The Love of Christ

DEVOTION

SONG OF SONGS

THE LOVE OF CHRIST

Song 7:1-9

7:1

How beautiful your sandaled feet, O prince's daughter! Your graceful legs are like jewels, the work of a craftsman's hands. 2 Your navel is a rounded goblet that never lacks blended wine. Your waist is a mound of wheat encircled by lilies. 3 Your breasts are like two fawns, twins of a gazelle. 4 Your neck is like an ivory tower. Your eyes are the pools of Heshbon by the gate of Bath Rabbim. Your nose is like the tower of Lebanon looking toward Damascus. 5 Your head crowns you like Mount Carmel. Your hair is like royal tapestry; the king is held captive by its tresses. 6 How beautiful you are and how pleasing, O love, with your delights! 7 Your stature is like that of the palm, and your breasts like clusters of fruit. 8 I said, "I will climb the palm tree; I will take hold of its fruit." May your breasts be like the clusters of the vine, the fragrance of your breath like apples, 9 and your mouth like the best wine.

NIV

This may be what appears to be the most sensual portion of the whole of this Song of Songs. Those who would see this as such, look not into the deep things of God, but into the lust of the flesh. We have just been looking at how the Shulamite, the bride, the spouse of Christ, the church has described his beauty, his holiness, his majestic and divine nature. Now Christ, not to just receive honor and praise, gives it that same honor and praise to this church. This is all either a metaphor, or simile, but most likely because of the “are likes” much of it is a simile, however there are also statement without the “are likes” which would then be a metaphor. Still, the point of all this is to show us the honor Christ gives to his church. It reminds us of the verse which states, how lovely are the feet of him who brings good news.

Isa 52:7

7 How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of those who bring good news, who proclaim peace, who bring good tidings, who proclaim salvation,

NIV

This is the church, the people of God who step out into the world to proclaim Christ. We could go through each of the similes and metaphors to describe how they relate to the church, but that would require far more words, in fact, nearly a whole book could be written on this subject. However, what we need to know is Christ not only loves us, but he adores us, he cherishes us, every part of us, and the whole of us. Those parts of the body described for us tell us of how each member of the church is special in the eyes of our Lord. Sometimes we, as people, have a tendency to view some people as more important than others. Some have more visible roles in the church than others. Some are highly involved in public ministry, those who sing for the glory of God, those who preach in the airwaves, and those prolific writers who fill the shelfs of bookstores. There are many who appear high and lifted up, ones in the church, but here we can see words like feet, legs, naval, waist, breasts, neck, eyes, nose, hair, palm, breath and mouth to show us every aspect of the church, every member of the body of Christ is precious in his sight. We have to notice how some of those body parts of areas we usually cover up, in our modesty. Those are not just the, public figures, but also the quite ones who love him, and maybe sweep the carpet, or clean a window, or are the behind the scenes prayer warrior. Every member of the Body of Christ is special to the Lord. He loves everyone with the passion of a bridegroom as he takes his bride to his chamber. With that same love and devotion a husband has for his new wife, he presents her to his Father, holy and blameless. “Look at my Bride, Father, see how beautiful she is”. This gives us such a word of encouragement, to know Jesus loves us, this we know, for the bible tells us so.