Veiled and beautiful

Veiled and beautiful is the amazing story of a romantic love affair between Christ and His bethroed bride to be.  In the book of Song of Songs an unveiling of the mystery of the passionate intimacy of Christ with His bride is revealed.

The mystery of Christ and His bride is a great and deep understanding, which many in the 21^st century are unable to grasp, since the world around us is so far removed from its reality.

Today Godly union in the marriage is a very rare commodity. Even in the Church of Jesus Christ let alone in these last days. All virtues have lost their meanings and are exchanged with perverted ideas of the demonic powers of the last days. Virginity and the purity of a young woman has been so compromised that it remains as a none essential today.

Remaining faithful to one’s marriage partner today is not even a matter of importance, but an abstract of today’s society. This is why this Study we are about to explore must be completely enlightened by the Holy Spirit so that it will make sense to its hearing audience.

This is a lesson to the uncompromisingly righteous of the Lord, to the remnant few in all generations. Although even the physical principals described here could have meant a lot to the people living one or two generations ago, but today they seem completely strange and none essential to this perishing generation. One of which is even the meaning of wedding garment worn by the bride.

The entire Holy Scriptures having been written to a very different culture than ours makes it even harder to explain them to this so called modern world. Therefore to fully comprehend the meaning of this heavenly truth we need the revelation power of the precious Holy Spirit to illuminate these truths for us in the context they have been written in. The Bible continually speaks of the believers as those who were called out of the world. A special people or the ecclesia who are the ones called out of the mindset of the world.  The scriptures in many places compare this world and its people to the sea or waters, like in the book of Revelation. This gives us a spiritual picture of a treasured possession that is escaping from the drowning waters of this world to gain a special status with the Lord Jesus in separation from the world.

A highly personified spiritual standing with Him in comparison to the rest of the world. People who are called out of this world and its mindset to pursue their God and Savior in bridal effections. Leaving the idolatries of this world through their holy escape from it, as it is portrayed in this picture.

A picture of a young woman escaping the waters of this world looking into a higher dimension of life in finding out the purpose of her existance and her future place in God.

It is as though she has finally been illuminated to the purpose of her call in her separation from among the perishing. She has been given a new identity and a new prospective in life to recognize the single purpose of her being called out among many.

To this end she finally begins to think. She has finally come to a new dimension of life and there her eyes have become enlightened to the beauty and the majesty of her lover who is Christ her Lord.  Here her heart bit begins to bit in a new rhythm. A rhythm she never experienced before. Her heart now bits with the rhythm of her beloved’s heart. She now is ready to completely develop a new set of eyes that are only focused on her beloved. Here she begins to gaze at the beauty of her master lover and thisspiritual awakening gives her the eyes of a dove. Her spiritual eyes have seen the Lord and in that gaze all have changed about her. Now she is totally infatuated by the beauty of her lover & King. It is here that the eyes of her spirit have been touched by the majesty of His love and in doing so she has reached to a new level of intimacy where her face would require to be veiled, just as Moss’s face was veiled right after encountering the glory of the Lord.

Here is where the bride too like Moses receives a veil to keep the beauty of His eyes for the bridegroom to come.

“Behold you are fair, my love! Behold, you are fair! You have dove’s eyes behind your veil.”                       “Songs. 4:1b”

In this portion of the Songs of Songs we discover a pursuit of Christ in single minded attitude. The bride of Christ is to reach to a level of maturity here where she develops a strong longing for Him and it is then that her eyes will become like doves eyes. The dove is a bird that is famous for few things one of which is its innocence and purity and singleness of pursuit by having eyes that see only in one direction.

According to the famous Christian Author and Church leader Watchman Nee who lived between 1903-1972 who was a very devote man of God the first verse of the book of Song of songs chapter 4 is described in this very unique way and I quote it to you.

This is how he explains this verse. “The most prominent feature in those who go on to spiritual maturity is the ability to perceive the things of the Spirit. Dove’s eyes too are single. Doves see only one thing in their vision and for this reason and in this sense the Holy Spirit Himself is likened to a dove. He has the perfection of spiritual insight and keeps the Lord Jesus ever in view.

