There are two created sources of light in our sky that are intricately connected yet they are vastly different. It’s very easy for us to sit on the porch at night and gaze at the moon, but looking up at the sun during the day is a whole different story. But behind them both is a message for the bride of Christ that symbolizes and succinctly captures the essence of her relationship with Him. To understand the message let’s look at these symbols through the eyes of our bridegroom, Jesus Christ.
Song 6:10 Who is she that looketh forth as the morning, fair as the moon, clear as the sun, and terrible as an army with banners?
Here in the Song of Solomon the bridegroom is responding to the brides words to the daughters of Jerusalem who have asked her where her beloved has gone. Where she had trouble answering that question earlier there is now no doubt in her mind where he can be found; in his garden where he waits for her. She says she knows where he is because — I am my beloved’s and my beloved is mine (3a). In response her bridegroom once again speaks of her beauty that has captured him and here in verse 10 he lays out the beautiful relationship between Jesus and His true church; His bride.
Who is she that looketh forth as the morning …
This is not just a simple question. He is asking what manner of person this is, how excellent and glorious she is. She appears suddenly like the dawn, like Venus the dawning light of the world. She is the first thing He sees after the darkness of the night. Charles Spurgeon put it this way: “The bride within herself, fresh and full of new life.” In the words of Isaiah we can hear the words of Jesus to His bride that contain a clue to our message:
Isa 60:1-3 Arise, shine; for thy light is come, and the glory of the Lord i
s risen upon thee. 2 For, behold, the darkness shall cover the earth, and gross darkness the people: but the Lord shall arise upon thee, and his glory shall be seen upon thee.3 And the Gentiles shall come to thy light, and kings to the brightness of thy rising.
And here in Matthew and Paul’s letter to the Philippians:
Matt 5:14 Ye are the light of the world. A city that is set on an hill cannot be hid.
Phil 2:15 That ye may be blameless and harmless, the sons of God, without rebuke, in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation, among whom ye shine as lights in the world;
Fair as the moon …
First consider that she is like the moon that borrows its light from the sun. It is a reflection of the sun’s light during the hours of d
arkness. The bride is just like that as she also reflects borrowed light from the Son. But think for a moment about when the moon is most effective; when it’s full and un-obscured by clouds. Part of the time, however, it’s only a sliver or a quarter or a half; sometimes not even visible at all.
Like the moon the bride of Christ is most effective when she is full and reflecting the maximum amount of His light. But how often do we find ourselves distracted and our “light in this dark world” is but a fraction of what it should be. How many times is she shining only a quarter of His light when the clouds of the world get between her and the lost that hunger for light in the darkness? How that contrasts with those times when she is full and bright, ruling the night with His light. That’s how Jesus sees His bride; a reflection of Himself that He created to bring the fullness of His light into the world.
However, there is a difference between the bride and the moon. The moon doesn’t control the darkness of the lunar eclipse when it gets between the earth and the sun. But we as His bride do affect the spiritual clouds of the world when we allow the world to get between us and the Son. Our relationship with our bridegroom, in its various stages, is just like the phases of the moon. When His light is completely absent in our life there is no light to penetrate the darkness around us. At other times we shine like the full moon and His light is shed abroad through us into the darkest of corners. But sadly, most of the time we are but a partial moon, waning between phases, sometimes reflecting more light.
But if we can truly say like the bride that I am my beloved’s and my beloved is mine, then like the bride we will know “who” He is and “whose” we are. We will spend our time in His garden, the garden he created for each of us where He sits on a bench made just for two, waiting for us to sit and spend time with Him. Then we will shine like the full moon, reflecting the light of His glory into a lost and hurting world. We won’t be like that sliver of a moon that is barely visible or we won’t be shadowed by the clouds of the world.
Awesome! But there is something even more breathtaking.
Clear as the sun …
The world only sees the bride of Christ as the moon, reflecting His light but Jesus see’s her in a whole different light; “clear as the sun.” He sees her as she will be one day in His presence. He sees her a His beautiful bride whose light is a bright as His. In that day she will be just like Him …
Judg 5:31 So let all thine enemies perish, O Lord: but let them that love him be as the sun when he goeth forth in his might. And the land had rest forty years.
Matt 13:43 Then shall the righteous shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father…
On that day there will be no darkness, no eclipses and no clouds. On that day the bride will shine like Isaiah’s vision:
Isa 30:26 Moreover the light of the moon shall be as the light of the sun, and the light of the sun shall be sevenfold, as the light of seven days, in the day that the Lord bindeth up the breach of his people, and healeth the stroke of their wound.
On that day — our wedding day — when our breach has been bound up and our wounds have been healed we will shine with His glory as we stand with Him in our new home. But in the meantime we not only need to reflect His light, as His bride we have another job to do.
And terrible as an army with banners …
The enemies of the bridegroom see the bride in the same way they saw Israel in the wilderness. Today she is a militant army in the midst of the enemies of Christ and she is engaged in constant conflict with the powers of darkness. But she like Israel has a banner! The gospel is our banner just as Jehovah was an ensign for Israel.
Isa 11:12 And he shall set up an ensign for the nations, and shall assemble the outcasts of Israel, and gather together the dispersed of Judah from the four corners of the earth.
His banner over us is His love and that banner is just as terrible to His enemies today as it was to Israel’s in the wilderness. When the bride is as fair as the moon and as clear as the sun she is truly great and formidable; a militant force to be reckoned with. She is terrible to the ungodly, to error, to ignorance, to superstition, to vice and all immorality. Why? Because Christ is her bridegroom and He is her Lord. The more that evil recognizes that fact in her the more it trembles:
Matt 16:18 And I say also unto thee, That thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.
Eph 6:12 For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.
Oh that we would shine like the full moon and bring His light into the darkness of this world. There is nothing that stands in our way except ourselves. If we want to shine like the sun then we need to spend time with the Son. Our private garden is but a heartbeat away, safe and secure in His hands. Sit with Him and let Him tend the good fruit He planted in you. Let Him water when needed and pull the weeds when they crowd your fruit. Set aside the Martha in you and let the Mary come forth.
Behold the bride! She, herald-like precedes
The royal sun, arrayed in dazzling light,
As mild Aurora smiles away the night,
While all in dewy stillness shine the meads.
Behold the bride! Fair as the moon out-gleaming,
Melting dim shadows of the midnight skies;
His grace, through her reflected, meets our eyes,
The light which she receives, o’er others beaming.
Behold the bride! A terror to her foes;
As the vanguard of long embattled hosts,
The power of heaven’s Eternal King she boasts:
Renown to win, and glory, forth she goes.
Gustav Jahn