I am deviating from the original plan today. Here’s why: I left my notes for the post on little foxes at home. Fortunately I already have the notes for Song of Solomon 5 on my PowerBook. These verses are astounding! Today I leave you with this pillar post on the beauty Christ. I will continue the Life in God series when I get back in town on Wednesday.

In Song of Solomon 5:10-16 the Holy Spirit uses metaphors of the body to convey ten attributes of God’s personality. The full meaning is somewhat hidden in the language of romantic poetry. The Bride gives 12 descriptive statements of Jesus. The first one is a general statement, then 10 distinct attributes of God, and then the last statement is a summary one.

It is impossible to fully comprehend or communicate the beauty of Jesus with the limitation of the five natural senses. Any metaphore used is inadequate and significantly deficient in conveying the beauty of Christ.

1) He is White and Rudy, Chief among 10,000

This speaks of Jesus’ Godliness and His humanity. He is vibrant with fullness of life and power. There is none that can rival Him. The idea is that Jesus is stunning and dazzling to her, being brilliant in His loveliness or radiant in His splendor. He is abounding with unapproachable light that dwells around His throne.

2) His Head – His leadership

The head is the most prominent part of the body. It is what sets the direction. The head speaks of two different things. 1) It speaks of His Father. 2) It speaks of His personal sovereignty.

His Father – The head of Christ is Gold. The head of Jesus is God the Father and His relationship to the Father. In Christ dwells the fullness of the Godhead bodily.

Jesus’ sovereignty speaks of His headship over all creation (Eph. 1:10-21). 2. Jesus’ sovereignty speaks of His headship over all creation (Eph. 1:10-21). And the finest gold is the highest description of superlative quality.

Jesus’ leadership is valuable to His people. She said, “His leadership is so excellent, it is of the finest gold imaginable. It is perfect, Divinely inspired wisdom.” Finest gold speaks of the highest excellence without mixture. There is no impurity in His leadership.

3) His Hair – His dedication

His hair speaks of His dedication to God and His people. His dedication to us is eternally vigorous. Jesus forever flourishes as in His prime. His youthfulness and vigilant dedication continues forever.

4) His Eyes – His Omniscience

His eyes speak of His omniscience – perfect knowledge and perfect wisdom. He has total clarity and fullness of insight into every dark secret. Every thing is totally clear and discernible to the Lord.

“His eyes are like doves” speaks of His singleness of vision. A dove can only focus on one thing at a time. He has loyal eyes of a dove. Loyal to God the Father and loyal to His bride.

Jesus’ eyes are not just all seeing, but they are pure and innocent like clean. A judge may know all the facts about a case, but if he has an unclean heart he will misinterpret the information. The interpretation of what Jesus sees has no distortion. He has pure, loving motives. He can see the sincerity of our heart through each stage in our progression to holiness.

Our knowledge of His omniscience persuades us against evil because it is vain to attempt to hide evil before the eyes of Jesus. God sees eery private act of righteousness. He sees when we endure trials without giving up. He not only sees the negative, but He sees the positive.

Our knowledge of “Jesus’ eyes” is a source of security in times of trial. We know that He has not overlooked us. He has skillful discernment to know where we are. Being aware of his omniscience keeps us from sin, but also encourages us in times of tribulation and trial. We know that His discernment about our frame and our makeup of what we need is absolutely perfect.

5) His Cheeks – His emotional beauty

His Cheeks reveal His emotional beauty. His cheeks reflect the countenance of the face that reveals the emotional makeup and are the windows to the emotions. His cheeks speak of His inner beauty that is revealed through His emotions. His affections are fragrant and refreshing to those who can discern His personality.

A lot of us think the only emotion God has is joy when we get saved, followed by anger and wrath. But His emotions are diverse, sweet fragrances to us. His emotional makeup is filled with passion, delight and longing for you.

6) His lips – His words and speech

His lips are like lillies speak of the power and nobility of His words. This includes the scriptures as well as the words spoken directly to our hearts by the Holy Spirit and through the prophetic ministry. Jesus has the unique ability to speak gracefully and precisely to the need of our hearts. His teachings were kingly and holy. “No Man ever spoke like this man.” (John 7:46)

Lilies also speak of fragrance, innocence and purity. Jesus’ affirming words are tender and sweet like a lily. The Bible is alive and His Word is affirming when we have the intention to obey Him.

