Notes
Song of Solomon 8:5. I raised thee up under the apple tree: there thy mother brought thee forth; there the brought thee forth that bare thee.
‘I raised thee up,’ עוֹרַרְתִּיךָ ’orarlicha, Pilel of עוּר to be awake; literally, I awaked thee out of sleep; according to many moderns, here applied to awakening the previously slumbering affections. So ZÖCKLER. I incited thee [to love]; discovering mine to thee, I obtained thine. GESENIUS. I inspired thee with love; properly, aroused thee. DE WETTE, BOOTHROYD. Excited thee to love. WILLIAMS. Wooed thee. PERCY, GOOD. FRY: Raised thee up; perhaps, resuscitated thee,—the Bride originally found by her husband an exposed infant (Ezekiel 16:3-6). The Masoretic pointing in our Hebrew Bibles probably in this case faulty, as determining the speaker to be the Bride instead of the Bridegroom, to whom the words appear much more naturally to belong, and to whom they are ascribed by all the Greek Fathers, and many of the Latins. ‘Under the apple-tree.’ Under this apple-tree,—pointing to it; one immediately adjoining her mother’s house, and probably shading one of the windows. ZÖCKLER. This apple-tree one among many other places recalling their first love-intercourse. DELITZSCH. Reminding her of their first interview. BOOTHROYD. Referring to the place of her birth. SANDERS. In the woods, as rustic and poor. SANCTIUS. Reminding her of her humble origin. FRY. Refers to the scene in chap. Song of Solomon 2:3. WILLIAMS. SEPTUAGINT, and VULGATE: Under an apple-tree I awoke thee up (ἑξηγειρα). COVERDALE and MATTHEWS: I am the same that awakened thee up among the apple-trees. EWALD prefers adhering to the Masoretic pointing, and understands by the apple-tree the place where the Bride sometimes awoke the Bridegroom when resting at mid-day, and which had seen him born.—‘There she brought thee forth that bare thee.’ חִבְּלָתְךָ khibbelatheeha; Piel of חָבַל, to bend, twist; hence Piel, to bring forth with pain. So GESENIUS and most. There, where that apple-tree stands, or the dwelling shaded by it, she travailed with thee. ZÖCKLER. Others, however, understand the verb as From חָבַל to plight, as Exodus 22:26; Deuteronomy 24:6; Deuteronomy 24:17; ‘pledged or contracted thee to me.’ So HOUBIGANT, MICHAELIS, A. CLARKE, GOOD, BOOTHROYD, &c. DELITZSCH. Under the same tree, Shulamite received from her mother her life, from Solomon his love. WILLIAMS. Reference to the scene in chap. Song of Solomon 2:3, where we may suppose the Bride’s mother to have been present, and some ceremony here alluded to have taken place. PERCY. Bridegroom makes a solemn recapitulation of the contract they had entered into. SEPTUAGINT. There thy mother travailed with thee (ὡδίνησέ σε). VULGATE, using a different reading: Was corrupted. Followed by the DOUAI version. COVERDALE. Bare thee. So LUTHER, DIODATI, MARTIN, and the DUTCH version. PAGNINUS. Conceived thee. PISCATOR, JUNIUS, and TREMELLIUS: Was in labour with thee. Allegorically:—WICKLIFFE. ‘The voice of Christ to the synagogue; of the holy cross. DOUAI. Christ redeemed the Gentiles at the foot of the cross. MATTHEWS. Voice of the Spouse before the spouseless. DEL RIO. Bridegroom relates that the beginning and increase of his love to his beloved had manifested itself under the apple-tree; reminding her of her original misery and poverty, in order to keep her from pride and elation. FROMONDI. I raised thee up when dead under the forbidden tree, by sprinkling thee with the blood of my cross; that as death reigned by one tree, he might be conquered by another. SANCTIUS. I raised thee up when abandoned by thy mother to perish (Ezekiel 16:3-6). DAVIDSON. Raised thee up after the fall; or, by the preaching of the Gospel. WEISS. I, the risen Saviour, aroused thee under the apple or citron tree; the cross, where the sleeping Church was aroused; for example, John, Joseph, Nicodemus, the thief, &c. GILL. The apple-tree Christ Himself, or the ordinances of the Gospel. RASHI, following the Rabbinical pointing. The Bride seeks to stir up the love of her Beloved. COCCEIUS. The Bride arouses Christ by her prayers in time of trouble and persecution, as the disciples did in the storm. J. H. MICHAELIS. Arouses Him by earnest prayer to shew Himself more than formerly. AINSWORTH. Taking hold of the covenant of grace and the promises of life in Christ, the apple-tree of life and grace (chap. Song of Solomon 2:3), she surred Him up by prayer for her help and comfort. GILL: Not finding Him in ordinances, she raised Him up by earnest prayer. FAUSSET: I excited thy comparsion to come and save me from my sin and misery under the apple-tree in Eden;—spoken by converted Israel as the type of the whole redeemed humanity. M. STUART: She reminds the king of his own outcast condition. HAHN: Pledges herself solemnly to the king for ever, and the king himself to her, in the cool shade of the apple-tree of the garden (chap. Song of Solomon 6:11); in his home-land in Canaan, her misery out in the open field moved his loving heart to sympathy. According to AMBROSE and others: The synagogue the Church’s mother, who brought forth the Church, by shedding the blood of Christ through which she is born again. THEODORET: The grace of the Holy Spirit in connection with baptism. HONORIUS: The flesh of Eve or human nature. DURHAM: Believers the mother of Christ, as bringing forth His image in the souls of men, and so giving Him a being in their heart. AINSWORTH: By the preaching of the Gospel, attended with labour, sorrow, and difficulty. J. H. MICHAELIS: By doing the Father’s will, and conceiving in themselves the image of Christ by a true faith. MERCER: When fleeing to Him for refuge. M. STUART: Refers to the time of sorrow or birth—pangs that preceded Christ’s resurrection from the dead. HAHN: With pain His people brought Him forth to themselves as their King.
Song of Solomon 8:6. The coals thereof are coals of fire which hath a most vehement flame. ‘The coals thereof.’ רְשָׁפֶיהָ reshapheha, plural of רֶשֶׁף resheph, a flame; from the unused root רָשַׁף to inflame or kindle. GESENIUS, ZÖCKLER. A blaze or flush of lightning. (Deuteronomy 32:24; Job 5:7; Habakkuk 3:5) WEISS. EWALD derives rather from רשף to creep, creep forth; applied to the plague, and so the heat of the plague: hence, heat or flame in general. SEPTUAGINT: Its wings. VULGATE and AQUILA: Its lamps and torches. SYMMACHUS: its attacks. SYRIAC: Its sparks. LUTHER: Its flame or heat. DIODATI and MARTIN: Its burning coals. So the Rabbins, who make it like רֶצֶף retseph, a coal, and who are followed by PAGNINUS, MONTANUS, MERCER, PISCATOR, &c. MUNSTER has ‘torches.’ AINSWORTH: Burning coals or darts of love that pierce and enflame the heart. So PATRICK: Darts of arrows. PERCI prefers ‘sparks.’ SANCTIUS applies it to ‘jealousy’, which tortures like fire.—‘Which hath a most vehement flame.’ שַׁלְהֶבֶתיָה shalhebhethyah, from לֶהָבָה lehabhah, a ‘flame’ with שׁ ‘which.’ Another reading, the Recension of Ben Naphtali, divides it into two words, שַׁלהֶבֶת יָהּ, shalhebheth Yah, ‘the flame of Yah, or Jehovah.’ EWALD thinks that probably both words were originally read, (‘its flames are the flames of Jehovah,’) and that one of them dropped out; and remarks that יָה for יהוה was seldom used before Solomon’s time, its use having risen when the name of Jehovah began to be added as a surname; and that it occurs only once in the Pentateuch (Exodus 15:2). ZÖCKLER, who translates, a ‘blaze of Jehovah,’ observes that this name of God is mentioned only in this passage of the Song, ‘the radiant apex in the developement of its doctrinal and ethical contents.’ According to ZÖCKLER, the flame not natural, but kindled and sustained by God Himself; love, and jealousy, its intense synonym, appearing here like a brightly blazing fire, sending forth a multitude of sparks or flames into men’s hearts. So DELITZSCH: A flame of Jehovah, as kindled by Him; hence unquenchable. PATRICK: ‘Fire of the flame of the Lord,’ i.e., mighty and exceedingly scorching. SIMON derives the word from the Chaldee or Syriac שלהב to burn; the ש servile marking the Shaphal species (GREEN). PARKHURST derives it from של to loose, and להב a flame,—a dissolving fire WEISS, in like manner reading as one word, explains as ‘a stream, volume or torrent of flame, as Ezekiel 20:47; a conflagration of flames (Job 15:30). PERCY: ‘A flame of Jah,’—which Jehovah kindles in the clouds,—a most vehement flame (Job 1:16). WILLIAMS refers the expression to the sacrificial flame, which, according to Jewish tradition, no rain could extinguish. The SEPTUAGINT has simply: ‘Its flames.’ VULGATE: ‘And of flames,’ connecting with ‘fire.’ TARGUM: Like the coals of the fire of hell, which the Lord shall kindle at the last day. COVERDALE and MATTHEWS: A very flame of the Lord. GENEVA: A vehement flame. DUTCH: As a flame of the Lord. DIODATI: A very great flame. MARTIN: A very vehement flame. TIRGURINE: Which have been kindled by the flame of God. MERCER and MONTANUS: A flame of the Lord. JUNIUS and TREMELLIUS: A Divine flame. COCCEIUS: A flame of God,—bright and inextinguishable. PAGNINUS: A most vehement flame. GROTIUS: As a flame of God, i.e., a whole burnt-offering. VATABLUS: As the flame of Jab or God, i.e, most vehement. PISCATOR: Which Jehovah kindles; the genitive of Authorship. JUNIUS: The greatest flame, as being the Spirit’s most powerful light, to endure for ever. AINSWORTH: The vehement consuming flame of the Lord; piercing and devouring lightning; the fire of His Spirit. PATRICK: Burning with a violent and inextinguishable heat; mightily moved by the Lord.
SCENS SECOND. Place: The Country in the neighbourhood of Shulamite’s native home. Speakers: The King, Shulamite, and Country People.
CHAPTER 8 Song of Solomon 8:5-7
SHULAMITE ADMIRED BY THE COUNTRY PEOPLE
COUNTRY PEOPLE
Who is this
That cometh up out of the wilderness,
Leaning upon her beloved?
Shulamite’s proposal to go forth into the country lovingly accepted by the King. The journey commenced, and now nearly completed. The happy pair now arrived at the neighbourhood of Shulamite’s native home. Seen approaching, as she leans on her husband’s arm. The Bride an object of admiration to the rustic inhabitants, who exclaim: ‘Who is this?’ &c. Beautiful and instructive picture of the believer while in this world. True always; especially true in the Pentecostal or primitive age of the Church. Notice in regard to
The Believer’s Posture.
I. The POSTURE itself. Two features—
1. ‘Coming up out of the wilderness.’
(1) ‘Coming.’ The life of believers a journey, Like Moses to Hobab: ‘We are journeying to the place,’ &c. Sinners not pardoned to sit still. Brought up out of the horrible pit, and our feet set upon the rock, our ‘goings’ are established. The healed and pardoned paralytic takes up his couch and goes to his house. Believers have a home, and they go to it.