But there is a great peril here for believers who have this ability. The peril is in having no covering for their spiritual perceptions and, therefore, they tend to show them off before the world. The spouse as we may now call her has those eyes of hers “Within her locks” or “Behind her veil”.

The people of the world cannot see or understand what a believer with spiritual insight sees. They do not know there is such a faculty, unless this spiritual ability is kept behind a covering, one can easily babble forth what one sees by spiritual perception. Such things can only be understood by spiritual persons.

Eyes which are behind a veil are not visible to the general public. Spiritual perceptions therefore must be hidden from the world, for the people of this world do not understand such a faculty and regard believers as having no other ability than they themselves possess. Some believers are very unwise when they express, without discrimination and often in flippant talk, the things they have received of the Spirit of God. If such are without much spiritual understanding they ought to be aware of it and confess their limited knowledge of the power and work of the Holy Spirit.”

Here once again Watchman Nee according to his own experience with the Lord says “The greater measure we have of the life of the Spirit the more dovelike vision we shall have. True spiritual perception comes from the Third Person of the Trinity. Frequently it is necessary to keep this spiritual sense veiled that it may become a beauty which the Lord Himself can enjoy and praise. How often we overlook this issue that even our eyes of spiritual understanding are for the joy and satisfaction of the Lord Jesus alone!”  Here is exactly where the fine line is drawn between a babe in Christ and a mature bride. Today many with unveiled faces are running to and fro to impress other fellow men of what only the Lord must have access to. The beauty attained through a spiritual journey with Jesus is kept only for His pleasure. They prostitute what only belongs to Him among themselves and that to our utter shame in ignorance.

By her unveiled face in the shame of her nakedness this undiscerning bride is exposed through her lust for this world and what it can offer. She prostitutes herself, by running to other husbands as the book of Hosea says who no husbands are at all. They are nothing but dumb idols stealing the true identity of the Bride of Christ.

Instead of watching over her bridal beauty she has let herself to be a harlot selling herself to all who pass by her. Just like the book of proverbs even describes those who would wait at the street corners wanting to catch the simple & unlearned in their way of perishing. The Bible says that these have refused and forsaken the way of the Wisdom for the idols of their own choosing. As in Jonah chapter 2 the scripture says about Jonah’s life changing confession from the belly of the fish “Those who regard worthless idols will forsake their own mercy.” These too have done the same.

But the true bride has remained veiled and beautiful waiting for her bridegroom to arrive.  She has kept her dove like eyes only to be unveiled by Him, since He alone has developed them in her and He alone can enjoy and value them upon their meeting.

This is how we need to perceive our Christian life in Him. We are bought by the Blood and are given to Him by the Father as His Bride. It is the precious person of the Holy Spirit that is beautifying us by the power of His resurrection and through the washing of the word and His power of redemption we are to be kept blameless until the day of our final redemption.

In the book of 1^st Thessalonians chapter 4 the Lord has promised us upon our availing ourselves to Him to keep our spirit, soul and body blameless before Him till He comes for His true Church“ But even to this day, when Moses is read, a veil lies on their heart. ¹⁶Nevertheless when one turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away. ¹⁷ Now the Lord is the Spirit; and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. ¹⁸But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord.”

Here once again even the scriptures in 2 Cor. 3:15-18 says the above absolute truth, yet upon our unveiled faces we took on the veil of Christ’s betrothal so our eyes will reflect His beauty for him always. In coming to Christ the veil of the Old Testament law is taken away through grace. Now we can keep our eyes and the beauty of our spiritual pursuit for Him veiled in beauty for His final meeting with us. This beauty of our love and faithfulness to Him must be once again unveiled only by Him and on the consumation of all things in His wedding day.  It is here where the bride groom is to ever enjoy the unveiled face of His own beloved bride.

Therefore let us walk with pursuing the beauty that is only kept through faithful obedience in Him. After all it is Him that one day will come to take us for His own and this spiritual beauty is important to Him more than anyone else on earth.