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Topic: Water Of Life
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Carol Swenson
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Song of Solomon 1:5
I am black, but comely, Oh ye daughters of Jerusalem, As the tents of Kedar, As the curtains of Solomon.
Black-
namely, "as the tents of Kedar," equivalent to blackness (Ps 120:5). She draws the image from the black goatskins with which the Scenite Arabs ("Kedar" was in Arabia-Petrĉa) cover their tents (contrasted with the splendid state tent in which the King was awaiting His bride according to Eastern custom); typifying the darkness of man's natural state. To feel this, and yet also feel one's self in Jesus Christ "comely as the curtains of Solomon," marks the believer (Ro 7:18, &c.; 8:1); 1Ti 1:15, "I am chief"; so she says not merely, "I was," but "I am"; still black in herself, but comely through His comeliness put upon her (Eze 16:14).
Curtains-
first, the hangings and veil in the temple of Solomon (Eze 16:10); then, also, the "fine linen which is the righteousness of saints" (Re 19:8), the white wedding garment provided by Jesus Christ (Isa 61:10; Mt 22:11; 1Co 1:30; Col 1:28; 2:10; Re 7:14). Historically, the dark tents of Kedar represent the Gentile Church (Isa 60:3-7, &c.). As the vineyard at the close is transferred from the Jews, who had not kept their own, to the Gentiles, so the Gentiles are introduced at the commencement of the Song; for they were among the earliest enquirers after Jesus Christ (Mt 2:1-12): the wise men from the East (Arabia, or Kedar).
(Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary)
Posts: 6787 | From: Colorado | Registered: Dec 2007
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Carol Swenson
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quote:
What though you be black as Kedar's smoky tents, here is water that can purge you, and wash you to the whiteness of perfection, and make you fair as the curtains of king Solomon.
The Tents Of Kedar
Woe is me that I sojourn in Mesech, that I dwell in the tents of Kedar. My soul hath long dwelt with him that hateth peace. I am for peace but when I speak they are for war (Psalm 120 :5)
The Psalmist in the quote above could be expressing the Israeli's opinion of their vacillating warlike neighbours who cannot dwell in unity with each other, let alone Israel. With a little research, we do find that modern Israel does dwell in the tents of Kedar. There were 12 sons of Ishmael (just as there were of Jacob Cp. Genesis 17:20), Nebajoth, Kedar, Adbeel, Mibsam, Mishma, Dumah, Massa, Hodar, Tema, Jetur, Maphishar, Kedemah. Kedar became the most powerful and came to represent all the descendants, in the same way Judah became synonymous with Israel.
In Ezekiel 27:21 Kedar is equated with Arabia and is noted in trading in Lambs, rams and Goats with Tyre. Arabia is again equated with Kedar when Jeremiah delivers a prophecy "concerning Kedar and the Kingdoms of Hazor which Nebuchadnezzar.. shall smite" (Jeremiah 49:28)
The quote above is a prophecy being fulfilled. Before Ishmael was born God said of his descendants, of Kedar,
He will be a wild man, his hand will be against every man and every man's hand against him and he shall dwell in the presence of his brethren. (Gen 16:12).
The description still fits the Arab nations.
Prophecy also shows a remarkable change in these people. In Isaiah 21: 13-17 Kedar or Tema is commanded to bring water and food (see margin) to help the fleeing Israeli's at war, a role they will be yet be called upon to do when the Gogian host invade Israel. In Isaiah 42:11, which begins with a description of our Lord's work in judging the nations, those of Kedar are named as giving praise "let the cities thereof lift up their voice; the villages that Kedar shall inhabit".
Isaiah 60 is more detailed. In it says:
The Gentiles shall come to thy (Zion's)light and Kings to the brightness of thy rising". Coming second after Median and Sheba, "all the flocks of Kedar shall be gathered unto thee, the rams of Nebajoth they shall come up with acceptance on mine altar. (Isaiah 60:7).
In Isaiah 60 it is not until verse 13 that "the glory of Lebanon comes" unto Zion, showing that Kedar, or the Arabians shall be first.
So we look forward to the time when it is not 'woe' for those who dwell in the tents of Kedar, but instead they echo Solomon who calls the tents of Kedar beautiful or "comely" (song 1:5).
http://biblefocus.net/consider/v02TentsKedar/index.html
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Found in Him
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John 6:35 And Jesus said unto them, I am the bread of life: he that cometh to me shall never hunger; and he that believeth on me shall never thirst.
