The Bed of Heaven (Song 1:16-17)

When I was little I had a hobby horse, and remember spending countless hours riding and taking care of it. Later when on a horse as an adult I experienced a strong déjà vu feeling, and the memory of the pretend horse came to mind.  It was for me the explanation as to why I felt like a child riding the ‘real’ thing! :-)
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All this came to mind recently on the last day of a trip in which I couldn’t escape an adventurous sense that all of it’s moments were once played out in the history of the Bible somewhere.  In this case I didn’t know what, but felt that something from the past was merging with the present to form a new and higher reality.
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I think I needed this experience to help understand something in the next passage of the Song, and perhaps more to come.
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The Color of The Bed

Look at you! How beautiful you are, my beloved, and how charming! Our bed is green! Song 1:16

I find it intriguing that when the Shulamite woman is in the garden returning the gaze of her beloved that she at first sees his beauty, and then immediately a bed.  She obviously saw what he is thinking! :-)  But this is no ordinary bed.  The first thing she notices is that it is green.
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Green is a color in plants that comes from chlorophyll, and represents a receptiveness to life (in the sun) and the ability to give back life as well.  Fresh and new in this life, it can also mean “unripe in experience or judgment.” (as in, “he is green”)  Yes, if “first love” has a color it would be green, and what a fitting one for the “new bed” that is in the Spirit!  The receptive quality of this bed is also pictured when Jesus fed over 5000 people upon green grass, Mark 6:39.  Perhaps they too had a surreal sense of fulfillment lounging there, knowing that it is says in Psalm 23 that the Lord Himself, “makes us to lie down in green pastures.”

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The Setting of The Bed

…The beams of our houses are cedar, and our rafters of cypress.  Song 1:17

There is something else about this bed that is unique.  It appears to be one bed, but found in multiple protective, canopied structures.¹  These houses, the bride says, are made with beams of cedar and rafters of cypress.  Cedar was a prized wood for it’s durability and fragrance, and used in sacrifices.  Cypress (fir) was also special, and first mentioned in connection to what David’s instruments were all made of. ²  There is strong evidence that the Cross was made of a combination of both kinds of wood. ³  But interestingly these trees were not common to the immediate area of Jerusalem, but imported from the north country.  Why did the Shulamite mention them?  Well, it is recorded that Solomon built his home and the Temple of God with both cedar and cypress.³¹  Now if the Shulamite indeed dwelt in Jerusalem once before and worshiped in the temple, she would know about this.  What she was likely seeing in the wilderness outside Jerusalem were natural and native trees, but in the Spirit she was seeing them as the supporting structure of the Lord’s house.  And whenever she came upon one of these “houses”, it contained a familiar green, inviting, and life-giving foundation for intimacy and true worship.
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The Pattern in the Heavenlies

These are things that served as a copy and shadow of heavenly things…made according to a pattern… Heb. 8:5
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I have a dear brother in another state who regularly signs off, “I’ll meet you in the garden.”  I really like this.  Because while it is difficult to bear with the current distance between the individual “homes” where Christ dwells, there is for all who do not walk according the flesh a “green bed” in the true garden of Eden that is our enjoyable reality.  It is a place of oneness we have in the Spirit by faith.
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A bed …what an interesting place!  There is union, conception, birth, rest, healing, and later death that all occur in a bed.  In the culture of the Bible even eating happened when reclining!  Isn’t it beautiful how the Lord set this all up as a shadow of our life in Christ?  It seems like the only thing not done in bed is working!
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With love,
Pam
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We are in each others’ hearts, to live together and to die together…  2 Cor. 7:3

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² 2 Sam 6:5  /  ³ Isaiah 14:8, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/True_Cross  / ³¹ 1 Kings 5:8-10
¹  “Since the two lovers hardly own “houses”, commentators taking the word literally are forced to devise ways of interpreting the plural as a singular.  The problem dissolves if “houses” is seen as a metaphor of places where the lovers meet. [Also knowing that] The possessive “our” conveys not ownership but intimacy…” ~Bloch and Bloch

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10 comments

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  1. wonderfully beautiful, thank you for the beautiful ministry of Love you so freely share, it’s perfect…just like you

