The Consequences of Prophecy-
Inauguration & Responsibilities of a Prophet

While more and more modern Christians are beginning to recognize the beautiful gift that our Creator has provided us through His Modern Prophets, many fail to recognize the tremendous duty placed upon them. Through the Prophet Ezekiel, we see both the awesome glory of being exposed to God’s Voice and/or Presence, but also the insanely heavy burden entrusted to those God speaks through.

Ezekiel the Priest’s first experience with the prophetic began under extremely stressful circumstances. The Southern Kingdom of Judah had already had the first wave of exiles forced out by Babylon and Ezekiel was amongst the captives. At the Israelite settlement at River Chebar, Ezekiel began to have visions.

While there are several artistic interpretations of what Ezekiel saw, ranging from everything being symbolic of Israel, to descriptions of engineering surpassing today’s advanced technology, it was awe inspiring and tremendous. Ezekiel’s inauguration as a prophet allowed him a brief opportunity to bask in the Glory of the Lord, where he was filled with the Spirit, and afterwards was presented with a scroll of God’s prophecies for Israel, which Ezekiel was ordered to eat and was surprised to discover was sweet like honey.

God overly stressed the fact that Ezekiel would be sent to prophesy to the people of his own nation, in his own language, with his shared history: the House of Israel. Though God is not sending Ezekiel to a foreign land with a tongue he did not understand, God knows that foreigners would be more willing to hear and change their ways compared to the Israelites, who were hard hearted and stubborn.

God declared that He had made Ezekiel’s face stronger than the Israelites, so that when he confronts them, Ezekiel can stand firm when they challenge what he says. Even more, God has strengthened Ezekiel’s will so that he can butt heads with the religious order who refused to align themselves with God. Ezekiel is not to be afraid as his spiritual forehead was made strong like adamant and harder than flint, so he would not step back when they try to push against him because of their rebelliousness. God equipped Ezekiel to go to the captive Israelites, but recognized that there was a very good chance that they would not listen.

After Ezekiel’s encounter, he returned to the camp at Tel Abib and sat there amongst his fellow captives in astonishment for seven days. After a week of reflecting on what he had seen and heard, God spoke to Ezekiel yet again, declaring that He had made him a Watchman over the House of Israel. Ezekiel would be responsible for warning the People and the consequences of his failure to do so would fall on his head.

If a wicked man was doing evil, and was told to turn away from his ways, but chose not to, he would be condemned for his actions. But if Ezekiel failed to warn him and the sinful man died wallowing in his inequity, then Ezekiel would be responsible and his blood would be on Ezekiel’s hands.

This would even apply to a righteous man, who had been known to do Good throughout his life, but had turned away from the Creator. If instructed by God, Ezekiel’s failure to try to correct their path was the responsibility of the prophet. If God placed a stumbling stone before a once faithful person, and they died, their good works would be forgotten and Ezekiel would again be liable for failing to give him the opportunity to turn back to God.

God warned Ezekiel that the people would bind and restrict him from going out and correcting the captives because of their stubbornness, but if given a Word, Ezekiel was only responsible for speaking and the people would decide whether they would hear or refuse.

Despite his current position as a captive of the Babylon Empire, Ezekiel had been called out by God to reach his fellow Israelites in exile. If he failed to instruct those walking out of line with God’s Will, Ezekiel would be punished for their wrongdoing. But, if they were corrected and still chose to do wrong, their blood would be upon their own heads.

Modern prophets are tasked with a similar responsibility of needing to heed exclusively to God’s Voice. Some are called to try to correct the actions of an entire nation or its leadership, while others are set apart to shift the actions of everyday men and women. In either case, if instructed to correct, they have an obligation to warn those who are heading towards damnation.

God sent His Prophet Ezekiel during a major national crisis, even after many years of warnings from previous messengers. The first wave of exiles had already been removed, but their hearts were still turned away from God even when in the midst of the punishment that had been prophesied. The foolish continued down the same path that had led them to their current situation, but the wise heeded the words of God’s Prophets and corrected themselves.

