Title: 13
Author: Joe G
Last saved by: Auth User
Company: GDC

Clanking Chains

		06-02-02.CC02-564 /

The Right Man Is Naturally Aggressive to His Right Woman; Her Response is Reciprocal Aggression; the Betrothal of the Shepherd & Shulammite, SOS 3:4

10.	To “seek him but not find him” is the human viewpoint effort to regain fellowship by human energy, works, penance, self-imposed suffering, guilt, or the like.
11.	But in verse three the police find her.  Note she did not go out looking for the police.  She was working at finding the Shepherd but at that point her search was to no avail.
12.	The police represent the Holy Spirit.  She confesses to the police that she is seeking “him whom my soul loves” and wants to know if they have seen him.
13.	This is an illustration of rebound.  There is no confession of sin in the context but the desire to restore fellowship with her right man is.  
14.	Immediately following this encounter with the police she discovers her right man and fellowship is restored.  But for a brief period she is still not with him and still has muted memory of him but she still aggressively searches for him.
15.	To aggressively seek to restore fellowship with the Lord is a demonstration of reciprocal love—a desire to regain lost esprit de corps.  The Shulammite had esprit de corps.  She wanted to express it and exploit it:
SOS 3:4 -	[SW]		“Scarcely had I left the officers when I found him whom my soul loves.  I held him and would not let him go until I brought him to my mother’s estate, and into her private quarters where she conceived me.”
1.	When the Shulammite suddenly finds the Shepherd she immediately responds to him.  She rushes up to him, hugs him, and clings to him.
2.	This is an aggressive response to her success in finding him.  It is not improper for a woman to aggressively respond to her right man.
3.	The original aggression is the fact the Shepherd is God’s choice for her.  By virtue of simply being the Shepherd he becomes the aggressor toward his right woman.
4.	The Shulammite has now asserted on five occasions that the Shepherd is the one “whom my soul loves.”  This constitutes soul rapport with her right man.
5.	When a woman is away from her right man for a period of time she can only maintain her rapport with him through memory traces of their times together and imagination of times yet future.
6.	As believers we are unable to have any esprit de corps with the Lord except through our knowledge of Him and our ability to recall the information.
7.	In addition to this we have experiences in our lives that certify and validate His presence in us.  We know that He is with us and will never leave us by virtue of the marvelous demonstrations of His grace and mercy.
8.	We aggressively respond to His love through reciprocity and we are even commanded to exercise our memories of Him and His works on the cross through the ritual of the Eucharist.
9.	Further, the comfort and tranquility of soul that comes after we utilize rebound is another case where we aggressively respond to God’s love and mercy.
10.	It is because of the Lord’s sacrifice that divine forgiveness can be forthcoming.
11.	Verse 4 continues by revealing that the Shulammite continued to hold on to the Shepherd until she had brought him to her mother’s house and into her private quarters:
SOS 3:4 -	[SW]	“Scarcely had I left the officers when I found him whom my soul loves.  I held him and would not let him go until I brought him to my mother’s estate, and into her private quarters where she conceived me.”
12.	This was her presentation to her mother of the man whom she has identified as both her right man and the one she intends to marry.  In other words, she is introducing him to his future mother-in-law.
13.	This event occurs between Song of Solomon 2:4 where the Shepherd proposed to the Shulammite and SOS 2:10b-13 where he bids her to “Arise, my darling, my beautiful one, and come along!”—an appeal for her to go away with him and get married.
14.	The events in this passage fit between these two.  She wants to introduce him to her mother and thus announce a betrothal for marriage with her mother’s approval.
Orr, James (gen. ed.).  The International Standard Bible Encyclopaedia.  (Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1956), 3:1997:
Among the Jews the betrothal was so far regarded as binding that, if marriage should not take place, owing to the absconding of the bridegroom or the breach of contract on his part, the young woman could not be married to another man until she was liberated by a due process and a paper of divorce.
15.	It is apparently on this occasion that her brothers originally made known their displeasure with her choice for a husband and objected to the engagement.  Although the betrothal was approved of by the mother the two brothers as the Shulammite’s legal guardians opposed it.
16.	Because of this, the couple’s future meetings must be a tête-à-tête, a private tryst, one of which later occurred in the stairwell of the family estate and discovered by the brothers.
17.	It was during her recall of this last encounter that the Shulammite becomes frightened and begins to lose her tranquility of soul.
18.	While she is remembering this event she is in reality being confronted with Solomon’s advances.  She needs to keep her concentration on the Shepherd by efficient recall.
19.	In order to reorient, she remembers the time described in chapter 3 verses 1-4 of a similar occasion when her memory would not function.
20.	Solomon represents the advances, the assaults, the duplicity, and deceit presented by the devil’s world causing us to forget doctrine and pertinent problem-solving devices.
21.	When we forget, the Holy Spirit is competent to remind us of these things so that we might orient to the pressure.
22.	The ultimate problem-solving device is occupation with Christ.  If He is always on your mind then you have the availability of not only instant recall but also harmony with Him by means of esprit de corps with His Word.

© 2006 by Joe Griffin Media Ministries.  All rights reserved.	www.joegriffin.org