(2) Coining ‘up.’ The journey of believers an upward one, Their home on high. The ‘heavenly Jerusalem;’ the house with ‘many mansions;’ the ‘better country, that is, an heavenly.’ Their affections set on things above. Their journey an ascent. Their motto, Excelsior. Higher and higher. Progress heavenward characteristic of the believer. On the ladder, and ascending by it. Ascent often difficult and laborious. Descent easy, and requiring little effort. Salvation to be wrought out with fear and trembling. All diligence required to add to our faith, virtue, &c.
(3) Coming up ‘out of the wilderness.’ The world in which the believer find himself, a wilderness. So Israel’s journey to Canaan lay through a desert. A wilderness is—(i.) A place of hunger and thirst. (ii.) A place of thorns and briars. (iii.) A place of danger both for man and beast. The world unable to satisfy the wants and cravings of the soul. Full of trials and temptations. The place of the roaring lion, who seeks whom he may devour. An enemy’s country. Believers, like others, once abiding in the wilderness. Willing to remain in it, though finding neither rest nor satisfaction. Aroused by a gracious voice: ‘Arise and depart ye; this is not your rest.’ Made to see it to be a wilderness. Like the prodigal son, they see their misery, and think of a home. Taking Jesus as their Saviour, they set out for it. Their back now to the wilderness, and their face to heaven. In the world, but no longer of it.
2. ‘Leaning on her Beloved.’ Implies—
(1) The company of her Beloved. Christ’s presence promised to His people in their journey through the wilderness. ‘Fear not, for I am with thee.’ ‘I will never leave thee nor forsake thee.’ ‘I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world.’ Hence their fearlessness. ‘Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil; for Thou art with me’ (Psalms 2:3-4).
(2) The support of her Beloved. Christ the ‘strength,’ as well as ‘righteousness,’ of His people. His promise: ‘My grace is sufficient for thee; My strength is made perfect in weakness.’ Believers taught the ‘happy art’ of depending on Christ for all things. ‘I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.’ Believers ‘lean’ on Christ—(i.) for acceptance with God, through His perfect obedience. (ii.) For holiness and victory over sin, through the grace of His Spirit; (iii.) For protection and preservation, by His Almighty power. (iv.) For strength and grace for the performance of every duty, and the endurance of every trial. Constant supplies of grace needed and received out of Christ’s fulness for the wilderness journey. Great part of heavenly wisdom to lean on Christ at every step, and at every turn of the road. The life of believers a life of faith and dependence on Christ. The part of faith to lay the whole weight of our salvation, and the burden of every duty and difficulty on the Beloved. Believers only go upward as they lean on Christ. Resting on Christ essential to progress in holiness. Spiritual growth marked by conscious weakness leaning on perfect strength. Hence Milton’s paradox: ‘The omnipotence of human weakness.’ Christ honoured and pleased by such dependence. To further it, He often removes from us every other support. Hence Paul’s ‘thorn in the flesh.’
The believer’s life therefore—
(1) A laborious one. An upward journey through a wilderness.
(2) A pleasant one. The company of the Beloved. Pleasant company makes pleasant travel.
(3) A safe one. An Almighty arm to lean upon.
II. The ENQUIRY. ‘Who is this?’ The sight—
(1) A rare one. Far from common to see an individual going up from the wilderness, with his back to the world and his face to heaven, and especially as leaning on Jesus as his Beloved. The opposite of the character of the world. The sight everywhere met with is, worldliness, pride, and self-dependence.
(2) A beautiful and engaging one. Beautiful in itself, and beautiful in the eyes of God, angels, and all right-minded persons, to see an individual giving up sin and the world, and with Jesus as his Beloved and only trust, earnestly proceeding on his way to heaven. Believers most amiable when seen going up out of the wilderness leaning on their Beloved. Worldliness and pride the blight and bane of the Church. A proud and worldly-minded professor a stumbling-block to the world. A humble and heavenly walk attractive even in the eyes of ungodly men.