During this global crisis, many of the things that once made our lives comfortable and stable are no longer able to be relied upon. Our lives have been uprooted and many feel that they are at the whims of forces far greater than themselves. Our world will continue to change radically, but we know that Our Creator has control over all things.

It is no small comfort to know that God still talks to His Sons and Daughters today through His Messengers. While not every prophet will be able to directly experience the same intense vision of God that Ezekiel had, nor will they all be tasked with turning an entire nation away from the destructive path it’s currently on, they are responsible for delivering God’s Message faithfully for the benefit and salvation of their audience.Whatever may come in the next few days, weeks, and months, we know that aligning ourselves with God’s Instruction will bless our families, communities, and countries.

Prepared by, Kent Simpson, Apostolic Prophet & Eric Sepulveda, PMT Administrator

The Consequences of Prophecy-
Destruction of the Nation that Rejected God’s Weeping Prophet

The Book of Lamentations is a collection of dirges (funeral songs) that Prophet Jeremiah wrote after the siege of Jerusalem, demolition of Solomon’s Temple, and exile of the Israelites to Babylon. While Jeremiah, known as the Weeping Prophet, poetically describes the terror and devastation that the city was experiencing, the people had had many opportunities to prevent the horror in which they had become engulfed. Despite being a people, city, and nation supposedly dedicated to God, they did not heed the symbolic warnings that His Prophets gave to turn away from their sinful practices. More importantly, the rejection of God’s Messengers and Prophets was seen as a rejection of God Himself.

Jeremiah, later known as the Weeping Prophet, conducted many prophetic performances to help demonstrate the need for Israel to turn away from their idolatry and the consequences of refusing to do so.

Perhaps Jeremiah’s most famous prophetic act concerned the wearing of a linen girdle and traveling to Perath (near the Euphrates River) where he was to hide the girdle in a hole in a rock. Jeremiah would have traveled some 350 miles each way from Jerusalem and back, only to be asked much later to by God to go back and retrieve it. When Jeremiah returned to where he had hidden the linen garment, he found that it was marred and because it was organic, had begun to decompose and was no longer useful for anything.

God explained to Jeremiah the prophetic significance of this now worthless belt. When Israel and Judah were closely and intimately bound to God, they served a purpose and were given renown, praise, and honor, but because of their unfaithfulness serving other gods, they had become rotten and useless. Ultimately, they would be taken out of their homeland and placed in this rocky region for a set period in during their exile (ref. Jeremiah 13: 1-11)

But because God is merciful, He ensured that those who turned back towards Him would be considered and spared.

God led Jeremiah to a potter’s studio where the artisan was shaping a piece of clay. While Jeremiah watched the potter working at his wheel, the soft clay pot he was fashioning became disfigured and distorted. Because the clay was still flexible, the potter was still able to save the clay and reshape it into a new vessel.

Explaining this prophetic sign, He declared that just as the potter is able to reshape the clay in his hands, God would shape and mold those whose hearts were still malleable and willing to turn back to Him. In comparison to the soft clay that would be taken gently in God’s Hands, the stiff necked and the hard hearted would be like a clay vessel that had already been baked in a kiln and no longer able to be molded (ref. Jeremiah 18:1-10).

God instructed Jeremiah to purchase a clay jar from a potter and to bring elders and priests with him to the Dung Gate and to prophesy the coming destruction that was about to befall the city. Because they had filled the land with the blood of the innocent, through their sacrificing of children to their false idols, God was going to bring about a great slaughter. The carcasses of the inhabitants of the city would be food for wild animals, the city would become desolate, and the besiegement of the city would be so great that they would be forced to eat their sons and daughters and eventually kill and eat each other.

