SS-01 What the Lord Asks of the Saint

What the Lord Asks of the Saint

6 Until the cool of the day When the shadows flee away, I will go my way to the mountain of myrrh And to the hill of frankincense. You are altogether beautiful, my darling, And there is no blemish in you. Come with me from Lebanon, my bride, May you come with me from Lebanon. Journey down from the summit of Amana, From the summit of Senir and Hermon, From the dens of lions, From the mountains of leopards. You have made my heart beat faster, my sister, my bride; You have made my heart beat faster with a single glance of your eyes, With a single strand of your necklace. (NASB)

The Song of Solomon

This Bible of the Song of Solomon is written by King Solomon. He wrote what he understood and felt and wished in his relationship to the Shulammite woman.

The Bibles are not what God inspired men mechanically to write, using men as a mechanical means to write. Nor are they what God outlined to inspire men to write.

The Bibles are what God inspired men organically to write. It is referred to as organic when two persons are associated with each other with the character of either party willingly exchanging and communicating with the other; the Bibles were recorded through such inspirations.

Therefore the Book of Hosea also was written only after the writer had been inspired by the Holy Spirit through his own voluntary consciousness, as the harlotry of Israelites must be realized by himself first since what was not realized could not be inspired to the writer. That inspiration resulted in a Bible correct and infallible in every stroke. It was because Hosea the prophet had to be conscious of the whoredom of Israelites in order to be inspired to write a Bible that God made him take a wife of harlotry. Still the Holy Spirit wrote the Book of Hosea and it was not a mere account of the couple's marriage life, and still in turn Hosea wrote what he and his wife went through.

The same applies to the Book of Song of Solomon. God brought the Shulammite woman to Solomon who was the most experienced and wisest in worldly affairs, and had Solomon meditate and imagine how and what the Shulammite woman should do to him to receive her, or how and what Solomon himself would be done by the Shulammite woman, thereby revealing in writing what the Lord would ask of the saint.

What the content of the Song of Solomon is deep and clear in is relatively shallow and faint in other Bibles. The Gospel of John the apostle is profound in many respects, but is not as deep as the Song of Solomon regarding God's love toward the saint. But people have interpreted the Song of Solomon in human terms to associate it with a love story, and the Book is regarded as such today. It was not meant to be so.

Where the Saint Can Meet the Lord on the Last Days

In verse 6, "Until the cool of the day when the shadows flee away." There will be neither shades nor bright places, as the sun sets making it dark everywhere. It is possible to discern righteousness from unrighteousness as long as the truth of God still abides in the world, but there will be no sun to shine on when the Lord comes again in the last days. "Until the cool of the day." Shades will form when there is the sun, but the shades will cease when the sun sets completely. Dark places can be contrasted only when there are bright places, and now it has become dark everywhere.

"Until the cool of the day when the shadows flee away." This is when the truth in the world is all buried and all the people lose the light, great or small, denominational or congregational, individual or collective, so there is no distinction between righteousness and sin, theocentricity and anthropocentricity, and the gospel and falsehood. Then where will the loving Lord be?

"I will go my way to the mountain of myrrh and to the hill of frankincense." It is said here, "You can meet Me there if you come." Myrrh denotes antiseptic property. The Lord tells us to come where He is if we wish to meet Him, where we are not conformed to the world to be secularized and corrupted. This holds true now as it did in the past.

People regard it as victorious and wise to be conformed to the world adapting themselves accordingly, reconciling and flattering well, perceptively, promptly, and skillfully; but we must know the fact that all things are from the Lord, through the Lord, and finally to the Lord when the universe comes to an end.

"I will go my way to the mountain of myrrh and to the hill of frankincense." Frankincense means fragrance, namely, prayer. "I will go to the hill of prayer." Then there will be no such organized prayer groups as of a thousand, ten thousands, a hundred thousands, a million, or several millions gathered in the name of Jesus. "On the cool of the day." The sun has set, and the truth and Inspiration are veiled, and the whole world becomes dark.

