The Challenging Leader

Is Jesus a safe God?
Is it safe to obey Him 100%?
Is it safer in the boat or on the water?

Song of Songs 2:8-9a
Listen! My beloved!
Behold, he is coming,
Climbing on the mountains,
Leaping on the hills!
My beloved is like a gazelle or a young stag.

There is a time when the Holy Spirit reveals to us that the Lover of our Souls, the One who has placed His banner of love over us and fed us raisin cakes and apples, is also the sovereign King of the universe. In this passage, a new side of the Groom's personality is revealed: His ability to leap over the mountainous problems and hilly adversities found in life. The things that seem large, intimidating and unmovable are nothing under Him. He walks effortlessly over them with grace and authority.

Song of Songs 2:10, 11, 13
My beloved responded and said to me,
Arise, my darling, my beautiful one,
And come along.
For behold, the winter is past,
The rain is over and gone.
The fig tree has ripened its figs,
And the vines in blossom have given forth their fragrance.
Arise, my darling, my beautiful one,
And come along!

Here the Groom comes to his Beloved and calls for her to join Him. There's a new season upon them and He wants her with Him. The cold winter rains are past. The hard work of summer and harvest of autumn are still ahead. But now, the flowers are blooming and there's preparation to be done for the work ahead; it's time to be started. The exhilarating dance of victory over difficulties is to begin.

Song of Songs 2:14
O my dove, in the clefts of the rock,
In the secret place of the steep pathway,
Let me see your form,
Let me hear your voice;
For your voice is sweet,
And your form is lovely.

In the rocky cliffs, He has a secret cleft for her. He desires her presence. He wants to see her lovely form and hear her sweet voice as they leap and dance over the mountains and hills in her life.

Song of Songs 2:16, 17
My beloved is mine, and I am his;
...
Turn, my beloved, and be like a gazelle
Or a young stag on the mountains of separation.

And in the first struggle in their relationship she declines the invitation. Fear stops her. She sees the mountains with their lions and tigers and bears and decides to stay in the comfortable place under the apple tree. But even in this denial, she recognizes that they still belong to each other. This isn't a case of rejection out of rebellion, but rather fear overcoming her in her immaturity. She's telling Him to go. She's unable to join Him, but she'll watch from afar with wonder and delight at His grace and majesty. Restoration will come later, but for now they'll be separated.

I think this serves as a prophetic background for the events found starting in Matthew 14:22. In this familiar story, the disciples are in a boat on the Sea of Galilee in the middle of the night in a storm. They had left Jesus on shore many hours earlier and had been struggling all night against the wind. Suddenly, in the dark hours before dawn, the disciples see the figure of someone walking on the water and they're terrified. They cry out and Jesus answers that it's OK, it's Him and there's no reason to be afraid. Peter says if it's really Jesus, for Him to call for him to walk on the water with Him. Jesus calls him and Peter climbs out of the boat. He walks for a ways and then sees where he is, panics, and begins to sink. Jesus takes a hold of him and they walk together through the storm back to the boat.

I think this is a wonderful example of our Groom's sovereign authority. Here the real flesh and blood man, Jesus, is dancing on the waves of a lake in a storm. Walking on water is nothing to Him. The storm doesn't bother Him. And from this place of apparent uncertainty, He calls for His friend to join Him. The question for Peter was: is it safer in the comfortable place without Jesus or out in the middle of the storm on the water with him? I can't imagine what was going on in Peter's mind, the turmoil that must have been going through him, as he puts first one leg and then the other over the side of the boat. But he dared to and succeeds in walking on the water for a bit. But in his inexperience and immaturity, he sees the storm, is overwhelmed and begins to sink. Even though he lost his focus, Jesus was there. And that's the point. When the King calls us out of the comfortable place, we can presume upon His power and strength to save.

The Passionate Suitor

One of our deepest human desires is to give and receive love. I think this is a reflection of being created in God's image. For eternity, love has flowed between members of the Trinity. When He created, He gave us this gift. This desire is met in part as it's expressed in our relationships with others. However, I think the real reason for its existence is to drive us to intimacy with Him. The ultimate fulfillment of this longing is only met by the touch of the infinite Lover of our souls and our fervent response to Him.