After announcing such a horrific sentence on the city and its leaders, Jeremiah smashed the jar in front of the congregation. The prophetic performance was to clearly let them know that the Lord was planning on smashing stiff-necked and hard hearted Israel and Jerusalem so it could no longer be repaired just like the clay jar (ref. Jeremiah 19).

Though Jeremiah’s position as prophet had him mostly focused on Judah, God’s had him deliver a message to the surrounding kingdoms through their emissaries who were visiting the capital. Jeremiah was told to make a yoke out of straps and crossbars and wear it on his neck like a draught animal and in the presence of King of Judah Zedekiah and the neighboring kingdoms’ envoys declare that they must all bow before Nebuchadnezzar King of Babylon and be subject to him. If they would not humble themselves and place the symbolic yoke upon their necks and become vassal states, they would be destroyed.

Jeremiah not only performed this prophetic display for the King of Judah and his diplomatic guests, but also warned them not to listen to the false prophets who would try to deceive them saying that they would not have to be subjects to King Nebuchadnezzar. God was clear that any who went against this word were not sent from Him. Only the kings who bowed their neck under the yoke would be spared (ref. Jeremiah 27)

While the Book of Lamentations is filled with songs of grief and resentment for the destruction of Jerusalem and the Babylonian Exile, God revealed to The Weeping Prophet what was to happen if they did not turn their hearts back to Him quickly. Both in private and public settings, God used Prophetic Presentations and Performances to help strengthen His Word to His People. But despite these warnings to Judah’s elites and leadership, they continued to ignore the warnings that Prophet Jeremiah brought them and their people, city, and nation suffered accordingly. Great churches, communities, and nations will be brought to their knees if they do not heed the word of God’s Messengers and Prophets.

Prepared by, Kent Simpson, Apostolic Prophet & Eric Sepulveda, PMT Administrator

The Consequences of Prophecy-
The King who Corrupted a Divided Nation

As King Solomon enjoyed greater luxuries and built more pagan temples to satisfy the desires of his cultic priestess wives, the average citizen began to despise the king and a rebellion began to brew. Stirred by a prophetic demonstration concerning the future of the kingdom, Jeroboam, a civil servant, led a coup which divided the nation. Though promised a long-lasting kingdom if he followed the Ways of the Lord, this Champion of the Common Man fell into the same idolatry as those before him damning his country for generations.

Jeroboam’s early life was one of pain and misery. His father Nebat, died when Jeroboam was still young (1 Kings 11:26) leaving his mother Zeruah a widow. His mother’s name means “leprous” lending to the theory that he and his mother may have been outcasts in their community, since lepers were thought to be punished publicly by God for heinous sins. Despite these struggles, Jeroboam worked intensely and became known in the kingdom as a mighty man of valor and because he was seen as industrious and a good manager, he was even placed as superintendent over several of Solomon’s building projects (ref. 1 Kings 11:27-28).

But it was during his time working on these large public works projects, paid for through constantly increasing taxes on the people as well as through compulsory labor shifts (ref. 1 Kings 9:15-19) that Jeroboam began to hear the stirrings of revolt against the King. While the expansion of current defensive walls and fortresses to protect the nation’s borders from foreign invaders were sensible and necessary infrastructure improvements that average citizen’s approved of, Solomon also dipped into the public coffers and workforces to build increasingly elaborate palaces and temples for his foreign cultic priestess wives.

The citizenry of Israel were not the only ones who were angry about how Solomon was allocating the wealth of the nation. The Lord was angry with Solomon because his heart had turned away from the Lord, the God of Israel, who had commanded him to not go after other gods. But because Solomon did not follow the Lord’s Command, God decreed that He would tear the kingdom away from Solomon and give it to his servant. But for the sake of his father David, God would not split the kingdom during Solomon’s reign, but would wait till his son Rehoboam took office. But the entire kingdom would not leave Solomon’s family, as God decided that at least one tribe would be given to Solomon’s son Rehoboam for the sake of David and Jerusalem (ref. 1 Kings 11:9-13).

