Mike Bickle concludes the series on the Song of Solomon by emphasizing the importance of unwavering love for Jesus, even in times of testing and adversity. He illustrates how the bride's love is proven through two painful tests: the temporary absence of Jesus' presence and the wounds inflicted by spiritual authorities. Despite these challenges, she remains devoted and expresses her love, demonstrating that true love for Christ transcends circumstances. Bickle encourages believers to focus on the beauty and majesty of Jesus rather than their trials, ultimately revealing that a mature relationship with Him is about loving Him for who He is, not just for what He provides.

Page 207. Father, we thank you in the name of Jesus. For the glory of your Son, Christ Jesus. We love the way he loves us. Thank you for the way you love us. Thank you for making it known in your Word. Thank you for sending the Holy Spirit to teach us about your love. In Jesus' name, Amen. This is our eighth teaching. This is the final one in the series of the Song of Solomon. We're looking at the session notes number 18 and number 19. The ultimate two-fold test. Chapter 5, verses 2 to 9. Romans 1, a review from the last teaching. The bride has prayed for the north and south winds to blow upon her garden. This is the time when the garden of her heart becomes his garden. This is the great turning point in the 8th chapter love song. Romans 2, verse 2. I sleep but my heart is awake. The voice of my bridegroom, he knocks on the door of my heart. He says, open up to me. Open yourself fully to me. My sister, my love, my dove, my perfect one. And now here's the key line right here. For my head is covered with the dew of the night. My hair is wet with the drops of the night. Jesus has been out in the long and dark night by himself. He has endured a long and dark lonely night. And his voice awakens her and says, I want you to share this with me. Page 208. Paragraph A. Jesus is revealing himself as the one who suffered in Gethsemane. The one who endured the dark night alone because of love. And though he paid the entire debt on the cross, he calls his bride to join him in the suffering of the increase of the gospel in the nations. When we endure hardship, it doesn't contribute anything to the payment for our sin. But it's a necessary part of the gospel going forth in the nations. He says to her, open your heart to me as the Jesus of Gethsemane. She arises immediately and opens herself to him and says, yes. And then she endures two tests. They are both very painful to her. But her love is proven to be true. And her love is strengthened in the context of these two tests. Test number one, his presence lifts from her heart in a temporary way. Test number two, the authorities of the body of Christ strike her and wound her. The issue is this. How will she respond under this severe testing? This is the main point of view. In verse 8, she says, I'm not offended, I'm lovesick, I love him. In verse 10 to 16, she gives the most dramatic statement of love and devotion to him. Paragraph C, what's happening in this passage of Song of Solomon? In the verse before, she said, Awake, oh north winds, and blow upon my garden. Come and take full possession of my heart. And so he says, okay, I will come. I will draw you into a situation where your love will be proven as deep and true. The north winds of adversity, they break in upon her in this season. But instead of being offended, she expresses herself in trust, devotion, and loyalty. Page 209, paragraph F, he knocks on the door of her heart. And he addresses her in four different ways. These four descriptions make clear that she's responding in obedience to him. Because some commentaries will interpret this passage that she's responding in compromise. And other commentaries are clear that she's responding in obedience. The context makes it very clear she's responding in obedience. The four names that he addresses her even make this clear. He calls her, my sister. They are to identify with one another in this human struggle. Jesus is fully God, but as a man, he endured the difficulties. It's in his humanity that we can bear the sufferings together with him. He calls her, my love. He speaks tenderly to her. He calls her, my dove. He says, I know your heart, his single devotion to me right now. He says, you're my perfect one. You're responding with full obedience in this hour. Page 210, her response in full obedience. It's verse 3 that some commentators interpret as her compromise. But if you read the whole context of chapter 5 carefully in chapter 6, you'll see that she's responding in full extravagant obedience. She said, I've taken off my robe. How can I put it on again? I have washed my feet. How can I become dirty again? Jesus put his hand upon the locks of her heart, the door of her heart. She said, my heart yearned for you. My heart leapt up to you. I arose to open up my heart to my beloved. What's happening in this passage? Is that she's saying, I've worn my own robes and I've put them aside. Now I will only put on your robes. Paragraph B, I have washed my feet. I will never dirty them again. I believe that's the spiritual interpretation to this poetic language. Page 211, he puts his hand upon the door of her