Personally I’m not much of a gardener; at best you could call me a ‘weed exterminator.’ But I certainly enjoy walking round a beautiful garden. What are the ingredients needed for a successful garden? I guess, the soil must be suitable, and needs to be plenty of water, sun and shelter. For a garden to look and smell good you need variety - different types and colours of flower, bush and shrub. But what lies behind every great garden is a knowledgeable dedicated gardener.
Now whether you look at that bit of ground at the back of your house and think ‘flowers and shrubs’ or ‘fence to fence concrete’, the Bible uses the picture of a beautiful well-kept garden to describe the spiritual relationship between God and His people. And In our passage Song of Songs 4:12-16 we’ve got a great example of this.
THE LOVER AND HIS BRIDE
Christ Jesus and the Church
The Song of Songs is a poetic love story between a King and a lowly country girl, which uses exotic and striking language. It celebrates love and affection between a man and a woman that cuts across class barriers. But what did God intend in including it in the Old Testament canon? The great key to understanding it is to see that it describes the spiritual relationship between Jesus, the Bridegroom King, and the Church, the peasant girl Bride. Looked at in that light it’s a truly amazing piece of writing that is very instructive.
In 4:12-16 the Bridegroom, Jesus, speaks of His Bride to be, the Church, in terms of garden imagery that reflects vital spiritual truths. People who attack the Bible often say: ‘Look, these fundamentalists keep saying you’ve got to take the Bible completely literally.’ But that’s to get hold of the wrong end of the stick. As Bible-believing Christians we simply say that the Bible is without error and perfect in all that it says, but it says what it says in different literary forms. Some of the Bible is straightforward history, so we take it as history; some is highly symbolic like parts of Daniel and the book of Revelation, some is in poetic form like the Psalms and the Song of Songs, and so on. But it all conveys real truth that God wants us to know about Himself, about us and the world we live in.
Harold Lindsell wrote: ‘All that is meant by saying one takes the Bible literally is that one believes what it purports to say. This means that figures of speech are taken as figures of speech. No evangelical takes figures of speech literally. Nor does any evangelical suppose that when Jesus said, “I am the door,” that He meant He was a literal door.’
The Church Secure
(12) ‘You are a garden locked up, my sister, my bride!’ It’s important to realise what sort of garden we’re looking at here. It’s not your little patch behind an inner city town house; rather it’s an expansive, fertile, fruitful piece of land in the ancient middle-east that supplied the vegetables, roots and fruits that made up most of the householders diet; it was the source of medicines too. There was typically a well together with a place to bath too.
People try hard to stop intruders getting onto their property. Set broken glass sticking up out of concrete on top of a wall or daub the wall in anti-vandal paint; put up warning notices. One (on the grounds of a Public school) is reported to say: ‘No trespassing without permission’. Or another example is: ‘No trespassing: violators will be shot. Survivors will be shot again!’
Very importantly, the garden here was enclosed or walled round, firstly, to protect it from intruders – people and animals. Hence the reference in (12) to the Bride being, ‘…a garden locked up.’ As the middle-eastern gardener put a wall round his garden, so the Lord Jesus puts a secure wall around His bride, the church, to protect her from invaders. It’s a wall of grace and mercy that can’t be climbed over or breached. Neither can the door be broken down, by would be intruders.
Lesson:
(1) The question is often raised as to whether a true Christian be finally lost for eternity through sin and disobedience. I recently heard Jill Briscoe in a broadcast message recount a useful little illustration. Someone asked her once whether a true believer can ever fall out of God’s love? She took a penny and balanced it upright in her palm. Then she pushed it over and the penny fell flat in her hand. And she said: the true Christian can fall over in God’s hand, but can never fall out of God’s hand. Praise God for His sovereign almighty love!
The Church Set Apart for Christ
The gardener put a wall around his garden, not only to protect it, but also to ensure his privacy. It belonged to him, and he desired to enjoy it and benefit from its produce. In a similar way, the Church is walled round because she is dedicated for Jesus Christ. This isn’t out of place when you take into account that the chief imagery of the poem is that the church is Christ’s bride. Jesus Christ is committed to His bride; there’s room for no other in His heart. EPH 5;25-27 ‘Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave Himself up for her to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word, and to present her to Himself as a radiant church…’
Lesson:
(1) If Jesus Christ is so devoted to His church, so we as His Bride should be totally dedicated to Him. There should be no room in our hearts but for Him. There’s always a danger that we can be drawn away from that unique relationship with Him. 2 COR 11:2-3 ‘I am jealous for you with a godly jealousy. I premised you to one husband, to Christ, so that I might present you as a pure virgin to Him. But I am afraid that just as Eve was deceived by the serpent’s cunning, your minds may somehow be led astray from your sincere and pure devotion to Christ.’
