The Bride of Christ

Okay, so we’ve just covered Jesus as the Beloved in the Song of Solomon, so, as promised, we’re now we’re turning to our role as the Bride as portrayed in the same book!

We have seen that Jesus desires to be with us and seeks us out, and we also seek Him out.

This is a passionate love relationship.

First let’s go to another couple of references in Isaiah on the same subject.

Isaiah 61.10-11 says,

I will greatly rejoice in the Lord, My soul shall be joyful in my God;
For He has clothed me with the garments of salvation,
He has covered me with the robe of righteousness,
As a bridegroom decks himself with ornaments, And as a bride adorns herself with her jewels.
¹¹ For as the earth brings forth its bud, as the garden causes the things that are sown in it to spring forth,
So the Lord God will cause righteousness and praise to spring forth before all the nations.

Here we are being prepared for our wedding day and the Bridegroom, Jesus himself is preparing us.

He supplies the garments of salvation and covers us with His robe of righteousness.

And Isaiah 62.1-6 says,

For Zion’s sake I will not keep silent and for Jerusalem’s sake I will not rest, until her righteousness goes forth as brightness, and her salvation as a lamp that burns.

The Gentiles shall see your righteousness, and all kings your glory.

You shall be called by a new name, which the mouth of the Lord will name.

You shall also be a crown of glory in the hand of the Lord, and a royal diadem in the hand of your God.

You shall no longer be termed Forsaken, nor shall your land any more be termed desolate;

But you shall be called Hephzibah and your land Beulah;

For the Lord delights in you, and your land shall be married.   

Our salvation should burn as a lamp in the darkness, calling out to the lost and searching for Him.

We are called by a new name, given to us by the Lord.

We are like a crown of glory in the hand of the Lord, a royal diadem.

We shall be called no longer forsaken, but married to the Lord and He delights in us and rejoices over us.

Psalm 45.13 says that,

 The royal daughter is all glorious within the palace;

Her clothing is woven with gold.

She shall be brought to the King in robes of many colours;

The virgins, her companions who follow her, shall be brought to You.

With gladness and rejoicing they shall be brought;

They shall enter the King’s palace.

They are clothed in purity.

Remember how the ten wise virgins wait for the return of our Saviour and Lord, with lamps burning.

The Song of Solomon says, “I am asleep but my heart is awake,” we are to be alert, listening, attentive, waiting for His voice, for His coming, sensitive to His presence, His Spirit.

The wise virgins keep their lamps lit, full of oil, with extra, waiting attentively for His return for His Bride; we wait for our betrothed.

I am my Beloved’s and He is mine.

Hosea 2.19 says, “I will betroth you to Me in righteousness and justice, in lovingkindness and mercy; I will betroth you to Me in faithfulness, and you shall know the Lord.”

Jeremiah 2.2-3 says

“I remember you, the kindness of your youth,
The love of your betrothal,
When you went after Me in the wilderness, in a land not sown.

³ Israel was holiness to the Lord,
The first-fruits of His increase.

Just like the Bride in the Song of Solomon, the Bride sought Him out and bore fruit.

We should be seeking Him out, seeking His presence in first love for Him.

Jesus’s rebuke to the church in Revelation’s was that they had lost their first love.

As we are holy and set apart for Him, our fruitfulness increases.

What a beautiful Saviour!

The Song of Solmon describes the Bride as;

The fairest (purest) among women, and compares us to a filly among Pharoah’s chariots.

Fair, with eyes like doves, soft and peaceful.

Her hair is like a flock of goats and teeth white, like washed sheep’s wool,

He describes her as having scarlet lips, sweet as the honeycomb and milk.

He describes us as all fair, with no spot, this is the work of His Spirit, to present us to Himself as a Bride without spot, wrinkle or blemish, which can only be achieved by His blood.

We ravish His heart, He describes our love as better than wine.

He says that our temples are like pomegranates, and that we have a neck like a tower and breasts like twin gazelles feeding among the lilies.

We are a garden set apart, a spring locked up, a fountain sealed and protected from pollution by the world, private for His special use and fellowship.

He says that our cheeks are lovely with ornaments, our neck with chains of gold.

A Prepared Bride

The book of Esther tells us of the bridal preparations required to come into the presence of the King, she received treatments with perfumes and oils for a full year to prepare her.

Our life on earth is being used to prepare us to meet our Lord face to face in heaven, prepared, purified and made holy.

He is preparing a spotless bride without wrinkle or blemish.

He produces in us the perfection of the Bride by His Holy Spirit.

All brambles and weeds are to be uprooted by our Father, the Gardener, the Vinedresser.

He uproots the sin which mars the perfection of the garden and gives us protection from the sin which would want to invade our life.

He will reap in us a harvest of righteousness.

He comes into the church to gather His spices from His Bride.

