The Bridegroom and the Bride (2) All The LORD is near Daily Devotionals for 2023

Where has your beloved gone, O most beautiful among women? Where has your beloved turned, that we may seek him with you?
Song of Songs 6:1 ESV

The Bridegroom and the Bride (2)
Two things led the daughters of Jerusalem to ask the bride of this lovely song this question.

First, they have been noticing her beauty. Not only is she beautiful, but she is most beautiful among women. That is, her beauty is unique. It is spiritual beauty. It is the beauty of a meek and quiet spirit, which in the sight of God is of great price. She is attired with compassion, kindness, lowliness, meekness, a forgiving spirit, and above all these, she has love, which is the bond of perfection. The words of her Beloved dwell in her richly (Col. 3:12–16).

We must understand that all the adjectives in the Song of Songs have spiritual meanings, or they would not have had a place in the Word of God. What woman would like for many other women to share her beloved?! Love is jealous, but love to the Lord delights to lead others to love Him. Yet people must see something different, something heavenly, a beauty that is of the new man, a new nature—nothing artificial, but what is produced by the Holy Spirit—before they too will want to know Him.

Second, they saw her attachment to her Beloved and heard her description of His beauty. She had adjured them by an oath, that if they would see her Beloved, they should tell Him that she is overwhelmed by His love. Then they asked her, “What is your Beloved more than another beloved, that you thus adjure us?” Israel had many beloved ones in its history: Abraham, Solomon, and Daniel. In what way, they asked, was her Beloved more than the others. This was her chance to speak of Him who loved her, whom she loved, and whose love overwhelmed her. We find her beautiful description of Him in chapter 5:12–16.

-- A. M. Behnam