Homilist Songs 3:6-11 Who is this that comes out of the wilderness like pillars of smoke, perfumed with myrrh and frankincense… The simile is a most striking one. When Christ was on earth, He came, as it were, to a wilderness. He lived in the wilderness while here, in the desert, on the mountain-top. It was at His ascension that He appeared as pillars of smoke rising out of the earthly wilderness. "When He had spoken these things, while they beheld, He was taken up, and a cloud received Him out of their sight." And when we consider who it was that ascended — the well-beloved Son of God, in whom the Father was well pleased, in whom His soul delighted, who finished His work on earth — we see still further the propriety of the figure. The smoke was not the smoke of offensiveness, but the fragrance of perfume, the smoke of the sweet-smelling incense, filling both earth and heaven with fragrance. I. CHRIST'S ASCENSION IS THE CONSUMMATION OF HIS WORK. 1. It was not complete until this had taken place. Before His crucifixion He was working out our salvation and accomplishing the purposes of His Father. When in the grave He was under the dominion of death. After His resurrection He was still in this world of sin and sorrow. But when He ascended into heaven the whole work He had undertaken to perform was carried to a fitting conclusion. 2. We must bear in mind that when Christ ascended into heaven it was not merely a return to the place He came from. He came from heaven a spirit, an essence. He returned, the same spirit indeed, but bearing with Him a human body. His ascension, then, was rather the entrance of renewed manhood into the presence of God, the admission of justified humanity into the kingdom of heaven. II. CHRIST'S ASCENSION WAS THE EARNEST OF OUR PERSONAL BLESSINGS. Two important objects were to be especially assured to us. 1. The preparing a place — "I go that I may prepare a place for you." What this preparation involved we cannot exactly say. 2. The giving His Spirit — in other words, preparing us for the place. 3. The officiating as High-Priest. III. CHRIST'S ASCENSION WAS A SUITABLE REWARD TO HIS WORK. (Homilist.) Parallel Verses KJV: Who is this that cometh out of the wilderness like pillars of smoke, perfumed with myrrh and frankincense, with all powders of the merchant? |
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