Lessons from the Life of the Shulammite: I Can’t Follow You Now
By Jim Laffoon
Listen! My lover! Look! Here he comes, leaping across the mountains, bounding over the hills. My lover is like a gazelle or a young stag. Look! There he stands behind our wall, gazing through the windows, peering through the lattice.
My lover spoke and said to me, "Arise, my darling, my beautiful one, and come with me. See! The winter is past; the rains are over and gone. Flowers appear on the earth; the season of singing has come, the cooing of doves is heard in our land. The fig tree forms its early fruit; the blossoming vines spread their fragrance. Arise, come, my darling; my beautiful one, come with me."
My dove in the clefts of the rock, in the hiding places on the mountainside, show me your face, let me hear your voice; for your voice is sweet, and your face is lovely… My lover is mine and I am his; he browses among the lilies. Until the day breaks and the shadows flee, turn, my lover, and be like a gazelle or like a young stag on the rugged hills. Song of Solomon 2:8-14,16,17
“Darling, please come out,” the king begged her. “The seasons have changed; it’s not wintertime anymore. I know how much you hate winter weather, but it’s gone,” Solomon entreated her. “There are flowers everywhere, and the doves are cooing. The fragrance of spring is filling the air.”
“I won’t come out,” the Shulammite pouted. “It is still dark and there are scary shadows everywhere I look.”
“How would you know?” the king asked. “You haven’t been out of your chambers for weeks. It’s only dark because you have refused to come out into the light of day,” sighed the king.
“I’m sorry,” she wept. “Go without me; I will not come out until this stifling darkness is gone.”
What a sad tale this is. The Shulammite had not even realized the season had changed, because she had locked herself in her room and refused to come out.
Whether it was her wounding or her willfulness, she was missing the very spring season her soul so desperately needed.
Do you see it? Like the Shulammite, a new season is dawning for your life. The horrible winter of your wounding is coming to an end, and a spring time of new growth and hope is on the way.
If you listen, you will even hear the sound of the dove of the Holy Spirit at work in your life. He is comforting you, he is calling you, and he is convicting you. Even if you cannot see the fruit of change in your life yet, it is only because the buds preceding this fruit are still too small for you to see.
“If this is really true,” you may be asking, “why can’t I see it?” Could it be that like the Shulammite, you are still trapped in the darkness of your wounding and the shadows of your past? If you are, the king’s call to the Shulammite is also His call to you today.
“Arise, come, my darling; my beautiful one, come with me.” That’s right; the Lord himself is calling you out of the cave of depression and despair.
Even more important is the fact that you are not going to have to come out alone, because He is telling you to “...come with me.” Jesus Christ himself promises to take you by the hand, through the Bible and the power of the Holy Spirit, and lead you out of the pain which has entrapped your soul.
Take a deep breath now, and let the Holy Spirit fill your whole being with the fragrance of the healing that has been promised to you.
© Copyright 2005 by Jim Laffoon
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