Voice of the Kingfisher speaks out …from a different perspective
by Elinor Montgomery
The Beloved and Solomon
February 13, 2012
There is a book in the Bible called the ‘Song of Songs’, or ‘Song of Solomon’, which is about the Shulamite and her Beloved who only has eyes for her, and she, for Him. It is also a story about King Solomon who represents the kings of this world, while the Beloved represents Jesus, the coming King of the coming kingdom on earth, as it is in heaven.
The contrast is drawn sharply between the love of the Shulamite for her Beloved and that of the daughters of Jerusalem for King Solomon. The daughters have no idea what she sees in her King. They want desperately to know what makes Him different from their king who is a king of this world with the smell of the merchant or of trade, of warfare and of the smoke of burning all over him.
Israel rejected her God, asking for a king of the world to rule over her; and so, He gave her one. He gave the people exactly what they wanted, when He had chosen that nation to be His to love as He had wanted mankind to love Him, so that He could protect her and give her victory over her enemies. What is so amazing about this, is the fact that, instead of showing gratitude for her special status in the world and responding to her God by being the light of liberty to the other nations, she totally rejected Him; yet, she clung to her position of being His chosen, centuries after He divorced her and drove her from the Land.
The daughters of Jerusalem chose to be like the rest of the world by participating in its trade and merchandizing and to live by the sword, while trusting in her manpower, instead of trusting in God. She was a very small nation, in the center of a sea of gentile nations, which surrounded her. She continued in her harlotry until, after having broken covenant, Israel was turned over to the Assyrian Empire, and then Judah, to the Babylonian Empire, where she remains in captivity to this day. She is about to fall under the rule of the last of the empires yet to be revived as a One World Order ruled by the Antichrist, himself. We see the nation Israel scattered among the nations where they now are assimilated into the cultures of the world.
God blessed the nation with the Law, but only if she were to keep her marriage vows of the Law by worshiping only Him and by having no other idols before Him (i.e., the kings of the world). Failing to do so, she would be cursed. This would mean that, henceforth, she would have to protect herself from a world that surrounded her, caught in the battle of the thrones for ruler-ship of the world while, at the same time, fighting the trade war for economic supremacy.
What amazes me is that the nation could not see what made the Beloved different from the kings of the world, whom she preferred, represented by Solomon in Song of Songs. What control did Solomon have over the weather – the rains and the floods, or the lack of rains and famine or fire, destroying farm lands and cities? What power do the kings of the world have over earthquakes and tsunamis? Was the power not vested in the right hand of the Beloved? Was He not much more able to provide food and abundance than Solomon ever could with his sword, gold, silver and purple, along with the things of this world the people so love?
What kind of picture would we see in Israel today if, in fact, the daughters of Jerusalem had chosen wisely? Would the nation not be free of the threat from her enemies whom an angel of the Lord can slay in a moment without Israel ever having to raise a finger if she had loved and worshiped only her God (see 2 Chronicles 32:21-22)? Just suppose if, when the Messiah came, she had welcomed Him and loved Him for the kind of King He was – a King of a kingdom, with all His people dwelling in peace on earth. There would have been no threat from her neighbors, such as she is experiencing today with the constant, deadly barrage of missiles fired against her. The neighboring countries desire nothing more than to annihilate her, by driving her into the sea, so she no longer will exist.
We have to remember that if the nation Israel is not ruled by God, then she will be ruled by Satan and his kings of the nations of this world, who hate the mention of the word God. Even more, they hate the mention of His Son, Jesus, who is that Messiah or the Christ and the object of the venom of the Antichrist who rules by the antichrist spirit of this world. It is by this same spirit Adam and Eve were first deceived about the truth of God in the Garden, and it is by this same spirit the daughters of Jerusalem put their love and trust in Solomon and the kings of this world, standing, now, on a foundation of lies without the truth of God.
The apostle John tells us in his gospel that Jesus is the Word made flesh, which makes Him sole Ruler over America. How desperately the rest of the world fought and clawed its way out of the religious nations ruled by their own ‘Solomons’ so they could come to America to enjoy the safety and bounty that only come from God and His Son, the Light and ‘Peace-giver’ of the world!
America had succeeded, where Israel had failed to build on the Chief Cornerstone, in order to be the light of liberty to the world. She had become like the Shulamite of the allegory Song of Solomon, and Jesus was her Beloved. She had but one vineyard and one Vinedresser compared to the many vineyards of religion owned by the kings of the world. Hers was her Beloved, the truth, who asked that His Shulamite love only Him, whom He enclosed in the Garden of the free church in America. He had so desperately wanted to provide for mankind in the Garden of Eden, a kingdom of peace and all good things on earth without any evil in it, able to provide the good fruit of sons and daughters for God. Now the Lord God had provided another garden for His betrothed.
But the day came when the captive church was prevented from keeping up the wall of truth, and the watchmen of the institutional church became adversarial toward the Beloved and His true bride, the captive church. The institutional church of religion would try to steal away her bridal veil, so that the gates of hell could prevail against her. But this will never happen to the Shulamite, or the revived apostolic church, who builds her wall on truth, knowing the only peace to be found in this world will be provided by Jesus, and not by any nation or union of nations under worldly kings.
Her vineyard lies before her (see Song of Solomon 8:12), and she will be the voice for truth to carry out the commission of the church to witness to the gospels of truth to the entire world. This is a woman who dwells in the gardens, just waiting for a world without religion and their warring kings who destroyed Israel, and now are in the process of destroying her. She is trying to tread water until her Beloved returns.
“Hear another parable: There was a certain landowner who planted a vineyard and set a hedge around it, dug a winepress in it and built a tower. And he leased it to vinedressers and went into a far country. Now when vintage-time drew near, he sent his servants to the vinedressers, that they might receive its fruit. And the vinedressers took his servants, beat one, killed one, and stoned another. Again he sent other servants, more than the first, and they did likewise to them. Then last of all he sent his son to them, saying, ‘They will respect my son.’ But when the vinedressers saw the son, they said among themselves, ‘This is the heir. Come, let us kill him and seize his inheritance.’ And they caught him, and cast him out of the vineyard, and killed him.
Therefore, when the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those vinedressers?”
They said to Him, “He will destroy those wicked men miserably, and lease his vineyard to other vinedressers who will render to him the fruits in their seasons.”
Jesus said to them, “Did you never read in the Scriptures:
‘The stone which the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone.
This was the Lord’s doing, and it is marvelous in our eyes’?
Therefore I say to you, the kingdom of God will be taken from you and given to a nation bearing the fruits of it. And whoever falls on this stone will be broken; but on whomever it falls, it will grind him to powder.”
Now when the chief priests and Pharisees heard His parables, they perceived that He was speaking of them. But when they sought to lay hands on Him, they feared the multitudes, because they took Him for a prophet (Matthew 21:33-46).