(3) An open and conspicuous one. Believer, going up from the wilderness leaning on Jesus, not able to be hid. A city set on a hill. The Master’s will that they should be seen. ‘Let your light so shine before men,’ &c. The object not that they should be admired, but that God their Father should be glorified. Believers to be ‘living Epistles of Christ, known and read of all men.’ ‘He that doeth truth cometh to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest, that they are wrought in God.’ Believers to be God’s witnesses in a sinful world. Their holy and heavenly life to be His constant testimony. Men to take knowledge of them that they have been with Jesus. Made a ‘spectacle to the world’ for God’s glory and the world’s good. The heathen’s testimony to the early Church: ‘See how these Christians love one another.’ Men to be drawn to Christ not merely by the preacher’s lips, but by the believer’s life.
THE REMINISCENCE
THE KING.
To Shulamite, who enters with him, leaning on his arm.
I raised thee up under the apple tree:
There thy mother brought thee forth,
There she brought thee forth that bare thee.
One of the obscurest passages in the poem. Apart from Jewish pointing, nothing in the form of the words to indicate who is the speaker. That pointing, comparatively modern, makes the words to be addressed to the King, and thus to be spoken by Shulamite. More reason, however, with all the Greek Fathers, and many of the Latin ones, to regard the King himself as the speaker, and Shulamite the party addressed. Moved, perhaps, by the sight of a familiar object as they approach her mother’s dwelling, he reminds his beloved of what took place there at an early period of their connection; points her to the apple or citron-tree growing near the house, which had witnessed his endeavours, under its pleasant shade, to gain her affections, and his subsequent happiness when he there received her as his betrothed at her mother’s hand. ‘I raised thee up (or ‘excited thee’ to love) under the apple tree: there thy mother brought thee forth (rather ‘pledged thee’ to me), there she brought thee forth (pledged thee) that ‘bare thee.’ Observe—
1. First love and espousals between Christ and the believer never to be forgotten. Never forgotten on Christ’s side. ‘I remember thee, the kindness of thy youth, the love of thine espousals’ (Jeremiah 2:2). Believer’s first love greatly prized and fondly looked back upon by the Saviour. ‘I have somewhat against thee, because thou hast left thy first love’ (Revelation 2:4). Believers, on their part, to cherish the remembrance of Christ’s early gracious dealings with their soul, and of their early affection and surrender of themselves to Him.
2. Christ the first mover in the saving connection between a soul and Himself. ‘I raised thee up’—excited thee to love. ‘Ye have not chosen Me, but I have chosen you.’ The first spark of love to Christ in the soul kindled by Christ Himself. ‘We love Him because He first loved us.’ ‘I have loved thee with an everlasting love; therefore with loving-kindness have I drawn thee.’ ‘I will betroth thee unto Me in lovingkindness and in mercies’ (Hosea 2:19; Jeremiah 31:3). The soul espoused by Christ first ‘raised up’ by Him from spiritual death. ‘Raised up’ from a state of degradation and misery. Raised as a ‘beggar from the dunghill, to inherit the throne of glory’ (1 Samuel 2:8). ‘Raised up’ from the deep spiritual sleep into which sin has cast mankind’ (Ephesians 5:14). ‘Raised up,’ finally, from the dejection and despondency common upon conviction of sin’ (Acts 2:37-38; Acts 16:30-31).
3. Those places precious and memorable to the believer that are associated with his early love and espousals to Christ. The place of the altar where the Lord first appeared to Abraham in Canaan fondly remembered by him. Jacob reminded by the Lord Himself of the place where He first appeared to him as his covenant God. Those places of early love and communion afterwards gratefully visited. Their frequent remembrance profitable to the reviving and stimulating of love and devotedness to the Saviour.
4. Spiritual ordinances, in which Christ meets and espouses souls to Himself, fitly compared to an
Apple Tree.
(1) Because full of Christ, the True Apple Tree (chap. Song of Solomon 2:3).
(2) From the sweet refreshment afforded in them to quickened souls. The apple or citron tree distinguished for its refreshing fragrance.