(2) This also highlights the key nature of true marriage. True marriage can only be seen in the light of Christ’s undivided love for the church and her being set apart for Jesus alone. The Church of Jesus Christ mustn’t simply go with the flow but stand firm for true biblical marriage and life-long commitment because that is the ideal and pattern that God has shown us. At the same time we must recognise that there are casualties and the church must be there to minister to those who are hurt and have been wronged.
A PRODUCTIVE GARDEN
(The Church And Her Fruits
One of the great joys of going to the West Indies is that fact that you can walk into a garden (with permission of course!) and pick of a lovely ripe mango from a tree for free, rather than buy one for a pound that been shipped over to the UK. You can take a sugar can, split it and suck the wonderful natural sweetness. It’s a kind of paradise with all kinds of lovely things to taste, smell and look at.
(13) ‘Your plants are an orchard of pomegranates with choice fruits, with henna and nard, nard and saffron, calamus and cinnamon, with every kind of incense tree, with myrrh and aloes and all the finest spices.’
Here the Lord Jesus talks about His Bride to be as a kind of paradise. In fact the Hebrew word translated ‘orchard’ corresponds exactly with our English word ‘Paradise’ and brings to mind the pleasure parks and gardens around the great residences of Persian monarchs. In Christ’s garden there’s a tremendous variety of trees, plants, fruits and spices which please His eye; satisfy His taste and smell sensational.
So here we have pictured the spiritual character of the church. It underlines the fact that where there is life there is fruit – has to be! The church having the life of Jesus must produce fruit that lines up with the will of Jesus. That way she pleases Him. EPH 5:8-10 ‘For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Live as children of the light (for the fruit of the light consists in all goodness, righteousness and truth) and find out what please the Lord.’
Lesson:
(1) Our aim then should be to please Christ our bridegroom; to display those varied spiritual graces in our personal lives and as a church. What are those fruits? GAL 5:22,23 ‘love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.’
The Source of the Fruits
These characteristics aren’t natural to us; they aren’t found growing in human nature as a matter of course! Sinful human nature is the equivalent of toxic waste ground where nothing truly spiritual can survive. It’s true that some people are friendlier than others; more sociable than others. But that’s just a matter of temperament and upbringing.
Our old Tabby cat Smokey (who sadly had to be put down) was simply not a lap cat. Whatever you did you simply couldn’t coax him to sit on your lap and be nice. You see, it just wasn’t in his nature. He’d rather bite and scratch you when you least expected it. On the other hand, we were walking along a road near our house recently and there was a cat we’d never seen before. He took one look at us and bounded over for a good scratch and rub as if we’d been friends all our lives. It was just that cat’s temperament.
So what then is the source of fruitfulness for the church? The Lord Jesus also describes the church as (15) ‘…a garden fountain, a well of flowing water…’ This is a picture of spiritual life; water flowing and springing up from within. But wells and fountains don’t spring up from no-where. They have a source themselves. (15) ‘…a garden fountain, a well of flowing water streaming down from Lebanon.’
The heights of Lebanon in Syria were renowned for the cedar trees that grew in the region. But also for their snowy peaks and very high rainfalls each March and November. As a result many streams made their way down from the snowy heights bringing cool and invigorating water to the thirsty lowlands. The prophet Jeremiah (18:14) spoke of ‘the snow of Lebanon’ and its cool waters’ that were ever constant. These cool snow waters set our focus firmly on the Lord Jesus Christ. As the life giving refreshing water flowed down from Lebanon’s snowy peaks, so it’s through the Lord Jesus that the waters of eternal life flow down to us from the heights of glory itself.
Lesson:
(1) Let’s be so thankful that Jesus laid down His life for us at the cross to bring us life from above. ‘On the mount of crucifixion fountains opened deep and wide, through the floodgates of God’s mercy flowed a vast and gracious tide.’ From the very beginning to the very end of our walk with God on earth we’re dependant on that heavenly source, and feel it more not less as we progress in our relationship with God.
A GARDEN ENJOYED
The Holy Spirit’s Ministry
(16) ‘Awake north wind, and come, south wind! Blow on my garden, that its fragrance may spread abroad.’ It’s now the Bride’s turn to speak. What’s so clear about her is that her one desire is to please her lover. What’s just as clear is that she’s deeply aware of her need of the God to work in her life. So she speaks a prayer, as it were. George Burrowes: ‘Without [the Holy Spirit’s] influences there can be no spiritual life, no fragrance of piety, no fruits of holiness.’