As Jeroboam was returning home after having completed his obligatory work on Solomon’s building projects, he came across Ahijah the Prophet of Shiloh, who was wearing a new cloak. Ahijah began a prophetic procession by removing his new cloak and tearing it into twelve pieces, telling Jeroboam to take ten segments for the Lord God of Israel was announcing that He was about to tear the Kingdom out of Solomon’s hand and give Jeroboam ten tribes. This was going to happen because Solomon and Jerusalem had abandoned God, bowing, worshiping, and offering sacrifices to the foreign gods that Solomon’s wives had introduced to the nation (ref. 1 Kings 11:29-36).

God would appoint Jeroboam as King over Israel and he would reign over all that his heart desired, but only if he did as God commanded him and walked in obedience to what was right in the Eyes of the Lord. If he obeyed God’s Decrees and Commands as King David had, God would be with Jeroboam and would establish a dynasty as enduring as David’s and Israel would be given to Jeroboam and his family. They would be the instruments God would use to humble David’s family for their unfaithfulness (ref. 1 Kings 11:37-39).

When King Solomon became aware of Ahijah’s prophecy over Jeroboam, Solomon tried to kill Jeroboam, who fled to Egypt where he remained hidden for several decades until Solomon’s death (ref. 1 Kings 11:40).

During the coronation to make Solomon’s son Rehoboam king, Jeroboam returned to Israel and joined a delegation sent to ask the new king to reduce the crippling tax and civil service requirements they were placed under. The newly crowned king asked the representatives for three days to make a decision and initially turned to the elders who had served his father King Solomon during his lifetime for their advice (ref. 1 Kings 12:1-6; 2 Chronicles 10:1-6).

The sages wisely suggested that “If today you listen to the people’s appeals and earnestly consider what they are asking and say that their requests are fair and just, you will earn their loyalty and trust forever” (ref. 1 Kings 12:7; 2 Chronicles 10:7).

But the inexperienced king was foolish and rejected the advice of the elders; instead consulting the young men he had grown up with in the palace. He asked his friends mockingly what kind of message to send back to the assembly that had asked him to lighten the people’s taxes?

They instructed King Solomon’s son Rehoboam to respond contemptuously, informing them that the taxes that Solomon had levied against them would seem light compared to the even heavier yoke he would place upon them. They had been scourged with whips during his father’s administration, but he would scourge them with scorpions instead (ref. 1 Kings 12:8-14; 2 Chronicles 10:8-14).

When the tribes of Israel saw that the King had refused to listen to their petitions, they decided to secede for the United Kingdom, with only the tribe of Judah remaining with the House of David, under the rule of Rehoboam. When the king sent Adoram the Minister of National Service to try to force the tribes to continue Solomon’s public works projects, they publicly stoned him and chased King Rehoboam back to Jerusalem (ref. 1 Kings 12:15-18; 2 Chronicles 10:15-18).

Though Jeroboam was crowned king over the Northern Kingdom, just as God had promised and Ahijah had prophesied, Jeroboam became paranoid that if the people fulfilled their obligation to go to Jerusalem and participate in the required feasts, they would desire to rejoin as a single nation again and then they would kill him. After asking for advice, Jeroboam made two golden calves and re-instituted the cultic practices that the early Israelites had learned while enslaved in Egypt, and which he was exposed to during his political asylum.

Jeroboam’s descent into blatant idolatry further extended to him replacing the Levites with his own priestly classes, creating a national religious feast on the fifteenth day of the eighth month, possibly to challenge the required feasts of Passover and Sukkot (Tabernacles), and building competing religious centers to Jerusalem in Bethel and Dan (ref. 1 Kings 12:26-33).

Prophet Ahijah, the very same man who prophesied that Jeroboam would take the throne over Israel, would later chastise Jeroboam for becoming more evil and corrupt than the idolatrous Solomon before him. Ahijah prophesied that for Jeroboam’s role in turning the Northern Kingdom towards false gods, the throne would be taken from his family and the nation would be captured and sent into exile.

