The Stone Cut Out

10My beloved is white and ruddy. The best among ten thousand. 11His head is like the purest gold. His hair is bushy, black as a raven. 12His eyes are like doves beside the water brooks, washed with milk, mounted like jewels. 13His cheeks are like a bed of spices with towers of perfumes. His lips are like lilies, dropping liquid myrrh. 14His hands are like rings of gold set with beryl. His body is like ivory work overlaid with sapphires. 15His legs are like pillars of marble set on sockets of fine gold. His appearance is like Lebanon, excellent as the cedars. 16His mouth is sweetness; yes, he is altogether lovely. This is my beloved, and this is my friend, daughters of Jerusalem.

1Where has your beloved gone, you fairest among women? Where has your beloved turned, that we may seek him with you? 2My beloved has gone down to his garden, to the beds of spices, to feed in the gardens, and to gather lilies. 3I am my beloved’s, and my beloved is mine. He browses among the lilies, 4You are beautiful, my love, as Tirzah, lovely as Jerusalem, awesome as an army with banners.

Suppose a kindergarten teacher asks the children, “What is your father like?” Children who live with their fathers and are loved by them will boast, describing in great detail their father’s looks, his personality, even the way he talks. But a child who has grown up without ever seeing their father cannot say a single word about what he looks like or what kind of person he is, because they have never seen him. A child whose father never plays with them, or whose father is violent, will likewise have nothing to say about him.

The father described by a child who grew up in their father’s arms, hearing his tender voice, can never be the same as a father introduced in a book. A child who plays with their father picks up his habits and his way of speaking, and without knowing it learns from watching how he judges and decides; such a child will grow up seeing the world, unawares, through their father’s eyes. That is why it matters so much that parents judge and act rightly.

Only when parents judge the world rightly and act by the word will the children who grow up watching them walk the same path, and in time raise their own children rightly. But to be parents whom their children respect is never easy, because they must live knowing that their children will see and learn from everything they say, do, and decide.

Then what is God the Father, in whom you believe, like? How has God the Father told you to live? Only when we know the word of truth accurately can we share God well, like the child who described their father in detail.

The father a kindergartner describes probably amounts to this: he gives them food, buys them pretty clothes, and takes them to the zoo. Yet even when a small child proudly describes their father in such simple terms, we can tell how good a man he is. If we, like this child, could pass on the love and the word we have received from God without adding or taking away, the people of the world would take an interest in God’s warm love. Worldly people may see that father as poor and powerless, but to the child he is a strong, capable, and steady fence. Even without expensive clothes or a big house, just being with a father who loves them would make the child as glad as if they had gained the whole world.

Think of a child who boasts of their father whatever anyone else thinks of him. If the church shares the word of truth honestly, in pure faith, as that child does, there will be no difficulty in proclaiming almighty God. But believers dress up their Father to suit worldly greed and to prop up their own pride, and according to the clothes they wear and the size of their houses, and because of that they are not proclaiming God as he is. When they are poor for lack of worldly power, they are ashamed of God; when they gain a little worldly power, they grow proud and exalt themselves above God. Since they present God according to their own circumstances, the world does not know his almighty power, even though God himself never changes.

The gospel is passing on the God we have met, just as he is. Evangelism is telling others that the one who is my fence and holds me in his love is my Father, and your Father too. We make evangelism out to be so difficult that, like a child who has never met their father, we hesitate and cannot properly say a single word. Instead of trying to dress up your Father, I hope you will share his love as it is, as the Shulammite boasted of Solomon.

As the Shulammite searched for Solomon, the daughters of Jerusalem asked her what made Solomon so much better than the worldly men they loved, that she should seek him so. As if she had been waiting for the question, she began to describe him in detail.

Her beloved Solomon’s head, she said, was like the purest gold; his hair was bushy; his eyes were like doves beside the water brooks, washed with milk; and his cheeks were fragrant like a bed of spices. His lips were like lilies dropping liquid myrrh, his hands like rings of gold set with beryl, his body like ivory work overlaid with sapphires, and his legs like pillars of marble set on sockets of fine gold. With all this she boasted that Solomon was altogether lovely.

Song of Solomon 5:10

10My beloved is white and ruddy. The best among ten thousand.

This likely means that, in the Shulammite’s eyes, Solomon was a man held in high honor who stood above a great many others, with the bearing of a nobleman.

What do you tell people your husband is like? Do you boast that he is honored above many? If you truly love and respect your husband, you should cast off the laziness and pride the Shulammite showed, along with her improper words and deeds, and do all you can to protect your home.

Jesus is just such a dear bridegroom to us. The Lord, our husband, is white and pure because he has no sin, and he is the best among many because he made atonement for sinners. After his wedding feast with us, the Lord will wear a crown on his head and a robe sprinkled with the blood of atonement, and he will judge the world in righteousness. To those he loves he shows boundless grace, but souls who have not repented of their sin he will judge with the authority to rule with a rod of iron.

