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Day 148: Virtues of the Maturing Bride 5 (SoS 4:3)

Your lips are like a strand of scarlet, And your mouth is lovely. Your temples behind your veil Are like a piece of pomegranate. (Song of Songs 4:3)

There are two schools of thought about the interpretation of what it means for the bride to have temples like a piece of pomegranate.

1 Kings 7:20 tells us that pomegranates were carved on the tops of the pillars of Solomon's temple. When God looked down at His home on earth, He saw pomegranates beautifying it. This indicates the importance of this particular feature of a maturing Bride of Christ. It contributes greatly to the beauty of the bride.

The first school of thought says, her temples being like a piece of pomegranate represents her cheeks blushing a rich red like the inside of a sliced pomegranate with emotions for her beloved. As the Beloved looked at his Bride, he could see that his attention elicited a pleasurable response. She could not hide her love, adoration, and delight.

These emotions are behind a veil indicating as we said about the symbolism of the veil in Lesson 144 that her love for and knowledge of Jesus was not for show. She was equally responsive to and enraptured by Him in private as she appears to be in public. She was modest about it, not showing it off for bragging rights.

The first of the great commandments Jesus gave us says to love the Lord our God with all our heart, with all our soul, and with all our mind (Matthew 22:37). In Lesson 62 we said loving the Lord with our soul involves loving Him with our emotions because it is one of the components of the soul.

The second school of thought says temples like a pomegranate mean having pleasant, beautiful, and pleasing thoughts to God. This school of thought is supported by the location of the temple in the human body. It is located behind the eyes, just above the cheekbones with the brain just behind it. Just like thoughts are hidden from all and seen only by our beloved Jesus, the Bride's temples are behind her veil. This indicates they do not appear to anyone but the Beloved.

This school of thought is supported by the fact that pomegranates when cut open look like red clusters of numerous little fruits. The thoughts and imaginations of our hearts though numerous should be beautiful and pleasing to our Beloved Jesus.

David in Psalm 19:14 prays:

Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in Your sight, O Lord, my strength and my Redeemer.

When we consider the reason why God sent rain to flood the earth in Genesis. We'll see that David's prayer and the complement of the Beloved's temple are important. Genesis 6:5 says:

The Lord observed the extent of human wickedness on the earth, and he saw that everything they thought or imagined was consistently and totally evil.

God unlike men cannot be deceived or have His perception of us limited to our external actions. He sees the secret and knows our thoughts and heart. Everything we do is interpreted by our hearts and thoughts. It's why Jesus said of the Pharisees' attitude:

‘These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. (Matthew 15:8 NLT)

The more we mature in Christ, the more affectionate we are towards Him in private and in public, the more our hearts are connected to Him, and the more our thoughts align with His and His word.

PRAY WITH ME:

Dear Lord, let my thoughts and meditations be always acceptable in your sight. Grant me the grace to be authentic in my worship and love you more each day. Amen.

REFLECT & ACT:

  • Are your affections for God authentic? Can God testify you are what you are in public and in private as well?
  • Use Paul's words in Philippians 4:8 to evaluate and guide your thought life. It reads:

Finally, brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy—meditate on these things. 

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