heart. She says, my heart yearned. I leapt inside and said yes to you. Romans 4, now we look at test number one. After she jumped up from the bed and she gave herself to him, she doesn't tell him like in chapter 217, go, leave without me, but she instantly responds in obedience. In verse 6, I opened for my beloved. But my beloved turned away from me. He was gone. My heart leapt up in obedience when he spoke to me, but he turned away. I sought him, but I couldn't find him. I called on him, but he did not answer me. She's very perplexed as to what's going on in her life. Paragraph A, Jesus hides himself from her two times in this love song. In chapter 3, he hid himself because of her compromise. So that she would respond in obedience and repent of her fear. But here in chapter 5, he hides himself even while she's in a place of obedience. It has parallels to when God told Abraham, offer your only son to me and trust me. And Abraham could not understand what was happening, but he offered up Isaac on the altar. And then the Lord surprised Abraham and had an answer for him. In page 212, paragraph C, her greatest desire was to experience his presence. Remember her life vision back in chapter 1, verse 4. Draw me after you and let us run together. Draw me after you, let me experience your presence. Let us run together in ministry and impacting other people's lives. Paragraph D, sometimes the Lord draws back his discernible presence. He never leaves us or forsakes us. But sometimes there are short periods where we cannot feel his presence like we did before. This isn't because of sin, but this is to draw the deepest yearnings of her heart to fullness. By doing this, she yearns for him, her heart leaps up, she reaches out like never before. Page 213, Roman numeral 5. Now the second test happens in verse 7. She is persecuted. The watchmen who go about the city, they found me. They struck me, they wound me. The keepers of the wall, they took my veil away from me. Paragraph A, the watchmen and the keepers of the wall speak of those in spiritual authority. They strike her, they wound her. Sometimes the Lord will allow even authorities in the body of Christ to strike you with painful words. They will say hurtful things about you that are not true. And sometimes you will be wounded by what even leaders in the body of Christ, how they treat you. Paragraph B, they take her veil away. Her spiritual covering is removed. She loses her place of function in the body of Christ. Back in chapter 1 verse 4, her life vision, let me experience your presence, draw me after you. Let me function in ministry, let us run together and touch others. The two things that are most important to her are removed. How will she respond? Will she be offended? Is she only serving the Lord because she feels his presence and her ministry and circumstances are going well? If things are disappointing and they go wrong, will she still be true in her love? Will she still love the Lord even though she is disappointed and frustrated? Her response of humility and love, she says, oh daughters of Jerusalem, if you find him, if you know where he is, give this message to him for me. Tell him no matter what happens, I love him and I trust him. My heart is sick with love. I just want to be pleasing to him and to love him. Paragraph B, Jesus said, blessed is the person who's not offended at me. That's a very important principle. People become offended at Jesus for two reasons. They become offended by what Jesus does, but equally true, they are offended by what Jesus doesn't do. When he's silent, when we think he should be intervening to deliver us. In Matthew chapter 11 verse 6, in this context, the disciples of John the Baptist came to Jesus. And Jesus knew that he was not going to deliver John from prison. And these young disciples were so excited to discover Jesus was the true Messiah. In Matthew 6, he was doing great miracles in front of them. And these disciples rejoiced, you are truly the Messiah. And then Jesus gives this very strange spiritual principle to them. He says, so you believe I'm the Messiah. You will be blessed if you're not offended at me. And they thought, offended? Why would we be offended? You're the one we're waiting for. But Jesus knew he was not going to deliver John, but John would die. And these young disciples were going to be very confused. If you're the true Messiah, you raise the dead and heal the blind eyes, surely you can deliver John from prison. Many times, it's what Jesus doesn't do that offends his people. And he looked them in the eye and he said, blessed are you if you are not offended by my leadership. Page 214, paragraph C, her two-fold life vision. It seems like everything is lost. What she cares most about seemingly is lost. She doesn't know it's going to be quickly restored. She doesn't have the information of that. Here is the issue of true and mature love. When you can't feel his presence, and when the circumstances are disappointing and difficult, will you be loyal in your love? Or are you really only serving him because things are going your way? Back in chapter 2, she was under the shade tree. Chapter 2, verse 3 and 4. She was enjoying the sweet fruit. She said, what a delight it is to eat at your table. Sustain me, refresh