Leave Me Alone

As the Song of Solomon begins, the Shulamite is clearly infatuated with her Beloved. She dreams of what it would be like to be held and kissed by him (1:1-4). But she is also painfully aware of how the harsh reality of life has robbed her of her original beauty. She says of herself, "I am dark yet lovely" (1:5). Overworked and burned out, she says, "they made me keeper of the vineyards, but my own vineyard I have not kept.” (1:6) Like the Shulamite, we too can often become so busy with the noble work of ministry and serving others that we are left with little time and energy to devote to personal prayer and to building an intimate relationship with Christ.  In essence, we allow ourselves to be commandeered in order to tend the vineyards of others while our own souls languish with little care.

It is not always easy to balance the demands of ministry against God's call for us to draw away with Him to pray. But we must begin to view the health of our own vineyard as the most important call of God upon our lives - second to nothing else. In the Song of Solomon, the Bride says to her Bridegroom,

Let us go early to the vineyards 
to see if the vines have budded, 
if their blossoms have opened, 
and if the pomegranates are in bloom
there I will give you my love. (7:12)

The vineyard is the place where we enjoy intimate love with our Bridegroom.  But if our vineyard is unkept and neglected it robs us of the love that Christ longs to give us. In Chapter 2 of the Song, as the heart of the Shulamite matures, she finds a place of rest and nourishment as she reclines in the orchard beneath the shade of her Beloved. Her heart is satisfied with the fruit of His love. It is precisely at this moment when the King turns his attention to the Daughters of Jerusalem and tells them:

"do not stir up nor awaken love until she pleases.” (2:7)        

While His Bride is lingering in the experience of her Bridegroom's love, He speaks to her friends (who represent our fellow believer) and says to them, “Leave her alone.” Why this peculiar demand on behalf of His Bride? Because He wants to savor the time He has with His Beloved. They are too often far and in-between. He wants nothing - not even the work of ministry - to invade this sacred place of intimate communion.  

We are constantly seeking validation through what we can do for God - rather than finding our value in just being loved by Him. But our Bridegroom is serious about this! “Leave her alone! Don’t try to stir her up out of this place,” is His command to those who would try to over-burden His Bride with the work of their vineyards.    

You will recall the story on Mary of Bethany in the New Testament. She brought a pound of very costly oil of spikenard, anointed the feet of Jesus, and wiped them clean with her hair until the entire house was filled with the sweet fragrance of her worship. But those who witnessed her act of devotion denounced her extravagant offering as a waste.      

But Jesus told them, “Let her alone”  (John 12:1-7)      

Lurking inside of all of us is a little voice that urges us to involve ourselves in anything and everything but devotional prayer and worship. We must fight the tendency to exalt works above the secret place of intimacy. We, who comprise the emerging Bride of Christ today understand the primacy of the call to spend time with our Beloved in prayer. Even if other things go lacking, we know that every moment we spend with Him is never wasted time.  And so to those who would seek to draw us away from our time with Him we say, "Leave us alone."