In Song of Songs 1:12, we find the maiden sitting at dinner with the shepherd, having accepted his earlier invitation to follow. It's in the context of this desire for a loving relationship that the young maiden says to herself:

While the king is at his table, my perfume fills the air with its fragrance.

She's sitting at the table and notices him noticing her. She's thinking of what he means to her, hoping for some response. And respond he does. In verse 15 he says to her:

Look at you! You are beautiful, my true love!
Look at you! You are so beautiful!

Here she is, still the 'dark but lovely' immature maiden of a few verses earlier. She has weakness and sin in her, but she also has desire for him. When he looks at her, he sees, not only the young shepherdess that has brought her flocks following after his, but also the mature bride which will emerge. He's looking at her through the corridor of time, seeing the effect of his love lavished on her, and the changes it brings. With this vision, from the beginning he relates to her as if she's complete and calls her beautiful.

Remember the Banquet of Wine I talked about ealier? (See the articles here.) This is where, as part of the betrothal process, the groom pours out a glass of wine for his intended. This represents his pouring out of himself for her.

I see this same thing happening in the relationship between Jesus and the disciples. At the last supper, Jesus took the cup and passed it among them saying 'Drink. This is Me, poured out for you.' Further, in the context of the same meal, He told them he was going away to prepare a place in His Father's house and would return for them so they could live with Him. This is more imagery taken directly from Jewish wedding customs.

Yet while He was saying and doing these things, He knew what was going to happen later that very night. He knew the betrayal of Peter. He knew that the rest would forsake Him during the crucifixion. The disciples were very dark, but He saw them as lovely. He too looked through time, past that night's failings, saw their future intimacy and called them to a position of authority.

And by proxy, we were there with them in that room. In love He calls us to a journey wherein we'll be changed by a passionate relationship with Him. He meets us as immature people, dark with sin. He loves us first. Having poured his life out for us, He forgives our sins and calls us before we're cleaned up. It's only then that He starts the cleansing, knowing that eventually, in spite of failings along the way, we will eventually be the mature, radiant bride, lovely in His sight.

The Inviting Shepherd

The first several verses of Song of Songs open with the bride's declaration of her delight in and desire for her betrothed. She has decided that she desires his presence. She doesn't want to be away from him and so asks in verse 7 of chapter 1:

Tell me, O you whom my soul loves,
Where do you pasture your flock,
Where do you make it lie down at noon?
For why should I be like one who veils herself
Beside the flocks of your companions?

She's asking here where she can predictably find him. She wants to know his routine so she can follow it to him. She doesn't want to be veiled next to strangers but unveiled in his presence. To her inquiry the groom responds in verse 8:

If you yourself do not know,
Most beautiful among women,
Go forth on the trail of the flock,
And pasture your young goats
By the tents of the shepherds.

He enjoys her presence. He finds her the most beautiful of women, and so he invites her: if you don't know the way, there are other's who do, follow along after them and the flock, and you'll find me.

One warm afternoon, Jesus was walking along the river bank, enjoying the cool air blowing off the water, when he passed his cousin John, standing in the shade of a tree with two of his disciples. John proclaimed 'Behold, the Lamb of God!' and the two disciples of John started following Jesus. Jesus turned and asked 'What do you seek?' And they said 'Where are you staying?' This is the same heart cry for intimacy which prompted the Shulammite to ask 'where do you pasture your flock?'. They're both questions expressing a desire for closeness. Jesus responded with a simple 'Come and see.' This too parallels the SoS passage with the same inviting response to come to that place of pasture and rest.

One of the two disciples that followed Jesus that day was Andrew. He went and got his brother Peter who also responded to the invitation. Later, many cried out to Peter on the day of Pentecost 'where do we go for this relationship'. Three thousand responded that day to the invitation. Through the centuries, this longing cry for intimacy still reverberates. And likewise, we're still invited to follow all those who've gone before on this path of extravagant, passionate pursuit of the One who loves us.