me. This is wonderful! The reason she was pursuing the Lord back in chapter 2, she loved the feeling of the presence of God. Beloved, I love the feeling of his presence. And the Lord wants to release his presence to us throughout all of our days. But are we in the relationship with Jesus because we love the feeling of his presence? There's something more that he wants. He goes, will you love me if you don't feel me? Everything seems lost. Is Jesus the means to her end? Is Jesus just the best way to get what she wants, spiritual pleasure and favor with God? Or is Jesus actually the goal of her life? When we're new believers, we come to Jesus because what he gives us for free. We escape hell. He delivers us from addictions and bondages. He heals us and provides for us. We feel his presence. We are committed to him because we get so many things from him. And this will always be true. One of the reasons I love him is because of how good he is to me. This is true. But there's more to the relationship than this. Jesus says in the early days, it's okay that the relationship is only about what you get from me. But there comes a time when the relationship also is about what you give to me in love. Because I'm after your heart, he says. Yes, I want to help you and bless you, but I'm after your heart. I want to partner with you in love forever. That's what I'm after. I love you with all of my heart. I want you to love me with all of your heart. That's what I'm after. I love you with all of my heart. But I want you to love me with all of your heart. Jesus is not just a means to our life goals. Relationship with Jesus is the goal of our life. Yes, we're in it for what we get out of it. Yes, this is true. But there's more to the relationship. When we mature, then we're also in the relationship for what he gets from us. He only wants one thing. He wants us voluntarily to choose to love him with all of our heart. And then from that place of relationship to partner with him and the great mandate the father gave him to disciple the nations. Turn to page 215. We continue here in our eighth teaching. But we're looking at our session notes 19. And on page 215, I give a review of the last set of notes. Let's go to page 216, and we'll continue in the next passage. Roman numeral 2, verse 8. Oh, daughters of Jerusalem. If you find Jesus, tell him I love him. Now, this is a statement of humility. Because the daughters of Jerusalem throughout the song, they represent believers that sincerely love God, but are far more immature. So she's asking these younger believers, Help me, give him the message. Anything you have to share with me, tell me now. Paragraph C. These daughters of Jerusalem ask her two different questions. The first question they ask, which we will look at in a minute. But the first one is, why do you love him so much with the way he's treating you? He lifted his presence from your heart. He let you lose your place of function in ministry. Why do you like him so much? Then she gives her answer why she loves him so much. And then they ask her a second question in chapter 6, verse 1. Let's look at it. Page 217. The first question they ask her. After she says, I'm lovesick, help me find him. Or tell him I love him if you find him. So they ask the question, What is your beloved that he's so much better than other beloveds? They ask her a second time. What is it that you see about him that you want us to help you find him? We don't understand. His presence lifted from you? The elders of the church wounded you and struck you and took your veil? Everything that you've worked for seems to be lost. And you're lovesick? You want to find him and go deeper with him? What is he that we don't understand? Paragraph A. Her love for Jesus provokes them more than even her wisdom or her giftedness in ministry. Paragraph C. They go, why are you so loyal to him? What do you know about him that we don't know? The daughters have never seen this kind of dedication under such a disappointing circumstance. They said, why is he greater than the other beloveds? Paragraph D. They had many other beloveds in their life. There were other things in their life they loved more than the Lord. That's very common in the body of Christ. That we have a list of other things that are even more beloved than our relationship to Jesus. Yes, we love Jesus. But our relationships, our money, our ministry, our comfort, our honor. We don't want to jeopardize those things because of our dedication to Jesus. Yes, we love him. But not if we lose favor with people or we get embarrassed or we lose a little bit of money. No, we're not going to go that far. Do you have other beloveds in your life that are more than him? Are you more like the maiden or more like the daughters of Jerusalem? The maiden was lovesick though she lost everything. The daughters were confused by this kind of dedication. Why do you love him more than the other things that we love? What do you know about him that we don't know? Page 218. Roman numeral 4. The bride gives her answer. The bride just overflows with an answer of his beauty. Paragraph 8. She proclaims the beauty of Jesus. In this love poem, the Holy Spirit uses metaphors of the body. To convey 10 different parts of God's personality. Paragraph