Shulamite: the fairest among women (3)

“Son 5:8  I charge you, O daughters of Jerusalem, if ye find my beloved, that ye tell him, that I am sick of love. Son 5:9  What is thy beloved more than another beloved, O thou fairest among women? what is thy beloved more than another beloved, that thou dost so charge us?”

All daughters of Jerusalem recognize that Solomon is fair, but still is nothing more than other beloved. Because they know him in an ordinary way. While looking for her beloved over nights because she was sick of love, the daughters of Jerusalem could not understand how their friend, the Shulamite, could get to that degree. Churches today can agree that Jesus is good and tasty. But they have nothing found in him that makes him different from all other lovers: Jesus, yes; but not him alone anyway; world’s glory too, prestige too, power too, money too, fame too, women too, etc. Today, even in the message of the restoration, churches have no intimacy with the Lord. They speak of him with plenty of knowledge, but not after personal revelation and experience that allows knowing him as he is and getting sick of love.

The Shulamite knows several Bridegroom’s features that all other virgins do not, for her life is of the Bridegroom. Solomon, on  his side let slip these words full of charm, “Son 6:5  Turn away thine eyes from me, for they have overcome me: thy hair is as a flock of goats that appear from Gilead.” “Son 1:15  Behold, thou art fair, my love; behold, thou art fair; thou hast doves' eyes.”  Who is the woman who would not hear such beautiful words and full of charm, especially when they come from the mouth of the one her heart loves? - she does not exist. All women, influential or not influential, tall or short, valuable or vile, educated and ignorant, etc. appreciate when a man says to them, “how really beautiful you are.” Even a woman minister or CEO of a large company would not get rid of his driver or his usher who is used to say "Aye my CEO / Minister, the fairest among women…" or, removing his hat, say "All my humble regards to your uncompared splendid  and sublime beauty, my CEO / Minister ..." Gallantry, which is part of the wisdom of men, communicates a lot of energy to women. Similarly virgins will also want to hear it, and for them it mostly has value when it is given by the bridegroom himself.

But among the virgins, there are those who are wise and those crazy. The latter love the Bridegroom, but they trust in their virginity to conclude that everything is settled because they are virgins. So they do not take the trouble to try to know in everything what the will of the Bridegroom is to get to please him.

But the wise virgin seeks perfection for her Bridegroom, she wants to know in all things what the will of the Bridegroom is, “Eph 5:17  Wherefore be ye not unwise, but understanding what the will of the Lord is.”  In marriage of Ahasuerus the other virgins were foolish, just content with their presence in the royal palace. The intelligence for a bride is none other than the knowledge of the will of her fiancé, “Col 1:9  For this cause we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you, and to desire that ye might be filled with the knowledge of his will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding.”

Esther had the revelation that King works all things after the counsel of his will, “Eph 1:11  In whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will.”  Even to choose a queen, the king will do after the counsel of his will. So the wise virgin concluded, "what I need is to know what that will is and abide by." Now the king had settled in his house a provider of the counsel of his will, his own chamberlain. Esther hid in that council of the king's will. He that is hidden in the counsel of God is built on the rock. “Psa 91:1  He that dwelleth in the secret place of the most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty. Psa 91:2  I will say of the LORD, He is my refuge and my fortress: my God; in him will I trust.”  The wise virgin now hides in this secret place. In his time, Paul was the king's eunuch, he announced all the counsel of the king's will without hiding anything: “Act 20:27  For I have not shunned to declare unto you all the counsel of God.”   At all time, there has always been a eunuch that the king establishes in his house to take care of his harem by communicating the council of the king's will to all his wives.

