Here a new chapter begins, but verses 1-41“Oh that you were like a brother to me
Who nursed at my mother’s breasts.
[If] I found you outdoors, I would kiss you;
No one would despise me, either.
2“I would lead you [and] bring you
Into the house of my mother, who used to instruct me;
I would give you spiced wine to drink from the juice of my pomegranates.
3“Let his left hand be under my head
And his right hand embrace me.”
4“I want you to swear, O daughters of Jerusalem,
Do not arouse or awaken [my] love
Until she pleases.” still belong to the previous section. We see this in the chorus of verse 44“I want you to swear, O daughters of Jerusalem,
Do not arouse or awaken [my] love
Until she pleases.” that closes the part (cf. Song 2:77“I adjure you, O daughters of Jerusalem,
By the gazelles or by the hinds of the field,
That you do not arouse or awaken [my] love
Until she pleases.”; 3:55“I adjure you, O daughters of Jerusalem,
By the gazelles or by the hinds of the field,
That you will not arouse or awaken [my] love
Until she pleases.”). After the beautiful climax at the end of the previous chapter, we see that the situation of final and undisturbed happiness has not yet arrived. It is not yet the time of the kingdom of peace. This is evident from the last verse of the chapter, in which the bride expresses her longing for the groom’s imminent arrival.
Love has experienced great growth. But there has been no wedding yet. They cannot yet openly appear as men and women. The bride longs for that time. Thus, the remnant in the great tribulation will feel just before the coming of the Lord Jesus. They will long for Him.
It seems that the bride does not dare to openly express her relationship with the groom. Therefore, she sighs, as it were, that the groom would be her brother, fed by the same mother. From a prophetic point of view this also is the case. The remnant of Jerusalem is the daughter of Israel (Eze 23:2-42“Son of man, there were two women, the daughters of one mother;3and they played the harlot in Egypt. They played the harlot in their youth; there their breasts were pressed and there their virgin bosom was handled.4Their names were Oholah the elder and Oholibah her sister. And they became Mine, and they bore sons and daughters. And [as for] their names, Samaria is Oholah and Jerusalem is Oholibah.). The Lord Jesus was also born of Israel according to the flesh (Rom 9:4-54who are Israelites, to whom belongs the adoption as sons, and the glory and the covenants and the giving of the Law and the [temple] service and the promises,5whose are the fathers, and from whom is the Christ according to the flesh, who is over all, God blessed forever. Amen.).
We also hear that the groom calls the bride “my sister” several times (Song 4:9,10,129“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.
10“How beautiful is your love, my sister, [my] bride!
How much better is your love than wine,
And the fragrance of your oils
Than all [kinds] of spices!12“A garden locked is my sister, [my] bride,
A rock garden locked, a spring sealed up.; 5:1,21“I have come into my garden, my sister, [my] bride;
I have gathered my myrrh along with my balsam.
I have eaten my honeycomb and my honey;
I have drunk my wine and my milk.
Eat, friends;
Drink and imbibe deeply, O lovers.”2“I was asleep but my heart was awake.
A voice! My beloved was knocking:
‘Open to me, my sister, my darling,
My dove, my perfect one!
For my head is drenched with dew,
My locks with the damp of the night.’). Then he is her brother. She seems to have forgotten that. In any case, she is looking for him again, not so much as her groom, but as her brother. We can also see a proof of Jerusalem’s love for the Messiah. The city loves Him, here not so much because He is her King, but because of Who He Himself is in His family relationship with her. That is why she wants to have Him close by to give Him her love. This selfless love does not give rise to contempt.
Our selfless love for the Lord Jesus is often not understood by those surrounding us. Sometimes we are also ashamed to show in no uncertain terms that we love Him. Yet others will not despise us if we show our relationship with Him in our lives by revealing His own features. When His love, His peace and His joy are visible in our lives, it is not despised. We may not talk about our love for Him, but in our lives, it becomes visible that He is our life.
In her attachment to the groom the bride wants to take him to the house where her mission is to be instructed by him (verse 22“I would lead you [and] bring you
Into the house of my mother, who used to instruct me;
I would give you spiced wine to drink from the juice of my pomegranates.
). She wants her thinking to be corrected. This is also an important wish for us. We also need to receive the instruction of God’s Word again and again because we are easily influenced in our thinking by the world, or to have our thinking corrected when we still think in a worldly way.
“The house of my mother” recalls the roots of her existence. The new Israel, the faithful remnant, is based on the old promises made to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. She wants to learn more about that. The connection that Jerusalem, the remnant, will have with the Messiah is based on the connection that God has had with Israel in the past. The faithful remnant of the future must be connected with Israel from the past as the people of God.
God will fulfill the promises He made to the old Israel, with the new Israel. He will do so on the basis of the work of the Messiah – the promised Posterity – on the cross. It is also important for us to know who our mother is. Our mother is the heavenly Jerusalem and the mountain of Zion, the mountain of grace (Gal 4:22-2822For it is written that Abraham had two sons, one by the bondwoman and one by the free woman.23But the son by the bondwoman was born according to the flesh, and the son by the free woman through the promise.24This is allegorically speaking, for these [women] are two covenants: one [proceeding] from Mount Sinai bearing children who are to be slaves; she is Hagar.25Now this Hagar is Mount Sinai in Arabia and corresponds to the present Jerusalem, for she is in slavery with her children.26But the Jerusalem above is free; she is our mother.27For it is written, “Rejoice, barren woman who does not bear; Break forth and shout, you who are not in labor; For more numerous are the children of the desolate Than of the one who has a husband.”28And you brethren, like Isaac, are children of promise.; Heb 12:2222But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to myriads of angels,).
We are connected with our heavenly Bridegroom only by grace, and not by works of the law or by any of our own works. If we know this, we will also desire to be instructed by Him about our connection with Him and about the grace that underlies it. Grace gives that instruction (Tit 2:11-1211For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all men,12instructing us to deny ungodliness and worldly desires and to live sensibly, righteously and godly in the present age,). Grace gives us the necessary instruction to live as believers.
This instruction is a continuous learning process. This enables new people to honor God in their new walk in life. In this instruction it first becomes clear that the past has been dealt with. The instruction relates to the past, the present and the future.
An attitude of longing for instruction from Him is a joy for Him, which is expressed in the spiced wine. The spiced wine represents the joy that is aroused by the glories that can be found with Him. Those glories the believer offers the Lord Jesus. The juice of pomegranates that the believer offers the Lord Jesus speaks of the fruit that is pleasing to Him. It is a fruit that produces new fruit over and over again. It represents a life in which one fruit after another is produced for Him.
The result of the instruction, is that the believer desires to be so close to Him again that he experiences His support and embrace (verse 33“Let his left hand be under my head
And his right hand embrace me.”
; cf. Song 2:66“Let his left hand be under my head
And his right hand embrace me.”). Left is the side of the heart. His left hand raises her head, reminding her that He loves her. Right is the side of strength, honor, protection. The protection feels like an embrace, in love.
For the third time the chorus of verse 44“I want you to swear, O daughters of Jerusalem,
Do not arouse or awaken [my] love
Until she pleases.” sounds. Love should not be forced to express itself prematurely. We should not constrain young believers to make expressions of love they are not ready for. The Lord goes with them in His own way and will ensure that their love for Him will grow.
Love should be found among us all, and for that we must encourage one another (Heb 10:2424and let us consider how to stimulate one another to love and good deeds,). We can encourage each other to love. We may not demand anything from anyone that is not (yet) there or for which it is not time. In dependence on the Lord, we must learn to know the time for this.