SOS 1:16-17 A LUXURIOUS AND ENDURING DWELLING PLACE

Chapter 1:16-17

“How handsome you are my beloved, and so pleasant! Indeed, our couch is luxuriant! The beams of our houses are cedars, our rafters, cypresses!”

The bride is enjoying the bridegroom in the resting place he has prepared for her. Some translations say couch, some say bed, but it is the idea of a secure resting place which is “luxuriant.” This is our seat in heavenly places in Christ, as Paul tells us in Ephesians 2:4-6, “…God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up with Him, and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus.” We are seated in glory at the right hand of the Father on Christ’s throne, resting in him until all things are put under our feet. Paul speaks of the “luxuriant” aspect of this in Philippians 4:19 “And my God will supply all your needs according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus.”

We are joint heirs with Christ, possessors of all things through him. Though he was rich, he became poor so that we could become rich. Oftentimes he wants to give us things that are a lot more important than money, inner riches, and to develop those before giving us material riches, but surely his plans are to get even the outward riches to us as well in the proper times and ways. We are truly the heirs of all heirs, the royalty of all royalty. Our bridegroom owns all things, and our dwelling place is luxuriant in the heavenly places. Even when we don’t have money, we have the true riches. We’ve been given “all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ,” according to Ephesians 1. Who could possibly put a price tag on “all spiritual blessings in heavenly places?” This will even translate into material things, as the physical is birthed from the spiritual.

The beams of our houses being “cedars, our rafters cypresses,” speaks of a durable and enduring spiritual dwelling place, since cedars and cypresses are extremely durable wood to build a long-standing house with.

Jesus confirms this in John 14:2-3: “In My Father’s house are many dwelling places; if it were not so, I would have told you; for I go to prepare a place for you. If I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to myself, that where I am, there you may be also.”

He has said of his sheep in John 10, “My Father is greater than all, and no man is able to take them out of his hand.”

The truth is that we don't need to wait until after we die to live in our heavenly mansions spiritually and emotionally. We are already seated in heavenly places in Christ. We have a secure and everlasting dwelling place in Christ.