B. Verse 10 to 16. It's one of the most powerful revelations of Jesus in the Bible. It's spoken in poetic language. And Solomon uses agricultural language because she's a girl that's working on the farm. And Solomon uses the language of the temple because he's going to build the great temple for God. In Psalm 45 verse 2. The psalmist said that he is more beautiful than all the sons of men that have ever walked the earth. The psalmist says my heart overflows with the good theme of his beauty. And that's what happens to this maiden. She overflows with the good theme of his beauty. The daughter said, why do you love him so much? What do you know about him that we don't know? And she gives the answer in verse 10 to 16. My beloved Jesus. He is dazzling and radiant in his beauty. He is chief among 10,000. His head or his leadership is like finest gold. His hair is and his eyes and his cheeks and his lips. And she goes down 10 different attributes of his personality. Now in the natural love song, she's talking about parts of his body. But in this spiritual interpretation, we compare scripture with scripture to find out the meaning this has spiritually. And in verse 16, she said he's all together lovely. That's who he is to me. This is my beloved. This is my friend. I am not offended. I am lovesick because of the glory of who he is to me. Some commentators that interpret that she is compromised in this passage, I don't think they're understanding verse 10 to 16. She is overflowing with love and adoration because of who he is. Page 219. She goes down and gives an overflow of her heart. She describes his different parts of his personality. She said his head or his leadership His hair, his dedication to God. His eyes, his great knowledge. And she goes right down through 10 different facets of his personality. And number 11, he's all together beautiful. He is my beloved. He is my friend. Paragraph C. She is lovesick because she's focusing on him instead of preoccupied with her testing. Our natural temptation is for our testing to be the biggest thing in our focus. Poor me, things are so bad. And the glory and the majesty of Jesus becomes very small in our thinking and in our focus. But she did it exactly opposite. She said, yes, I'm not enjoying his presence and I don't have a ministry anymore. But I have him. And he has me. And that is enough for me if that is his will. And we find out later that Jesus is smiling the whole time. He's silent. He wants her full loyalty to come out in fullness. But in a minute, he's going to break the silence and tell us what he's thinking about her heart. He is deeply moved by the fact that she does not waver in her love. He sees that she's in the relationship for him, not just for the blessings. Back in chapter 2, when she was a new believer, she was in the relationship only for the blessings. Beloved, a million years from now, we will still be praising God for the blessings. It is not wrong to be grateful and to be happy about the way he's blessed us. But there's more to the relationship. Paragraph D. I'll just give you a personal advice from my own experience. Over the years, when I've had times of turmoil, the thing that I have found that helps me the most is I study the Bible or I study the writings of others on the attributes of God, on the personality of God. And when my heart is hurting, and circumstances are painful and disappointing, Jesus becomes secondary in terms of my focus. My pain becomes primary. I say, no, I'm not going to do it this way. I'm going to throw my attention into who he is. And there's several books I have written here in the notes, and I get them out and I read them again. And they bring back to my remembrance that which I already know. Oh, yes, you are glorious. You are beautiful. You are wonderful. You love me. I love you. Now I remember what I'm doing. My problem doesn't go away instantly. But instead of it being primary, it becomes secondary. It doesn't make all of my circumstances better. But I carry my heart very differently when I lock into the beauty of who this man is. Page 220. We'll just look at two or three of these to give you the sense of what I'm saying. We won't look at all 10 attributes, but just a couple of them. She starts off with a general statement about him. He is radiant. He is dazzling, is what the Hebrew says. He is chief among 10,000. Which means he's incomparably superior to all other men. His head is like finest gold. His head speaks of his leadership over all creation and over the body of Christ. Gold speaks of the divine nature. Your leadership is the very finest that God can give the human race. And I confess to Jesus, your leadership is like finest gold. The quality and the excellence of your leadership over my life cannot be surpassed. This is my confession. This is my testimony. The devil is a liar. Your leadership is like finest gold. It is perfect. It cannot be improved. Paragraph C. His hair is wavy and black like a raven. In the song of Solomon, the hair speaks of the dedication. The Nazarite vow in number 6, they could not cut their hair. It was a sign of their dedication to God. Jesus' dedication to God, and Jesus' dedication to his people. It is vigorous, it is full, it is dynamic forever. So I confess