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Day 76: The Beauty of Jesus (SoS 1:16a&b)

 "Behold, you are handsome, my beloved! Yes, pleasant! Also, our bed is green."

Song of Songs 1:16

Behold is often used in scripture as a call to see or perceive something that already exists. When the Beloved called the Bride fair, she returned the same words to Him.

Every praise we receive from men or even our Beloved Himself must be returned to Him.  We are reflections of Him, so whatever good is acknowledged in us is His doing. As Christ expresses His love for us, we in turn must express ours. As He expresses our beauty, we in turn must express His to Him.

Let's see an example. Luke 18:18-19 says:

“Now a certain ruler asked Him, saying, “Good Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?” So Jesus said to him, “Why do you call Me good? No one is good but One, that is, God.”

When Jesus the Son of God who is as much God as God Himself was complimented, He redirected it to God. He also often acknowledged that everything He did was not by His authority, but by the Father's.

Everything God gives and does for us is to be reciprocated. The expression of God's love is incomplete until there is a response on our part.

Today's lesson however is that the Bride does not just complement her Beloved's physical appearance, she complements His person. Beauty is not just outward appearance but character and personality according to 1 Peter 3:3-4.

In Psalm 27:4 David said:

“One thing I have desired of the Lord, That will I seek: That I may dwell in the house of the Lord All the days of my life, To behold the beauty of the Lord, And to inquire in His temple.”

Many translations express the word beauty in different ways:
  • Amplified says delightful loveliness and majestic grandeur
  • New Living Translation says perfection
  • The Good News Translation says goodness
  • The Orthodox Jewish Bible says graciousness

God's beauty is every attribute of Him that culminates into one expression of His person: love.

In Exodus 33, Moses asked to see God's glory and God said to Him in response in verse 19:

“I will make all My goodness pass before you, and I will proclaim the name of the Lord before you. I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion.” 

The word goodness also means beauty, delight, and fairness. As explained in Lesson 17, a name is not just a means of f identification, it is a representation of a man's life, reputation, and character. So when God passed before Moses and proclaimed His name, it wasn't just an identification but a proclamation of His reputation. He didn't introduce Himself as powerful or eternal, omniscient or omnipresent, or all His other impressive qualities, He introduced Himself as gracious and compassionate. All these are expressions of His love.

The Hebrew word translated as gracious in its literal sense means to stoop in kindness to an inferior. The one translated as compassionate also means to love deeply, to have tender affection, and to have mercy.

In essence, to know God's love; His mercy, and grace is to know and behold His beauty. It is no wonder this statement follows a contemplation of the Beloved as myrrh a bitter but sweet-smelling plant. As we said in Lesson 68, it represents Jesus' bitter experience of suffering and death for us and the sweet product of it: redemption.

On the cross, the creator stooped in kindness, descended to the quagmire of sin and death, that He may resurrect us together with Him and sit us in the heavenly places. There is no greater show of God's beauty.

In simple terms, the cross: Christ's sacrificial show of love, is God's greatest act of mercy, grace, compassion, and kindness. To have a revelation of the cross and its significance is to have a revelation of God's beauty.

It doesn't end there, every day we experience God's beauty in His acts of love and kindness. I say again, the greatest thing a man can know about God is not His power, it is His love, mercy, grace, and compassion. Those are the things that make Him handsome and pleasant to us like none other.

PRAY WITH ME:
My beautiful Jesus, open my eyes again to behold your beauty on the cross and behold your love expressed through your mercy, grace, and kindness to me each day. Amen.

REFLECT & ACT:
  • Remember the times you have experienced God's love expressed through His mercy, grace, or kindness, and praise Him for them.
  • As Moses prayed, take out time today to ask the Lord to show you His glory, His beauty.
  • Meditate today on God's greatest display of His beautiful love: Jesus on the cross.

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