Now the Lord begins to ask for the fruit of the travail of His soul for the satisfaction of His own heart. He is hinting that she should live for Him, and He is calling her to the clefts of the rock and the secret places of the stairs so that He can look at her there.

The Lord calls her to arise, to come out of herself, her feelings, and her introspection. He calls her to live the life of the cross and to express the unspotted new creation produced by the cross through the power of resurrection. This is not the time for her to be in the house of wine; this is the time for her to live for the Lord.

She should arise to change her center. From this point on, everyone who goes on to seek the Lord should live the life of the cross on earth through the power of resurrection for the Lord's enjoyment; they should not be for anything else. In other words, Christianity is no longer a matter of our personal enjoyment, but a matter of Christ enjoying those who are His.

"For sweet is thy voice, and thy countenance is comely." This does not refer to the natural sweetness and comeliness of her voice and countenance. Rather, it describes the sweetness and comeliness that she has when she is in the clefts of the rock and the secret places of the stairs. This is how she is seen in the high places when she remains in the death of the cross. The rock is cleft, and her hiding in it signifies a union. "The secret places" indicates complete enclosure; hence, it signifies completion. The clefts of the rock and the secret places together signify a complete union.

The secret places of the stairs should refer to the place of ascension, the place that an ordinary man cannot reach (Col. 3:3-4). Some have translated the word "stairs" as "unreachable places." This again shows that the word refers to ascension, to a place that man cannot reach. Stairs are a high and steep place, a place no ordinary person can reach. Stairs can only be reached through climbing. This is different from the sitting in the heavenlies spoken of in Ephesians 2. Here the emphasis is experience. The Lord's demand is always based on a life of the cross in resurrection. The Lord can say that the maiden's voice is sweet and her countenance is comely because she is fully in union with the cross. This means that she has been dealt with by the cross and is delivered from sin and the natural elements. All the sins and natural elements from Adam have been dealt with, and only that which is in resurrection and the new creation remains. This is the sweet voice and comely countenance in the clefts of the rock and in the secret places of the stairs.

We are daily being dealt with by the cross and, at the same time, we are giving up the Adamic elements. We do not need to strive for the resurrection life; rather, we need to lose the Adamic life. We have everything that issues from the resurrection life already. But at the same time, we still have many things that belong to Adam. Hence, the matter today is not how much we gain, but how much we lose.

The Lord cannot declare immediately that the seeker's voice is sweet and her countenance comely. He can only say this after she has gone into the clefts of the rock and the secret places of the stairs. He will only say such a word when the outward things have been lost. The fact was there already, but He cannot utter these words until she has passed through the cross. Hence, the cross is the place of losing, and only by going through it can we lose. We preach resurrection to sinners because they need to have life, and we preach the cross to believers because they need to suffer loss.