In Revelation chapter 1, the Jesus whom the apostle John saw wore a robe reaching down to his feet, with a golden sash around his chest. His head and his hair were white as wool, his eyes like a flame of fire, and his feet like burnished brass refined in a furnace; his voice was like the sound of many waters, a sharp two-edged sword came out of his mouth, and his face was like the sun shining at its brightest. The husband you love is the very Judge who stands at the end of the age. Even when the harsh world makes faith hard to keep and life by the word a struggle, we must hold fast, and this is the reason: so that we will not be fools who share in the judgment the world receives.

Colossians 2:9-10

9For in him all the fullness of the Deity dwells bodily, 10and in him you are made full, who is the head of all principality and power;

Jesus our King came into this world in a body, yet within him dwells the deity of the one who is head of all principality and power; he is the honored one. The Lord is the same yesterday, today, and forever. His love for his own does not waver, and he keeps his promise of salvation steadfastly. This Christ, who knows all and can do all, has become one with his people and the head of all the churches. So those who are in Christ receive his fullness just as it is and can overcome the world. It is like the Shulammite: as long as she lives as Solomon’s wife, she may freely enjoy all his power, authority, and wealth. Likewise, if we keep our faith, Satan will not be able to attack us, and we will live freely enjoying God’s special grace.

Song of Solomon 5:13

13His cheeks are like a bed of spices with towers of perfumes. His lips are like lilies, dropping liquid myrrh.

Solomon’s cheeks, she said, were like a bed of spices and a grassy hillside, and his lips like lilies, dripping liquid myrrh. Those who look on a fragrant bed of flowers feel happy at heart, and those who lie on a grassy hillside, soft as a mother’s embrace, feel at peace.

When she was with Solomon, at least, the Shulammite enjoyed peace and rest, free from every worldly care and worry. To live as Solomon’s wife was this peaceful, this secure, this happy. To be sheltered by someone while living in a harsh world, enjoying such peace in body and soul, must be a great blessing indeed. I hope you will be thankful that you can be someone’s protector, or that someone protects you.

Matthew 11:28

28“Come to me, all you who labor and are heavily burdened, and I will give you rest.

There are people who run toward success with all their strength and still cannot lay down life’s heavy burdens. To them, this promise — that anyone who comes to him will be given peace and rest — is an immense blessing, because there is no one anywhere in this world who will carry our burden in our place.

For most people, the most fearful and heaviest burden would naturally be death. The promise to carry the burden of death in our place is the greatest word of blessing for those standing in the very midst of death, and a word of grace that leads from darkness into light. If we cannot proclaim such a Christ with the Shulammite’s confidence, we would be fools carrying that heavy burden on our own.

As Solomon’s lips were like lilies dropping liquid myrrh, every word the Lord gives is a word of grace that brings life, because all who carry the fragrance of Christ, lovely as the scent of lilies, have gained eternal life. It is remarkable how much she must love her husband to describe him like this. Yet it is hard to understand how, when this husband she so loved came to her, she did not open the door because it was too much trouble. Husband and wife grow apart when they stop treating each other with respect.

Looking at the Shulammite, who treated so dear a husband carelessly, we too must recognize that neglecting Christ and failing to live by his word is sin, and we must repent. The Holy Spirit still walks with us and strives to help us directly, yet because of our desire for the world we refuse him again and again. Not knowing what a treasure that love is, or what extraordinary power it holds, we neglect the Lord out of laziness, pride, and craving for the world.

The Shulammite is boasting of her husband to the women, but inwardly she must have bitterly regretted treating him carelessly and making him leave her side. It is because she regretted not having done better while he loved her that she searches for Solomon all the more earnestly. When Christ pours out his grace on you, I hope you will do better by him, and so receive that love forever.

Song of Solomon 5:15

15His legs are like pillars of marble set on sockets of fine gold. His appearance is like Lebanon, excellent as the cedars.

In Daniel chapter 2, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon had a terrifying dream one night, but when he woke in the morning he could not remember it. So he summoned all the magicians, enchanters, and sorcerers and commanded them to find out the dream he had had the night before, which he could not recall, and to interpret it. If they failed, he threatened, they would all die; if they succeeded, he would give them gifts, rewards, and great honor. The king was demanding the impossible, an interpretation of a dream he himself had forgotten, but they could not defy him. When they told him that even on pain of death they had no way of knowing what he had dreamed, the king flew into a rage and ordered them all killed. Just then Daniel, who had been carried off as a captive, heard of it, went to the king of his own accord, and asked for time, promising to tell him not only the dream but its interpretation as well. Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego prayed to God, asking him to keep them from being put to death in Babylon.

God heard this prayer and showed Daniel Nebuchadnezzar’s dream in a vision of the night. This is what the dream was.

