The bride of the Song is a closed garden (4:12), her spices and fruits inaccessible, her springs of living water sealed up. Winds blow over the garden of the bride, spreading her fragrance (v. 16). But no one can feast, or drink, or see her beauties, until the Lover enters the garden (5:1). He opens her so that the power of her beauty is opened to the world.
Then we allegorize: For the bride is Israel, which is a garden closed. The bride is the temple, which is Eden locked, her springs of water sealed from the nations. Until the Lover comes to open the garden, unlock the spring, tear the temple veil, and open up Israel’s delights to all.
YOU MIGHT ALSO LIKE
Deliver Us from Evil
In a recent New York Times article entitled “Freedom With a Side of Guilt: How Food Delivery…
Natural Law Needs Revelation
Natural law theory teaches that God embedded a teleological moral order in the world, such that things…
Letters
Glenn C. Loury makes several points with which I can’t possibly disagree (“Tucker and the Right,” January…