We are a garden being cultivated by the Lord, to produce in us the fruit of the Spirit, so that He may come and feed among us and enjoy our company as we are transformed into His likeness.

He takes delight in us.

In His garden is an orchard of pomegranates, fruitful, producing pleasant fruits, borne of the Spirit representing eternal, unconditional agape love.

In His garden are a variety of spices all representing the fruit of the Spirit.

Growing in the garden there is henna (also known as camphire), which speaks of a covering which brings joy and satisfaction and that tells us of a ransom price, Jesus paid that price for us.

There is spikenard or nard, the same which Jesus was anointed with.

It has a delicious odour coming from the roots, if what we are rooted in is good, we will produce fragrance, so what are we rooted in, are we rooted in good soil?

It represents peace and is very costly.

Our peace came at the cost of Jesus’s life.

Saffron also grows there, which a spice more valuable than gold, it represents long-suffering.

Calamus is a sweet flag which represents kindness and produces a healing oil, from a cane.

It protects from disease and is used for anointing oil and in weddings.

Cinnamon represents goodness, the fragrance of Christ (2.Corinthians 2.14-15)

The Mountain of Myrrh, and Frankincense

The last three spices growing in the garden, are frankincense, aloes and myrrh, all used in the preservatives for embalming bodies.

These would have been part of the spice mix brought by the women to embalm Jesus body.

Jesus received frankincense and myrrh when He was born, indicating that He was born to die for our sins.

Frankincense represents faithfulness and a true heart.

It is produced by fire, representing patience, endurance and loyalty.

It was found in the graves of the rich.

The Beloved goes to the Mountain of Myrrh and the Hill of Frankincense in the night.

At Gethsemane Jesus dropped tears of blood as He prayed, was this His Mountain of Myrrh experience?

Myrrh represents strength and gentleness.

It is bitter until it is put into the fire and distilled into tears.

It represents those who trust God in persecution and don’t react under the fire of persecution, but become sweet through it.

As persecution increases throughout the world, how much we need this!

At this Mount of Prayer, Jesus surrendered to the completion of His mission, as He agreed to pour out His life as a fragrant offering for our salvation.

He found a refuge of fragrant joy in communion with His Father.

To be with Him is to rest in the woods, in the rugged shelter of His canopies, we desire to hold Him close to our heart and pine for Him.

Jesus is compared to a lily, with lips dripping with myrrh.

And having as beard with the fragrance of sage.

Myrrh, cinnamon, calamus, cassia and olive oil were all part of the incense recipe used in the temple, sacred to the Lord for use in His temple only.

Aloes represents healing and self-control.

Our garden was created for our Beloved and He comes in to feed on its fruits.

Blow on our garden, Holy Spirit come and blow on Your church, so that Your fragrance blows abroad to the hearts that need You!

We are like a garden, filled with the fragrance of the fruit of the Spirit and when the Holy Spirit blows, people are attracted to it and drawn into His presence.

We are a garden of fountains, a well of living water and streams from Lebanon.            

In Chapter 2 We are the Rose of Sharon and the Lily of the Valley, like a lily among thorns, so is my love among the daughters.

My beloved has gone to His garden, to the beds of spices, to feed His flock in the gardens and to gather lilies.

What a beautiful image, the Lord comes to His garden to feed us, His sheep, to gather lilies and expects to find a harvest of spices among us.

He says to us, “Rise up my love, my fair one come away,” we are His fair one and His love.

It is springtime, the winter has gone and the rain is over, the time of singing has come, it is a time of rejoicing.

The flowers appear signaling joy and growth and the turtle dove is heard.

The fig tree puts forth fresh green figs and the vines give off a fragrant smell and the grapes are growing, the land is fruitful.

“I have laid up all manner of pleasant fruits new and old for Him.”

The Bride says to her Beloved, “Let me see Your face in the secret places of the cliff, let me hear Your voice, Your voice is sweet.”

Seek Him in the secret place, in the cleft of the rock, listen to His voice.

Is His voice sweet to us, is His face the face we love to seek?

Rightly do we love Him.

I became in His eyes as one who has found peace.

Have we truly found peace in Him, Yehovah Shalom?

To Him we are as beautiful as Tirzah, as lovely as Jerusalem and as awesome as an army with banners.

We are His dove, perfect and fair as the moon and clear as the sun.

Set me as a seal upon Your heart, upon Your arm; for love is as strong as death, jealousy as cruel as the grave, flames of fire, a vehement flame, unquenchable.

Many waters cannot quench love, nor floods drown it.

This is how our love for Him should be, jealous, strong as death, as His is for us, it brings us through death and is unquenchable.

Many of us have been through fields of brokenness, but He will bring us through them and bring healing, for, many waters cannot quench our love for Him, nor His for us.

There is a healing balm for us in Gilead.