Dearly esteemed Bride of Jesus, are you getting ready for our Beloved? Yesterday we learnt that the Bride will be prepared in the same way that the Bridegroom was prepared. The Holy Spirit led Jesus into the wilderness, and today the Holy Spirit is leading the Bride into the wilderness because there are certain preparations and beauty treatments that need to be applied.
In Song of Songs we read: “Who is this coming out of the wilderness like pillars of smoke, perfumed with myrrh and frankincense, with all the merchant’s fragrant powders?” SOS 3:6 The Bridegroom is coming out of the wilderness perfumed with myrrh as the Lover, and frankincense as the Lord. Myrrh is a most fragrant resin and has different uses and meaning. We know it of course, as representing suffering and death and was used for burial, John 19:38,39, but its meaning is much greater. Myrrh is also the fragrance of romance, and it was given to Jesus as an infant.
Our Bridegroom has a beautiful fragrance, the aroma of myrrh. It is intoxicating and divine. A perfume to arouse our spiritual senses, it is the fragrance of love. “All Your garments are scented with myrrh and aloes and cassia” Ps 45:8 The Bride is romanced by the fragrance of her Beloved, listen to how she describes him again. “A bundle of myrrh is my beloved to me, that lies all night between my breasts.” SOS 1:13
So that’s the Bridegroom, now let’s look at the Bride.
“Each young woman’s turn came to go in to King Ahasuerus after she had completed twelve months’ preparation, according to the regulations for the women, for thus were the days of their preparation apportioned: six months with oil of myrrh, and six months with perfumes and preparations for beautifying women.” Esther 2:12
Did you notice the first stage of Esther’s beautification? There was to be six months with oil of myrrh. That’s amazing, again we see that the Bridal preparation is the same, the Bride is beautified with oil of myrrh, just like her Groom. “we are the aroma of Christ” 2 Cor 2:15.
Here is our lesson for today: Myrrh is obtained by “wounding” or “bleeding” the tree from which it comes, and collecting the resin which bleeds out. The drops which come out are called “tears” because of their shape. This is significant. Myrrh is something that is obtained by being wounded. Through the cuts inflicted, out bleeds a beautiful aromatic resin that is used as the number one fragrance of love. Did you know that in some ancient customs, the Bride would prepare for her wedding by placing myrrh tears on her chest.
Tomorrow I will share how the three temptations of Jesus in the wilderness will be a preparation also for the Bride, and how she can obtain myrrh to apply in her beautification process. But to end here and say that each cut we have received in life, every wound that has been inflicted is an opportunity to release the fragrance of romance. Like myrrh, it is bitter to taste, but its aroma is sensational and provocative.
Mike @call2come
