"COME MY BELOVED" (Pastor Tom Henry) ~ 2/17/26

“Make haste, my beloved, and be thou like to a roe or to a young hart upon the mountains of spices.” (Song of Solomon 8:14)

The Song of Songs describes the love of Jesus Christ to His people, and it ends with an intense desire on the part of the Church that the Lord Jesus should come back to her. The last word of the bride to her beloved one is “Speed your return, make haste and come back.” Is it not striking that as the last verse in this Book of Love sounds this note, so also the whole Book of God, which may be called the Book of Love ends on the same blessed note. At the twentieth verse of the last chapter of the Revelation, we read: “He which testifieth these things saith, Surely I come quickly. Amen. Even so, come, Lord Jesus.” The Song of Love and the Book of Love end in almost the selfsame way, with a strong desire for the speedy return of The Beloved One.

Are our hearts, dear believers in Christ, in tune with this desire? Are we so deeply in love with the Lord Jesus that our hearts yearn for Him? This ought to be the state of every redeemed soul. It seems that some have almost forgotten that Jesus is to come again to receive us unto Himself, that where He is we shall be also. Many who profess to know the Lord appear to be quite absorbed with this present world and have adopted strange lovers. Idols for which the children of Israel forsook their Lord were called “strange lovers.” Idols can take many forms, and for sake of them many professing Christians are no more desirous for Christ’s second coming than are the unbelievers. We know that the wicked “put far away” what they see as…“the evil day,” but why should believers want to postpone what to the Church shall be a most glorious day? “What a day that will be, when my Jesus I shall see…what a day, glorious day, that will be!”

The bride’s longing for which she is counting the days and the hours, is to behold the face and feel the embrace of her Beloved. Over the past couple of years, we have noticed a revived interest in eschatological teaching. This is perhaps due to what has been happening in the Middle East, especially since October 7, 2023. Amid the teachings of various interpretations, theories, and view, it seems that in many cases the main matter gets sort of lost in the shuffle. The Lord Jesus is coming back! The all-glorious Bridegroom is coming for His chosen Bride to take her away to His Father’s house. Whether it be at His coming or our going, Fanny Crosby spoke for all who love the Lord when she wrote, “I want to see my Savior first of all.”

The Keynote in this lovely text is sounded in what the Church calls her Lord. “Make haste my Beloved.” The spouse first calls her Lord “Beloved,” and secondly, “My Beloved.” This is a word of affection, and the Lord Jesus is the object of our affection. This is the language of one who knows the Lord. To quote Charles Spurgeon, “If you read the Bible, if you read the New Testament, and study the life of Christ, and yet you only admire Him, and say to yourself, ‘Jesus Christ was a wonderful person,’ you do not know Him yet.” Many folks who know Christ’s historic life, and are acquainted with His matchless words, and have learned of His mighty works and miracles, do not know Him. They may prize His doctrine and be resting at ease knowing His sacrifice, doubting nothing, and yet not know Him.

To truly know Christ is to love Him. This is the glorious blessing of the New Covenant. The Lord’s promise is this: “I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be my people. And they shall teach no more every man his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, Know the LORD: for they shall all know me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith the LORD.” (Jer. 31:33, 34; Heb. 8:10, 11)