By passing through the adequate process of transformation, the lover of Christ is worthy to be involved in God’s economy, to move with God. She is linked to God and united with Christ as one. In this union with Christ she is likened to a bed for rest in the night during the wartime. Christ cannot have rest without her. Song of Songs 3:7 says, “There is his bed, Solomon’s— / Sixty mighty men surround it, / Of the mighty men of Israel.” She is among the sixty mighty men, indicating that she is a leading overcomer, fighting for Christ in order to keep Christ at rest during the night, even in a time of war. What a comfort and a joy she is to the Lord! In typology night signifies the church age. In the church age Christ needs the overcomers that He may have a resting place.
After the church age there will be the age of the kingdom, an age of triumphant glory. Christ in the age of the church fought and gained the victory over all the enemies. But He needs another age, the kingdom age, for Him to celebrate His victory, His triumph. In the kingdom age everything concerning Christ is triumphant. In the church age the lover of Christ is a bed to Christ in the night during the time of war. But in the kingdom age she will be a palanquin for Christ’s triumphant celebration.
Song of Songs 3:11 says, “Go forth, O daughters of Zion, / And see King Solomon with the crown / With which his mother crowned him / On the day of his espousals, / Yes, on the day of the gladness of his heart.” The mother crowned Solomon on the day of his espousals. This refers to the day of Christ’s engagement.
The subject of the entire Bible is a romance between God and His elect. John 3:16 says that God so loved the world. The world here is fallen mankind. In eternity God fell in love with man, so He made a choice. He selected some among men to be His sons (Eph. 1:4-5). The entire Bible is consistent in speaking about one thing—God’s economy. The content of God’s economy in brief is God falling in love with His chosen man. This is the subject of the entire Bible.
One day God became a man to court man. Incarnation was God’s courtship. When a man courts a woman, he does not come to her in his original way. Instead, he makes himself “another person” so that he can reach and gain her. God’s courting was in the same way. In His courtship God did not remain in His original form; He became incarnated. Incarnation was a “mother” who gave Christ, her Son, a crown, a treasure, that is, His humanity.
As Christ’s human wife transformed into His divinity, we are a part of Christ’s crown. He was God becoming a man by incarnation. We are fallen men become part of Christ by transformation. God did not court us in His original form. He was incarnated to be a man. We respond to His courtship not by our original man but by our regenerated, transformed man. Proverbs 12:4 says, “A virtuous woman is a crown to her husband.”
Christ’s espousal lasts from the day of incarnation through the entire church age. The church age is an age of “dating.” Christ’s wife then becomes a palanquin to Him for His triumphant celebration in the kingdom age. The kingdom ministry of Christ is to terminate all the opposers of God on the negative side. But on the positive side, it is to make an exhibition of Christ, to celebrate His glorious triumph. In the kingdom age the overcomers will be Christ’s palanquin. The celebration of Christ’s victory is His thousand-year wedding day (Rev. 19:7-8). His marriage life will be the New Jerusalem in the new heaven and new earth for eternity (21:1—22:5). The New Jerusalem is the wife of the Lamb. Christ became a man to be the small Lamb, a humble figure, but the New Jerusalem is a great figure. That will be the Lamb glorified, exhibited, and celebrated triumphantly in an eternal marriage life.
Here we can see three ages: the church age, the kingdom age, and the eternal age. In the church age we are betrothed to Christ. Our wedding day will be the kingdom age of one thousand years. Then our marriage life will be in the New Jerusalem for eternity. These three ages are the story of the union of Christ’s lovers with Him. The entire Bible is a condensed photo of this divine romance. Song of Songs is an abridged form of this romance, and the Bible is the entire revelation.
After the lover of Christ has experienced the breaking of her self, her natural man, by the cross of Christ and after she has seen the flourishing riches of Christ’s resurrection by which she was empowered and encouraged, she became a spiritual, steady person signified by the unshakable pillar of smoke, the same as God was to the children of Israel in their exodus from Egypt to the wilderness. Thus, she was linked to God in His moving for the accomplishment of His economy and united with Christ in His three prominent attainments:
1) His marvelous victory over all the enemies of God in the church age, signified by a bed in the night with sixty mighty men during the war. She is the bed and Christ is the sleeper in the bed. This implies the union, the oneness, of the lover with Christ.
2) His glorious triumph in His kingdom, signified by the palanquin in the day in the triumphant glory.
3) In His espousal and marriage life. His espousal began from the time of incarnation, when incarnation as His mother crowned Him with His humanity, and goes through the church age in which all His believers are espoused to Him as virgins (2 Cor. 11:2). Christ’s espousal and marriage life cover the church age, the kingdom age, and the eternal age. In the church age Christ has been fighting. This is the time of His espousal. In 2 Corinthians Paul was fighting, and at the same time he was betrothing the believers to Christ. He fought to gain us. Even Paul’s fighting was a part of God’s “dating.” When we preach the gospel, we go out to represent God in His “dating” of His selected sinners.
Christ’s espousal also includes His wedding in the kingdom for one thousand years (Rev. 19:7-8). Ultimately, His marriage life will be in the New Jerusalem in the new heaven and new earth for eternity (21:1—22:5). The bed in the night (signifying the church age), the palanquin in the day (signifying the kingdom age), and the marriage life in the ages all refer to the one lover of Christ—the Shulammite. Eventually, the New Jerusalem will be a corporate Shulammite, including all of God’s chosen and redeemed people.
This is the significance of moving with God and being united with Christ. Today we should be people linked to God in His moving in union with Christ and eventually united with Christ in His victory over the enemies in His celebration in the kingdom age and in His eternal marriage life, that is, the New Jerusalem.