Nowadays we see people working on great activities and events to make their names known, but then these will cease and individuals will be in jail or mountains, or in circumstances that nobody knows, while all the others being in despair and in betrayal, and heavenly hope becoming desperate. Then the Lord will seek the one who will take hold of Him hoping for and imploring to Him alone like Nathanael, and He will go searching for the rare person who hopes only for the Lord in his private prayer, personal and rare. Believers should lead the life of faith being aware of this end.

In verse 7, "You are altogether beautiful, my darling." The verse 5 above reads, "Your two breasts are like two fawns." The breast is the milk-containing organ which nurses the young. It means that everything in human salvation grows gradually in process of time to become more wholesome, truthful, and fervent, with instruction and government in the Church being in balance. This is one of the eight virtues of the saint.

"You are altogether beautiful." Here love is not what man calls as love which is filthy―love of passion, love of blood and flesh, and love of a company, which all killed the fallen and degenerate man. "Love is in this, not that we loved God but that He loved us and sent His Son to redeem us from our sins." This love is pure and without blemish.

Being with and Doing with the Lord at Four Summits

1. Lebanon: The Summit of Holiness

"My bride." This is how the Lord addresses to the saint. "Come with me from Lebanon, my bride, May you come with me from Lebanon." Lebanon is the name of a big mountain located on the north of Jerusalem. This mountain is recorded more than 70 times in the Bibles.

"From Lebanon." Mount Lebanon is a high mountain, and Lebanon means a white mountain. Why is it white? While snow elsewhere becomes polluted by wind of this sort or rain of that sort, the white snow on the summit of Mount Lebanon remains unpolluted all the year round, ten or twenty years, and thus the mountain has come to be called Lebanon.

"My bride, come with me from Lebanon, may you come with me." We become corrupted when we undergo times of this sort and a world of that sort, and we become corrupted when we meet with a good thing and also we become corrupted when we meet with a bad thing such as perversion of justice. We become corrupted because we are happy sometimes, really regretful sometimes, and indignant sometimes. But it is enough to hope for the Lord only, to please the Lord, to glorify the Lord, and to know of the Lord, not becoming corrupted in rain or wind of this or that, but staying holy and holy to the end. Men have every thought imaginable since they are silly and ignorant and subject to temptations, and men have every temptation and everything good or bad; "But stop following the world, and abide together with Me on Mount Lebanon which does not become corrupted to the end. Be together with Me."

The one who wishes to meet the Lord and who wishes to go with the Lord, let him come to the mountain of myrrh. "I will come to the mountain of myrrh. In a generation in which all men will do anything consulting with the visible world, I will come to the hill of frankincense, to take hold of Him, the one and only, to discuss and settle everything through Him."

"I will come to you and meet you where you cry out to Me, where you seek the Lord when you are driven all alone into a remote corner of this sort, where you are driven on to a rock of that sort, to a stream side of this sort, and into a prison of mistreatment of that sort. Although all the world thus forgets the redemption of the Lord and becomes corrupted and polluted, let us come, you and Me, to Mount Lebanon covered with white snow which does not become corrupted, and stay there together." This is what the Lord asks of the saint.

Talking about South Korea, today it is in the heyday of Christianity so that there are many people who exalt Jesus, who love Jesus, and who really serve and follow the Lord. But the time will come when all will become corrupted, say, this person will become corrupted because of this and that person will become corrupted because of that. The faith of those will then all become corrupted hopelessly, who do not serve the Lord from the heart, who for the Lord's sake are not willing to suffer their own loss through which they may be buried and ruined, and who are not willing to offer even themselves as a sacrifice, but who instead will sell Jesus to exploit for their own sakes. Mount Lebanon is a white mountain which these cannot approach. "You come together with Me from Lebanon and be together with Me." The Lord demands this.