(3) From the rich and reviving fruit enjoyed in connection with them. ‘Thy words were found unto me, and I did eat them; and Thy words were the joy and rejoicing of my heart.’ ‘My flesh is meat indeed, and My blood is drink indeed.’
(4) From the comfort and strength afforded in them in times of temptation and trial. The citron-tree remarkable for its shade. The Psalmist’s experience: ‘One thing have I desired of the Lord, and that will I seek after, that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life; to behold the beauty of the Lord and to inquire in His temple: for in the time of trouble He shall hide me in His pavilion. Mine head shall be lifted up above mine enemies round about me’ (Psalms 27:4-6).
5. The part of the Church of Christ not only to ‘bring forth,’ but to ‘pledge’ souls to Him as His Bride. The Church to be a mother of children, who, with herself and through her instrumentality, shall be espoused to Christ. Paul, as a minister of Christ, a representative of the Church when he says: ‘My little children, of whom I travail in birth, until Christ be formed in you.’ ‘I have espoused you to one husband.’ The Church never to forget her high calling, and never to be satisfied unless ‘pledging’ souls to Christ as His Bride.
6. The divinely instituted ordinances of the Church, the means by which souls are ordinarily ‘brought forth’ to a spiritual life and pledged to Christ as His Bride. ‘There thy mother brought thee forth’ (pledged thee). The ordinances of the Church instituted by Christ Himself for this purpose (Ephesians 4:8-12). ‘In Christ Jesus have I begotten you by the Gospel.’ Paul and Barnabas at Iconium ‘so spake that a great multitude both of the Jews and also of the Greeks believed’ (Acts 14:1).
THE BRIDE’S REQUEST
SHULAMITE, to the King
Set me as a seal upon thy heart,
As a seal upon thine arm:
For love is strong as death,
Jealousy is cruel as the grave:
The coals thereof are coals of fire,
Which hath a most vehement flame.
Many waters cannot quench love;
Neither can the floods drown it.
If a man would give all the substance of his house for love,
It would utterly be contemned.
Shulamite, still leaning on her Beloved, and taking occasion from the tender recollection he had just uttered, expresses on her side a desire indicative of the ardour and steadfastness of her affection. ‘Set me as a seal upon thine heart,’ &c. As a plea for her request, she urges the nature of true love. ‘For love is strong as death, &c. Observe—
I. The REQUEST. ‘Set me as a seal,’ &c. Seals well-known to have been used, as they still are, for ratifying and confirming covenants (Nehemiah 9:38; Jeremiah 32:10; Jeremiah 32:44; Romans 4:11). Used also for security (Deuteronomy 32:34; Job 14:17; Matthew 27:66; Romans 15:28). May here allude to the practice of impressing marks upon the person with henna dye, or other material (Revelation 7:3; Revelation 14:1; Revelation 20:3). Shulamite’s desire to have her name or likeness stamped upon her Beloved’s heart and arm; on his heart or breast as the seat of affection, and on his arm, where it might be constantly in view. The desire of every loving heart to be kept in affectionate remembrance by one who is the object of its love. Love must have love in return. A fear, however, that love might be diminished by distance, especially where it may have rivals. Love trembles at the thought of the proverb proving true: ‘Out of sight, out of mind.’ The believer’s strongest desire to be loved and affectionately remembered by his Saviour. ‘Lord, remember me,’ a prayer both in the Old and New Testament (Psalms 106:8; Luke 23:42). The believer conscious how unworthy he is of Christ’s love, yet cannot live without an assurance of it. That assurance granted in the words of the inspired prophet: ‘Can a woman forget her sucking child, that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb? Yea, she may forget; yet will I not forget thee. Behold I have graven thee upon the palms of my hands; thy walls are continually before me’ (Isaiah 49:14-16). Typical of this fact, the names of the twelve tribes were engraved on the High Priest’s breast-plate and shoulder-pieces, and carried with him into the Holy of Holies before the Lord (Exodus 28:6-30). The import of the request—
(1) Preciousness and dearness in the sight of the Beloved (Jeremiah 22:24; Haggai 2:23).
