Who is this that cometh up from the wilderness, leaning upon her Beloved?
The state and attitude of a believer
I. The believer’s spiritual state. “Who is this that cometh up from the wilderness?” From this desolate wilderness, the Church, and by consequence every believer, is represented as departing. The deliverance is not complete, the departure is not entire, while the follower of Christ is in the present state of being.
II. The attitude of a believer’s soul.
1. Dependence on Christ. By faith, believers lean upon the person of their glorious Redeemer for acceptance with God; upon His power for help; upon His love for joy; upon His faithfulness for hope.
2. Delighted affection.
3. Entire devotedness. (R. P. Buddicom, M. A.)
The Christian renouncing the world
I. The representation here given of the world; it is called a wilderness. By the world, I mean the things of the world, regarded as sources of happiness and satisfaction. It is totally insufficient for the supply of true and lasting happiness.
II. The conduct of every true Christian with respect to the world.
1. The true Christian no longer seeks his chief happiness from worldly things.
2. The real Christian uses great moderation, in his enjoyment even of lawful things. He does not venture to the edge of forbidden ground, but keeps at a cautious distance. He allows himself no gratification which is of a doubtful character. And even when he has reduced his cares and his pleasures to a much smaller compass than his worldly neighbours would think needful, he still sets a guard over his heart, lest it should be betrayed into too great an attachment to the things which remain.
3. The real Christian longs for his final translation to a better world.
III. The secret source and spring of the Christian’s conduct.
1. He is influenced to do this by the Love of Christ.
2. He is encouraged by the promises of Christ.
3. He is strengthened by the grace of Christ. (J. Jowett, M. A.)
True believers, espoused to Christ, turning their back on the world, and walking heavenward with Him, are a mystery, a strange sight in the world
I. I shall premise some things for right understanding the doctrine. Sin turned this world into an enemy’s country in respect of heaven, and so into a wilderness. This her going away up from the wilderness with her espoused Husband, is a going away in heart and affections; it is the soul’s motion heavenwards in this life, the last step of which is made at death. Christ’s bride at her waygoing, and ongoing with Him thus, is a mystery, a strange sight in the world.
II. I shall show in what respects believers are a mystery, a strange sight in the world; the power of godliness appearing in their walk at this rate, so that it is said of them, “Who is this?” There is something very amiable about them, as we are told of the primitive Christians (Acts 2:46-47), that “they continuing daily with one accord in the temple,” etc. They are like foreigners in a country, apt to become a gazing-stock, a wonder, about which the natives cannot satisfy themselves.
III. I shall give the reasons of the point, that true believers are a mystery, a strange sight in the world.
1. Because they are so unlike the world, they are like speckled birds among the rest (1 Peter 4:4).
2. Because they are so unlike themselves in former times.
3. Because they are very rare in the world; they are but here and there one for a marvel (Jeremiah 3:14).
use
I. Of information.
1. Serious souls need not think it strange, if they become a wonder to many (Psalms 71:7).
2. The world is no idle spectator of those who have given themselves to Christ, and profess to follow Him.
3. Those who shall still walk after the course of the world, continue sons of earth, not making away heavenward in the tenor of their life and conversation, are not espoused to Christ; though they have given Him the hand, they have not given Him the heart.
Use
II. Of exhortation. O Christians, communicants, walk so as the world may bear witness, that ye are going up out of the wilderness, leaning on your Beloved; that your faces and hearts are heavenward; that ye have set off from them, and are no more theirs. And further, if ye be clothed with humility and with humanity, meek, ruling your own spirit, doing good to all, even to those that wrong you; and are patient under trouble, and living by faith. (T. Boston, D. D.)
The life of believers as espoused to Christ, is a going up from the wilderness of this world, with Him, to His Father’s house in the heavenly Canaan
I. I shall take notice of some things supposed in this doctrine.
1. As soon as a soul is espoused to Christ, it is loosed from the world.
2. The soul espoused to Christ, being loosed from the world, is set in motion heavenwards, away from the world (Psalms 84:5-7).
