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

we enter into the Kingdom of Heaven. The word tribulation means, “affliction, threshing, beating out.” It is not
joy alone that our Lord tells us to gather, but peace; peace when everything is in a tumult about us. Jesus can
guard our hearts even when the threshing is going on.
Basilea Schlink, a notable believer, earnestly asked the Lord to let her experience the fellowship of His
sufferings. She did not know that she would be required to gather the spice of Humility in the process. All the
success that she knew in ministry was removed from her and she couldn’t understand what she had done
wrong. Finally, the Lord told her He was answering her prayer! I am sure we can all relate to that. Whatever the
Lord brings into our lives, He uses to work out His glory in us!
PART FIFTEEN
Newsletter No. 188 – October 2002
Song of Solomon 3:8, “…They all handle the sword, and are expert in war; every man hath his sword
upon his thigh, because of fear in the night.”
One of the names of God reveals Him as “the Lord of Hosts” and this is as real today as it was in the time of
God’s ancient people. The hosts of heaven are at His command as they are appointed to watch over the Bride
of Christ. The angels encamp about those who fear the Lord. In the darkness of this world, we must know how
to “handle the sword” and to be “expert” in it—not clumsy! When the enemy would lie to us, we need to say, as
did our Lord, “Get behind me, Satan! Thou savorest the things that be of man, rather than the things that are of
God!” Because there is fear on every hand, we have His word upon our thigh—the strongest muscle in the
whole body. We are not putting our trust in our own strength, but, like our Father Jacob, we have had our thigh
put out of joint, and our sword is trusting in the Word of He who gave it—He who was dead and is alive
forevermore! Though there is darkness and fear on every hand, there is light in our vessels, because the Lord
is the light thereof. By our God we are able to run through a troop, and leap over a wall and quench all the fiery
darts of the enemy!
When I was on the mission field, there were many things that could have made me afraid but the Lord wrote
this word upon my heart so that I walked in trust: “…for He hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee.
So that we may boldly say, The Lord is my helper, and I will not fear what man shall do unto me” Hebrews
13:5,6. I carried that sword (word of the Lord) upon my thigh and had victory over fear in the midst of that dark
place.
3:9, 10 “King Solomon made himself a chariot of the wood of Lebanon. He made the pillars thereof of silver,
the bottom (or “seat”) thereof of gold, the covering of it of purple, the midst thereof being paved with love, for
(or “from”) the daughters of Jerusalem.”
Before the foundation of the world, “God made the design according to His own purpose, after the counsel of
His own will: Hear it! “Solomon (the Lord) made Himself a chariot!” He had a plan and is carrying it out
according to His original intent. You will have peace if you know that!
The chariot is symbolic of Christ and the salvation that is in Him alone. This chariot consists also of the
members of His Body upon earth whom He indwells. The “wood of Lebanon” is the cedar—the choicest wood
of the forest, the most durable and fragrant, a fit symbol of the pure, spotless manhood of Jesus Christ.
When the fullness of time came, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the law, that He might
redeem them that were under the law. Jesus dwelt on earth in the human body that God prepared for Him,
which is symbolized by the “Litter.”
Only as He partook of flesh and blood could He redeem mankind (as their kinsman-redeemer). This is why we
are told that the foundation of this Chariot is built of the cedar of Lebanon—the sinless manhood of Jesus
Christ.
SONG OF THE BRIDE, Parts 1–34 [Elaine Cook] ~ BIBLE STUDY 24