The more closely I have looked at what the Lord has already revealed, the more He has shown. It’s times like these I find it difficult to convey in words the connectivity going on in my spirit and mind. Still, I try.
In Part Three, I made reference to the meaning of the names of the mountains mentioned in Songs 4:8; listed here in abbreviated fashion:
Lebanon – white mountain, from its snow
Amana – certain portion, fixed, permanent, covenant
Senir – peak or snowy mountain, to be pointed
Hermon – prominent, rugged; abrupt connoting to ban, devote, exterminate: to annihilate, set apart by destroying completely
In the scriptural references shared in Part Three, I see Jesus experiencing the reality of these four mountain names.
- As He met in the mountains with His Abba, sometimes for long hours of the night, He experienced Lebanon – the white mountain. A constant reminder of why He came from heaven to earth: “Come now, let us settle the matter,” says the LORD. “Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; 1
He had come to and for a people, some of whom would not choose to ‘settle the matter’. He came anyway. Jesus could not do it on His own though. The will of His Father set the way of His steps. This too, is the message of His heart to His bride in asking her to “Come (and ‘look’) with Me from Lebanon.” In essence, Take a good look from atop this mountain of My righteousness, with which I have covered you, in order that you now come with Me from the mountaintop to the places where I have need of you.
It’s difficult for the Shulamite, and us, to descend from the mountain summit where all that is bright with promise is clear and undefiled. It gets muddied in a hurry on the mountain slopes and in the valleys – where people with all their problems and issues, needs and wounds reside aplenty. For every Shulamite who chooses to respond to the Beloved’s ‘Come with Me’, there will undoubtedly be, in His time, the ‘go’.
Our own issues arise when we reverse this spiritual order. Going, when it’s in our own strength and zeal of good ideas because there are so many needs, will be depleted. Unless we first hunger and thirst for more of Christ, indeed our daily Bread of life, we will remain as servants in the house when His heart of intent is that we share the Manor as His spouse. Christ’s Proverbs 31 wife will not run dry as she leans on Him.*
All the more reason He takes the time, patience, and pains to fashion His bride for her certain portion. Amana represents His covenant, fixed and permanent, that will yet come to final fulfillment.
- When Satan met Jesus in the desert, one temptation – the tempting of the flesh – was not enough. Jesus came in the flesh to overcome the flesh, but also the world and the devil.2 Satan was happy to oblige with the tests as he took Jesus on an excursion. I see the temptation on the pinnacle of the Temple as Jesus’ Senir – a pointed peak and again a snowy (white, righteousness) mountain; and Satan’s twisted version of the significance of Hermon: to ban, exterminate and annihilate, and set apart by destroying completely Jesus, whom he knew from the most ancient of days.
Had Jesus succumbed to Satan’s suggestion to throw Himself off the pinnacle of the Temple, He could well have died prematurely, self-sabotaging the very life-giving body He came to lay down and take up again. He responded to Satan’s “it is written” with more of the whole counsel of God – “it is also written, do not put the Lord your God to the test.”
Jesus and Satan both knew the ultimate end of Jesus’ life – the Cross, but how differently they viewed it! For Jesus, the veil in the Temple being rent was the equivalent of blowing off the doors that had been closed and locked since the flaming swords were placed in the Garden to guard the way to the Tree of Life. The rest of history to our present day has been full of Satan’s running attempts to abort the Open Door policy that Father God instituted. Satan’s wicked pride has known no bounds. But oh, how it will!
Fellow Shulamites, it is time to stop succumbing to Satan’s suggestions designed to cut short and put asunder what the Lord Himself has already conquered and is joining together all over the world. At any point that we throw in the towel instead of learning to wrap it around our waist and continue in humility and love in the conduct of our Bridegroom King, we will stagnate. Well springs must flow freely.
- The final temptation of all the world’s kingdoms and all it had to offer was quite generous in Satan’s own mind since he had been given purview over the earth. Jesus, knowing that power to rule and save would only come through the Cross – not through bowing His knee in worship to the Deceiver – refuted Satan once again, swift and strong. Christ’s bride learns to respond in like manner the more she comes to know this One whom she has chosen as her heart’s desire. With her Beloved, ever clearer she sees the Deceiver.
Satan’s tactics haven’t changed since before the Garden. Full of prideful arrogance, he still causes damage and death sowing lies wherever he wanders. But we are not relegated to remain in the ash heap of deceit. Full provision has already been made for the redemption of every area of our life. That is available for everyone. The difference is found in meeting the Lord’s choosing of us with our willingness to be chosen.
This is the response of His overcoming bride at each point on her way to her second confession of love.
~ Gracefully Free
Note: I beg your grace. This portion will be done when it’s done. I do not mean ‘complete’ by any means, but only as that which is prompted finds its way onto the page. To your and my heart He says: “But wait, there’s more…”
*The temptation is to view this in the natural, colored and filtered by our earthbound experiences. Even now, there is war going on over this in our social constructs while Holy Spirit wills to unveil deeper truths of the Lamb’s wife.3
1 Isaiah 1:18a
2 I John 2:16
3 Revelation 21:9ff
Photo credit: Photo by Monica Silva on Unsplash
Leave a Reply