Come with Me from Lebanon, My spouse, with Me from Lebanon.
The invitations of Christ
The whole idea is that the Shulamite Virgin who is sought as a bride lives in high, craggy, cavernous regions--amid inhospitable scenes--and close to the mountain haunts of beasts of prey. Such words as Amana, Shenir, Hermon, and Lebanon are used to typify a region of mountain, rock, fastness, forest, and jungle. There the fair Shulamite has her native home, That is one side of the picture. On the other side is the King, who lives in Jerusalem, the royal city, the city of peace, far away from the haunts of leopards; and He goes forth to invite the bride to leave the crag and the den, the forest and the danger, saying, “Come to Jerusalem, to the centre of civilization, to the home of beauty, to the King’s palace, to the splendid and inviolable home,--no lion shall be there, nor any ravenous beast go up thereon,--come, O My dove, that art in the clefts of the rock, whose lips drop as the honeycomb, and the smell of whose garments is as the smell of Lebanon, come! How is all this sustained by collateral Scripture, and made to apply to the Son of God? Christ calls men away from what may be regarded as the nativities of the present scene. There must be no division, no holding on with both hands: the attitude must not be that of one who has the right foot in the caverns and the left foot in the metropolis: there must be a complete detachment from all that is native and original, and a clear coming away with all trust and love and hope to the new abode. Christ is calling us away from our animalism--the first condition of our birth. He will not have it that the body is the man, that the flesh is the immortal part of humanity. So Christ calls the Church, which is His Bride, the Lamb’s Wife,--He calls her away from stony places, and from low associations, and from connections with lions’ dens and mountain haunts of leopards,--calls humanity away from flesh, and earth, and time, and sense, and prison, into all the upper spaces, where the blue sky is unclouded, and where the infinite liberty never degenerates into licence. What does Christ call us from? Precisely what the Shulamite was called from--from stony places and desert lands and mountain fastnesses--from “desolation desolate.” When does Christ ever call men from knowledge to ignorance? from abundance of spiritual realization to poverty and leanness of soul? When does Jesus Christ ever offer men an inhospitable welcome? The great offers of the Gospel are in such terms as these: Eat and drink abundantly, O beloved! He, every one that thirsteth, Come! We are called not only from desolateness, but from danger. If we have not entered into the spirit-life, the faith-life, that higher life which sees the invisible and realizes the eternal, then we are simply walking through perils without number, and as for seductiveness or subtlety or power of involving us in mischief and in suffering, no language can express the reality of the situation. We are called not only from desolateness and from danger, but from incongruity. What a background was the mountain region to the fair and lovely Shulamite! Surely that fair dove was made for Jerusalem, and not for some region of caverns or mountain haunts of leopards. Save her! This sense of incongruity afflicts men who profess to be under the spell of refined and elevating taste. What shocks do men receive who profess to be refined and large in their culture! A musician feels as if he were staggering under a blow of insult when he hears a false note. Is there no law of incongruity in morals, in spiritual relation? “What doest thou here, Elijah?”--why wanderest thou in these desert places, O thou child of the king, meant to adorn a palace? Why estranged and ragged and humiliated and debased, thou child of fortune? Explain the ghastly incongruity! Christ ever calls men to home, to security, to honour. Herein he is like the man who seeks the Shulamite for his bride: he calls her to the palace, to Jerusalem, to all beauty and comfort and security. Jesus Christ says, “I go to prepare a place for you.” When Jesus Christ prepares a place, who can describe its largeness, its beauty, its completeness? “Where I am, there ye shall be also;” and where He is, heaven is. But, there is on the road a cross? We cannot enter into the city unless we understand the cross, and die upon it. The cross is not an intellectual puzzle; it is a cross on which every man must be himself crucified with the Son of God. After the cross the crown--the pure river of the water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb. After the cross, the city in the midst of whose street, and on either side of the river, is the Tree of Life. (J. Parker, D. D.)
Christ’s invitation to His bride
This world was never designed to be the fixed abode of the children of men, and therefore there was a restraint laid upon our first parents in paradise, as to the forbidden tree, showing that they behoved to look to another world for their happiness. Man was once set fair on the way to the land where glory dwells, but he lost his way, and now poor sinners are found wandering on the mountains of vanity. The first Adam managed ill, and brought us into this condition. But behold, the second Adam came to gather the dispersed of Israel, and to lead them on their way to the better country. Hear His voice in the text, calling His people to leave the weary world and go homeward with Himself.
I. Take notice of some things supposed in this kind call and invitation.
1. It supposeth that Christ’s bride is yet in the world. Though brought out of Egypt, yet not come to Canaan, but still in the wilderness.
2. Though she be there, and perhaps has been there many years since she was united to Christ, yet He has not forgot her, but kindly remembers, her still, whatever she may think otherwise.
3. The world is not a place for Christ’s spouse to rest in, she is in great danger there.
4. Yet sometimes the foolish creature lies down even among the lions’ dens, and being charmed with the deceitful mountains is averse to come away.
5. Our Lord takes notice of and is concerned for the soul’s danger from the deceitful world. And therefore He cries with earnestness to come away.
II. Explain this coming from the world, or show what is implied in it. There is a twofold coming away from the world,
1. There is a natural coming out of it. By the course of nature, we are all on our way out of it.
2. There is a spiritual coming out of it, namely, in heart and affection. This is what Christ is calling you to this day.
(1) Take your last look, the parting look of the world by faith even as Moses did of the profits and pleasures of Egypt.
(2) Turn your backs, then, upon the things of the world. Be mortified to them.
(3) Give up this day with the men of the world, never more to mix with the natives of’ the weary land; who labour for nothing but the entertainment of Lebanon, and who have taken up their home among the lions’ dens.
III. Show the import of coming away with Christ from the world.
1. Our Lord has a better place for your reception, than the world can be in its best dress. This is the new Jerusalem. There His Father’s house stands. And in that house are many mansions. The society of saints, angels, and to be ever with the Lord constitute the felicity of the place.
2. Our Lord can assuredly bring you into this glorious and happy place. But oh! will I obtain admission? Why, come with Me, says Christ, there will be no hindrance if you enter along with Me.
3. That place is His own choice.
4. Christ is in His way thither, out of the world to His Father’s house, the better country. What, is not Christ there already? True, Christ personal is there, but Christ mystical is not there yet.
5. Our Lord is very desirous of your company by the way, yes, and to have you away with Him for altogether.
6. Our Lord displays His glory to you in the Gospel, to win your hearts and get you away with Him.
7. Our Lord offers you, not only better in hope, but better in hand than the world can give you.
8. If you will come away, you shall go as He goes, you shall go together. Go as He goes in point of duty. Esteem all things as He does. Let His choice be your choice. Rejoice in those things in which He rejoices; and be grieved for what grieves His Spirit. Love what He loves, and hate what He hates.
9. He will lead you and support you through the whole of the way. You are now in the fields of the world, and there will be difficult steps in your way to the city; these will not be easily discerned, but come with Him, He will keep you from stumbling on the dark mountains.
10. He will be all to you in all. Leave all the world and “come with Me,” for all, as the espoused bride goes with her husband. Whatever comfort, pleasure and delight you drew out of the muddy streams, you may now draw in a far superior manner from the fountain. Thus it shall be your duty and privilege too, to live as people of another world. “For our conversation is in heaven; from whence also we look for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ.” (T. Boston, D. D.)