Song Of Solomon 6:10-13 - Homiletics

Conversation between the chorus and the bride.

I. ADDRESS OF THE CHORUS .

1 . The question. "Who is she?" This question occurs three times in the song. In So Song of Solomon 3:6 it is asked apparently by a chorus of young men, the friends of the bridegroom; here and in So Song of Solomon 8:5 it seems to be put into the mouth of the chorus of maidens, the daughters of Jerusalem. It is an expression of admiration. The maidens meet the bride after an interval, and are startled by her surpassing beauty, at once graceful and majestic. Her happy love has shed a new grace around her; she is clothed in queenly attire; it is a vision of rare loveliness. It is the love of Christ which gives the Church whatever beauty she possesses. Christ's love for her, drawing forth her responsive love for him, gives her whatever graces she may possess. She is his creation. He built his Church upon the rock; all that she is, and all that she has, comes only from his gift.

2 . The description. She looks forth as the dawn. The bride's sudden appearance is like the early dawn, coming forth in its beauty, tinging sky and clouds with rosy light. She is fair as the moon, clear and pure as the sun (poetical words are used here, as in Isaiah 24:23 ; Isaiah 30:26 ; the moon is the white, the sun the hot luminary); and the comparison of Song of Solomon 8:4 is repeated; in her queenly majesty she is terrible, awe-inspiring, as a bannered host. Christ is the Bright and Morning Star ( Revelation 22:16 ); He is the Sun of Righteousness ( Malachi 4:2 ); He is the true Light, the Light of the world. The true Light lighteth every man ( John 1:9 ); and they who believe in the Light, and walk as children of light, reflect something of its brightness; so that the Lord, in his condescending love, says of them, "Ye are the light of the world" ( Matthew 5:14 ); and so St. Paul says of his Philippian converts that "ye shine as lights [luminaries] in the world" ( Philippians 2:15 ). "God is light, and in him is no darkness at all." Christians must strive, by his grace and the illumination of his Spirit, to walk always in the light, as he is in the light, that so they may have fellowship with one another in the light of holy love, and that the blood of Jesus Christ may cleanse them continually from all sin, making their souls white and clear in the transparent truth of that purity in heart which must, by the Saviour's compassionate mercy, belong to them who shall see God ( Matthew 5:8 ).

II. ANSWER OF THE BRIDE .

1 . Her lowliness. The maidens praise her beauty and stateliness; she reminds them of her former low estate. She seems to be looking back to the hour of her first meeting with the bridegroom. She had no thought, country maiden as she was, of the elevation that awaited her. She was engaged in her ordinary occupations. She had gone down into the garden to tend it and to watch the budding of the fruit trees; there she first saw the king. Whatever graces the Church possesses come from the favour of the heavenly Bridegroom. "Through him we have access by one Spirit unto the Father. Now therefore ye are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints, and of the household of God" ( Ephesians 2:18 , Ephesians 2:19 ). The Gentiles were strangers and foreigners; they knew not the King; they were not looking for him. As the Lord God called Adam and Eve when they were hiding themselves among the trees of the garden, so the Lord called the Gentiles by the mission of his apostles. In the infancy of the human race it was the protevangel, the promise of the Seed of the woman who shall bruise the serpent's head, that first shed light upon the gloom of sin and misery. And in the fulness of time it was the Lord's gracious mission, "Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature" that first called the Gentiles into the city of God. Till he calls us we are like the bride in the song, immersed in worldly pursuits and earthly cares; he brings us into the new Jerusalem and makes us fellow citizens with the saints. We must remember always that "By the grace of God I am what I am;" that whatever we may have done of good or right, it was "Not I, but the grace of God which was with me" ( 1 Corinthians 15:10 ). "By grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God' ( Ephesians 2:8 ). The bride was poor in this world's goods; we Christians must be "poor in spirit." That holy poverty, that sense of our own helplessness and need of the Saviour, is very blessed; it has the first place in the Beatitudes.

