GOD’S WORD FOR YOU
SONG OF SOLOMON 4:7
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7 You are altogether beautiful, my darling!
There is no flaw in you.
A moom (מוּם) is any kind of a flaw. It can be a physical flaw, or a moral flaw. Physical flaws were used by God to illustrate the consequences of having a moral flaw. So a Levite who “has any defect may not come near: no man who is blind or lame, disfigured or deformed, no man with a crippled foot or hand” (or a whole list of other deformities, Leviticus 21:17-20). Such men were kept from serving around the altar or in the holy place. If they were members of the families of the Levites, they could still eat the food of the sacrifices, but they could not approach the altar of burnt offering or enter into the holy place “or go near the curtain” (Leviticus 21:22-23). In pagan nations, a similar attitude was taken about servants who served kings, but only on account of a bias for beauty (Daniel 1:4). In Israel, this was to show the people of God that any kind of blemish was abhorrent to the Lord. This also shows us the kinds of physical problems that will be removed from everyone who rises from the dead and is taken into Paradise.
A moom can also be a moral defect, or a reference to a wicked man’s shame or abuse (Proverbs 9:7). Perhaps Cain’s physical mark (Genesis 4:15) was in a sense the mark of his personal moral defect and shame for his crime, as well as the mark that would spare his life from those seeking revenge for Abel’s murder.
In the Song’s picture of marriage, the husband overlooks any possible defect his wife might have, and he says, “There is no flaw in you.” One ear might be slightly lower than the other. Her nose might be a little bit crooked. She has a finger that does not exactly match its partner. Or perhaps she has one of the more noticeable flaws that would fall in the Levitical list (chapter 21). But to her husband, she is just right. She is everything to him. He has nothing to complain about. This is not merely an attitude he adopts, but it is how a loving husband will truly feel toward his bride. A woman who is loved will also begin to love in return, and she will also look past his defects, just as he prays: “Forgive us our sins, as we forgive everyone who sins against us” (Luke 11:4).
Is it clear, or not so clear, how we should apply these verses to the mystic union of Christ and his Church? It seems at first that we should be delighted that Christ looks at his people, including each individual, including me myself, and he declares us to be without flaw, which is as a husband would say to his wife, “altogether beautiful.” But which of the two churches is being described? Is it the visible church, which the world sees, or is it the invisible church, which only God can see until we are each called home to heaven, and our eyes will behold the communion of saints from within? It must be, and it can only be, the invisible church that is the true bride of Christ.
In the Scriptures, the church is called “the mystical body of Christ.” For “in Christ we who are many form one body” (Romans 12:5; 1 Corinthians 10:17). In a human body, each member and part is alive through the spirit of that body’s life. Whatever in the human body is not animated by the spirit of life is not alive at all, but dead. And so it is with the body of Christ, the church. Whatever is not governed and given life by the Holy Spirit is dead, even if it– that is, he or she– gathers with the church, sits with the church, participates with it, gives gifts along with it, and perhaps even leads it. Without the Holy Spirit, it is dead and not part of the true church at all.
Being part of the true church, the invisible church, means having faith in Christ for the forgiveness of sins. Lack of faith can only lead to the Shepherd of the flock saying, “I never knew you. Get away, you evildoers!” (Matthew 7:23). But Christ says, “The kingdom of God is within you” (Luke 17:21), and in Samuel it says, “The Lord looks at the heart” (1 Samuel 16:7).
Where is the invisible church, the holy Christian church, to be found? It is found in each believing heart, but it does not end there. Believers will want to gather together for worship and prayer. We are warned: “Do not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another” (Hebrews 10:25). And God says about the church, that it is gathered by “baptizing” and by “teaching” (Matthew 28:19-20). And he says through the prophet: “As the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and do not return without watering the earth and making it bud and flourish, so is my word that goes out from my mouth. It will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it” (Isaiah 55:10-11). Therefore the holy Christian church is found (1) only where the gospel is preached, and (2) only where the sacraments are used. For these things, the gospel in word and in the sacraments, are the means of God’s grace that he uses to rescue us and to plant faith in us. These are what make us “altogether beautiful,” and “without flaw.”
Luther says: “When we refer this beauty to the Word, it makes good sense. Thus Christ also says: ‘You are clean through the Word which I speak to you’ (John 15:3). And the church today, even though it prays constantly for the forgiveness of sins, is nevertheless utterly pure and without fault, if you keep your eyes fixed on Word, sacraments, faith, and Christ himself.”
In Christ,
Pastor Timothy Smith
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Pastor Smith serves St. Paul’s Lutheran Church, New Ulm, Minnesota
God’s Word for You – Song of Solomon 4:7 Without flaw