In the last chapter, we saw how the seeking one took the initiative to work with the Lord. First, she asked the Lord to go with her to the field. Then, she asked the Lord to go with her to lodge in the villages.
Again, she asked the Lord to go with her to visit the vineyard to see all of the blooming and budding plants. She worked not only by taking the initiative, but also, in type, by covering the whole earth with all the local churches. To go to the field means to go to the earth. To lodge in all the villages means to lodge in all the local churches. To care for the budding and blooming plants is to care for all the individual believers.
If we are really qualified to work in the Lord and with the Lord, our scope and our sight will be widely broadened. We will never have the ant’s eyes or even the doves’ eyes anymore. Our eyes will be as pools with a broadened scope of the Lord’s work. We will no longer simply care for the Lord’s work where we are, but have a wider vision to cover all His work. Let us go to the field. Let us lodge in all the villages, and let us visit every vineyard to see how the buds come forth. We need a heart that covers all the interests of the Lord in the entire earth.
Though chapter seven shows one who seems so qualified to work together with the Lord, there is still a further need. No matter how mature the seeking one has become, she still is in the old creation; she still lives in the flesh. She is not absolutely the same as the Lord. Hence, there is the need of the redemption of the body, the last step of the experience of the Christian life. We must be fully transfigured to the image of Christ even in our body. Her spirit has been regenerated and her soul has been fully transformed, but her body is not the same as the Lord’s. There is still some element of weakness which others could despise. No matter how much maturity she has in her spirit and soul, she still lacks something in her body. She needs to be transfigured.
Most Christians today have a strange concept concerning the rapture. They think that it will come upon us as an accident. But the rapture is a process. We must be processed into the rapture. In Revelation 14 there are the firstfruits, and then the harvest. This shows us that the rapture has something to do with maturity or ripeness. The rapture cannot come suddenly. It is the final step of a process. It is just like a crop in the field; it cannot be ripe all at once. The ripening is a process by growth. The crop continues to grow, and as it grows it becomes ripe. The ripening stage does not come as an accident, but is the final consummation of the process.
In Revelation 3:3 the Lord comes as a thief in the night. We know that a thief does not steal worthless things. He only takes the treasures. As long as we are untransformed, we can be assured that the Thief will never come to visit us. The Lord Jesus will not come as a gentleman to any of His people; He will come as a thief to steal the precious things; He will come as the Bridegroom to take the Bride. A bride cannot be produced overnight. The last chapter of this book mentions a little sister who has not yet grown up. Her faith and her love have not been expressed. Surely, she could not be a bride. She needs to grow unto maturity that she may be ripened for the Lord’s coming.
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