Jeroboam was a man of humble beginnings, who through hard work, rose through the ranks of government and was put in charge of many important building projects. It was there that he heard the cries of the common citizen to stop the building of temples to Solomon’s foreign wives’ gods through the people’s taxes and forced labor. Chosen by God to lead the Northern Kingdom and punish Jerusalem for turning away from Him, Jeroboam instead further introduced greater forms of idolatry, rather than follow the Ways of the Lord. While he was initially praised as the king who rescued the people from a tyrannical king, he is ultimately remembered as the ruler who ruined the soul of his country and began its ultimate destruction.

Prepared by, Kent Simpson, Apostolic Prophet & Eric Sepulveda, PMT Administrator

The Consequences of Prophecy-The Final Proverb & The Girl Who Got Away

Song of Songs was written as a prophetic play, expressing the internal conflict that Israel was feeling as it began to become divided between those who worshipped the God of David and the newly introduced foreign gods that King Solomon’s wives had been temple priestesses of. The Shulamite, who represented Israel, was finally ready to decide who she would marry, but only in hindsight would King Solomon realize the absolute treasure that slipped through his fingers and the fool that he was.

The first acts had the Shulamite initially deciding to go to the capital city of Jerusalem to marry Solomon, before realizing that her true love lay in the arms of the Shepherd who had loved her since her youth. King Solomon finds her back in her hometown and proposes again, extolling the wealth and material benefits that would come from participating in his polygamous marriage and the polytheistic cults that the rest of Jerusalem was falling into.

The Final Act of Song of Songs begins when King Solomon catches up with the Shulamite after she has run away after asking if she was ready to marry him.

Solomon begins to praise her beauty again using imagery from his royal and prestigious life as a King in contrast to the natural pastoral environment the Shepherd uses. Also in contrast to her Shepherd Love, Solomon focuses heavily on her body in a sexual manner. Solomon adores her sandaled feet, calling them beautiful and describing her graceful legs as jewels crafted by artist’s hands. Her navel is a rounded goblet that is never lacking expensive blended wine. Her hips are full and round like a mound of wheat encircled by lilies, while her perky breasts are like twin fawns of a gazelle.

Her neck is described as like the ivory towers seen throughout the city of Jerusalem, and her eyes are reminiscent of the pools of Heshbon by the Gate of Bath Rabbim. Her nose is like the tower of Lebanon, a tower-like temple which was planted on the chief summit of Hermon (Joshua 13:5), which faced Damascus to the east. Her hair is like luxurious purple tapestry, whose locks and tresses King Solomon has become captivated by.

Her stature is compared to that of a palm tree and her breasts are like the large hanging bunches/clusters of date fruits. Solomon becomes fixated on her breasts, stating that he wants to “climb the palm tree” and “take hold of its fruit”. He further obsesses over her breasts describing them as ripe clusters of grapes on the vine.

He finishes by describing her breath like the smell of apples and her mouth like the best wine, but she cuts him off.

Referring to her mouth as “the best wine” as King Solomon had just flirted, she corrects that it will go straight to her Beloved, gently flowing over lips and teeth.

She proudly declares that “I belong to my beloved, and his desire is for me”.

The Shulamite turns to her Shepherd love and says that they should return back to the countryside they grew up in, so they can spend the night in the villages they know. She uses the same sexualized imagery of vineyards having budded, blossoms having opened, and pomegranates in bloom that Solomon had used when he wanted to see if she was ready to marry him in the previous act, but she reverses the invitation and directs it towards her Beloved expressing that it is back in the wilderness that they fell in love in that she wants to give him her love.

The mandrakes, flowers known for their sensuous scent which elicit romantic desires, send out their fragrance to these young lovers and before them is every intimate aspect of herself that she has stored up and is ready to share with her Beloved.

