‘I opened to my beloved, But my beloved had withdrawn himself, and was gone. My soul had failed me when he spoke, I sought him, but I could not find him, I called him, but he gave me no answer. The watchmen that go about the city found me, They smote me, they wounded me, The keepers of the walls took away my mantle from me. “I adjure you, O daughters of Jerusalem, If you find my beloved, That you tell him, that I am sick from love.”
Opening the unbolted door at last, she discovered that her beloved had gone and had left the palace. Hurt at her rebuttal he had deserted her and left her on her own. And all because her soul had failed her when he had spoken.
In the horror of her nightmare she seeks him, but cannot find him. She calls to him but he gives no answer. And so covering herself with a mantle she races out into the streets of the city (compare her similar experience in Song of Solomon 3:2-3). But this time there is no help from the watchmen. In her nightmare the watchmen find her and treat her like a loose woman, knocking her about and wounding her, and she knows that it is what she deserves. Then she reaches the walls of the city and the gatemen tear off her mantle revealing how little she is wearing underneath (it is the stuff of nightmares). But she does not care, for all that she can think of is that she has lost her beloved. And she calls to the women of Jerusalem, and asks that if they see her beloved, they will tell him that she is sick with love for him.
It must be obvious that a lesson is deliberately being given here. It is a clear example of Israel's behavior towards God as they extend to Him their indolent and insulting response to His entreaties, which eventually leads to a half-hearted repentance which simply fails, and which is then followed by severe chastening. It is an illustration of their constant history. It is a warning of the dangers of treating God lightly, and then thinking that we can easily remedy the situation. But how easily we can discover like she did, that once we are on the path of disobedience and failure, it is not so easy to get off it. And it can be very unpleasant on the way.
We should carefully note here the difference between this and the previous nightmare. Then the watchmen had been helpful, but here they treat her with the utmost severity. For then she was not yet married to her bridegroom and they had recognized her need for assistance, but here she has spurned her husband and she is therefore in need of chastisement. We tend to think that the state of the seeker is worse than the lukewarmness of the Christian, but here we are reminded of the severity of God towards the sinfulness of His children. God does not see as a light thing the spurning of His Son's approaches to the hearts of His people. It is time that we awoke, as the king's wife does here, to the genuineness of the anger that is in His heart when we are walking in disobedience. But as here, because our Father loves us if we are really His, He chastens us (Hebrews 12:5-6). And if He does not we should beware. For it will reveal that we are not truly His sons (Hebrews 12:8).