Song 2:10-13 | KingComments | STEP | The part of begins and ends with the same words the groom speaks to the bride. He wants her to arise in her place of isolation, a place of rest in the sense of laziness, and come to him. The bride is still inside, behind the wall, and the groom is still outside. When he begins to speak, his speaking is an answer. He “responded” to her ( ). However, we do not read that she asked a question. This may mean that his answer is directed to the weakened feelings of her heart, which he knows. He addresses her very personally. She knows, he says it “to me”. Now she hears not only his voice, but also what he says. There is no reproach from his mouth because she hides from him and he does not order her to show herself. The way he approaches her is full of tenderness and love. He asks her to arise. He calls her “my darling, my beautiful one”. These are names in which he expresses the value she has for him. He wants to share the thoughts of his heart with her as his ‘darling’. That he calls her the ‘beautiful one’, indicates that he is full of admiration for her and that his heart is full of her. With these names he wants to speak to her heart and persuade her to come to him. Thus the Lord Jesus will tell the remnant of Israel how beautiful it is for Him. He calls Zion “the perfection of beauty” ( ; ; ). In the same way, the Lord Jesus is busy with each of His own, who has lost sight of Him through circumstances. He says what value he or she has for Him ( ). He chooses His words with care to make clear how much He cares about them. He fully means what He says. His words are not harsh, but pleasant, beneficent. They touch the heart and make it soft and willing to live with Him again. The bride must start by rising. This is the beginning of every true conversion, whether it be the conversion of an unbeliever or the conversion of a believer. From the prodigal son in Luke 15 we also read that at some point he says he will get up and go to the father. Then we read that he gets up and goes ( ). For us it may also be the case that we have to arise from our circumstances, for example from our self-pity or from the excuses we bring forward to not completely surrender our lives to the Lord Jesus.

‏ Song of Solomon 2:10-13

Arise and Come Along

The part of Song 2:10-13 begins and ends with the same words the groom speaks to the bride. He wants her to arise in her place of isolation, a place of rest in the sense of laziness, and come to him. The bride is still inside, behind the wall, and the groom is still outside. When he begins to speak, his speaking is an answer. He “responded” to her (Song 2:10). However, we do not read that she asked a question. This may mean that his answer is directed to the weakened feelings of her heart, which he knows.

He addresses her very personally. She knows, he says it “to me”. Now she hears not only his voice, but also what he says. There is no reproach from his mouth because she hides from him and he does not order her to show herself. The way he approaches her is full of tenderness and love. He asks her to arise.

He calls her “my darling, my beautiful one”. These are names in which he expresses the value she has for him. He wants to share the thoughts of his heart with her as his ‘darling’. That he calls her the ‘beautiful one’, indicates that he is full of admiration for her and that his heart is full of her. With these names he wants to speak to her heart and persuade her to come to him. Thus the Lord Jesus will tell the remnant of Israel how beautiful it is for Him. He calls Zion “the perfection of beauty” (Psa 50:2; Lam 2:15c; Eze 16:14).

In the same way, the Lord Jesus is busy with each of His own, who has lost sight of Him through circumstances. He says what value he or she has for Him (Isa 43:4-7). He chooses His words with care to make clear how much He cares about them. He fully means what He says. His words are not harsh, but pleasant, beneficent. They touch the heart and make it soft and willing to live with Him again.

The bride must start by rising. This is the beginning of every true conversion, whether it be the conversion of an unbeliever or the conversion of a believer. From the prodigal son in Luke 15 we also read that at some point he says he will get up and go to the father. Then we read that he gets up and goes (Lk 15:18-20).

For us it may also be the case that we have to arise from our circumstances, for example from our self-pity or from the excuses we bring forward to not completely surrender our lives to the Lord Jesus.

Winter Is Past, Singing Time Has Arrived

Prophetically, the bride is a picture of the faithful remnant of Israel. This remnant will pass through a time of great trial. The Lord Jesus speaks of “a great tribulation” (Mt 24:21). At that time God will provide a refuge for that remnant (Isa 26:20). The period of great tribulation comes to an end after three and a half years, because the Messiah causes the tribulation to stop. Then He comes to them and says that “the winter” of the great tribulation “is past” (Song 2:11). “The rain” time with its devastating torrential rains is also a picture of the great tribulation (Eze 13:11 ; 13). That time “is over [and] gone”.

The groom assures the bride that the time of tormenting fear and impending suffering is really over. It has become spring. The groom then points this out to the bride (Song 2:12). Prophetically it means that the great tribulation with the cold of winter and the torrent of trials is over and gives way to the beautiful spring of the kingdom of peace (Isa 35:1-2 ; 10). The Lord Jesus is the Man Who has been for the remnant a “shelter from the storm” (Isa 32:2). He will now be for them for a thousand years in the kingdom of peace the “King” who “will reign righteously” (Isa 32:1).

We may also experience a time in our life that the problems excess our capacities; we are under pressure and lose sight of Him. The Lord then offers us to come back into our life. When He comes into our life, He can turn winter into spring and the flood of rain into mild rain. When winter, the time of trial, is past, there is room for a new floral splendor with a multicolored beauty. Beautiful flowers will appear. After the death of winter, the new life of spring appears.

