Teachings – The Apple Tree Among the Trees of the Wood

THE APPLE TREE AMONG THE TREES OF THE WOOD

UNFOLDING SIXTEEN 

WHERE WE ARE 

With this discourse, we enter the Song of Songs – Song of Solomon, or if we go with the Latin Vulgate, the Canticles. Pastor spent a lot of time in the Song of Songs calling it the one book of the Bible that he went to when he wanted a time to commune and fellowship with Jesus. 

SCRIPTURE

Song of Solomon 2: 3

The Shulamite 
Like an apple tree among the trees of the woods,
So is my beloved among the sons.
I sat down in his shade with great delight,
And his fruit was sweet to my taste.

THE APPLE TREE AMONG THE TREES OF THE WOOD
UNFOLDING SIXTEEN

Yes, as the apple tree among the tree of the wood, so is my beloved among the sons. The metaphor?

“There are many trees of the forest, and they all have their uses, but when one is hungry, and faint, and thirsty, the forest trees yield no succor, and we must look elsewhere; they yield shelter, but not refreshing nutriment. “

There are many fine trees in the wood – as there are many men, many truths, many institutions, many earthly comforts, but there is none that yield to us what Jesus Christ offers us. He is that apple tree standing in the midst of the woods. 

Now, suppose you are hungry and thirsty, what trees offer such refreshment? Oak, ash, or elm? Yes, go to the greatest, most stately tree in the woods. 

“This is a fit picture of the attempt to find consolation in systems of religion which are recommended to you because they are greatly followed. Here is a religion which has been patronized by kings and nobles for centuries…”

Alas, the great trees in our lives are not the fruit-bearing tree, but the fruit-bearing one brings us the greatest and everlasting satisfaction – heart, soul, and mind. 

“It is not the mightiest tree of the forest that we look to with hope, but to the Lord Jesus, our Beloved, who is the apple tree among the trees of the wood; His fruit is ever sweet to our taste.”

THOUGHT GOING FORWARD

The Shulamite (Bride) in this verse is speaking of her Beloved. Jesus is preeminent of all – angels, and men. No tree, except for the apple – a fruit bearing and delicious varietal – can provide the sustenance that this tree brings to the Bride. And here the apple is positioned among the trees of the woods. If we were to consider the whole world a forest, and Gethsemane at center – our Lord and Savior between two thieves, with spectators milling all about, then, yes, that is where hungry and thirsty man flees to find true sustenance.     

IN TRIBUTE TO SPURGEON’S LOVE OF SHORT RYHMES

On Calvary’s hill
and the cross in the middle,
what a site for many to see!
For many bizarre
to them, just a riddle.
to them, a standing dead tree.