2025-01-18A
THE GROOM CONTINUES TO COMPLIMENT HIS BRIDE.
THE BRIDEGROOM: 4:3 Your lips are like a scarlet thread, and your mouth is comely: your temples are like a pomegranate within your veil.
He is still very close to her, perhaps placing his hands on her shoulders, peering through her veil, seeing what is hidden from those standing further away. Her mouth draws his attention. It is wide, smiling, relaxed; her lips are full, royal scarlet in colour, feminine, moist, alluring.
Her temples are both flushed like the red halves of a pomegranate. A symbol of blooming, pulsating life. She has no need of adorning herself with makeup: she is lovely the way the Lord created her.
Let us now see how the beautiful spiritual Bride for Christ is created by the regenerating work of the Spirit and what the nature of her beauty is.
Of course, she was not always that beautiful. When she got born again and became a Bride of Christ, she was carnal, sinful. Her lips were uncircumcised (Ex 6:29), tempting to men, stirring up lust, not love. Her thoughts were false and her lips drawn in a thin line when she devised lies (Prov 14:30). She was part of a people who drew near to God with their lips , but whose hearts were far from him (Matt 15:8).
But then, one day, the Lord revealed himself to her and she cried out in fear:
Woe is me, for I am undone! For I am a man of unclean lips , and I dwell among a people of unclean lips : for mine eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts!” (Isa 6:5).
(The emphasis on the word “lips” in the the foregoing and following Scripture texts was added by the author.)
But the Saviour Son had mercy on her, so she testified:
Then one of the seraphim flew to me, having a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with tongs from the altar, 7 and touched my mouth with it and said, “Behold, this has touched your lips , and your iniquity is taken away, and your sin is atoned for.” (Isaiah 6:6,7)
That coal of fire was of course taken from Jesus’s altar of atonement, her Bridegroom to be. After that incident she never was the same again for it is written:
That which has gone out of your lips you shall keep and perform, even a free-will offering, according as you have vowed to Jehovah your God, which you have promised with your mouth. (Deut 23:23).
The new life she received from Christ was most powerful and put her in control of her spiritual wellbeing. She no longer was a slave to the sinful desires that had caused her spiritual death because someone who is in Christ is a brand new creature (2Cor 5:17) – like a new microwave that you take out of its box, plug in, press the button and, … its light shines and its platter turns.
Later she came to know her Saviour as her Bridegroom. She was ecstatic about him, stared lovingly at him and exclaimed with her lips :
You are more beautiful than the children of men; grace is poured out on your lips ; therefore God has blessed you forever (Ps 45:3).
By the words from his lips, she learned to no longer fight her way through life, but to choose the path of gentle service.
Regarding the actions of man, by the word of your lips I have avoided the paths of the violent (Ps 17:4).
The kind, sincere, wise words from her lips also opened the door to an excellent career because:
From the fruit of a man’s mouth his stomach is satisfied; he is satisfied by the yield of his lips. (Prov. 18:20)
Her advice was often sought when difficult decisions had to be made because:
There is gold and a multitude of rubies, but the lips of knowledge are a precious ornament ” (Prov 20:5).
From those whose lips were always ready to speak evil, she stayed well away. Her lips were not open and ready to unnecessarily expose the weaknesses of others; she could keep a secret. In this way, she was a friend to all, a peacemaker at the workplace.
He who speaks with slander reveals a secret; therefore do not associate with one who opens his lips wide. (Prov 20:19).
She rather made herself at home in the company of wise colleagues, listening to the words from their lips , as her Bridegroom advised her to do:
Give ear and listen to the words of the wise, and consider my knowledge. 18 For it is pleasant if you keep them in your heart; let them be ready on your lips together . (Prov 22:17,18)
Thus she had many hidden words to give a wise answer to everyone who asked her advice, so that they whispered among themselves: “Her lips answer our questions with a kiss”:
“He who gives right answers kisses the lips .” (Proverbs 24:26).
At times, when no one knew what to do, they sought and found the answer from her mouth, by her lips . Thus, a city’s inhabitants were one day saved from certain death:
In the past they were accustomed to say: Let them only consult Abel! and thus they settled a matter. (2 Sam 20:18).
Sometimes, when only the movement of her lips was visible as she murmured an inaudible prayer to her Bridegroom for others, ignorant people mocked her behind her back, saying that she was drunk, but in time the Lord answered her prayers and even from among the mockers begat spiritual children for her:
And when she had prayed long before the LORD, and Eli was listening to her mouth— 13 for Hannah spoke in her heart: only her lips moved, but her voice was not heard—Eli thought she was drunk. (1Sam 1:12,13).
And at the turn of the year Hannah conceived, and bare a son, and called his name Samuel: for, said she, I have asked him of the LORD. (1Sa 1:20).
The secret of her blessed lips was that they were no longer her own but that she had placed them as burnt offerings on the altar of her Bridegroom:
Take words with you, and return unto the LORD: say unto him, Pardon all iniquity, and receive good: then will we offer the sacrifice of our lips . (Hos 14:3)
Through him, then, let us continually offer a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of lips that confess his name (Heb 13:15).
Because she thus surrendered her mouth and lips to him, He: “Filled her mouth with laughter and her lips with rejoicing (Job 8:21); opened her lips so that her mouth could declare his praise (Psa 51:17); satisfied her soul with fatness so that her mouth boasted with jubilant lips ”.
That is why she could not help but stand on the tops of the mountains, in the darkest valleys, in the town square of her hometown and in the pulpit of her church and cry out:
Come and hear, and let me tell, all you who fear God, what He has done for my soul. (Psa 66:16)
THESE, THEN, ARE JUST SOME OF THE REASONS WHY THE HEAVENLY BRIDEGROOM HAS SO MUCH PRAISE FOR THE LIPS OF HIS BELOVED.