In our continued study of the mysterious poetry of the Song of Solomon, I came across an interesting story. It is recited by the woman, which we know represents each one of us in our relationship with Christ: “One night as I lay in bed, I yearned for my lover. I yearned for him, but he did not come.” (Song of Solomon 3:1 NLT)
More than any other passage in the Bible, this story typifies one of the primary problems that most Christians suffer: In the midst of our problems, God doesn’t seem to be there! And the lack of His presence leads us to question whether or not He even loves us or cares! In the middle of the toughest times, we crave our Lord and Saviour. We need His strength, we pray for His intervention, we desire His presence; but, just as the woman’s lover in this story did not come to her, God does not appear to be coming to us.
When this situation arises, we have a choice. We can turn our backs on the God who seems to have turned His back on us, or we can seek Him all the more intently. Though our natural tendency is to do the former, we can take courage from the woman in the Song of Solomon who actually chose the later: “So I said to myself, ‘I will get up and roam the city, searching in all its streets and squares. I will search for the one I love.'” (Song of Solomon 3:2a NLT)
When God seems far away, when it seems like He could care less about our problems, let’s follow her example! Let’s go out and search for Him!
Unfortunately, that search may also be futile. It certainly was for this woman: “So I searched everywhere but did not find him.” (Song of Solomon 3:2b NLT). And we get, understandably, discouraged. I suspect this woman was very discouraged as well!
So what do we do when we find ourselves in this very familiar scenario?
Perhaps we can again learn from the woman: “The watchmen stopped me as they made their rounds, and I asked, ‘Have you seen the one I love?'” (Song of Solomon 3:3 NLT)
No matter how much it may seem that He is absent, God sends us encouragement!
Now when this woman came upon the watchmen, notice that it said they stopped her. She, of her own, might have passed them by, but they reached out to her!
Are you feeling like God has abandoned you completely? Watch and see who God has put in your path! It might be your pastor or a member of your small group. It might be someone you don’t even know, but you recognize from your seat across the church auditorium. It might even be a total stranger! Hey, it might not even be a human. I was stopped in the midst of a major pity-party one time by a stray dog, and God used that dog to turn my eyes back to Him! And I could tell countless stories of God reaching out to me through flowers or birds, even through license plates! The point is, when God seems far away, He actually isn’t! He’s busy using other people/things to help us, and when we make the effort to seek Him in the midst of the dry times, we will find Him! Our job, like the woman of Solomon’s story, is to respond to those sent to help us. To reach out to them, to ask them for assistance! Hey, maybe even to do as she did, “Have you seen my God? I can’t find Him right now!”
We don’t know how the watchmen of the story responded, for the very next thing recorded in the story is this: “Then scarcely had I left them when I found my love!” (Song of Solomon 3:4a)
You see, when we stop thinking about how much God has abandoned us, when we start seeking Him instead, our eyes are opened to the fact that He actually hasn’t abandoned us and never will! Hasn’t He said numerous times in the Bible, “for he has said, ‘I will never leave you nor forsake you.’” (Heb. 13:5b ESV)
I think the reaction of the woman in the story is priceless: “I caught and held him tightly, then I brought him to my mother’s house, into my mother’s bed, where I had been conceived.” (Song of Solomon 3:4b NLT). Notice here that she doesn’t say, “thanks!” and turn and leave. She not only holds him tightly, but she returns to her mother’s bed where she was conceived!
And this is how we, also, should react when God reveals Himself to us: We need to catch hold of Him tightly!
The next phrase, however, is a strange piece of imagery. She “brought him to ]her] mother’s house, into [her] mother’s bed where she was conceived…” Why would she do that?
Let’s remember that when we accepted Jesus as our saviour, we were “born again”: “I tell you the truth, unless you are born again, you cannot see the Kingdom of God.”(John 3:3 NLT). We are brought back to the place of birth, signified in this passage from the Song of Solomon as her “mother’s bed, where [she] had been conceived”!
What should we do after a desert experience, after we seek the Lord, after we receive the help of those God has sent us, after we find Him again? We must cling to Him, and we must return to our roots!
Remember how on fire you were for Christ in the early days of your relationship with Him? The fire kind of waned, didn’t it? It happens to all of us! After a dry period in our lives, we must return to our “mother’s bed”, we must return to the level of relationship we experienced when we were first born again. We must remember what He’s done for us, we must desire His Spirit, we must be “all-in” for Him as we were in the past!
Are you going through a dry period right now? Remember Song of Solomon 3:1-4! Seek God in the midst of it! Allow the help God sends! And when we find Him again, which will happen, we must cling to Him and return to the level of relationship we had with Him at the beginning!
In His love,
Lyn
Lynona Gordon Chaffart, Speech-Language Pathologist, mother of two adult boys, Author — “Aboard God’s Train — A Journey With God Through the Valley of Cancer”, Author and Moderator for The Nugget, a tri-weekly internet newsletter, Scriptural Nuggets, a website devoted to Christian devotionals and inspirational poems, The Illustrator, a four-times-a-week internet newsletter, and the Sermon Illustrator website, all with Answers2Prayer Ministries.
(To access the entire “Unveiling the Song of Solomon” mini-series, click here!)