Also in the old days, though there were many prophets in Israel who did not bow the knee to Baal, Elijah was the one with whom God went together. He was not secularized and defiled by the world. He did not harbor any doubt or despair by any change in the world. Today there are saints like Elijah as many as there can be. Indeed, many secrets will be revealed when we come to the kingdom of heaven.

"Come with me from Lebanon ... come with me from Lebanon. Journey down from the summit of Amana ... Senir and Hermon." These are all names of big mountains, the names of the summits of big mountains.

2. Amana: The Summit of Steadfastness

"Amana." When they find it urgent, all the people will give up while they are going on. Though at first everybody takes firm hold of the Lord to climb the summit of the mountain, there are some who will give up at the foot of the mountain and there are others who will give up at the halfway up the mountain. Everybody knows for sure that Jesus is the Creator, the Great Lord, and the Sovereign, but at last as Satan has somehow managed to render Jesus base and impotent, all will stretch out their hands to loose everything that they have, to grab instead something else. "That will be the moment that you will meet Me at the summit of steadfastness, which you will have taken hold of to the last and to the highest. Meet Me at the highest mountain of steadfastness."

"Those who do according to their own will have given up judging that it will not work unless they give up when they see a thousand and ten thousands giving up; still the one who will take hold of the Lord, not turning loose Him, not wavering in hope for the Lord, not wavering in relying on Him, and as His possession not wavering in living through Him, let him come with Me to the steadfastness of Amana that he has held fast."

3. Senir: The Summit of Armor

"Come with me ... from the summit of Senir." Senir means armor. When such evil strikes, we should say, "God is the Almighty, and even though the evil power is great, it falls short of the power of the Lord whom I depend on to hope for." It is to be clothed with God as armor that we hope for and depend on the Almighty.

God commanded everyone to clothe Him as the full armor to overcome in evil days. All the people say that God is the Almighty as long as it is going well with themselves without friction against the world, but those are rare who will continue in the belief that God is the Almighty even when only the faith in the Almighty and the full armor of the Almighty can protect them from the arrow of the evil spirit when their realities confront them.

Therefore in the reality that has befallen us, we should be able to believe that God is the Almighty and the Sovereign who is mighty enough to stop these arrows, and say, "The love never changes that God loves me with," even when ten out of ten or a hundred out of a hundred may doubt God's love and find it impossible not to betray Him.

We should defend against anything, with the faith in God's love, in His power, in His promise, in His authority, and in God Himself even though the whole world rushes to thrust us. "Come with Me at the summit of such defence which is inapprehensible to the world, at the summit of armor, and at the place where you, who have nothing but the only God, can defend against and stop anything." This is what it is about. This is the saint. "Come together with Me at this place."

Others will exalt Jesus as long as they can manage to be conformed to the world so as to be esteemed and popular in it; but when we suffer loss for Jesus' sake and all the people forsake Jesus, we must put on the armor of Senir so that the arrows of temptation may not harm and penetrate us, through faith in the Lord, faith in the love and power of the Lord, and faith in His promise.

Rev. Hong, S.-C. was a fervent believer. He fell ill with cancer and suffered much pain, but he defended with the armor, saying, "The love that God loves me with never changes." "There is nothing that God cannot do, and He has not let me fall into a circumstance like this because He has no power." He overcame all through the faith in His power and through the armor of faith. "It does more harm than good to believe in Jesus, and he lost all"―this was what all the others scorned and mocked him with; but he devoted his strength and sincerity to the last moment of his life, which was to make Him his armor. He defended all through Him.

Deacon Chung, K.-I. died of cancer, and all mocked, saying, "He has been said to be an ardent believer in Jesus, but what about now that he is in such a misery?" He might well have been desperate and disappointed, and he might well have betrayed and complained and grumbled. From every aspect the whole situation was as what it looked, but he defended against all with the shield and the armor of faith in the love of the Lord, faith in His promise, and faith in the Lord of the kingdom to believe, to rely and to hope as He said. Though the other people might well say, "If I should fall sick like him, will others not scoff at me?" He never thought like that, not even once, defending with the shield of God.