She wishes that she could have expressed her love for him sooner, saying that in another reality they could have shown affection for one another without having to contain it for so long. She would have gone to her mother’s house to ask for her permission to marry him and to be taught how to pleasure her soon to be husband, allowing him to drink of her “spiced wine” and “the juice of her pomegranates”.

As they cuddle after consummating their love, her head would rest on his left arm, while his right arm embraces her, holding her close.

She whispers to the Daughters of Jerusalem, who have served as the chorus, to not wake her Beloved, since he has fallen asleep after their love making, and to allow him to rest until he is ready to rise again.

The Daughters of Jerusalem sneak a peak of them returning, the Shulamite leaning upon the Shepherd after she has given him her love in the wilderness.

As they go through the region they grew up in, they recall special places from where their love began to blossom. There was where she caught him napping under the fruit trees. That was the spot where her mother conceived her and there was where she gave birth to her and raised her.

The Shulamite asks of her Beloved Shepherd to place her like a wedding ring hung by his neck over his heart, like a bracelet on his arm so that she will always be near him whatever he is doing. She waxes poetic about the intensity of her love for him, that Love is as powerful and as jealous as the Grave, burning like a blazing fire and a mighty flame. A great flood cannot quench Love nor can rushing rivers sweep it away. She makes a gentle slight against Solomon, saying that if a rich man were to give all the wealth of his house to try to purchase someone’s love, such a proposal would be viewed with utter scorn.

She remembers her brother’s voices from when she was a young girl, fighting amongst each other about her undeveloped body. They don’t know what to do when she is ready to be married off and whether or not she will defend her honor and her virginity. If she staunchly guards and protects it like a wall, they will adorn her with silver jewelry, but if she makes herself readily available to be opened like a door, they will seal her up with wooden panels to prevent someone from entering before her wedding day.

She proudly declares herself as a wall, which had saved herself exclusively for her Beloved and the full perky breasts she has finally grown adorn her like towers, bringing joy and contentment to her Love.

She boasts to the wedding guests that Solomon had a vineyard in Baal Hamon; which he rented out to his tenants for a thousand shekels of silver per harvest. But her vineyard, her body, her love, is hers to give. She will give Solomon the money she owes for the lease, but the profit would go exclusively to her husband who had been helping her grow in love.

Her husband toasts to his wedding guests “You who dwell in the gardens with friends in attendance, let them hear your voice!” asking them to cheer for the happy newly married couple before she sings the closing line.

She turns to the audience and sings to her Husband to Run and Chase after her as she darts off stage to enjoy the rest of her married life with the Shepherd (ref. Song 8:14).

But that’s not happened.

Israel, represented by the Shulamite, did not chose the Shepherd that had loved it from its Youth and live happily ever after.

Just as Solomon followed the advice of his mother, Co-regent Bathsheba and continued to add hundreds of foreign wives to his harem, Israel continued to add more idols to their places of worship before ultimately splitting apart in a Civil War after Solomon’s death.

Proverbs 31, the final and perhaps most famous proverb, extolls the value of a noble wife and all her redeeming qualities.

But this Proverb is not attributed to wise King Solomon, but rather King Lemuel, an oracle. King Lemuel’s mother taught him “not to spend his strength on women, your vigor on those who ruin kings” (ref. Proverbs 31:3) most likely referencing King Solomon and the hundreds of wives he had collected over his reign who ultimately turned him away from the God of Israel towards the foreign gods they were temple priestesses of.

King Solomon confirms this reality in his treatise on Wisdom when he declares “While my soul was still searching but not finding, among a thousand I have found one upright man, but among all these I have not found one virtuous woman” (ref. Ecclesiastes 7:28). Amongst the thousand wives he had, he recognized that not a single one of them was virtuous.

Song of Songs stands as very open rebuke by King Solomon against himself for not only realizing that he failed to marry at least one virtuous woman, but for having contributed to the introduction of foreign idols, leading to Israel’s future demise.