The church’s character, as we’ve seen, is shaped by the fruit of the Holy Spirit, but here is the development and nature of that character by the Holy Spirit. This stimulus is likened to different winds blowing over the garden. When the weather forecaster tells us that we’ve got some strong northerly winds to face the next day we know we’ve got to wrap up – it’s going to be a bit chilly. If the winds coming from the south, it’s going to be generally mild.
So what about the winds affecting Christ’s garden? One bible teacher explains what the weather in Palestine was like then: ‘The east wind is…generally whithering and tempestuous; the west wind brings from the sea [Mediterranean]clouds of rain, or dark, damp air; the north wind is cooling and refreshing, it’s power being broken by the mountain-chain of Lebanon; the south wind, though hot, has its heat mitigated in the uplands regions, and is never stormy.’
So how do the north and south winds reflect the work of the Holy Spirit? The north wind, clear, cool and bracing, sweeps away spiritual gloom and unbelief. The south wind, gentle, warm and moist, Christ awakens the life of grace. C H Spurgeon spoke of it like this: ‘…that blessed Spirit can come as the north wind, convincing us of sin, and tearing away every rag of our self-confidence, or he may come as the soft south wind, all full of love, revealing Christ, and the covenant of grace, and all the blessings treasured for us therein.’
Lesson:
(1) How we need as the church today for the north and the south wind to blow over us; to know the fresh, living breath of God to awaken and challenge us.
Christ Walks in His Garden
(16) ‘Let my lover come into His garden and taste its choice fruits.’ The Bride here makes what might be thought a rather bold and forward statement. She invites Him into the garden to enjoy what it has to offer. Now she’s not being boastful here. She recognises she’s not worthy of His attentions in herself, but also knows that she has a beauty is from Him.
The Bride’s attitude to herself is summed up in Song of Songs 1:5 ‘Dark am I yet lovely.’ In the BBC’s 1995 adaptation of Pride & Prejudice there’s a scene where Mr Darcy’s sisters are discussing with their brother the physical beauty or otherwise of Miss Elisabeth Bennett. The sisters negatively remark that Miss Bennett is too dark in her skin, that is, suntanned. You see, In 18th century English society it was considered somewhat common for a woman to be tanned, and a light, fair skin was thought to be a plus sign in the aristocratic beauty stakes.
That’s how it was for the Bride here. The King has brought His bride into His royal tents. She sees the King’s female attendants who haven’t been exposed to the hot middle-eastern sun and so have relatively fair complexions – her heavy suntan showed that she was used to working outside and was from the common people. Now the Bride’s conscious of how she stands out: ‘Dark am I.’ But then she’s able to say, ‘yet lovely.’ You see, she has a very special relationship with the King and to Him is beautiful.
So in this garden analogy she recognises that her lover can enjoy the spices, fruits and smells of the garden that He owns and planted. He’s elevated her to His class so to speak through His transforming love.
Lessons:
(1) You and I can look at ourselves as the church and wonder: ‘How can Jesus take any pleasure in me.’ There’s so much that must displease Him – that awkward temper I give in to; those selfish thoughts I battle with; the coldness of my heart at times.
This is falling into the trap of looking on one side of the coin only. We can look at our sin and weakness so much we forget to see what Jesus by the Spirit has done in us. One old Christian Richard Sibbes said that we must have two eyes, one to see the imperfections in ourselves, and the other to see what is good. Jesus Christ has made a difference to us and in us; we belong to Him, are the church, His people, and have that special relationship with Him. Learn to say: ‘Dark am I yet lovely.’
(2) As we grow in our relationship with the Lord always remember that any spiritual goodness we possess is not from us but from Him: CS Lewis’ great illustration of the young boy who asks his father for sixpence (that’s half a shilling before decimal currency in England!) so that he can buy his father a present for his birthday hasn’t lost its impact. The father is very happy to give the sixpence, and is really pleased when he receives the present. But he’s sixpence none the richer for it! So it is with God and us – everything we offer to Him, our heavenly Father, we first of all received from Him. And He’s so pleased to receive it!
As Matthew Henry states: ‘The fruits of the garden are His pleasant fruits, for He planted them, watered them and gave the increase. What can we pretend to merit at Christ’s hands when we can invite Him to nothing but to what is His own already.’
CONCLUSION
Why should we spent priority time on our relationship with the Lord? Because if we’re wrong at this point, we’ll be wrong everywhere else, in worship, service, in relationships with others and so on. As A W Tozer put it: ‘The Christian is strong or weak depending on how closely he has cultivated the knowledge of God.’’