3. The believer’s journeying heavenwards is attended with many difficulties. It is an up-going, and that through a wilderness.
4. The believer’s passage to heaven is also a work of time. It is not a leaping out of the wilderness into Canaan, but a going up out of it by degrees. It cost Israel long forty years in the wilderness.
5. Christ is with the believer in the journey. It is a weary land they have to go through, but they are not alone in it (Song of Solomon 4:8).
6. The end of this journey is a most comfortable one (John 14:2).
II. I shall unfold the believer’s life, as a going up from the wilderness of this world, typified by the Israelites going up from the wilderness to Canaan.
1. I shall show you how believers are brought unto the wilderness. The world is not a wilderness to them and in their esteem, till they be brought out of the Egyptian bondage of their natural state. Then, and not till then, they enter into their wilderness-state.
2. I shall show how the believer is set into the wilderness. When once converting grace has made a fair separation betwixt the sinner and the world, presently he enters into a wilderness-state.
(1) He cares not for the world as he was wont (Galatians 6:14).
(2) The world cares not for him as before (Galatians 6:14).
(3) Then it becomes, by God’s appointment, the place of trial for him, as the wilderness was to the Israelites (Deuteronomy 8:2).
(4) It is no more his home or his rest; but the place of his pilgrimage, the place he must travel through in his way home to his eternal rest (Hebrews 11:13).
3. I shall show how the believer is going up from the wilderness.
(1) By the course of nature, which is swift as a post, a ship, and as an eagle’s flight.
(2) In the habitual bent of his heart and affections. Believers’ hearts are turned off the world, and set on things above.
(3) In progressive sanctification (Proverbs 4:18).
(4) In obtaining victory over the world (1 John 5:4).
4. The hardships and inconveniencies of the wilderness-road, which the believer must lay his account with, while he goes up from the wilderness. It is a difficult way through the wilderness. The road the travellers must go will try their patience, their strength, etc.
5. I now come to show the advantages and conveniencies of the wilderness-road. The people of God, while in the wilderness-world, have as much allowed them from heaven as may balance the hardships of the wilderness.
(1) The pillar of cloud to go before them in the wilderness.
(2) They have provision allowed them from heaven in the waste wilderness. The King’s country affords them provision for their journey.
(3) Sometimes they are allowed a song in the weary land, for their comfort and recreation by the way (Psalms 119:54).
(4) The Lord is their banner in the wilderness, and so they may be sure of victory, they shall be conquerors in the war (Exodus 17:15).
(5) There is healing in the wilderness for them, for the wounds got there.
(6) We must not forget the tabernacle in the wilderness, which was the comfort of the godly Israelites there. The tabernacle of Gospel-ordinances is the great comfort of the travellers towards Zion.
Use
I. Of information.
1. The people of God need not be surprised, that they meet with many hardships and trials in the world, and that it is a strange world to them. While they are in it, they are in a wilderness. How, then, can they expect other than a wilderness-life?
2. They have good reason to bear all the hardships of their wilderness-lot patiently, and with Christian fortitude and cheerfulness. And that
(1) Because they will not last, they will be over ere long; they are going up from the wilderness.
(2) Because the heavenly Canaan which the wilderness-read leads to, will make amends for all.
(3) Their lot is a wise mixture, take it at the worst.
3. They are not Israelites indeed, nor espoused to Christ, who are “not going up from this world as a wilderness, in heart and affection, in life and conversation.
Use
II. Of caution. While ye are in the wilderness, beware of wilderness sins and snares.
1. Unbelief (Psalms 68:22).
2. Murmuring (1 Corinthians 10:10).
3. Lusting (1 Corinthians 10:6).
4. Looking back to Egypt (Numbers 14:4).
5. Fawning and flattering enemies (Numbers 25:17-18).
6. The mixed multitude (Exodus 12:38).
Use
III. Of exhortation.
1. Ye who profess to be espoused to Christ, evidence the reality of it by your going up from the wilderness-world with Him in heart and affection, in the progress of sanctification, and contempt of the world, holding off from the ways of it.
