THE WILL IN RESURRECTION
Chapter three tells us of the maturity of the seeking one, and chapter four continues by explaining how she reached such a mature stage. But this is not all. Eventually, she is reckoned by the Lord as Jerusalem. This is the maturity which is mentioned in chapter three when she becomes the palanquin. A palanquin is a miniature of the city. The city contains the Lord in a full way, and the palanquin contains the Lord on a smaller scale. This is the maturity mentioned in chapter three. Then, chapter four explains that such a maturity is reached by the subduing of the will.
We also need to read 4:4: “Thy neck is like the tower of David builded for an armory, whereon there hang a thousand bucklers, all shields of mighty men.” Here the Lord likens her neck to the tower of David. We have seen that the hair signifies our will, and we know that our neck also signifies our will. Those who are rebellious toward God in the Bible are called stiffnecked (Exo. 32:9; Acts 7:51). So we see that a flock of goats appearing on the mountain shows the subduing of her will, and the tower of David illustrates how strong her will is in resurrection. First of all our will must be subdued; then it must be strong in resurrection. The natural will must be dealt with, and then we will have a resurrected will. The crucified and subdued will is just like a flock of goats standing on a mountain side, but the resurrected will must be like the tower of David builded up as an armory. An armory is a place where weapons for fighting are kept.
SPIRITUAL WARFARE
How poetic the Song of Songs is! First, our will must be subdued; then it will be resurrected like the tower of David, the armory for the spiritual warfare. All the weapons for spiritual warfare are kept in our subdued and resurrected will. If our will has never been subdued by the Lord, it can never be a strong armory to keep all the weapons for the spiritual warfare. All the weapons are mostly defensive, not offensive. It is not so much a matter of going out to fight as it is a matter of standing to resist. Bucklers and shields are all for protection in order to stand. In the spiritual warfare, we are not so much on the offensive as we are on the defensive, standing against all the devilish, subtle attacks of the enemy. Most of the items of the armor mentioned in Ephesians 6 are also defensive. There is really no need for us to fight; the Lord has won the battle already.
We simply need to stand and resist all of the enemy’s attacks. The bucklers and the shields which protect us against the arrows of the enemy are kept in this tower, which is the subdued and resurrected will of the Lord’s seeking one. This is the real maturity in life.
An unsubdued will is, on the one hand, stubborn, and on the other hand, weak. When the enemy comes, the stubborn, unsubdued will always makes an unconditional surrender. We all know this by our own experience. This is especially true with the sisters. The sisters who are stubborn in the matter of submission are the first to surrender when the enemy attacks. But if we have a submissive will, a will that has been subdued like a flock of goats on a mountain side, our will is expressed like a tower of David. When the enemy comes, our will is like the tower of David that holds all kinds of weapons against his attacks.
The secret of the maturity of the seeking one in chapter three is that her will has been completely subdued and resurrected. Of all eight figures, the first one is strongest in the will, and the last one has no will of its own at all. The horse has an exceedingly strong will, but the palanquin and the crown have no will at all. She has come out of her natural will and is now standing in her resurrected will against the enemy. She is like the tower of David builded as an armory for the spiritual warfare.
(Life and Building as Portrayed in the Song of Songs, Chapter 6, by Witness Lee)