He satisfies the thirsty soul! In Him we are complete, whole, pardoned, accepted, loved and welcomed.
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~To Him That is able to keep you from falling and to present you before His glorious presence without fault and with great joy...to the only God our Savior be glory, majesty, power and authority, through Jesus Christ our Lord, before all ages, now and forevermore! Amen.~ Jude 24
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Carol Swenson
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Revelation 22:17 (NASB)
The Spirit and the bride say, "Come " And let the one who hears say, "Come " And let the one who is thirsty come; let the one who wishes take the water of life without cost.
I am longing to see sinners brought to Christ, my heart yearns after the multitude of men who see no beauty in him that they should desire him. God has saved many in this place; may he be pleased this morning to bring some wanderer to the Father's house, through the merit of the Son's cross by the Spirit's influence.
THERE IS A "WATER OF LIFE."
Man is utterly ruined and undone. He is lost in a wild waste wilderness. The skin bottle of his righteousness is all dried up, and there is not so much as a drop of water in it. The heavens refuse him rain, and the earth can yield him no moisture. Must he perish? He looks aloft, beneath, around, and he discovers no means of escape. Must he die? Must thirst devour him? Must he fall upon the desert and leave his bones to bleach under the hot sun?
No; for the text declares there is a fountain of life. Ordained in old eternity by God in solemn covenant, this fountain, this divine well, takes its spring from the deep foundations of God's decrees. It gusheth up from the depth which coucheth beneath, it cometh from that place which the eagle's eye hath not seen, and which the lion's whelp hath not passed over. The deep foundations of Godly government, the depth, of his own essential goodness and of his divine naturethese are the mysterious springs from which gush forth that fountain of the "water of life" which shall do good to a man.
The Son hath digged this well and bored through massive rocks which prevented this living water from springing upward. Using his cross as the grand instrument he has pierced through rocks, he has himself descended to the lowest depth, and he hath broken a passage by which the love and grace of God, the living water which can save the soul, may well up and overflow to quench the thirst of dying men.
The Son hath bidden this fountain freely flow, hath removed the stone which laid upon the mouth thereof, and now having ascended upon high he standeth there to see that the fountain shall never stay its life-giving course, that its floods shall never be dry, that its depths shall never be exhausted. This sacred fountain, established according to God's good will and pleasure in the covenant, opened by Christ when he died upon the cross, floweth this day to give life and health, and joy and peace to poor sinners dead in sin, and ruined by the fall.
There is a "water of life."
Let us pause awhile and look at its floods as they come gushing upwards, overflowing on every side, and assuaging men's thirst. Let us look with joyous eye. It is called the "water of life," and richly doth it deserve its name.
God's favor is life, and in his presence there is pleasure for evermore; but this water is God's favor, and consequently life. By this water of life is intended God's free grace, God's love for men, so, that if you come and drink, you shall find this to be life indeed to your soul, for in drinking of God's grace you inherit God's love, you are reconciled to God, God stands in a fatherly relation to you, he loves you, and his great infinite heart yearns towards you.
Again, it is living water not simply because it is love, and that is life, but it saves from impending death. The sinner knows that he must die because he is filthy. He has committed sins so tremendous that God must punish him. God must cease to be just if he does not punish the sins of man. Man when conscious that he has been very guilty, stands shivering in the presence of his Maker, feeling in his soul that his doom is signed, and sealed, and that he must certainly be cast away from all hope, and life, and joy.
Come hither then ye sin-doomed; this water can wash away your sins, and when your sins are washed away, then shall ye live; for the innocent must not be punished. Here is water that can make you whiter than driven snow. What though you be black as Kedar's smoky tents, here is water that can purge you, and wash you to the whiteness of perfection, and make you fair as the curtains of king Solomon.
These waters well deserve the name of life, since pardon is a condition of life. Unpardoned we die, we perish, we sink into the depths of hell; pardoned we live, we rise, we ascend to the very heights of heaven. See here, then, this ever-gushing fountain will give to all who take thereof life from the dead, by the pardon of their sins.
(Spurgeon)
And let the one who is thirsty come
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