He said to his parents, "We cannot but believe in Jesus," which could have been retorted and scoffed at as, "You have believed in Jesus, only to fall into this misery and pity. It should be enough for you only, why me as well?" Such mockery, however, was not made of because he believed for sure in the promise of God, in the love of God, in the power of God, and in the kingdom of God. Always in thanksgiving and joy he urged his parents, "I will have no problem since I have already believed, but you cannot do without believing." On the last Sunday service that he ever attended before his death, he had his parents attend, and introduced them to the church, and he died shortly.

Though he fell into a manifold pit, he did not let his spirit pierced through and hurt by such a situation and arrows, defending with the shield of faith in the love of the Lord, faith in the promise, faith in the power, and faith in the sovereignty. He went on being a man of faith, and that made him the one going with the Lord on the summit of Senir, on the summit of the myrrh mountain, and on the uncorrupted Mount Lebanon. The Lord demands this of the saints.

4. Hermon: The Summit of Severance

"From the summit of Amana ... Senir ... Hermon." Hermon in the Mount Hermon means severance.

That faith is not shaken by anything that comes, by any arrow that pierces, by any deception, by any consensus, by any eloquence, and by any word of a loving one that pierces. There is no hurting and leading this faith astray on the summit of armor, on the summit of steadfastness, and on the summit of Mount Hermon. Hermon means cutting off. There is nothing that we cannot sever.

Paul was blameless as to the Law, was educated under Gamaliel, killed Stephen and persecuted the Church as to the zeal; but when God made him understand that all this was contrary to the will of the Lord, he turned, saying "... counting all things to be rubbish," though he excelled others as to everything in the world.

Also Elisha was a landlord of a big farm when Elijah preached to him, and he immediately offered a burnt offering and left to follow the Lord.

"Meet Me on the summit of severance." Even though a thousand or ten thousands cannot cut it off, it should not take us time to cut it off if the Lord wants us to. What man is most attached to is so-called life, the most valuable connection. We must live for the Lord, and we must spare nothing to cut our life when we are to cut it for the Lord. This is the message of the Lord that He wants to be with us on the summit of severance.

Saint's Attitude That the Lord Desires

"Journey down ... from the dens of lions, from the mountains of leopards." This word is a little difficult to understand. Two people, the Shulammite woman and Solomon, encounter the dens of lions and the mountains of leopards. They are circumstanced in the dens of lions and the mountains of leopards. The Sulammite woman in fear will hope for and take hold of Solomon only and Solomon will hope for and take hold of the Shulammite woman only.

The two, Solomon and the Shulammite woman, with nothing available but life, thus become one. Why? Their environment is the dens of lions and the mountains of leopards. They are in a position to look down, which is what the Lord desires us to do.

When we meet with a difficult situation in the world, we want it to pass on from us soon. The Lord, however, having compassion for us, wants our connection to the world to be stopped through the difficulty so that we may possibly become close to the Lord. The Lord wants us, in spite of the hardship to endure, to become the saints through the hardship who long for Him only, depend on Him only, and hope for Him only; likewise the Lord wants to desire the saints and to devote all to the saints. That is why He said, "I send you out as sheep in the midst of wolves."

The one who does not understand this word of Song of Solomon will not know what the Lord wants to be treated to by us.

Beauty of the Saint That the Lord Desires

"You have made my heart beat faster, my sister, my bride." "Made my heart beat." This is what the Lord wants. He wants to be ravished by us. It is what the Lord asks of us that we ravish all the heart of the Lord and that we be ravished by Him.

"You have made my heart beat faster with a single glance of your eyes, with a single strand of your necklace." 'A single strand of your necklace' means 'various righteousness brought forth by the words from your mouth.' "Even though others afflict you with a thousand deaths or ten thousand deaths in every way, your mouth utters only words of life resulting only in man's benefit and salvation."―"A strand of words from your mouth has ravished all my heart."