While Israel’s history is sad and tragic, Song of Songs can still give us hope. It still stands as a prophetic play, as it described what could and should have happened had the country turned itself back to the Love of their Youth. Solomon was not wise because he never made any mistakes, but because he learned from them and tried to get others to not repeat his blunders. Likewise, as our own country is beginning to split apart, we must recognize that human leaders will always make mistakes, and we should instead put our Love and Trust in the God who adored us before our births.

While the Shulamite was the Girl Who Got Away to Solomon, The Shepherd was the Love that Israel forsook for wealth and power. If we forget the God of our Founding, we will fall apart, economically, politically, & socially, just as Israel before us.

Prepared by, Kent Simpson, Apostolic Prophet & Eric Sepulveda, PMT Administrator

The Consequences of Prophecy-Battle for the Heart of Israel

In the first half of Song of Songs, the Shulamite, representing Israel, had agreed to marry Solomon and joined him in Jerusalem. But she began to regret her decision and realized that she truly desired to be with the Love of her Youth, a humble Shepherd. In reality Israel and Solomon were realizing that they had gone astray and needed to turn their hearts back to the God of David. Despite recognizing His Glory and the Love that He bestowed upon her, there was still a turmoil brewing before her final decision.

Act Three begins with the Shulamite waking from her dream that she had married and consummated her relationship with her Shepherd Love.

She quickly proceeds to another dream where she is back in Jerusalem, still waiting to be married to King Solomon. She is in her private bedchamber when her Beloved wakes her, knocking on her bedroom door. He calls out to her, to open to him. Like the Second Act, he calls her his sister, his love, but adds his Dove and his undefiled, indicating that she is still a virgin and that the previous marriage scene had not actually taken place. Her Love is arriving at a late hour, as his “head is filled with dew, and locks with the drops of the night” (ref. Song 5:2).

His arrival is a complete surprise. And in her panic she is initially uncertain of what to do, questioning whether she should get properly dressed to answer the door and dirty her feet on the ground after having already washed them (ref. Song 5:3).

She ultimately rises out of bed, but when she opens the door, he is gone.

She looks for him in the hallways, yelling his name as she leaves the castle, but he never responds.

As she explores the city looking for her Love, the night watchmen of the city who had been unable to help her find her Love in the previous dream, now openly attack her, and take away her veil. This behavior by the guards would be unthinkable if she was King Solomon’s newest queen as some interpretations have suggested, but makes sense if they thought she was a woman of the night, or were trying to prevent her from leaving the city in search of another man who wasn’t the King (ref. Song 5:5-7).

The Shulamite calls out to the Daughters of Jerusalem, saying that if they find her Beloved, to tell him that she is madly in love with him (ref. Song 5:8).

The women of the city are utterly confused. Considering King Solomon has brought her into Jerusalem to marry her, what about her Beloved makes him so special? How could he possibly compete against a King? (ref. Song 5:9).

The Shulamite begins a love stricken boast of her Beloved, describing him as radiantly handsome, the best looking among ten thousand. His face is smooth and glowing like refined gold, but he has thick bushy raven black hair. His eyes are dove grey with splashes of blue, emerald, and violet, with bright white sclera (whites of eyes) making the color of his deep set eyes more profound. His high cheekbones release a sweet fragrance and his full lips drip with sweet smelling myrrh. His core is strong and well defined which she describes as ivory overlaid with sapphires. His legs are thick and powerful as marble pillars from carrying lost sheep and his ankles are sturdy and stable like golden sockets so he can bound over the mountainous regions. He is tall like the mountainous Lebanon covered in its legendary cedars. The kisses of his mouth are sweet and overall he is remarkable to her (ref. Song 5: 10-16).

Had she been describing King Solomon, the women of the Jerusalem would have known what he looks like already. But she needs to describe her Beloved who is a foreign shepherd and a stranger to these Daughters of Jerusalem. Most telling, she calls her Beloved her Friend, describing the long term relationship that had previously developed growing up before they started their love affair (ref. Song 5: 16).

