Song of the Bride, Parts 1-34 - Feasting at the King's Table

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ock… and thou shalt see my back parts: but my face shall not be seen” Ex. 33:21,22. He also told Moses that no man could see His face and live! In that dispensation, only His “back parts” could be seen. I wondered what that could mean, and I felt the Lord dropped into my heart the thought that his “back parts” were the types, symbols, shadows and similitudes that represent the Lord, who is the Spirit. We cannot really tell who a person is by looking at their back—but, once we look into their face, we know their identity and their nature. So it was that in the Old Testament, Christ was concealed, and in the New Testament, He was revealed. Israel saw the back parts of God when they beheld the pillar of fire and the cloud that led them in the wilderness. When He gave them the pattern of the temple, He revealed Himself in detail in all the shadowy types, from the Brazen Altar to the Mercy Seat. He revealed His plan and purpose to them and the way they would need to walk, yet they were “dull of hearing” until they would see Him in the face of Jesus Christ. But, God told Moses that he would see His glory (nature) when he would be hidden “in the clift of the rock.” I Cor. 10:4 says, All our fathers… did all drink the same spiritual drink: for they drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them and that Rock was Christ.” To see the face and the nature of God, we must understand that He is “…the Messiah, Who is the image and likeness of God. For God Who said, Let light shine out of darkness, has shone in our hearts so as [to beam forth] the Light for the illumination of the knowledge of the majesty and glory of God [as it is manifest in the Person and is revealed] in the face of Jesus Christ, the Messiah” 2 Cor. 4:4, 6. In another version, Heb. 1:3 says, “The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of His being, sustaining all things by His powerful word.” The shadows all point us to the reality, which is Jesus the Christ. When we see His Face—His nature and character as revealed as He walked among men, we know these words are true: that we will surely die-- for who could live any longer in the nature of Adam once they have beheld the beauty of His Face? All their carnal ways and self-effort are cast at His feet and a new nature begins to be inworked in those who have seen His Face. It is in this Rock that was cleft at Calvary, that the bride is hidden away from “the plottings of man and kept secretly “from the strife of tongues.” We are in the Rock because God has put us there. If we abide in this place we shall prove that He is a wall of fire round about us and the glory within. Her Beloved keeps her in perfect peace because her mind is stayed on Him, for she has taken refuge in Him. In this hiding-place, the bride of the Lamb does not fear though a host encamps against her; though battles and persecution arise against her, her heart is confident. Though the waters of the sea (nations) roar and are troubled, her heart is fixed, trusting in her God; though the mountains tremble with the swelling thereof, she has set the Lord always before her; because He is at her right hand, she shall not be moved. The bride journeys ever upward, walking in Christ. No vulture or proud beasts of the flesh nature can find this path, for the hidden stairs are built in the clefts of the Rock. This stair that Jacob beheld, reaches from earth to heaven, from sinful humanity to God through the finished work of Jesus Christ. This stair leads to the throne of God. It is not an easy way, but all hardness and suffering are forgotten as we hide deeper in Him. As we look upon His Face, we begin to see more clearly what has been provided for us and we begin to cling to the Rock in abandonment, in closer fellowship and communion. As our eyes are fixed on the recompense of the reward, unseen arms bear us over the hardest places and plant our feet upon the next higher step, which to us appeared so inaccessible. We feel the everlasting arms carrying us upward while we can only cling to the Rock. As we cling, we drink of the living waters that flow out of the Rock and we are sustained. SONG OF THE BRIDE, Parts 1–34 [Elaine Cook] ~ BIBLE STUDY 14
