Everyday Wisdom from Song of Songs

JESUS AS BRIDEGROOM

Sue became a Christian at the age of twelve, but never thought much about Jesus being a bridegroom to his people -- both men and women. Years later, as a wife and mom of three young kids, she sensed the Lord directing her to study the Song of Solomon from the Old Testament. Sue delved into the first section (chapter 1:1-2:7), and found truths that helped her then and would see her through hard times later, when she went through a divorce.  

She also began teaching what she learned. “If you’re seeking a deeper relationship with the Lord, you will find Jesus and yourself in this story,” Sue says. “The drama tells of the struggles, hardships, and extreme delights the two lovers in the poem experience. Once believers understand the story that is unfolding, they put themselves in the place of the maiden and recognize the Lover is the Lord Jesus. This story is a progression of the life of the earnest believer: the stages, tests, failures, and victories that happen to us as we follow the Lord. He completes what He starts in the life of the maiden, and He will complete what He had begun in us also.”  

FOLLOWING HIM 

In the second portion of Song of Solomon (2:8-5:1), Sue sees an invitation to leave one’s comfort zone and go wherever the Lord leads. The maiden’s trusting response to the king in this portion, and the comfort He provides in a new, uncertain place was reassuring to her. “The responsive heart is what the Lord enjoys, not our particular stage of maturity,” she says. “He doesn’t reveal all our shortcomings all at once. We go from glory to glory one step at a time. We are hopeless without Him at work in our lives. As we submit to Him, knowing we’re powerless, we ravish His heart.”  

Sue says she was certainly out of her comfort zone as a newly-divorced mom in her forties, needing to work again to support herself and her three children. She went back to college to earn a teaching degree, and also agreed to sponsor an FCA group at a local middle school. Though it was all new and often scary to her, she saw it as an opportunity to partner with Jesus on a mission which would bear fruit.

THE DARK NIGHT 

“This wasn’t how I thought my life would go. Marriage was supposed to be for life. I feared the turmoil in our family around the divorce would cause my kids to turn away from Jesus,” Sue remembers. She says for the first year after her divorce, she would put her kids on the school bus every weekday and cry for 30 minutes, feeling completely overwhelmed. “I told the Lord that what I’d been teaching (from the Song of Solomon) had to become real for me, that I was taking Jesus to be my husband on a whole new level. Jesus has shown Himself to me on many occasions to be the husband I needed, especially while I went through my divorce.”  

As Sue pored over the third section of the Song of Solomon (5:2-7:13), she saw a parallel in the intimacy between the maiden and the king, and that of Jesus and his people. “As we feast upon Jesus, we also will produce double fruit,” she states. “I believe I have a private gate where I meet with God. That place is just for Jesus and me. I believe our God has a private personal place to meet with each of us. When I’m in a private time with God, I feel He is listening only to me. I’m not sharing His attention with anyone else. The Creator of the universe knows me; He knows me! He is everything I thought He was and even more than I could have imagined.”

OUR BRIGHT FUTURE

Over the thirty-some years that Sue has been studying this great book, its many encouragements have sustained her. She says the closing verses (8:1-8:14) assure us of the bright future with the Lord in the resurrection for all believers. “The Bride is asking to be bound to her Beloved in an exclusive spousal love relationship. We too are sealed in His heart and with his strength and power (His arm). He will never let us go, just as death never lets go. It is the Lord who keeps us by His power. He is able to keep that which is committed to Him. We are sealed unto the day of redemption (Ephesians 4:30). She is saying, as we say, ‘Come quickly, Lord Jesus! We know He is coming back for us, and we look forward to that glorious day. Like the young deer, He will leap over every obstacle and principality to free us from this wilderness that is not our home.”  

Years ago, Sue was in Hawaii with family and saw the lava flow from a live volcano. “As we drove around the island, we could see vegetation coming up through the black charcoal blanket. It got greener and greener as we drove. Out of the destructions of a volcano comes new life and very fertile ground.” Those green shoots reminded her of her own life, which had once seemed hopeless, and how the Lord had been so faithful to bring new life. “My children are now adults, and they are all strong Christian people,” she says happily. “Today, I’m a retired schoolteacher who still ministers to God’s people and reaches out to the lost.” 

To purchase Sue Baker House's book, Song of Songs, please vist her website: www.SueBakerHouse.com.