Whither is thy Beloved Gone...the Wayfarer...8/4/14

Whither is thy Beloved Gone
8/4/14

"Whither is thy beloved gone, O thou fairest among women? whither is thy beloved turned aside? that we may seek him with thee."

(Song of Solomon 6:1)

The Song of Solomon is probably one of the least read, and for this old preacher, one of the least used scriptures within the Old Testament.

The beauty of its words, and the flow that is poetic, even in the translation to English makes it all the more beautiful, and comforting to those taking the time to read this short book, so often overlooked by so many.

Its promise, though, perhaps, not as apparent to the reader as it is within other books, is more than comforting, while the lamentation that exists is parallel with the lamentation heard daily as given by those looking forward to the return of the Lord, yet finding the times and circumstances of that wait burdensome and discomfiting at best.

Each chapter is full of praise for the beloved that is so missed by the writer, with continual descriptive phrases of what is missed and will be welcomed at its return... the return that is not avoided, but sincerely sought despite the apparent absence that spurred the writing.

"Set me as a seal upon thine 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 be utterly contemned."

(Song of Solomon 8:6-8)

Set me as a seal on thine heart!

This is a request that the promised love never be forgotten, even in that perceived absence that had created  the longing for its return.

Then comes the following realization that love remains, despite any perceived absence, all the sweeter for the delay and separation that would steal that love if possible.

It is not possible!

There is nothing that can refute that love, when it is truly shared; nothing that may  ever destroy that love, when it truly exists within the hearts of those who profess it, and not merely on their lips.

"Make haste, my beloved, and be thou like to a roe, or to a young hart upon the mountains of spices"

(Song of Solomon 8:14)

The closure of this short book is the request that that delay be shortened inasmuch as is possible... a request not often made by Christians, themselves  forgetting the promises of the love while bemoaning the absence of Christ.

Physical separation cannot extinguish the love that has been given, and will continue to be given those who, like this writer endure in that ever ongoing love that should be apparent despite all that occurs to obscure it.

The realization of that love is paramount in the times of the seeming absence that continue, and grow harsher  each day.

The realization that there are those who would deny that love is no reason to abandon it, but all the more reason to cling more tightly to it.

"Then shall they deliver you up to be afflicted, and shall kill you: and ye shall be hated of all nations for my name's sake.

And then shall many be offended, and shall betray one another.

And many false prophets shall rise, and shall deceive many.

And because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold.

But he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved.

And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come."

(Matthew 24: 9-14)

The love of many has waxed colder, and continues to decrease in the face of the perceived absence that is extant only to those having forgotten the promise of its continuity and perpetuity, both now and throughout the eternity to come.

Endurance has been replaced by surrender as "Christians" succumb to the false promises given, forget the requirement to endure, and turn to the teachings of men instead of those given by God though the prophets and Christ.

The gospel, "good news" remains with us and with it the requirement given in the commission left us by Christ.

Endurance is visible only in the remnant that remember that love, and its requirements that were set forth in the single commandment left us.

"A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another.

By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another."

(John 13:34&35)

"And Jesus said, For judgment I am come into this world, that they which see not might see; and that they which see might be made blind.

And some of the Pharisees which were with him herd these words, and said unto him, Are we blind also?

Jesus said unto them, If ye were blind, ye should have no sin: but now ye say, We see; therefore your sin remaineth."

Even so, come quickly Lord Jesus!

2 Timothy 1:12 King James Version (KJV)

¹² For the which cause I also suffer these things: nevertheless I am not ashamed: for I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him against that day.

Amen and Amen!
the Wayfarer