This shining way is not an easy one, but it becomes more blessed as we understand that we are upon the stairway that will bring us from the earthly to the heavenly realm and from weakness and humiliation to strength and glorification. Oh, to see His Face and to follow the Rock is “exceeding abundantly above all we can ask or think.” PART EIGHT Newsletter No. 181 – February 2002 CARE OF THE VINEYARD Song of Solomon 2: 14, “...let me see thy countenance, let me hear thy voice; for sweet is thy voice, and thy countenance is comely.” I think we can relate to these precious words even in a natural sense. When we are apart from a loved one, how we long to see their dear faces and to hear their voices. Our hearts are encouraged and uplifted. Friends call me and say, “I just needed to hear your voice today” and I feel the same way about them! Somehow, we can’t imagine the Lord longing to see and hear us. Surely, He has no need of us! Oh, but to the contrary! That is like saying you have no desire to the children that you have brought forth—that they are not important to you. Job said, “Thou shalt call, and I will answer thee: thou wilt have a desire to the work of thine hands.” I have, numerous times, had the Lord call me to come aside and spend time with Him. In retrospect, I see that it was always so that He could minister to me and bless me in some way. We are hardly aware of how He longs to give Himself fully unto us. To Him, we are sweet and comely because he sees His image coming forth in us and He rejoices over that. The Lord would have the Bride’s face ever turned to Him, for her face is beautiful only when it is turned toward him. If her face is turned toward Him, she shall never walk in darkness but she shall walk in the light as He is in the light. She shall never stumble, for she will walk in Him Who is the light. CARE OF THE VINEYARD Vs. 15, “Take us the foxes, the little foxes that spoil the vines: for our vines have tender grapes.” “Take” means “to seize and hold fast, to catch”, and the world “little” means the very smallest and least important thing in our lives. At pruning time, if the dead twigs or branches—the rubbish that is cut from the vines—are left on the ground, the old fox will hide away her young at the roots of the vine. The little foxes will eat the tender shoots and the bark until the vine is girdled, loses its sap, and dies. All that has fallen and withered away, all the flesh and the unfruitful things must not only be cut off, but be carried outside the vineyard. We must keep ourselves “far from a false matter” (Ex. 23:6) and from all that is unworthy of the Lord. Although the foxes are hidden away in the vineyard in the winter, it is when spring comes with its showers and warm sunshine and the tender shoots spring forth on the vines, that they come out of their hiding-places. When God begins to work, that is when the little foxes come out and He tells us to catch them lest they destroy the vines. What are these little foxes? They are habits, words, weaknesses, which may appear as nothing in themselves, but they sap away our spiritual strength. I’ve seen this happen when believers speak negative words all the time. Soon, faith is eroded and they are defeated Christians. Errors in doctrine and lack of firmness in standing for the Truth as it is in Jesus, are among the first foxes that appear when the sun grows warmer and the blossoms come out. How many times God’s children do not endorse error, but they compromise and ignore it. They affiliate with those who have embraced error and before they realize it, their own vines are nearly destroyed by their lax attitude toward the Truth of God. We must keep our vineyard. We all know what happened when Adam did not keep the garden entrusted to him! Let us not be neglectful by letting the fences of God’s Word and obedience fall down, which will permit the SONG OF THE BRIDE, Parts 1–34 [Elaine Cook] ~ BIBLE STUDY 15
Page 1 and 2: SONG OF THE BRIDE BY: ELAINE COOK P
Page 3 and 4: 1:4 "Draw me and we will run after
Page 5 and 6: of the vineyard that she neglects h
Page 7 and 8: of the myrrh is perceptible to othe
Page 9 and 10: trees but they do not bear fruit. T
Page 11 and 12: the Voice of the Lord who promised
Page 13: who do not accept the Atonement and
Page 17 and 18: With the coming of the reality of t
Page 19 and 20: gates of the city where the citizen
Page 21 and 22: PART TWELVE Newsletter No. 185 - Ju
Page 23 and 24: PART FOURTEEN Newsletter No. 187 -
Page 25 and 26: As a cedar must be cut down before
Page 27 and 28: For some years, the Lord has been s
Page 29 and 30: Song of Solomon 4:2, “Thy teeth a
Page 31 and 32: The last time I said that, I asked
Page 33 and 34: eastplate. Only when the bride’s
Page 35 and 36: and frankincense were but small dro
Page 37 and 38: This chain about her neck was not o
Page 39 and 40: glorified.” All her beauty of spi
Page 41 and 42: acknowledges the right of God’s S
Page 43 and 44: In the early part of the Song, the
Page 45 and 46: He had continued knocking at the do
Page 47: of the nails in His hands and feet,

Song of the Bride, Parts 1-34 - Feasting at the King's Table

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