2 . Her exaltation. "I knew not," she says, "my soul made me the chariots of my people, a princely [people]." She uses a military figure, perhaps suggested by the words twice addressed to her in this chapter, "Terrible as an army with banners." In a sense she accepts the metaphor. Elijah and Elisha had been severally called "the chariot of Israel and the horsemen thereof" ( 2 Kings 2:12 ; 2 Kings 13:14 ). So now the bride had been raised to a lofty position, and was awe-inspiring in her majesty, like a bannered host, or the chariots of a princely people. Her soul, she says, had made her this; she means her soups love for the bridegroom, whom she so often describes as "him whom my soul loveth" (So Song of Solomon 1:7 ; Song of Solomon 3:1 , Song of Solomon 3:2 , Song of Solomon 3:3 , Song of Solomon 3:4 ). The king saw her and loved her. His love won her innocent heart; and that pure, artless love of hers, the love which filled her soul, the seat of the affections, had lifted her up into the very highest place in the affections of the king, so that now in her queenly majesty she was not only fair as the moon, but awe-inspiring as a bannered host, as the war chariots of a princely people. So it is love that makes one man better than another in the sight of God; not riches, or refinement, or learning, but love. There is, as it were, a hierarchy of love in the universe. Good men love, angels love more, but God is love—the infinite, everlasting Love. "He prayeth best who loveth best." He is nearest to God who by his Spirit has learned the great grace of love. "God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life" ( John 3:16 ). The love of Christ draws forth the love of his people. Their love, given in response to his most holy love, lifts them nearer the King; it makes them take up the cross and follow him as his faithful soldiers, quitting themselves like men in the good fight of faith; it makes them terrible to the powers of evil as a bannered host, as the war chariots of iron were in the days of the Judges ( 1:19 ; 4:3 ).

IIL SHORT DIALOGUE CONCLUDING THE CONVERSATION .

1 . Request of the chorus. The bride retires; the maidens of the chorus eagerly call her back; they desire to look again upon her beauty. They call her for the first and only time, "O Shulamite!" What is the meaning of the word? Is it equivalent to Shunamite? Was the bride a native of Shuuem in the Plain of Esdraelon, where Elisha afterwards was wont to sojourn ( 2 Kings 4:8-12 )? And if so, can it be that the historical basis of the song is the love of Solomon for Abishag the fair Shunamite of 1 Kings 1:3 ? Or, again, is it possible, as some scholars have suggested, that the Hebrew name Shula-mith may have been chosen as a near approach to the feminine form ( Shelomith ) of Solomon ( Shelomoh ) , signifying the bride's relationship.to the great monarch? But the bride seems to belong to the Lebanon district; and wives were not then accustomed to take their husband's name. Again, Shulamith may possibly have been the original name of the maiden, though it occurs nowhere else as a proper name. It is enough for our purpose that the word suggests the meaning "peaceful;" the Vulgate rendering is pacifica . The bride is modest and quiet, she is peaceful; such should Christians be.

2 . Question of the bride. She repeats the name given to her by the chorus, and asks, "What will ye see in the Shulamite?" The question is asked in modesty. The last clause of the verse, whether taken as part of the question or as the answer of the chorus, is exceedingly difficult. The word translated "company" is the second part of Abel-meholah ("the meadow of the dance"), the home of Elisha ( 1 Kings 19:16 ). The Hebrew for "two armies" may be the name of the town in Gilead, "Mahanaim," so called by Jacob when "the angels of God met him" there ( Genesis 32:2 ). Hence the translation of the Revised Version, "Why will ye look upon the Shulamite as upon the dance of Mahanaim?" as if the chorus was inviting the bride to dance some stately measure called from the Gileadite town. Some commentators who take this view understand the bride's words as a modest refusal; others, that she complies with their request. But the second Hebrew word has the definite article, which would scarcely be used here if it were the name of the city. And if the first word must mean "dance," as it elsewhere does, may it not be taken in connection with the preceding titles of praise, "the bannered host" and "the chariots of a princely people," as a martial dance, or as the stately and well ordered evolutions of two bands of warriors? This interpretation, which is suggested with much doubt, may perhaps be regarded as yielding a more suitable explanation than that of the dance, though this last is the view of many accomplished scholars. The chorus looks upon the bride with the interest and delight with which they would watch the evolutions of two hosts with banners and chariots. Warlike images occur several times in the song (So 1 Kings 1:9 ; 1 Kings 6:4 , 1 Kings 6:10 , 1 Kings 6:12 ). To the Christian the words recall the onward march of the army of the soldiers of the cross with the attendant escort of angels, the two hosts (Mahanaim) of Genesis 32:2 . For the angels of God still, as in the times of old, encamp round about them that fear him to deliver them ( Psalms 34:7 ). And still, if our eyes were opened, we should see, as the servant of Elisha once saw, "chariots and horses of fire round about" the faithful. "They that be with us are more than they that be with" the enemy ( 2 Kings 6:16 , 2 Kings 6:17 ).