2. Strangers to Christ, be espoused to Him, that ye may go up with Him from this wilderness-world, to His Father’s house in the heavenly Canaan; believe that Christ is offered in an everlasting marriage-covenant to you. Embrace ye and accept, and so close with Him as your Head and Husband, for time and eternity. (T. Boston, D. D.)
The believer’s journey from the wilderness of this world to the heavenly Canaan
I. The character of a soul truly espoused to Christ. He is one that is aye breathing to more and more nearness to the Lord, and a more intimate fellowship and acquaintance with Him. The soul espoused to Christ is one who is bending his course heavenwards, and has his back turned upon this world as a howling wilderness. He is one whose life in this world is a life of faith and dependence on Christ.
II. The place of the present residence of the spouse of Christ; it is a wilderness, a very unheartsome lodging.
III. The course that the spouse is taking, or the earth toward which she is bending while in the wilderness; she is not going down, but coming up from the wilderness. And this, I conceive, may imply these things following.
1. That believers, or those who have really taken Christ by the hand, have, turned their back on the ways of sin, which lead down to the chambers of death.
2. That believers are pilgrims on the earth, and that this world is not their home.
3. A dissatisfaction with, and a disesteem of, this world, and all things in it; and therefore she has her back turned upon it, and her face toward a better earth.
4. That though she could find no rest nor quiet hereaway, yet she expected a quiet rest on the other side, or beyond the wilderness.
5. This coming up from the wilderness implies motion, and progress in her motion heavenwards.
6. This phrase of coming up from the wilderness implies, that religion is an up-the-hill work and way; for the, spouse’s way here is represented under the notion of an ascent.
IV. The spouse’s posture; she comes up leaning on her Beloved. It is the life of faith upon the Son of God that is here intended. And this expression of faith implies these particulars following.
1. The spouse’s weakness and inability in herself to grapple with the difficulties of her way through the Wilderness; that she could never surmount them by the strength of natural, or yet of any created grace in her.
2. That however weak and insufficient she was in herself, yet there was almighty strength in her Husband and Head, on whom she leaned.
3. A blessed knowledge or acquaintance with the Lord Jesus.
4. The expression implies not only knowledge, but intimacy and familiarity; for we use to lean upon them with whom we are intimately acquainted.
5. This leaning posture implies Christ’s nearness to the spouse; for we cannot well lean upon a person that is at a distance.
6. It implies a trusting, resting, or recumbency of her soul upon him, under all her weights and burdens, which she rolls over on Christ (Psalms 55:22; Matthew 11:28; Psalms 37:7).
7. It implies, that there is something in Christ that the hand or arm of faith stays and leans upon, as we come up from the wilderness. Sometimes faith stays itself on the person of Christ, as He is “Emmanuel, God with us”; sometimes upon His love, which passeth knowledge (Psalms 36:7). Sometimes it stays itself upon His name; for “they that know His name will put their trust in Him”: sometimes on His mission, as the Sent of God, “the great Apostle of our profession”; it takes Him up as God’s legate, His ambassador-extraordinary, sent to seek and to save that which was lost. It leans upon His general office as Mediator, for peace and reconciliation with God; upon His prophetical office, for instruction and illumination in the knowledge of the mysteries of the kingdom; upon His priestly office, for reconciliation and acceptance; upon His regal or kingly office, for sanctification and deliverance from the power of sin and Satan. (E.Erskine.)
Leaning upon her Beloved.
