Coming up from the Wilderness

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"Who is this that comes up from the wilderness, leaning upon her beloved?" Solomon's Song 8:5

The Song of Solomon is altogether a spiritual book– as spiritual, because as much inspired by the Holy Spirit, as any other portion of the sacred volume. It is true that there are in it figures and images drawn from human love which the carnal mind may abuse; for what is there, however holy and sacred, which the perverse heart of man will not wantonly profane? Fire may be taken from God's altar to burn incense to an idol. A drunken profligate may feed his vile passions by looking upon the most chaste and most virtuous female. An impure mind may pervert to wrong meanings the purest language. This is their sin and shame. But their abuse of what in itself is pure, casts no taint upon, and communicates no defilement unto, the object itself.

There is nothing in conjugal love, from which many of the figures of the Song of Solomon are taken, in itself impure, for that existed before the fall. It is of God's own appointment that the feeling or passion which is commonly called love should exist between the sexes; and when hallowed by God's own institution, marriage, there is nothing impure in conjugal affection– for Christian husbands are bidden by God himself to "love their wives;" and therefore there can be nothing impure in the chaste figures drawn from wedded love by the Holy Spirit.

Man, it is true, has debased the pure passion of love by his own vile lusts; but God's own institution remains the same. The sin is with those who abuse it. "Unto the pure all things are pure– but unto those who are defiled and unbelieving is nothing pure; but even their mind and conscience is defiled." If, then, we can read this sacred book under the unction and influence of the same Holy Spirit by whom it was inspired, and have in our bosom any measure of that divine love of which the representations of conjugal tenderness and affection are but dim and imperfect figures, we may draw water out of this sacred song, as from a well of salvation; and we may in the sweet communion and holy, affectionate communion that are here depicted as existing between Christ and the Church, find something corresponding to the experience of our own hearts.

In the words before us an inquiry is made, and from the peculiar form in which it is couched, it would appear as if the person putting the question had a dim and indistinct view of two noble personages coming up side by side out of a dreary desert. The person who puts the question sees, we may assume, a lovely woman leaning upon a man who yet far outshines her in nobility of demeanor, beauty of person, and loveliness of appearance. Seeing this lovely woman, leaning on this lovely and beautiful man, the question instantly and instinctively arises in the mind of the observer, to learn who she was; for there was something in her manner, appearance, gait, and whole demeanor that struck him with admiration.

WHO, then, is it that asks the question in the text? In this holy book there are for the most part but three speakers– the Bridegroom, the Bride, and the Daughters of Jerusalem. It cannot be the Bridegroom that here speaks, for he is spoken of as "the beloved." Nor can it be the Bride who asks the question, for she it is who is "coming up." It must, then, be the virgin Daughters of Jerusalem, who, struck with this unusual appearance in the wilderness, put to each other this question, expressive of their admiration as well as of inquiry– "Who is this that comes up from the wilderness, leaning upon her beloved?"

In opening up these words, I shall, as the Lord may enable–

I First, endeavor to show who this is; in other words the character and description of the person coming up.

II. Secondly, the wilderness in which the person spoken of at present is; for out of the wilderness the object looked at, is represented as coming.

III. Thirdly, the coming up from the wilderness.

IV. Fourthly, the posture in which she is seen, "leaning upon her beloved."

And may the Lord enable me so to speak, that power and unction, dew and savor, may accompany the word to your heart.

I. The character and description of the person coming up from the wilderness. "Who is this that comes up from the wilderness?" No other than the virgin bride of Christ– his chosen spouse, the Church of God . But by the term, the Church of God, we may understand not only Christ's bridal spouse, viewed as consisting of the "general assembly and church of the firstborn which are written in heaven" (Heb. 12:23); but we may also, following the language of Scripture, apply the words to a rather narrower circle. If we view the Church as the bride and spouse of Christ in the fullest sense of the word, then we must include in the term the whole of the redeemed, all for whom Christ laid down his precious life, and all who will be eternally in heaven worshiping and adoring a three-one God. This is the widest, broadest view of the Church of Christ.

