Love As Strong As Death

I was meditating on this passage this morning and saw a beautiful thing. I saw a picture of the end-time bride whose heart was no longer weak and fickle, but strong as the Lord’s love is for us, for it is His love in us. In the past we have been given to idolatry, and the love of the world, but now we are maturing into a dependent bride burning with the same love that Jesus has for us- a love that is stronger than death itself.

His love is undeterred by our unfaithfulness, unwavering in consistency, constant in trials, and passionate when we are cold and indifferent. It burns with an unquenchable flame! His love has never failed us, and now, in these last days, a faithful bride is arising with like faith, love, and His very own strength of heart!

“My meat also which I gave thee, fine flour, and oil, and honey wherewith I fed thee, thou has even set it before them for a sweet savour; and thus it was, saith the Lord God…How weak is thine heart, saith the Lord God, seeing thou doest all these things…”

The immature bride has taken God’s blessings and used them for her own gain and selfish desires. She has tried to mix the love of God with a little love of the world, and God laments her weak heart. But now, we see her coming up out of the wilderness, leaning on her beloved. She has been humbled by her own unfaithfulness and crushed by the weight of His love, and now she possesses a new purity and dependence on Him alone.

Like John the beloved disciple, she lives leaning on His breast where her heart beats in sync with His. She is the branch, and He is the Vine, and she is bubbling over with the new wine of the Holy Spirit. Her eyes are as doves looking and longing for her Bridegroom Jesus, and all of her prayers are captured in this one cry: “Make haste, my Beloved, and be thou like to a roe, or to a young hart upon the mountains of spices!”

We can identify the bride only by the cry of her heart: Come Lord Jesus! The Lord recently spoke this to my heart: “I am coming back for a bride. What do brides do? What do brides feel? How do brides spend their time?” He was emphasizing that I needed to work on my bridal love, for that is who He is coming for very soon.

"Set me like a seal..."

A seal is “the valuable possession by which all of a person’s possessions are identified. (Everyday Study Bible, p.929).

I felt the Lord saying that even now He is sealing our hearts with a strong love for Him! If you have ever lost someone that you love, you know the strength of the grave-it is wholly unyielding. By the power of the Holy Spirit, God is forging within the depths of our hearts the exact same love that took Jesus to the cross. Our hearts are sealed, and we can say with Paul, “Yea, doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord; for whom I have suffered the loss of things…”Phil 2:8

That’s the love that made Jesus stand up and take note of Stephen’s death, and not even an angry, murderous mob could overwhelm his love for Jesus. Stephen didn’t even see the mob, for he was looking into heaven, and his face shone.

The spiced wine of the pomegranate symbolizes a love that gives everything for the beloved; it is a love unto death, the love that took Jesus to the cross for those who were yet His enemies. Now, here we are 2,000 years later with this same love for the One who gave Himself for us. That death takes many forms, but it is distinguished by fidelity in the face of opposition, temptation, trial, and worldly enticements. Affliction and seduction-both are weapons in the enemy’s arsenal.

We will pour out our love like the spiced wine of the pomegranate, a wine that we know well, for we have partaken of it, and we live because of it. We can love this way because we are leaning on Jesus. Floods of persecution cannot overcome this love, for it emanates from the Divine Flame of God’s consuming fire. It isn’t the weak and capricious love of fallen man, but the vehement flame of God Himself! This love will never sell out, never bail out, and never crumble in the face of persecution for it is as strong as death itself!

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