  2. I like the title because just as our earthly marriages are consummated in the intimacy of the bed the Lord will consummate the intimacy He desires with us in Heaven….Becoming ONE what a picture.
    I also like the way they shot the video…..to me it was a picture of how close yet how far we are from one another on this side of eternity in this space and time. A bitter sweet longing and loving.
    As always Pam worth the wait when the Lord gives you something to share with us.:-D
    Until next post….well you know ;-)

    1. I do know:) Thanks Vinny. Love you.

    • Marsela Sava on 05/08/2014 at 2:36 am
    • Reply

    “Our bed is green”.
    When Christ takes His place in the midst of His own, there is found a green spot in this barren world. It makes me remember the days under the communist regime in Albania, how little green there was, the outward was just a picture of the spiritual barren and death in that place back then. But I remember in my beginnings with God, any time I would see a green field, it immediately made me think of God and His greatness and I would tell Him how great He is.
    Bed speaks of rest, but it is “our” bed and the rest is mutual. I with Him and He with me.
    There is security and shelter in His presence, the beams support the building and make it secure and the rafters support the roof and make it a place of shelter.
    The storm may be raising on the outside but inside there is security. One may find fault with Mary but immediately the sheltering care of the Lord is seen” let her alone, she did what she could”.

    The Bridegroom said ” you are fair my love” and the Bride will respond at once ” “you are fair my Beloved, yea pleasant”. Her comeliness is the counterpart of His. ” “The beauty of The Lord is upon His people”.

    Of others it may be said they are “fair”, that are not pleasant, and some others are pleasant that are not fair. But Christ is both, beautiful to look upon and wholly pleasant to engage our thoughts. How pleasant Christ is to the psalmist who said “my heart is welling forth with a good matter” and how fair when he added ” you are fairer than the sons’ of men. Yea, Christ is fair and pleasant!!

    1. So very beautiful, Marsela, thank you:) I love that story your shared from Albania, and the patches of green!

  3. This beautiful post brings to mind a sequence of events, His beckoning call “Come to Me” is the voice of the universe, a call for one and all to seek the headwaters of the stream, to come to the source of Life, and with nothing between you and Him…nothing.

    The He invites us to enter His rest, The Lovers Lover instantly brings us into the bedchamber, to invite us to His bed of green. Here we find rest, inward rest, healing, and wholeness, and are at peace, tears of joy and appreciation flow effortlessly. We see this is where we belong, and He redeems all and everything prior to this rest, we are home. We awaken to His intimacy, and find we are connected saints in His body our Love for one another stems from His Love for us, Love flourishes and grows for Him and for one another. In this He reveals more and more of His Life and Love, we find this as our source, our identity, and our reality. We learn to Love as we have and are Loved.

    The revealing of Him and who we are in Him strengthens, and stabilizes us, we are settled, and secure, we come to know that nothing can shake us from His Love, His Life. Healing and growth are now springing forth. It’s an ever deepening appreciation for Life and Love, we rejoice in all that we see, life is beautiful.

    As this feasting continues we see that we are His bride, and He has a role for us to play, it involves the whole of creation. We await His voice, His lead, we see the Love,His Love renews and redeems all…all.

    And this is just the beginning…

    1. Thank you Jim. It feels like your words have a melody to them. This is truly where we belong…

  4. Pamela, this is truly beautiful. It’s amazing to think that He is taking us back to the garden in Him in so many ways. So glad to discover this with you. Love you:)

    1. Thanks Jamal. So glad too:)

  5. Our bed is green

    The bed we become one with Christ is outside the camp – in the wild. As we ready our hearts to share His shame outside the camp of religiosity we will have our ‘bed of unification’ with Him in the ‘green’ of God’s creation. The wording is very interesting here. It’s ‘our’ bed… no, not my or your bed… but our bed.
    This speaks about the depth of intimacy, the closeness of heart the Sulamite ‘shared’ with the king – and in no way different it is meant for you and me.
    We will find Him and will become one with Him in the green bed He created. Not the creation of man’s craftiness but the place of life created for all who follow the lamb wherever He goes.
    In this place it is no longer Him and I… but we become one with Him.
    This place is more radical then most of us ever dreamt of… it means complete abandonment unto Him. His life becomes our life in every area of all we call ‘ours’.

    When Adam became one with Eve in paradise their bed was green… and being restored into a living love-relationship with Christ we become ‘echat’ (one) with HIM… and ‘our’ bed IS green!

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