to him, your leadership is perfect. Your head is like finest gold. Your hair or your dedication to me is vigorous and full forever. Page 221. Your eyes are perfect in wisdom. Paragraph E. Your cheeks are like a bed of spices, like banks of herbs. The cheeks speak of the emotions because they are a window into the soul. Jesus' emotions are extravagant. They're like beds of spices with great diversity. He has so many beautiful and diverse emotions for us. He's not disinterested, he's not detached. He's fully engaged in every way possible with our heart and our life. I love to say to him, your emotions are like a bed of fragrant spices. And because I'm familiar with the poetic language, sometimes I will use that very language to him. He knows what I mean. Your emotions are so diverse and so abundant, you're so involved with me. Page 223. Paragraph L at the bottom of the page. She summarizes her ten statements. This is my beloved. He is altogether lovely. Beloved, the enemy wants to come and tell us lies about Jesus' leadership. He wants to tell us that Jesus is uninvolved, he's forgotten us, he's distant. Who is Jesus to your heart when trouble comes? I want to say, this is my beloved. He is the altogether lovely one. He is my beloved. He is my friend. Top of page 223. Roman numeral 6. Now she asks the second question. The daughters ask the second question. Remember the first question back in chapter 5 verse 9. The first question was in chapter 5 verse 9. The first question was, why do you love him so much? But here in chapter 6 verse 1, it's a very different question. It's where can we find him? Paragraph A. The conversation between the daughters and the bride continue. The daughters see this bride glowing in love with such revelation of his majesty and beauty. Paragraph B. They change their question. They don't say, why do you love him? They say, where is he? We want what you have from now on. They are no longer content with having other beloveds greater than him in their life. Paragraph E. When younger believers are watching you respond in life, many of them will change the way they relate to the Lord when they see you in trouble loving him. When they see your love is loyal and strong even in times of difficulty, at first these younger ones will say, why are you so devoted to Jesus when your life is so hard? But they watch you consistently love him in a full way. And then they say, I want what you have in your relationship with Jesus. You don't even know they are watching, but they are watching you. And when you stand before the Lord on the last day, part of the offering of your love to him will be other people that loved him more because of how you loved him. And Jesus will have great pleasure in this. And in that day, everything you endured will seem worth it in that day. Because he is really going to feed other people in the overflow of your dedication to him. Remember back in chapter 5 verse 1, he wants others to be nourished by our relationship with the Lord. Page 224, we'll end with this. Paragraph E. It's in the next session, but I'm just giving you the statement ahead of time. We won't cover the next session because our teaching series is now over. But I think it wouldn't be complete to finish this without seeing how Jesus responds. He suddenly breaks the silence. The bride has been there alone suffering. She's a little confused why everything became negative suddenly. But she remains loyal in her love. The daughters of Jerusalem say, How are you doing this? She describes, He's altogether lovely to me. That's the way I do this. Then the daughters say, We want to find what you found in Jesus. And then suddenly in chapter 6 verse 4, Suddenly Jesus interrupts the conversation. And he says, Oh my love, I've been here all the time. You are as beautiful as Tirzah to me. You are as lovely as Jerusalem to my heart. You are awesome or you are victorious like an army returning with banners in the great parade. He says in verse 5, Turn your eyes of devotion away from me. For in the poetic language of love, he says, You have overcome me with your love. He's not really saying don't look at me, but he's saying, Do you know how your eyes have overcome me? Beloved, all the armies of hell and earth cannot overcome this man. There is only one thing that overcomes this man. It overcomes his heart. That's when believers are loyal in love when they can't see what's happening. He was watching her every step of the way. And he said, Turn your eyes from me for you have overcome me. Beloved, that's how we affect his heart when we stay steady in love. Let's stand. Let's just respond to the Lord. When things are going wrong, we are going to confess the truth of how beautiful and how excellent he is. We will not draw back. For he is our beloved. He is our friend. We're not in the relationship just to make things easier. Jesus is not a stepping stone to an easier life. He is the goal of our life. I'm going to have the worship team just lead us to the Lord, and you just talk to the Lord in your own individual way. We'll just take about five minutes to just give our heart to the Lord and say, I'm yours, Lord, to the end. We'll just take about five minutes to just give our heart to the Lord and say, I'm yours, Lord, to the end.