Liquid myrrh means He knows how to speak tough love as well. Myrrh is a burial spice that speaks of suffering and embracing death to self. There is nobody who speaks with the kind of tenderness and kindness as Jesus. Yet, at the same time, He is at total war against that which hinders our life growing in love. He speaks directly to areas that need correction. This is a joy for us, because we know that He will not allow us to continue in sin. He will lead us into righteousness.

7) His Hands – His activities

His hands refer to His activites and the way He accomplishes His work. His hands are skillful in doing everything good with perfect power. He is omnipotent, possessing the ability to accomplish anything He pleases, both in the natural creation and in the spiritual realm. He never falters from a task which He sets His hands to.

The combination of His full power and skill results in goodness for His people. What He is doing in your life is for your own good. It is not accidental. He didn’t forget you. No, He is deliberately allowing it to happen. He is skillfully bringing forth your heart into bridal love. He is doing it with great wisdom. His hands are like gold, Divine wisdom, set with great strategy and the skill of a great artist. He is not forsaking you. He has strength to establish firmly and bring to completion the purposes of God.

8 ) His Body – His tender compassion

His body or His ‘belly’ speaks of His tender compassion. This is because in passages that say, “Where are the yearnings of your heart?” it is the same word as “His body” or “His belly” in this passage.

“The yearning of Your heart and Your mercies toward me” (Is. 63:15)
“My heart years for him (Ephraim); I will surely have mercy on Him, says the Lord” (Jer. 31:20)
“My heart yearned for Him” (Song 5:4)

Some of the greatest distinguishing features of Jesus are His feelings towards those who are weak, sinful, and incompetent. He has such feelings of compassion. Compassion is more than just His emotion in general. It is specifically the yearning of His heart towards weak people. The King of Kings delights and rejoices in mercy towards His people.

9) His Legs – His walk and administration of His purposes

God’s plans are executed with strength, dignity and order. His ways are strong, lovely, permanent, orderly, durable. God’s ways do not fail or vacillate. He does not waver.

Pillars speak of great strength, dignity and endurance under pressure. He cannot be manipulated or overpowered by anything or anyone. They are sure. They can be counted on.

10) His Countenance – His Impartation to His People

His countenance speaks of the impartation of God to His people. David prayed, “Lord, lift up the light of Your countenance upon us” (Ps. 4:6). When the light of God shines on the human heart, God is imparting things into the heart. Peter spoke of the “times of refreshing” that come from the manifest Presence of God (Acts 3:19).

The Father has infinite power to impart to you godly traits like wisdom, purity and passion. He especially wants us to love Jesus like He does. The light of God shining on our hearts is one of the most satisfying things a human can experience. We were made for Divine encounter and impartation from God.

11) His Mouth – Intimate Communication with Him

His mouth does not refer to His words or His speech as signified by His lips. His mouth speaks of intimate communication because she longed for the kisses of His mouth. This does not mean we will literally kiss Jesus on the mouth. It speaks of deep intimacy and friendship that is experienced in our heart and in our spirit.

His mouth is most sweet. Such a manifest of union of our hearts with Christ is the sweetest, most pleasing experience to the human makeup. Nothing delights our soul more than spiritual intimacy with Christ. It is literally the ‘most sweet’ experience we can have.

12) He is Altogether Lovely – His Comprehensive Beauty

The Jesus depicted by the religious world is so different than the Jesus depicted by the Bride. She has given ten attributes of His beauty and now she offers her final summary statement. All of His attributes flow together in perfect unity comprising the loveliest person imaginable. It is impossible to fully comprehend His matchless beauty.

“This is my beloved, and this is my friend.” Jesus is both dearly beloved and a faithful friend. The relationship of ‘my beloved’ and ‘my friend’ are never unrelated. You cannot be one without the other with Jesus.

(This post is one in a series on “Life in God through the Song of Solomon”. To read the introductory post click here. To read the rest of the posts in the series click here.)