Leaning on our Beloved
In the verses which precede my text, the spouse had been particularly anxious that her communion with her Lord might not be disturbed. Her language is intensely earnest, “I charge you, O daughters of Jerusalem, that ye stir not up, nor awake my Love, until He please.” She valued much the fellowship with which her Beloved solaced her; she was jealously alarmed lest she should endanger the continuance of it; lest any sin on her part or on the part of her companions should cause the Beloved to withdraw Himself in anger. Now it is a very striking fact that immediately after we read a verse so full of solicitous care concerning the maintenance of communion, we immediately fall upon another verse in which the upward progress of that selfsame spouse is the theme of admiration; she who would not have her Beloved disturbed is the selfsame bride who cometh up from the wilderness, leaning herself upon Him; from which it is clear that there is a most intimate connection between communion with Christ and progress in grace, and therefore the more careful we are to maintain fellowship with our Lord, the more successful shall we be in going from strength to strength in all those holy graces which are landmarks on the road to glory.
I. We notice the heavenly pilgrim and her dear companion. “Who is that cometh up from the wilderness, leaning upon her Beloved?” Every soul that journeys towards heaven has Christ for its associate. Jesus suffers no pilgrim to the New Jerusalem to travel unattended. He is with us in sympathy. He has trodden every step of the way before us; whatever our temptations, He has been so tempted; whatever our afflictions, He has been so afflicted. He is touched with the feeling of our infirmities, having been tempted in all points like as we are. Nor is Jesus near us in sympathy alone, He is with us to render practical assistance. When we least perceive Him, He is often closest to us. When the howling tempest drowns His voice, and the darkness of the night hides His person, still He is there, and we need not be afraid. Courage, then,ye wayfarers who traverse the vale of tears; you come up from the wilderness in dear company, for One like unto the Son of God is at your side. Note the title that is given to the Companion of the spouse. “Her Beloved.” Indeed, He of whom the Song here speaks is beloved above all others. He was the Beloved of His Father or ever the earth was; He was declared to be the Lord’s Beloved, in the waters of Jordan, and at other times, when out of the excellent glory, there came the voice, “This is My beloved Son in whom I am well pleased.” Beloved of His Father now, our Jesus sits for ever glorious at God’s right hand. Jesus is the Beloved of every angel, and of all the bright seraphic spirits that crowd around the throne of His august majesty, casting their crowns before His feet, and lifting up their ceaseless hymns. He is the Beloved of every being of pure heart and holy mind.
II. We have said that the pilgrim has a dear Companion, but that much of the blessedness of the text lies in her posture towards him. “Who is this that cometh up from the wilderness leaning upon her Beloved?” Her posture, then, is that of “leaning.” His relation to her is that of a Divine supporter. What does this leaning mean? Why, first of all, there can be no leaning on another unless we believe in that other’s presence and nearness. A man does not lean on a staff which is not in his hand, nor on a friend of whose presence he is not aware. Christ Jesus is with thee; though thou hearest not His voice, and seest not His face, He is with thee. Try to grasp that truth, and to realize it clearly, for thou wilt never lean until thou dost. Leaning also implies nearness. We cannot lean on that which is far off and unapproachable. Now, it is a delightful help to us in believing repose if we cannot understand that Christ is not only with us, but to an intense degree near us. A sacred unity exists between thee and Him, so that thou dost drink of His cup, and art baptized with His baptism, and in all thy sorrows and thine afflictions He Himself doth take His share. These two things being attended unto, leaning now becomes easy. To lean implies the throwing of one’s weight from oneself on to another, and this is the Christian s life. The leaning place of a Christian is, first of all, Christ’s person. We depend upon the Lord Jesus as God and as man. As God, He must be able to perform every promise, and to achieve every covenant engagement. We lean upon that Divinity which bears up the pillows of the universe. Our dependence is upon the Almighty God, incarnate in human form, by whom all things were created, and by whom all things consist. We lean also upon Christ as man; we depend upon His generous human sympathies. Of a woman born, He is partaker of our flesh; He enters into our sicknesses and infirmities with a pitiful compassion, which He could not have felt if He had not been the Son of man. We depend upon the love of His humanity as well as upon the potency of His deity. We lean upon our Beloved as God and man. We lean upon Christ Himself in all His offices. We lean upon Him as Priest; we expect our offerings, and our praises, and our prayers to be received, because they are presented through Him. Our leaning for acceptance is on Him. We lean upon Him as our Prophet. We do not profess to know or to be able to discover truth of ourselves, but we sit at His feet, and what He teaches that we receive as certainty. We lean upon Him as our King. He shall fight our battles for us, and manage all the affairs of our heavenly citizenship. We have no hope of victory but in the strength of Him who is the Son of David and the King of kings. We lean upon Christ in all His attributes. Sometimes it is His wisdom--in our dilemmas He directs us; at other times it is His faithfulness--in our strong temptations He abides the same. At one time His power gleams out like a golden pillar, and we rest on it, and at another moment his tenderness becomes conspicuous, and we lean on that. There is not a trait of His character, there is not a mark of His person, whether human or divine, but what we feel it safe to lean upon, because He is as a whole Christ, perfection’s own self, lovely and excellent beyond all description. We lean our entire weight upon HIM, not on His arm; not on any part of His person, but upon Himself do we depend.
