Sun.’s Devo - We are the Aroma of God to the World -

Read: Song of Solomon 1:1-4:16; 2 Corinthians 8:16:24; Psalm 50:1-23; Proverbs 22:22-23 Song of Solomon which is also called Song of Songs in some Bibles, is a beautiful love sonnet written about God’s covenant love for his people. Solomon’s glorious kingdom was like the restoration of the Garden of Eden. This book personifies the wife in an ideal marriage and the way it will be when God has restored the earth back to its original state. The Shunamite woman relives the Jewish history and rewrites it. It starts at the banquet table but then goes back in history and tells how she was found by her beloved. She was dark and sinful but wonders why she should continue to live veiled. She wants to see and be seen. The king decks her with ornaments of gold and allows her to partake in the fragrance of his presence. He proclaims that her eyes are only for him. She praises him as the rose of Sharon, the lily of the valleys, and her shade whose fruit was sweet. He has always been for her and with her. Christ has always been the beloved watching us through the veil causing us to rise up and come away with him in the spirit to a better place of peace and beauty and love. If we could remember to stop and gaze at the face of Christ and sit in his presence we could escape from the reality of this world and enter the more real kingdom of heaven. In Chapter 3, the Shunamite remembers a time in her history when she felt alone in the night but when she went to find her lover, he was found. The Women of Jerusalem all see the bridegroom arrive to marry his bride. He speaks of his bride with such tender words of love and adoration. This is the love that Jesus has for his bride! It ends with the wind blowing on the garden to spread its aroma. I think that is what adversity does. Trials are like winds that blow on God’s garden - his people and causing our aroma to spread throughout the world. Paul and Titus were like the wind of God’s good news sent to bless the churches and bring refreshing to it. Their lives were lives of adversity and poured out for the church to bless it with encouragement; rebuke, at times; financial help; and whatever they needed. Lord, may our lives be like perfume poured out to bring your fragrance to the earth.