(2) Nearness to, or rather oneness with, Him.
(3) An unchanging and permanent place in His affection.
(4) A constant remembrance by Him. Observe—
1. Present communion to be improved by importunate pleading.
2. Love evinces its reality and ardour by seeking greater nearness and unchanging steadfastness.
3. The believer’s earnest desire and distinguished privilege to be cherished by Christ’s heart, and supported by Christ’s arm.
II. The PLEA. ‘For love is strong as death,’ &c. The ardour and strength of Shulamite’s affection, the reason of the desire to have an abiding place in that of her Beloved. Ardent love can only live on love. Conscious of the ardour and steadfastness of her own affection, she desires it to be reciprocal. Love which is not ardent and steadfast unworthy of the name. Hence Shulamite’s descant on the
Nature of True Love.
1. Its strength and irresistibleness in the subject of it. ‘Strong as death.’ Love no more to be resisted in its approaches than death. Shulamite under the power of it in regard to her Beloved. Unable to resist it, she must love and be loved in return, or die. Like death, love must have its object. So Christ gave up His own life in order to have the Church whom He loved (John 15:13; Ephesians 5:25). Believers must have Christ, or die.
2. Its tenacity. ‘Jealousy is cruel as the grave.’ Jealousy an intense, vehement love, that cannot brook a rival (Proverbs 6:34). Same word rendered ‘zeal.’ Is ‘cruel’—severe, unyielding, and tenacious, ‘as the grave.’ Like the grave, love will not quit its hold but at the command of Omnipotence. Jealousy implies—
(1) Ardent affection;
(2) Fervent desire of enjoyment;
(3) Impatience of anything coming between love and its object;
(4) Grief for any apparent want of return. Such the case with Christ’s love and the believer’s. Jealousy of Christ’s love a proof of the strength of our own. Love to Christ makes us jealous of all that would come betwixt Him and us. Christ’s love to His people can endure no rival in theirs to Him. ‘I would thou wert either cold or hot.’ Believers too apt unjustly to suspect Christ’s love to them, while Christ has too much cause to be jealous of their love to Him.
3. Its ardour and intensity. The coals (or rather ‘flames’) thereof are coals (flames) of fire, which hath a most vehement flame’ (or, ‘a flame of Jah,’ or Jehovah,—expressive either of its greatness, or its origin). The comparison common to all countries. The Song itself an exemplification of the text. True love not only intense, but painful and consuming, unless able to obtain its object. Believers not to be satisfied with a lukewarm love to Christ. Everything in Him to beget a fervent, burning love. Such a love sought by Him (John 21:15-17; Revelation 3:15). Christ infinitely lovely and infinitely loving. Conjugal love to be ardent, intense, and self-sacrificing: love to Christ to be still more so. Christ’s own love of that nature. ‘The zeal of thine house hath eaten me up’ ‘He loved the Church, and gave Himself for it.’ True, holy love, a ‘flame of Jehovah,’ from its origin as well as its ardour. Especially true of love to Christ. No true love to Christ which has not been kindled by the Holy Ghost. A divine flame of love to Christ kindled in the breast of every believer.
‘There let it to Thy glory burn,
With inextinguishable blaze;
And, trembling to its source return,
In ardent love and forvent praise.’
The text the only passage in the Song apparently containing the divine name: ‘a flame of Jah.’ This, if the correct translation, perhaps intended to afford the key to the whole book. The Song of Solomon not only a ‘Song of Loves,’ but a Song of divine loves—of the love of Jehovah-Jesus to His Church, and the Church’s love to Him, as kindled by the Holy Ghost.