Daniel 2:31-35

31“You, O king, saw, and behold, a great image. This image, which was mighty, and whose brightness was excellent, stood before you; and its appearance was terrifying. 32As for this image, its head was of fine gold, its breast and its arms of silver, its belly and its thighs of brass, 33its legs of iron, its feet part of iron, and part of clay. 34You saw until a stone was cut out without hands, which struck the image on its feet that were of iron and clay, and broke them in pieces. 35Then the iron, the clay, the brass, the silver, and the gold were broken in pieces together, and became like the chaff of the summer threshing floors. The wind carried them away, so that no place was found for them. The stone that struck the image became a great mountain, and filled the whole earth.

Looked at closely, the dream means the following.

The head of fine gold is Babylon. Babylon was a land rich in gold, and it made all its idols and images of gold. The breast and arms of silver are Media and Persia, a kingdom that made its coins of silver. The thighs of brass stand for Greece. Greece made its weapons of brass, and with those swords and spears Alexander the Great conquered the world. And the iron of the legs and of the feet mixed with clay is Rome, which made its armor, helmets, shields, and chariots all of iron. The nations trampled by Rome’s iron chariots crumbled like clay, yet Rome itself could not keep its strength and fell. Nebuchadnezzar’s dream was fulfilled in its entirety through the history of Israel.

Human history, like this image, splits further the lower it goes from the head to the legs. The feet are part iron and part clay, so you can see how unstable they are, and how the quality grows poorer the more it divides. This is human history, and this is human life. Humanity is wicked, with a nature that can never truly become one. Even while dividing, people band together again to gain power, yet at root they can never be wholly one. As time passes, this history of sin will split further and further, form more and more factions, and in the end be destroyed.

Nebuchadnezzar appointed Daniel, who had interpreted the dream, as his chief minister and gave him many rewards. But Daniel told the king plainly that he had discovered none of this by his own wisdom; God had revealed it. Daniel did so because he longed with all his heart for King Nebuchadnezzar to truly meet God through him.

Daniel told the king that he could interpret the dream only because God had revealed it, yet it is Daniel who enjoys blessing in the world. When the world looks at the faith of someone who lives by the word, it sees God; when God looks at that same person, he sees an obedient child, and he pours out great blessing.

Daniel 2:34

34You saw until a stone was cut out without hands, which struck the image on its feet that were of iron and clay, and broke them in pieces.

The stone cut out that shattered the idol is Jesus. When Jesus, the cornerstone, struck the feet of the idol raised up by human history, power, philosophy, and civilization, it all broke to pieces in an instant and vanished like chaff from the summer threshing floors. The idols human beings set up fall this easily. Only the strong legs of the Lord, like pillars of marble set on sockets of fine gold, will stand tall over the whole world.

Daniel saw the stone cut out that struck the idol become a great mountain and fill the whole earth. Today the cross of Jesus reaches every corner of the world. The Christ you boast of to the people of the world is this magnificent, the one who fills all the earth. Because Nebuchadnezzar’s dream was a purpose God had given, every part of it came true.

Song of Solomon 6:1

1Where has your beloved gone, you fairest among women? Where has your beloved turned, that we may seek him with you?

When the daughters of Jerusalem heard the Shulammite, they wanted to meet Solomon for themselves — what kind of man must he be, for her to love him so? Now it was the women who set out to look for him. Because the Shulammite truly loved Solomon, her heart reached those women. So it will be with you: if you truly love Jesus Christ, the people of the world will come to the church wanting to meet that Jesus. And if they meet Jesus in the truth, they too, like you, will share the gospel of their own accord.

The Samaritan woman, who heard the word of truth and at once shared the gospel, is just such a case. She came out to draw water and met Jesus, who was waiting at the well for the very purpose of meeting her. She was astonished that Jesus knew she had had five husbands, astonished that a Jew would speak with a Samaritan, and deeply moved by his word that true worship is worship in the Spirit and in truth. As she listened to Jesus’ word of truth and became convinced that he truly was the Messiah, she left her water pot behind and went straight into the town to share the gospel. If the Messiah is certain and the word of truth is certain, what is there to hesitate over, and what is there to fear?

John 4:42

42They said to the woman, “Now we believe, not because of your speaking; for we have heard for ourselves, and know that this is indeed the Christ, the Savior of the world.”

What the woman told them took hold of the people who heard her, and because of that they said they now believed, not because of her words, but because they knew he was the Savior. If we know Jesus rightly and proclaim him, those who hear the gospel will be saved. This is what evangelism is.

If the daughters of Jerusalem who heard the Shulammite’s boasting meet Solomon in person, they will see that he has a noble character and a great love, and they will honor him. And if you, too, boldly proclaim how glorious Jesus is, many who hear you will gain eternal life. That is how much evangelism matters.

You cannot know how many souls will be saved through the word you share. So I hope you will read the Bible much and pray, and with the help of the Holy Spirit proclaim rightly the Jesus who, like the stone cut out, rules over the world.

Like the Shulammite, who always boasted of her husband, may you give your utmost to share the gospel. I bless you in the name of Jesus Christ.