The Daughter of Jerusalem are intrigued by the Shulamite’s description of her Beloved and ask where he might be that they can help her look for the man who has captured the heart of the most beautiful of women (ref. Song 6:1).

She knows her Love, he is amongst the lilies where he rests his sheep. While he is there within the garden, he is smelling the spices and admiring the flowers, deciding which ones to gather as a gift for her. Her love belongs to him and his heart beats for her exclusively (ref. Song 6:3).

Her Shepherd Love responds by describing her through prophetic poetry.

She is as beautiful as Tirzah and as lovely as Jerusalem. The comparison to the capital city of Jerusalem makes sense since it would have stood as the most impressive city in the nation. But Tirzah, an obscure Canaanite fortress (Joshua 12:24), which was captured by Joshua when conquering the Promised Land, is puzzling until we recall that the Shulamite represents Israel and the choices she makes will affect the future of the country.

After King Solomon’s future death, Israel split into the Northern and Southern Kingdoms. The Southern Kingdom of Judah maintained its capital city of Jerusalem, while the Northern Kingdom of Samaria changed several times during the rule of Jeroboam, its first king. His first capital was Shechem in Mount Ephraim before he moved it to Penuel (ref. 1 Kings 12:25), before settling on Tirzah (ref. 1 Kings 14:17). The seceding of the Northern Kingdom of Samaria by Jeroboam’s revolt, and the making of Tirzah the capital, which would occur after Solomon’s death is alluded to as well when the Shepherd pronounces her as terrible as an army with banners. The prophetic realization of the civil war that is to come is so powerful that the Shepherd cannot even look into her eyes (ref. Song 6:4-5).

He continues to describe her through the eyes of a Shepherd, lovingly likening her silky bouncy hair to flock of goats descending from Mount Gilead. Her teeth are flocks of radiantly white sheep coming back from having been washed, all paired and perfectly straight, without any missing. Her rosy cheeks are like pomegranates behind her hair/veil (ref. Song 6: 6-7).

The Shepherd begins to compare her to the many wives of Solomon, reminding her that there are sixty queens, eighty concubines, and virgin girls in waiting without number lined up in the city ready to marry Solomon someday. But she is special and unique. His heart belongs only to His Dove. She is loved in her family as the only daughter of her mother, and the favorite even though she has many brothers (ref. Song 1:6). But she is also adored within the city. When she was in Jerusalem, the young woman saw her and called her blessed and the queens and concubines praised her beauty (ref. Song 6: 8-9).

The Daughters of Jerusalem sing the praises of the most beautiful woman, describing her as the dawn, as fair as the moon, bright as the sun, yet filled with the anxiety of an army on the brink of battle.

Solomon arrives just in time to intensify her tension, declaring that he was here to check on the development of the nut tree orchards, the budding of the grape vines, and the blooming of the pomegranates, a coy way of saying he was checking to see if she was ready to marry him and present her fruits for him to harvest. He makes a play similar to a wealthy man flashing his expensive sports car when he says that he knows that his chariot has made many others “his willing people”, implying that his luxury vehicle will help her make her final decision.

In response, she flees.

The Daughters of Jerusalem call out for the Shulamite to return after she has fled Solomon’s presence and proposition. They invoke the imagery of two armies lined up against each other ready to battle for the Shulamite’s hand in marriage. They want to see the show down and her ultimate decision between King Solomon and her Shepherd Love.

While we ultimately know the path that Israel would take, Song of Songs was written during a contentious moment in its history and Solomon’s reign. Act three showcases the grand moment that the king realized that the country needed to change direction. But even in wanting to make this change, the seeds of what would happen had already been planted. Thankfully, we can always correct our own paths to reconnect to the God who loves us without limit.

Prepared by, Kent Simpson, Apostolic Prophet & Eric Sepulveda, PMT Administrator