Yes. It is true not only now but also in the future and forever. In the last week's sermon we saw that those who had brought the lame man all suffered failure regarding man. However closely attached they may have been to the lame man, they lost him. He became a man of Peter and John.

"Until the cool of the day When the shadows flee away, I will go my way to the mountain of myrrh And to the hill of frankincense. You are altogether beautiful, my darling, And there is no blemish in you. Come with me from Lebanon, my bride, May you come with me from Lebanon. Journey down from the summit of Amana, From the summit of Senir and Hermon, From the dens of lions, From the mountains of leopards. You have made my heart beat faster, my sister, my bride; You have made my heart beat faster with a single glance of your eyes, With a single strand of your necklace."

'A single glance of your eyes' means 'the thought of your heart, the wish of your heart, the consideration of your heart being at work dealing with others in a certain way.' This is the One who the Lord is; the Lord falls for the heart which man has to deal with affairs and men in that specific way. The heart of the Lord is ravished then.

We see those who pretend to be the only ones to love the Lord showing off all things but inside it is their greed and self-centeredness that is all. But the Lord is not mocked, and He is not to be mocked either. "A single glance of your eyes ravished all My heart."

"With a single strand of your necklace―a single word from your mouth and a single word from your throat have become milk and honey, and have made Me all yours." "You have made my heart beat faster."―"You have ravished My heart."

We may contribute much money, and toil and work much, but at the same time every move of our heart can make ourselves disgusting in the sight of the Lord. Also every word that we utter can become such a heavy burden to the Lord and cause such indignation in the Lord that cannot be subsided forever.

"You have made my heart beat faster ... with a single glance of your eyes." Everybody! The eyes of our heart, that is, our thought, our wish, and our will, are what the Lord falls on. He focuses all on every word of ours.

The Book of Song of Solomon is not a record of the love between King Solomon and the Shulammite woman. They themselves were a means of revelation made such, so that what they felt and wanted reveals what the Lord would ask of the saint.

Hosea the prophet was a means of revelation to have Israel feel what Israel could not feel. God made Hosea as a means of revelation marry the worst harlot to beget one, two, and three children and write what he had felt during the marriage life.

There will be a great judgment for ungodly words when we come to the kingdom of heaven. "Let not many of you become teachers, knowing that as such we will incur a stricter judgment." What we say in any way carelessly does not come to pass to be non-existent. In our physical world we know that what is recorded remains and what is not recorded does not remain, so we know that what we say that is not being recorded will go away after the moment when the utterance is made. Do not be silly! Not a single least word will cease; there will be a judgment for that word.

Therefore we must remember that until the cool of the day when the shadows flee away, we will meet the Lord on the mountain of myrrh and the hill of frankincense. We must come with the Lord from Mount Lebanon and we must journey down from the summit of Amana, Senir, Hermon, the dens of lions, and the mountains of leopards; all these means the moral peak at which we depend on the Lord and hope for the Lord. When those who were crossing the 38th parallel were in danger of death as they could be killed by the communists when caught, that situation was the peak when they could choose to depend on the Lord, with their life and death at stake. That is what the Lord wants us to live like throughout life.

There are people, however, who will break down and pass out when they are situated in such a blessed place, and others who will turn back unless they are situated in an easier place to commit sin as they desire. God lets them live as they would, but we must remember that life in the world is transient traces that will have been left. Everything will change shortly and then the eternal kingdom in Christ will be established.

'With a single glance of your eyes.' The same applies to men. Our characters can lean to a move of heart, we can be moved to respect a move of mind, and our weariness can be dispelled and we can gain strength by a move of intention. A thousand people or ten thousand people can become alive by a word. A throat may utter a word of poison which can burn the reincarnating creation, and we are liable to have heart a single move of which can have the Lord shudder unspeakably.

This passage shows the Lord's heart that asks something of the saints. It is through a peak like this that saints become closer to the Lord.

Toward the peak.

That is the middle of night.