Rabbi Schneider - Do You Know What You're Pursuing?
Some time back, I'm going back now, I don't know how many years ago, probably close to 10 years ago, I had a sense that the Lord was calling me to spend an entire year in the Song of Songs. So I spent a full year, beloved ones, just studying, digging deep into the Song of Songs, constantly reading it, listening to it, doing research on different teaching that had come from it. It changed my life. I'm going to give you now one of my favorite scriptures from the Song of Songs. I began it last time, I'm going to complete it this time. It's the second part now of the fourth verse of chapter 1. The Shulamite bride says, "The king has brought me in to his chambers".
Now the Song of Songs, in its original historical setting, was a love letter between King Solomon and the woman he was going to marry called the Shulamite bride. But it actually is a prophetic love shadow between King Jesus the Messiah and His church, the bride. And so when we study the Song of Songs, we understand that this is really a love song between God and His people. And so the Shulamite bride is actually saying to God, the King, "King Jesus has brought me into His chambers". Remember the book of Revelation says in chapter 19, "Blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb. These are the true words of God".
Our relationship with Messiah Jesus will culminate at the marriage supper of the Lamb. This is the type of language that the Shulamite bride was using in the Song of Songs 1:4. "The king has brought me into his chamber". What does this mean? This is an intimate love experience. I mean, this is almost a language that's similar to the type of language that's used when a man becomes intimate with his wife. Of course, God is not relating to us sexually. But sexuality is the deepest form of intimacy expressed in the earth between a man and a woman. And so the best language that God has to help us understand how intimate His affection towards us is, is to use sexual language.
So the Scripture speaks of this. Paul says, he says, "I tell you a mystery..". When he speaks about the marriage between a man and his wife, he said, "A man shall leave his father," Paul said, "and cleave to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh". And then Paul says, "Behold, I speak to you of a mystery, the mystery between Christ and His Church".
I want you to continue to thirst after God and to believe Him to bring you into an intimate experience with Him. This is the true reward. This is what we're after. We're not after money. We're not after fame. We're not after a lot of the things that some of these prosperity preachers are preaching off the week. What we are after, beloved, is intimacy with God.