4. Its unquenchableness. ‘Many waters cannot quench love,’ &c. True love survives all discouragements, and even coolness on the part of its object. Superior to all suffering endured on account of it. The love of Shulamite and the King had stood both tests. To exhibit, under an allegory, the unquenchableness of the love between Christ and His Church, probably one great object of the poem. A leading feature in love or charity, as described by Paul, that it ‘suffereth long, beareth all things, endureth all things, and never faileth’ (1 Corinthians 13:4; 1 Corinthians 13:7-8). The unquenchableness of the believer’s love to Christ exhibited by ‘the noble army of martyrs’ (Romans 8:35-37; Revelation 12:11). By Paul himself (Acts 20:24; Acts 21:13). By many among the Jews, in the persecutions by Antiochus Epiphanes (Daniel 11:32-33). Love’s unquenchableness exhibited in its perfection by the Lord Jesus Christ (Ephesians 5:25; John 13:1). His love not drowned by the floods of suffering that men, or devils, or God Himself, as the righteous Judge dealing with the sinner’s Surety, could pour upon it (Psalms 69:1-2).
5. Its unpurchaseableness and preciousness. ‘If a man would give all the substance of his house for love, it would utterly be contemned.’ Three ideas—
(1) Love cannot be purchased by money or external gifts. Too precious to be bought. Love will beget love, but money cannot buy it. ‘Money answereth all things;’ but cannot purchase love. The poorest peasant possessed of a treasure which the wealth of a millionaire cannot buy. A man’s body and labour may be purchased, but not his love. Kind words and acts may generate it. Self-denying devotedness may give a claim to it, and may win it. But no money can be accepted as its price. Riches may gain the hand, but not the heart. Shulamite’s love, though that of a humble peasant, not won by Solomon’s crown and kingdom, but by his excellence and love. Believer’s love Christ not for what He has, but for what He is. God is loved not because He is the greatest, but because He is the best of beings. Christ’s goodness rather than His gifts, wins the sinner’s heart. His cross the ‘apple-tree’ under which He gains the believer’s love. Sinners drawn by the cords of a man and the bands of love (Hosea 11:4). ‘We love Him, because He first loved us.’ Christ gave for the sinner’s love, not the ‘substance of His house,’ but the blood of His heart (Revelation 1:5; Revelation 5:9).
(2) Nothing can be given or accepted as a substitute for love. Solomon’s whole kingdom despised by Shulamite if offered in the place of his love. The riches of the universe contemptible to a quickened soul as a substitute for Christ’s love. Heaven itself, with all its glory, were it possible, without the love of heaven’s King, but a poor gift to the soul that loves Him. Hell made heaven with the enjoyed love of Christ, and heaven no heaven without it. ‘In His favour is life.’ ‘Thy loving kindness is better than life.’ On the part of man, all his gifts, without love, contemptible. (1 Corinthians 13:3). Love the pearl in the oyster-shell. The shell without the pearl contemptible.
(3) Love not to be detached by the gifts of another. True love superior to flattering promises as well as threatened penalties. Satan’s bait only successful where love to Christ is nominal. The world able to withdraw Demas from his profession, but not John from his love. The believer not to be separated from the love of Christ by the height of prosperity, any more than by the depth of adversity. The believer’s love, like Christ’s own, superior to all enticements. His language, even at the stake, with a pardon offered for apostasy: ‘If you love my soul, away with it.’ ‘None but Christ, none but Christ!’ Love rejects with disdain the most flattering temptations to withdraw the soul from Christ. Esteems the reproach of Christ greater riches that the treasures of Egypt. Prefers a dungeon with Christ to a palace without Him.
This brief didactic discourse on the nature of true love, remarkable as here introduced into the Song. Apparently intended to give the key to the whole book. Remarkable also for its resemblance to Paul’s discourse on the same subject in 1 Corinthians 13. The passage probably a prophetic intimation of that exhibition of Divine love to be made in the fulness of time, in the incarnation, suffering, and death of the Son of God, as the Bridegroom of His Church, and the Saviour of the world.