Song of Solomon 1:14 My beloved is to me as a cluster of henna blossoms in the vineyards of En Gedi.
En Gedi is a nature reserve about 40 minutes from our home in Israel. Surrounded by dry, barren, rocky ground, except to the east where the Dead Sea lies, it is an oasis, fed year-round by springs of freshwater, and home to some of the most unique wild and botanical life in the world.
In the Song of Solomon, the King likens his beloved to flowers in the desert, his experience of En Gedi, evoking the dramatic contrast between a harsh and arid landscape and the exquisite refreshing floral beauty of an oasis. Such was Solomon's experience of romantic love, perhaps with the Queen of Sheba.
Now you may feel like you’re walking through a desert -- wandering in a wilderness...thirsty, and perhaps, longing for love...
Seek the Lord your God. His Presence is an eternal spring and a perpetual oasis in this arid world, and His love is better than the most desirable romantic experience you could hope for. It's a love that flows from an eternal spring, Yeshua (Jesus), Himself, and its sweetness and power will cause flowers to bloom throughout your dry and barren life.
Drink from the spring of life, your beloved, Yeshua – He will fill you to overflowing and make you, yourself, a living spring...for this thirsty, love-starved world.
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[worthy_plugins_devotion_single_body]We tend to focus on the part of that scripture where God does the blessing — but why did He bless Him? The answer lies in the passage! The Lord told Abraham: “I will bless you — and you shall be a blessing.” Abraham was blessed so that he could be a blessing!
In the Olivet discourse recorded in Matthew 24, Yeshua prophesied that “… nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom.” The word “nation” in Greek is the word “ethnos”, from which we get the English word “ethnic”. All of this polarization and ethnic warfare which the media feed upon and incite is the work of the enemy as he stirs up the sinful nature of men.
Several hundred years before Jesus was born, a plague broke out in Athens, Greece. In an effort to stop the plague and appease the ‘gods’, the Athenians sought counsel from a wise man named Epimenides from the island of Crete.
A new driver for an interstate trucking company was having a difficult time. He found the long cross-country trips extremely tiring. The older driver who traveled with him, however, seemed to thrive on those long trips. He always seemed to look as fresh at the end of the ride as he did at the beginning.
There’s nothing we can do to earn God’s love, however if we want to experience His blessings we need to observe the qualifications that He’s given us in His Word. Psalm 112 details a whole list of blessings, but the key to receiving them is verse 1.
Looking at the relationship between “love and affection” (“chiba” in Hebrew) and “obligation” (“chova” in Hebrew), we find another closely related word, “chaver”, one of the Hebrew words for “friend”. Friends are people with whom we share love and affection and also a sense of obligation. Our God and Father wants us to be His friends, to share love and affection with Him and to carry the sense of responsibility and obligation which friendship requires.
We are called to be servants, are we not? Well, what does a servant do? He (or she) carries out the will of his master. A servant doesn’t tell his master what to do — he performs whatever tasks the master requests of him. A servant doesn’t choose what days or times it’s most convenient to serve his master. A servant’s function is simply to follow and obey his master’s instructions. A servant does not develop a vision for the master either. The master is the one with the vision — and he wants his servants to be ready and available to carry out that vision and bring it to fruition.