But we may also consider the Church in a somewhat narrower light– as representing the saints of God now upon earth – what is often called the "Church militant" that is, the Church in her present suffering condition, as warring against Satan, the world, and the flesh, as distinct from the "Church triumphant" above. Not, then, to the Church in glory, but to the Church in grace, do the words apply which the Holy Spirit puts into the mouth of the inquiring daughters of Jerusalem– "Whois this that comes up from the wilderness?"

But we may take a narrower view of the words even than this. We may bring the subject down, as I mean to do, to describe the experience of every living soul ; for what is the Church below but an aggregate of believers? The Church of Christ upon earth is made up of believing men and women, who are all members of the mystical body of Jesus, who all have a certain work of grace upon their souls, and by means of which they are manifested as possessing a vital union with the Lord the Lamb. This is the view, then, which I shall take of the words in answering the question– "Who is this?" that I may not wander into loose and vague generalities, or merely entertain your minds with a doctrinal discourse about Christ and his Church, but bring the subject to bear closely and experimentally upon your heart and conscience.

View, then, with me the person described as coming up out of the wilderness as an individual believer, a child of God, a saint of the Most High– not merely redeemed by atoning blood, but regenerated by effectual grace. View him also as possessing a vital union with the Lord Jesus– a union produced as well as evidenced by some manifestation of Christ to his soul. Let us be clear as well as decided upon these points, for such a one only, as I shall hope to show, can fully come up to the description given in the text, as coming up "leaning upon his beloved."

We need not, then, go very far to discover, in the light and life of the Spirit's teaching, who is this? The answer may be readily given– he is one made alive unto God by regenerating grace– one who knows something of the entrance of the word into his conscience, laying bare the secrets of his heart, and discovering the guilt, the filth, the evil, and the miserable consequences of sin. He is one who knows something of the deceitfulness, hypocrisy, and wickedness of his own fallen nature. He is one who is separated from the world, whether dead in sin or dead in a profession, by a sovereign work of grace upon his heart. He is one who has been led to see the emptiness of a mere 'notional knowledge' of the truth, without knowing experimentally, the healing power of love and blood. He is one who has been stripped of creature wisdom, human strength, and a fig-leaf righteousness, and been made to see that unless he has a vital saving interest in the blood and obedience of Jesus, he must perish in his sins. He is one whom God the Spirit has blessed with a living faith. And, by a "living faith," I mean a faith that works by love, purifies the heart, separates from the world, delivers from the power and practice of sin, overcomes the wicked one, receives grace and strength, life and power out of the fullness of Christ, and the end of which is the salvation of the soul. He is one who is blessed also with a good hope through grace– who has had some discovery of the Lord Jesus to his soul, so as to raise up in his heart a hope in his mercy, enabling him to cast forth that anchor which is both sure and steadfast, into that within the veil, where he rides secure from death and hell, and where, through upholding grace, he will outride every storm. He is one who is blessed with a vital union with the Lord Jesus; for he is said in the text to "lean upon him"– which implies that he has such a union with Jesus as enables him to rest wholly and solely upon him, and upon what he is made unto him. He is one who is also blessed and favored at times not only with union, but with a measure of sweet and sacred communion with the Lord of life and glory; for to "lean upon him" implies that he is favored with some such holy nearness as John had when he lay in his bosom. He is one, too, who is not ignorant of trial or temptation, for the wilderness finds him enough of both; nor is he one who is ignorant of sufferings, afflictions, and sorrows; for this is the distinctive character of the present wilderness condition. He is not unacquainted with spiritual hungering and thirsting, for the wilderness in itself affords neither food nor water. Nor is he a stranger to the fiery flying serpents that haunt the wilderness, nor to the perils and dangers that encompass the traveler therein from the pestilential wind, the roving Arab, and the moving columns of sand.

