The Bridegroom’s Response
CHAPTER 5 Song of Solomon 5:1
SCENE SECOND. Place: Banquet Hall in the Palace. Speaker: The King
TO THE BRIDE
I am come into my garden,
My sister, my spouse;
I have gathered my myrrh with my spice;
I have eaten my honeycomb with my honey;
I have drunk my wine with my milk.
TO THE GUESTS
Eat, O Friends;
Drink, yea drink abundantly, O beloved.
I. The Bridegroom’s address to the Bride. ‘I am come,’ &c. The King, like Ahasuerus, accepts the Queen’s invitation to the banquet of wine. Expresses his readiness and delight to do so. The believer’s desire for Christ’s presence no sooner expressed than fulfilled. ‘Before they call I will answer; and while they are yet speaking, I will hear’ (Isaiah 65:24). Christ’s visits not long delayed when His people are earnest and ready to receive them. ‘When the hour was come, He sat down with the twelve.’ The Bride herself the banquet; yet a material feast the accompaniment and outward expression of it. The marriage celebrated with a marriage feast. The feast now prepared, and the guests assembled. The bridegroom conducts his bride to the table. Picture of the Marriage Supper of the Lamb, after the reception and presentation of the Bride. Also, historically, of the Last Supper, soon after the triumphant entry into Jerusalem, and immediately preceding the crucifixion. That Supper to be continued in the Church till Christ the Bridegroom come again. Believers, especially while seated at the Lord’s Table, and, according to His dying command, showing forth His death by eating and drinking the symbols of His body and blood in remembrance of Him—His garden and His banquet. The Bride, as well as the table and all its provisions, His own. These provisions only mentioned by the Bride, but enlarged and dwelt on by the rejoicing Bridegroom. A higher value set by Christ on the fruits of His Spirit and His own mediatorial work, than by the believer himself. Those fruits of great variety. Each of them a special delight to the Saviour. The myrrh of a believer’s repentance as acceptable to Christ as the spice of His love. The humblest gifts of love as acceptable as the most costly. The honeycomb as well as the more valuable honey within it. The common milk as well as the richer and more costly wine. The widow’s two mites more precious in His eyes than the larger offerings of the rich. Enough for Him when He can say: ‘She hath done what she could.’ The turtle dove or young pigeons of the poor as acceptable as the lamb or bullock of the rich, when laid in love upon the altar. ‘It is accepted according to what a man hath, and not what he hath not.’ The cheerfulness of the giver makes the acceptableness of the gift. ‘Where Christ gets a welcome, He never complains of the fare.’—Durham. When Christ was risen from the dead, ‘His disciples gave Him a broiled fish and a piece of a honeycomb, and He ate before them.’ (Luke 24:42-43). Probably designed by the Holy Spirit as another Connecting link between the Song and the Gospels.
II. The Bridegroom’s address to the guests. ‘Eat, O Friends,’ &c. The king invites his friends to partake of his joy. Recals the Saviour’s language to His disciples at the Supper table: ‘Take, eat: Drink ye all of it.’ ‘I have not called you servants, but friends: Ye are my friends, if ye do whatsoever I have commanded you.’ The Marriage Supper of the Lamb partaken of by His friends, who are also the Bride herself. Observe—
1. A high honour and privilege to be called Christ’s friends; though a higher still to be called His Bride.
2. Where Christ is, He wishes her friends to be with Him. Those who invited Christ must also invite His friends. At Cana, both Jesus and His disciples were invited to the marriage (John 2:1).
3. Christ’s desire that all who are His should share His joy. His reward to His faithful servants: ‘Enter thou into the joy of thy Lord.’
4. When Christ comes into His Church and people, He brings His provisions with Him; and while He sups with them, He gives them to sup with Him (Revelation 3:20).
5. The provisions of Christ’s house and table, of great variety, richness, and plenty (Psalms 36:8; Psalms 65:4). ‘I am come that my sheep might have life, and have it more abundantly.’ ‘I will satiate the soul of the priests with fatness, and my people shall be satisfied with my goodness; I only satiated the weary soul, and I have replenished evey sorrowful soul’ (Jeremiah 31:14; Jeremiah 31:25). Christ’s provisions both nourishing and refreshing—both milk and wine. Correspond with the blessings of salvation offered in the Gospel (Isaiah 55:1). At His rich banquet, no danger either of surfeit or excess.
6. Christ gives not only wholesome and heaped cheer, but a hearty welcome.—‘Drink, yea drink abundantly.’ ‘Open thy mouth wide, and I will fill it.’ ‘Be ye filled with the Spirit’ (Psalms 81:10; Ephesians 5:18).
7. All the provisions of Christ’s table the purchase of His own suffering and death. Perhaps indicated in the first article mentioned by the king: ‘I have gathered my myrrh.’ Myrrh bitter to the taste. This gathered by the King Himself. Vinegar and gall, the symbol of His own bitter sufferings, handed to Him on the cross, before the wine and milk, emblems of the blessings of salvation, could be handed to us. The bread given at the Supper Table the symbol of His broken Body; the wine that of His shed Blood. ‘The bread that I shall give is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world (John 6:51).
8. A threefold Feast provided by Christ for His friends, as the Bridegroom of the Church—
(1) In their personal and private experience as they journey through the wilderness. The ‘feast of fat things’ made by Christ in His holy mountain, the Church, for the benefit of Zion’s travellers. The ‘bread eaten in secret’ (Revelation 3:20).
(2) In the ordinance of the Lord’s Supper, as first instituted in the upper room at Jerusalem, and celebrated in the Church from time to time until He come again. The happiest experience of the believer often connected with that sacred Feast.
(3) The Marriage Supper of the Lamb after He has come to take the Bride to Himself, and she has made herself ready; the number of the elect being then accomplished, and the kingdom having come. The Lord’s Supper an image and foretaste of that heavenly banquet.