This points to the resurrection of the believer, the transition from death to a new life. The groom points this out to the bride, because it seems she has no eye for it yet. She is reminded of the fruits of the resurrection. The groom stands on resurrection ground. Death has been conquered. Do we see the signs of recovery when the Lord Jesus comes to us in our circumstances? Wherever He comes, there is restoration and blessing.

Another application can be made to the situation in which our lives have become so superficial, that there is neither smell nor taste. Nobody sees anything of the fact that we know Christ. We complain bitterly. When our eye is then again turned to Christ, He will become visible again; for He is our new life. Then our life will show the beauty of flowers. Are we in our environment the ‘flowers’, do we radiate beauty and attractiveness? Flowers give fragrance, you can smell them, you can see them and touch them. Flowers brighten up the surroundings and make them more beautiful.

Paul thanks God for leading him and his associates “always … in triumph in Christ, and manifests through us the sweet aroma of the knowledge of Him in every place” (2Cor 2:14-15). It is God’s purpose that our life spreads the scent of Christ. He is working on this. That is why we mean so much to Him. Our life is a new land, a new creation, in which He grows and takes care of these flowers.

The new life not only has a smell, it also has a sound. We got a voice to sing. Can we sing? Or can we only complain? James says: “Is anyone cheerful? He is to sing praises” (Jam 5:13b). When the Lord Jesus has come into our life, we have every reason to sing. We can even do everything singing if we let the Word of Christ dwell richly in us: “Admonishing one another with psalms [and] hymns [and] spiritual songs, singing with thankfulness in your hearts to God” (Col 3:16). Are we still singing in our hearts before God? When we are full of problems, criticism and bitterness, singing is stilled. If the Lord Jesus is central to our life, we will praise Him daily.

Prophetically, there will come a moment for the remnant of Israel when the time for complaining is over and the time for singing has come. Spring is so beautiful and pleasant because it follows a period of darkness and cold. Because of the contrast with winter, spring is warmly welcomed. The flowers on the ground and the birds in the air also testify in their own way that the whole creation has been renewed. They express a heavenly message of joy, peace and righteousness.

The “turtledove” is a picture of the faithful remnant (Psa 74:19) which, like the turtledove, knows the time of its arrival in the kingdom of peace (Jer 8:7). When the cooing of the turtledove is heard in “our land”, it means that the remnant of God’s people is back in the promised land. We as Christians must also understand the coming or presence of the right time to do something.

Again: Arise and Come Along!

After winter, the time of trial, come the fruits. Besides the flowers that appear on the land (Song 2:12), we also see “the fig tree” and “the vines in blossom” (Song 2:13). The young figs show that it is spring and that summer is on tour (Mt 24:32). The fig tree represents righteousness. Adam and Eve, after their fall into sin, wanted to cover their nakedness before God with loin coverings of fig leaves (Gen 3:7). However, these homemade aprons are not a covering for God.

There is no self-righteousness whatsoever that counts for God as a covering for sin. Israel has tried to establish its own righteousness before God with the result that it has not submitted itself to the righteousness of God (Rom 10:3). The only righteousness that is valid for God is the righteousness which is worked through Christ on the cross and to which man gains part through faith (Rom 10:4). On the basis of faith in that righteousness, God’s people can enjoy the blessing before God in the coming kingdom of peace.

The result is joy. We see this in the picture of the flowering vines (Jdg 9:13; Psa 104:15a). A flowering vine has the promise of an abundant harvest of grapes, that means joy. The grapes are not there yet, but the scent is already smelled. So it is with the believer who has had a time of trial. He is no longer in need, there is deliverance and that can be seen in him. Peace and rest have come in his life. It won’t be long before he expresses his joy about it in an exuberant way. He will testify of how the Lord has redeemed him from his need and what a joy fills his heart for what the Lord has done.

The author of the letter to the Hebrews links to the discipline which God inflicts on believers the production of righteousness as a good fruit: “All discipline for the moment seems not to be joyful, but sorrowful; yet to those who have been trained by it, afterwards it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness” (Heb 12:11). Through discipline we are “trained”, that is, we are trained in how to deal with it. By training we learn to control something. If we can thus accept discipline, if we know how to deal with it, then we will have a more intimate fellowship with God. The result will be that we enjoy more inner peace and show more justice in our lives.

The “peaceful fruit of righteousness” will soon be reality for Israel in the realm of peace, after the people have passed through the exercises of the great tribulation. God already wants to bring this fruit into our life through His education (Jn 15:2 ; 8). The vine and fig tree together symbolize the time of the kingdom of peace, of which we in the reign of Solomon – the prince of peace and a picture of the Lord Jesus – have a foreshadowing (1Kgs 4:25).

After the description of spring with its wonderful evidence of new, fresh life in Song 2:11-13, the groom invites his bride to come to him again with the same words as in Song 2:10. He would like her to enjoy that spring. She can forget winter by accepting his invitation. After what he has shown her of spring, it can no longer be difficult for her to give up her backslidden existence and share her life with him.

The Lord Jesus presents to us the attraction of living with Him, so that we no longer let ourselves be controlled by circumstances that depress. He is committed to ensuring that it is not the ‘wintery conditions’ in which we sometimes find ourselves that determine the temperature of our spiritual life, but the mild temperature of ‘spring life’. To this end, He points out to us the features of the new life, which He possesses and also wants to work in us.