But with all the vicissitudes of the wilderness, which he deeply and painfully feels, with all its dust upon his face and clothes, with all his swarthy visage and wearied gait, yet there is that in his demeanor and appearance which strikes a beholder, who has at least eyes to see what true grace is and does, with wonder and astonishment. A sinner saved is a spectacle for angels to contemplate. As the apostle says, "We are made a spectacle unto the world, and to angels and to men." The ancients used to say that "a good man struggling with difficulties was a sight for the gods to look at." We may say, with all Christian truth, that the mysteries of redemption are "things the angels desire to look into;" and among the mysteries of redemption, what greater than a redeemed sinner?

That a man who deserves, by sin original and sin actual, nothing but the eternal wrath of God, should be lifted out of justly merited perdition, into salvation to which he can have no claim, must indeed ever be a holy wonder. And that you or I should ever have been fixed on in the electing love of God– ever have been given to Jesus to redeem– ever quickened by the Spirit to feel our lost, ruined state– ever blessed with any discovery of the Lord Jesus Christ and of his saving grace– this is and ever must be a matter of holy astonishment here, and will be a theme for endless praise hereafter.

To see a man altogether so different from what he once was– once so careless, carnal, ignorant, unconcerned– to see that man now upon his knees begging for mercy, the tears streaming down his face, his bosom heaving with convulsive sighs, his eyes looking upward that pardon may reach him in his desperate state,– is not that a man to be looked at with wonder and admiration?

To see another who might have pushed his way in the busy, bustling scenes of life, who might have had honors, riches, and everything the world had to bestow heaped upon his head, abandon all for Jesus' sake, and with Moses, "esteem the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures of Egypt"– is not that man a wonder?

To live while here on earth in union and communion with an invisible God– to talk to Jesus, whom the eye of sense has never seen, and whose voice the ear of sense has never heard; and yet to see him as sensibly by the eye of faith as though the natural eye rested upon his glorious Person, and to hear his voice speaking into the inmost heart, as plainly and clearly as though the sound of his lips met the natural ear– is not that a wonder also?

To see a man preferring one smile from the face of Jesus and one word from his peace-speaking lips to all the titles, honors, pleasures, and power that the world can bestow– why surely if there be a wonder upon earth, that man is one.

And so says the Lord himself– "Hear now, O, Joshua, the high priest, you and your fellows that sit before you, for they are men wondered at." (Zech. 3:8.) And again– "Behold, I and the children whom the Lord has given me are for signs and for wonders in Israel." (Isaiah 8:18.) May we not, then, say with admiring as well as wondering eyes– "Who is this?" "Why, this man I knew– worldly, proud, ambitious, self-seeking. That man I knew given up to vanity and pride. The other I knew buried in politics, swallowed up in pleasure and gaiety, abandoned to everything vile and sensual. But he has now become prayerful, watchful, tender-hearted, choosing the company of God's saints, giving up everything that his carnal mind once approved of and delighted in, and manifesting in his walk, conversation, and whole deportment that he is altogether a new creature."

When we view such a man, especially if we see him for the first time after grace has changed his heart, well may we look at him a second time and say– "Who is this?" Was not this the very feeling of the disciples when Saul first "preached Christ in the synagogues that he is the Son of God?" "All that heard him were amazed and said, Is not this the one who persecuted the Church of God?" So we look and wonder, and feel at times a holy joy that he who reigns at God's right hand is ever adding trophies to his immortal crown. And whenever we see any of those near and dear to us in the flesh– be it husband, wife, sister, brother, child, relative, or friend– touched by the finger of this all-conquering Lord, subdued by his grace, and wrought upon by his Spirit, then not only do we look upon such with holy wonder, but with the tenderest affection, mingled with the tears of thankful praise to the God of all our mercies. Thus far have I answered the question– "Who is this?" and have shown him to be a redeemed, regenerated, believing saint of God.

Next Part Coming up from the Wilderness 2

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