Only women who are wise carefully follow the advice of God which is Christ, the Word made flesh, the rock of ages. This was the secret of Esther, she was hidden in the rock of ages, which distinguished her from all other virgins and made her the fairest among women, the all fair and perfect. Now we read about the Shulamite the same thing: “Son 2:14  O my dove, that art in the clefts of the rock, in the secret places of the stairs, let me see thy countenance, let me hear thy voice; for sweet is thy voice, and thy countenance is comely.”  There is only one rock, Christ (1 Cor 10: 4), who is the Word of God, the revelation of God and the counsel of his will. That is, moreover, how the Shulamite stands out among virgins without number. The other virgins wander around the palace and take everything that seems nice to them up and down, but she hides in the cracks of the rock, in the council of the will of God, in the hiding steep places. Her concern and continuous care aim to grasp again and again what is the will of the king, she does not want any unpleasant surprise at the final.

Whatever dare divert her attention from the objective is to fight. Whoever tries to thrust her away or disorient her from the counsel of the king's will should expect thunderbolts and know what stuff she is made of. Here is how the Bridegroom himself describes her, “Son 6:4  Thou art beautiful, O my love, as Tirzah, comely as Jerusalem, terrible as an army with banners.”   This Shulamite is beautiful with mild, peaceful eyes of a dove, and comely as Jerusalem, but she is strict in her preparation so that her Husband may find her in good order to introduce her into his chamber.

A beautiful girl who has graduated seeks employment in a company, she is subjected to all sorts of tests to discourage her or see how she really treasures this job. Finally, the CEO himself comes into contact with the girl and hires her as his secretary. The girl thanks the CEO for saving her from unemployment raging in the country. The CEO sees himself as savior to this girl and thinks he can get away with anything on her. In this belief, he asks her to bring him a folder, and while the girl is standing close to show him the items he wants to see in the folder, he extends his hand and touches her body. Unfortunately for him, this girl is betrothed and not the ordinary kind. "You dare touch me!" she fumes. With the workbook, she hits the CEO in the countenance, leaves his office and slams the door behind. Other colleagues see her out without knowing what has happened. A few minutes later they hear CEO's phone ringing in the office of the secretary. A colleague hurries to pick up the phone to bring it to the CEO whom she finds collapsed in his chair with blood everywhere. She tries to get the call, it is the voice of the girl newly hired, "Mr. CEO, you do not take trouble to fire me for I am hereby announcing my resignation. bye!”

All colleagues were caused to think that the CEO would have been attacked by an armed gang, but on recovering his knowledge, the CEO told them what had happened. A girl serious in her engagement is terrible as an army: daring to touch her or speak ill of her fiancé is trying to call on thunderbolts; she will not tolerate anything that could make her miss out the appointment. This feature is unique to the Shulamite, the wise virgin: “Son 6:10  Who is she that looketh forth as the morning, fair as the moon, clear as the sun, and terrible as an army with banners?”   This is the Shulamite, she rages when the Word is falsified and when the name of her Bridegroom is splashed. Prostitutes use the name of her Bridegroom amiss to smear him before the world, she responds with the sword of the Spirit to cut them to pieces as if she were herself an eschatological armada.

She made this statement, “Son 6:12  Or ever I was aware, my soul made me like the chariots of Amminadib.”   This love is really a consuming fire that makes the bride similar to tanks. “Son 8:6  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. Son 8:7  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 utterly be contemned.”   True love is like death, his ardor is like flashes of fire, a flame of the LORD. It is useless to threaten with death someone who loves: by the very fact of loving, he is already dead. All threats whereby Jesus was being threatened were non-event because of love for his Church, he was already dead for her. It is the same with the true Church, the Shulamite.

In Revelation 17, the angel explains the meaning of many waters: “Rev 17:15  And he saith unto me, The waters which thou sawest, where the whore sitteth, are peoples, and multitudes, and nations, and tongues.”   For centuries the Roman church has exploited peoples, multitudes, nations and tongues, through the Crusades and the Inquisition, to compel by persecution and death this small Shulamite to abandon her love for her beloved. She failed because many waters cannot quench love. This small church without military training, unarmed could resist such as tanks of Solomon, simply because of her ardent love for Christ. When she was showed the death threat she could reply, “Php 1:21  For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.”   In vain they were putting to death those who were already dead and risen in the love of Christ.

And that's what the Bridegroom loves, hence he states: “My dove, my undefiled, is but one.”

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