? It is seeing His image in us. He desires to hear our voice. He desires to hear us pray and worship Him. Essentially He desires to hear our voice because He delights in communicating with us.
But there is more to spring than just a revival of our personal walk with God.
Joe1 2:23-24
Be glad then, you children of Zion,
And rejoice in the Lord your God;
For He has given you the former rain faithfully,
And He will cause the rain to come down for you—
The former rain,
And the latter rain in the first month.
The threshing floors shall be full of wheat,
And the vats shall overflow with new wine and oil.
Source: pixabay.com
The latter rain here speaks of the spring rain. There were two rains that came each year in Israel, the former rain which took place every autumn that softened the soil preparing it for sowing seeds and the latter rain, which is the spring rain that prepared the crops for the harvest. The prophet Joel prophesied the coming of the former rain and latter rain. This means the outpouring of the last days, the greatest revival the world will ever witness.
But I submit that this coming revival in the church will begin with those who will heed the invitation of the Bridegroom to come away now, those who will seek the Lord while He may be found, those who will be choosing to be intimate with God and letting go of other loves, those who will reflect His face and communicate with Him to harness their relationship with the Lord.
Exodus 33:21-23
And the Lord said, “Here is a place by Me, and you shall stand on the rock. So it shall be, while My glory passes by, that I will put you in the cleft of the rock, and will cover you with My hand while I pass by. Then I will take away My hand, and you shall see My back; but My face shall not be seen.”
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