Fall 1995
Hidden in the Cleft of the Rock
El-Bethel

"Arise, my love, my fair one, and come away.
O my dove, that art in the clefts of the
rock, in the secret (steep, inaccessible
hiding) places of the stairs, let me see
thy countenance, let me hear thy voice;
for sweet is thy voice, and thy countenance
is comely" SS 2:13b-14 (Comments added).

In these last hours before the return of our Lord for His Bride, there is no time to lose as He will come suddenly. Therefore, we must be diligent in putting on our wedding garment.

This Bride is being prepared in secret through the power of her union with Jesus Christ. The Lord is "testing" His own in these days as never before; He is putting them through many purifying dealings, which will prove whether they are worthy to sit with Him upon His Throne.

When we consider this, we see more clearly how much there is yet to be done in our lives, and our hearts cry out to the Lord with renewed earnestness that He will perfect that which concerns us, no matter what the cost, or what the test and humiliation may be.

Only to those who are following after Him with deepening hunger does the voice of the Bridegroom come more clearly, as He calls upon them to lay aside all false tranquility and lethargy. Even for those whose hearts are determined to be ready for the coming of their Bridegroom, untiring watchfulness alone will keep them from being lulled into a deceptive confidence, which is so subtle that it steals over a soul before it is recognized.

If we are in close touch with our precious Lord and have our hearts attuned to hear His faintest whisper in the still hours, when He and we are together alone, we will hear His call to "Arise, My love, My fair one, and come away." It is not with a loud voice that He calls, nor is it with harsh words that He seeks to arouse us from any indifference into which we are in danger of falling.

The tender voice with which He speaks draws our feet to hasten after Him. We have been scorched by the sun as we kept the vineyards of the world and neglected our own vineyards. But He has chosen us, and in His heart we are precious, for though we are swarthy and uncomely in ourselves, we are comely and beautiful in His comeliness.

"Behold, thou art fair, my love; behold, thou
art fair; thou hast doves' eyes" SS 1:15.

Beloved, how many spots does His eyes behold upon your garment? How fully are you putting on the wedding garment? Do you realize, day by day, that you are His love and that He is your Beloved? Are you living as a pure virgin who is preparing for the wedding, and who is looking forward with longing to the coming of He who has betrothed you to Himself?

"O, My dove, that art in the clefts of the rock,
in the secret places of the stairs" SS 2:14a.

How tenderly He reminds us of what our "hiding place" means to Him, and at what untold cost it was provided for us. What suffering was His, as through His sacrifice upon the cross, He opened to us a new and living way into the Holiest of all.

Then appeared that stairway which reaches to heaven, but is set before us upon the earth. He is the way, the hidden way upon which we climb upward by His grace. In Him alone are those secret places, which no vulture's eye can see, which no bird of prey can know, but are known by the redeemed alone.

This is not an easy way. But all difficulties will be forgotten as we press deeper into Him. And as we look up and faintly see that which has been provided for us, we all the more will cling to the Rock in closer fellowship and communion with Him, as unseen arms lift us over the hardest places and plant our feet upon the next step which had appeared to us as being inaccessible, and then carries us upward.

It is not only a stair, it is an inaccessible place. Not inaccessible to those who are in Christ, but to the enemy whose eye cannot hunt us out, if only we keep hidden deep in our Lord. "Our life is hid with Christ in God."

He became a man, not only that He might redeem us, but also that redeemed humanity might become His Bride and reign with Him. It is to this Bride for whom He suffered that He is speaking in such tenderness. He longs to see her face ever turned heavenward, to see her eyes unwaveringly fixed upon Him.

He alone knows the work which must be done before she will become like Him, and be prepared to enter with Him to the marriage supper of the Lamb. It is only as she beholds His beauty with unveiled face that she will be changed into the same image from glory to glory as by the Spirit of the Lord. And then He will whisper to her heart, "thy countenance is beautiful, thou art all fair My love, there is no spot in thee."

Not only would He see her countenance turned heavenward and unveiled before Him, but He desires to hear her voice in communion, in prayer, and in praise and worship. It is when she has put away all words which are unworthy, and her voice is for Him alone that He whispers to her,

"O my dove, that art in the clefts of the rock,
in the secret places of the stair, let me see
thy countenance, let me hear thy voice, for
sweet is thy voice and thy countenance is
beautiful."