Song of Songs 2:1-2
1 I am the rose of Sharon,
and the lily of the valleys.
2 As the lily among thorns,
so is my love among the daughters. (KJV)
Chapter two opens with the Great I am giving us another one of his "I am" titles. God many times referred to Himself as "I Am." Firstly in Genesis chapter 15 when He told Abraham "I am thy shield and exceeding great reward." Then most often remembered, is when He tells Moses from the burning bush "I AM THAT I AM: and he said, Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, I AM hath sent me unto you." In the gospels Jesus says, "I am the bread of Life," "I am the light of the world," and "before Abraham, I am." Here, tucked away in the Song of Solomon we have the great I AM giving to us another beautiful picture that shows us his character. There is some debate as to who is speaking here. Solomon or The Shulamite? I am convinced that this is Solomon speaking, under the inspiration of the Holy Ghost. Partly because of the opening line "I am" and secondly because of verse two obviously being him speaking of his beloved.
The Holy Ghost does all the talking through Solomon today, first telling us of the nature of Christ and then the nature of His beloved. Of Christ it is said "I am the rose of Sharon and the lily of the valleys." What Christ is compared to here is singular. He is not the roses or the lilies, but He is the rose and the lily. The valleys are plural but the object He is compared to is singular. We could say the person is one but the places are many. There are many beauties to behold but only one Christ, there are many valley's we have found him in but in every one he has been the same Christ. He is the one and only, the singular and only savior, he is the rose and the lily, he is omnipresent; There may only be one of Him but one of the beauties of our heavenly Solomon is that his singularity does not prohibit his universality. He is the lily of my valley and yours, and at the same time, He was in my past valley and will be in my future valley. He was, and is, and is to come, He is Alpha, and Omega, he is the beginning, and the end, and the Author and Finisher of our faith. Although the valleys be many and the Savior be only one, We have a present help in our time of need. There may only be one of Him, but He is such a heavenly nature that we will never need another for any trial of this life, "I am the rose of Sharon, and the lily of the valleys."
The rose is a beautiful flower that has been touched by the curse of the ground in Genesis. It is greatest among the flowers, the most well known and most universal. Roses are grown in every country when the climate allows. Many have built gardens with high walls and invested time and money in their rose gardens, but the rose of Sharon is not one locked away in a garden with high walls. The rose of Sharon grew in the meadow lands of Sharon, a stretch of plain land touching the Red sea, between Jerusalem and Mt. Carmel. It was grown in the fields of Sharon where whosoever want to come and behold the beauty of this rose could. There was no price for admission only that you go and look, no one can look for you, that you go and smell, no one can smell for you. This rose was free to all who would come and all who would come would in no wise be cast out, all that was required was that you come. As this rose was free to all so is our Savior free to all who will come, nowhere in the scriptures were any provision made for the will nots but for the whosoever wills and if you will come unto him, you can behold the beauty so many have spoken of, you can smell the fragrance that has filled the hearts, homes and heads of so many of His people. No admission is required, Like God planted the rose of Sharon in a universal place, so planted He Christ in this world. He set him on a hill, lifted him up before all men and has not hid the Savior from man. As the rose has been touched by the curse yet remains the most beloved, so Is our Lord. He is altogether lovely, yet beyond the beauty we see that He was touched by the curse, not his own but ours. "He who knew no sin became sin for us" it is our thorns that he bears, not his own. The sight of his beautiful holiness and his smitten humanity is a double blessing, because I know it is by His stripes I am healed. The thorns don't subtract from the beauty of our Rose but add to by reminding us that we have no curse because he became a curse for us.
He is the lily of the valleys; The lily is a flower that has 3 pedals and bears no thorns. What a picture of our Beloveds holiness. In him is "no spot nor wrinkle", "he is altogether lovely" "tempted in all points, yet without sin" "Separate from sinners" all of these phrases describe our Lily of the valley's. This lily is typical of his perfection, they are white in color, bearing no thorns and having three pedals. This is a picture of our redeemer’s spotless character, sinless perfection and his divinity. He was very God of God and very man of man. The rose shows us his humanity, and of all the humans he is the most universal, the most beautiful and even he was touched by the curse of man. In Heb 2:16 He said this: "For verily he took not on him the nature of angels; but he took on him the seed of Abraham." He was man and He was God. In verse one He reminds of both of his natures. The rose bearing the thorns and the lily bearing a trifold crown of glory. Oh what a Savior is mine!!
Now he refers to His beloved "As the lily among thorns, so is my love among the daughters." Notice we are not compared to the rose, only to the lily. We are not compared to the rose that bear the thorns, but we are compared to the divine lily of righteousness. What a beauty and joy to know that for us he became sin that we might be made the righteous of God. The thorns we once bear we bear no longer because he took them for us, He who knew no sin became sin for us. Now we can be compared to that divine nature of Christ, the lily. He took on my humanity so that I could put on His immortality, He took on my sin that I could take on His righteousness, He was clothed in humility so that we could be clothed in robes of white and He says that we are as The lily.
He says of himself that he is "The lily" and of His beloved, we are "As the lily." Any beauty that we have is from Him. If there be any virtue in the church of God it is when she most resembles her Savior. When we have displayed the most graces is when we have been conformed into his image. He never compares us to the rose of humanity, because of our humanity there is no beauty, our humanity is all thorns and no beauty, Christ is the only one who could bear the thorns of humanity and also the beauty of righteousness. For us he says that our old man died with him, and we are given a new nature. We pass from death unto life, from sin unto righteousness, He done away with our sin, our thorns on the tree and took all the curse so that now we can be called spotless, sinless, as the lily. We know that we shall be like Him!! We have no thorns, but we are among the thorns, The church sets on a hill like a city of light, like a light in the darkness and like a lily among thorns. We wear a crown of glory and honor given to us by our Beloved. We are the salt and the light of the world. We are the preserving agents in this earth. Just as a man would save a thorn bush for the sake of the lilies that grew among it, so does God preserve this world while the church grows within it. He preserved Sodom and Gomorrah until there was no beauty left within its walls, He plucked out the last lily, Lot, and burned down that field of brambles. So will be his beloved, Sheep among wolves, light among darkness, salt among disease and a lily among thorns. We have no thorns, yet we live among thorns, until the blessed day he pulls us out of this field of brambles and this earth "burns with the fervent heat." There were many daughters in Jerusalem but only one beloved Shulamite. This was Solomon's first and most fervent love, unlike our Savior, Solomon had many other many other women after His first Love, of whom not much are mentioned. Yet, our Beloved has never desired another, it has been the church that he has desired, loved, and remained faithful to. His eyes have never drifted to another, He has been our one and only. As he has been our singular Rose and Singular lily, let us also Be as Him in our singularity to Him.
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