III. Her reasons for thus leaning. She leaned on her Beloved because she was weak. Strength will not lean, conscious strength scorns dependence. My soul, dost thou know anything of thy weakness? It is a sorrowful lesson to learn; but oh! it is a blessed and profitable lesson, which not only must be learned, but which it were well for thee to pray to learn more and more, for there is no leaning upon Christ except in proportion as you feel you must. She leaned, again, on her Beloved, because the way was long. She had been going through the wilderness. It was a long journey, and she began to flag, and therefore she leaned; and the way is long with us, we have been converted to God now some of us these twenty years, others these forty, and there are some who have known the Lord more than sixty years, and this is a long time in which to be tempted and tried, for sin is mighty and flesh is weak. She leaned, again, because the road was perilous. Did you notice, she came up from the wilderness? The wilderness is not at all a safe place for a pilgrim. Here it is that the lion prowls, and the howl of the wolf is heard, but she leaned on her Beloved, and she was safe. If the sheep fears the wolf, he had better keep close to the shepherd, for then the shepherd’s rod and staff will drive the wolf away. There is no safety for us except in close communion with Christ. Again, she leaned on the Beloved because her route was ascending. Did you notice it? “Coming up.” The Christian’s way is up--never content with past attainments, but up; not satisfied with graces to which he has reached, but up. If we are to go up, we must lean. Christ is higher than we are; if we lean, we shall rise the more readily to His elevation. He comes down to us that we, leaning upon Him, may go up to Him. He is made of God unto you sanctification as well as redemption. Again the spouse leaned on her Beloved because her walk was daily separating her more and more from the whole host of her other companions. The Church is in the wilderness, but this traveller was coming up from the wilderness. She was getting away from the band marching through the desert, getting more and more alone. It is so, and you will find it so; the nearer you get to Christ, the more lonely you must necessarily be in certain respects. The spouse leaned upon her Beloved because she felt sure that He was strong enough to bear her weight. He upon whom she leaned was no other than God over all blessed for ever, who cannot fail, nor be discouraged. She leaned yet again, because He was her Beloved. She would have felt it unwise to lean if He were not mighty; she would have been afraid to lean if He had not been dear to her. So it is, the more you love the more you trust, and the more you trust the more you love.
IV. The person and the pedigree of her who leaned upon her Beloved. The text says, “Who is this?” What made them inquire, “Who is this?” It was because they were so astonished to see her looking so happy and so little wearied. Nothing amazes worldlings more than genuine Christian joy. Who, then, is this that leans on her Beloved? Her name was once called “outcast,” whom no man seeketh after, but according to this old book her name is now Hephzibah, for the Lord delighteth in her. The name of the soul that trusts in God, and finds peace in so doing, was by nature a name of shame and sin. We were afar off from God even as others; and if any soul is brought to trust in Christ, it is not from any natural goodness in it, or any innate propensity towards such trusting; it is because grace has wrought a wondrous transformation, and God the Holy Ghost has made those who were not a people to be called the people of God. Good news this for any of you who feel your guilt this morning. (C. H. Spurgeon.)