SOS 2:4-6 The Banqueting House

Preached by James R. Reynolds, Sr. on January 24, 1979.

Song of Solomon 2:4-6 — He brought me to the banqueting house, and his banner over me was love. 5 Stay me with flagons, comfort me with apples: for I am sick of love. 6 His left hand is under my head, and his right hand doth embrace me.

He brought me to the banqueting house, and his banner over me was love.  

Song of Solomon 2:4

 

The little bride is brought into the banqueting house, which is a definite work for divine grace in the lives of those who are hungry for the better things of God.

 

Notice the progress of the bride as she has been running after the bridegroom:

She knows he is there and has a great desire to get closer to him.

She expresses herself—

Song of Solomon 1:4a

Draw me, we will run after thee:

Her heart hungers after truth—

Song of Solomon 1:7

Tell me, O thou whom my soul loveth, where thou feedest

 

Follow the old sheep as they follow the shepherd until you can distinguish the voice of the Great Shepherd.

 

The bridegroom has taken the bride into different cambers and now into the banqueting house. There is growth and progression in experience and a progression of divine revelation and understanding of the great plan of God.

 

It is a banqueting in the Spirit-fellowshipping with God in the Spirit.

 

I Corinthians 1:9

 God is faithful, by whom ye were called unto the fellowship of his Son Jesus Christ our Lord.

 

I John 1:3

That which we have seen and heard declare we unto you, that ye also may have fellowship with us: and truly our fellowship is with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ.

 

I John 1:6,7

If we say that we have fellowship with him, and walk in darkness, we lie, and do not the truth:

But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin.

 

Job 28:7

There is a path which no fowl knoweth, and which the vulture's eye hath not seen:

 

1. The Involvement with the Banquet

 

“He brought me to the banqueting house…”

 

1. How She is Brought

 

She is brought through his drawing and leading. It is not enough for you to desire or long for Him, but He is the one that is going to bring you.

 

“He brought me”

 

There is interplay of the Word of truth and faith—He gives us His Word and we must act upon it by faith. We must believe that Word.

 

God will give you feeling, but only in response to your faith. The necessary thing is to believe God and His Word.

 

The bridegroom is trying to bring her into the banqueting house and she, like Rebekah, said, “I will go.”

 

Gen 24:58  

And they called Rebekah, and said unto her, Wilt thou go with this man? And she said, I will go.

 

2. Who is Brought

 

“brought me”

 

• Not the whole family

 

• Not the whole body

 

• Not the whole house of faith

 

• Not all the daughters of Jerusalem

 

The daughters of Jerusalem are preoccupied by other things. The watchmen on the wall do not know where He is.

 

• Not everybody, but only those that follow hard after Him even thought the way gets hard

 

There is a hunger in the heart of this woman to go all the way to serve God and do His will.

 

3. To What She is Brought

 

“to the banqueting house…”

 

Up to this time this is the most intimate place of fellowship and communion that this little lady is given.

 

In this banqueting house there are only two with tables and all the rest are servants attending to those two.

 

Hebrews 1:14  

Are they not all ministering spirits, sent forth to minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation?

 

It takes one hundred percent top get to the banqueting house. God has made some tremendous promises to us, but we must move into them. God will make some willing to be totally consecrated and committed to Him.

 

We will not just have doctrine, but we will see the dynamics of the doctrine.

 

2. The Banner of the Banquet

 

“…and his banner over me was love.”

 

1. The Banner Represents Who He is

 

“…his banner…”

 

‘Love’ is His name and His nature.

 

I John 4:8

He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love.

 

I John 4:16

There is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear: because fear hath torment. He that feareth is not made perfect in love.

 

Jeremiah 31:3

The LORD hath appeared of old unto me, saying, Yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting love: therefore with lovingkindness have I drawn thee.

 

I Peter 5:7

Casting all your care upon him; for he careth for you.

 

 

He conquered us by His love. He won His kingdom by His love.

 

2. The Banner Represents Ownership

 

“…his banner over me…”

 

He wants us for Himself. She is his and no one else’s. None of the world is to touch us or clutter up our mind. We must meditate on the Word of God.

 

I Corinthians 6:20

For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's.

 

I Corinthians 7:23

Ye are bought with a price; be not ye the servants of men.

 

3. The Banner Speaks of Protection

 

We are under the blood. We are safe from demon spirits.

 

3. The Provisions of the Banquet

 

Song of Solomon 2:5  

Stay me with flagons, comfort me with apples: for I am sick of love.

 

1. Banquet Wine or Flagons

 

This is the wine that is of the Spirit. It has a stimulant, it meets your personal needs, and it makes you strong where you are weak.

 

Drink of the place of the new wine of the Spirit and you will become so filled with His Spirit that your weakness will go.

 

“Stay me with flagons…”

Ephesians 5:18

And be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess; but be filled with the Spirit;

 

We should pray that He would make us strong by a greater supply.

 

The word ‘baptism’ has the thought of emersion in it, but also a continual plunging in the spirit. We would have so few problems if we would continue to plunge into the Spirit.

 

 

The Spirit will come like an ocean wave—waves of glory—wave after wave being filled with His Spirit.

 

We must acknowledge that we have weakness, but also believe that God is able to ‘stay’ us.

 

Galatians 5:16

This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh.

 

If we are going to walk in the Spirit we have to obey. Banqueting wine is for those that walk with Him in obedience.

 

2. Banquet Fruit

 

“…comfort me with apples…”

 

We need to be comforted with the fruit of the truth.

 

Little things and even things that seem good have to leave our lives so that God can give us something better. He wants to take some of those things out of our lives that are natural. It may be some good traits, but even our goodness has to go.

 

3. Banquet Love

 

“…for I am sick of love.”

 

The bride wants more.

 

Psalm 42:2

My soul thirsteth for God, for the living God: when shall I come and appear before God?

 

4. The Nature of the Banquet

 

It is a banquet of espousal. The church is not the bride, but there is a group within the church and they will go after Him.

 

At this time the process takes place and there is no closer communion or fellowship found than in this banqueting house. It is so close that she becomes a part of him.

 

God wants all of us and not just our body, and He wants to mold and fashion us into His own image and likeness.

 

Genesis 1:26

And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.

 

Romans 6:5

For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection:

 

Romans 8:29

For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren.

 

I Corinthians 15:49

And as we have borne the image of the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly.

 

II Corinthians 3:18

But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord.

 

II Corinthians 4:11

For we which live are always delivered unto death for Jesus' sake, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our mortal flesh.

 

Philippians 3:21

Who shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body, according to the working whereby he is able even to subdue all things unto himself.

 

Song of Solomon 2:6  

His left hand is under my head, and his right hand doth embrace me.

 

• His left hand—The sustaining force of God

 

• His right hand—The manifested grace of God