Thy shoots are a paradise of pomegranates, with precious fruits; Henna with spikenard plants;
In chapter 4 the King has just called His bride a locked garden, and now He walks through it naming what grows inside. Two questions follow: whose garden is this, and what is He looking for in it?
The word translated "orchard" is where our word "paradise" comes from. But writers warn against reading the heavenly paradise into it.
In the Old Testament the Hebrew word is probably a Persian word which normally does not mean paradise, but our word "paradise" comes from it… It is also the same word in Ecclesiastes 2:5 and Song of Solomon 4:13, but we should not apply any of these to the paradise of which we are speaking here.
The King uses three pictures here. Each one says something the others do not.
The bride of the Lord is compared here to a "garden," an "orchard," and "a fountain." She is so filled with all that is pleasant and fruitful to Him — the graces of the Holy Spirit in her are so varied — that there is abundance for the heart of her Lord… The "garden" may be known for its choice collection of flowers, scented shrubs and all kinds of pleasant plants. The "orchard" is known for every sort of tree bearing precious fruit. The "fountain" is what waters the whole scene.
Where the ESV has "shoots", older translations read "plants". One writer traces those plants from Israel to the Church, and then down to the single believer.
Israel was God's cultivated garden in the earlier age. The Church is His cultivated garden now. So the apostle writes in 1 Cor. 3:9, "You are God's field." Individual saints are His plants, tenderly cared for with infinite wisdom and love.
The fruit has a source. It comes from the spring and the sealed fountain named in the verse before.
The "spring" and the "fountain" will turn the garden of the Lord into a fruitful garden — "a paradise of pomegranates with precious fruits". The Spirit, when He is not grieved, will produce in our hearts "the fruit of the Spirit". The Apostle tells us this fruit "is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control" (Gal. 5:22). And what are these precious fruits of the Spirit? They are the character of Christ reproduced in the believer.
The verse does not stop at fruit. It turns to henna and nard — and the shift of image marks a shift in what the heart is doing.
In Scripture, fruit speaks of the excellencies of Christ, but the spices, with their fragrance, speak of worship that has Christ for its object. In worship there is no thought of receiving blessing from Christ. The thought is of bringing the homage of our hearts to Christ… Mary anointed the feet of Jesus with "a pound of expensive ointment made from pure nard". On other occasions she was at His feet as a receiver, to get instruction or to find sympathy in her sorrow. This time she was there as a giver, bringing the worship of a heart filled with the sense of His blessedness.
A garden is not a row of identical plants.
The plants may vary in size and beauty, in fragrance and fruitfulness, but all are for the delight of the King. And so in the garden of the Lord; no two saints are alike, but all minister to His delight.
This list is Christ's own estimate of His people. Taking it in changes where the believer's eyes rest.
This is how Christ values "His own," and we should carry the sense of all this in our souls — the sense of what He sees His people to be. If we carried in our souls more the thought of what we are to Christ, He would be more to us. The eye would then be more off ourselves, and off one another.
- Paradise. Our word "paradise" comes from the word translated "orchard" here. Writers still warn that this garden is not the heavenly paradise.
- Watered. The spring and sealed fountain make this garden fruitful. The supply is inside the garden, not carried in from outside.
- Fruit. The precious fruits are the fruit of the Spirit — the character of Christ reproduced in the believer.
- Fragrance. Fruit speaks of Christ's excellencies received. The spices speak of worship given back, like Mary's nard poured out.
- Valued. No two plants in this garden match, yet every one is grown for the King's delight. Knowing what we are to Him takes our eyes off ourselves and off each other.
Spikenard and saffron; Calamus and cinnamon, with all trees of frankincense; Myrrh and aloes, with all the chief spices
The King is still describing His bride. Here He names the spices that grow in her, one after another. Two questions press on any reader: what do these fragrances stand for, and how does anyone come to carry them?
One writer traces where else the Bible uses the word for cinnamon, and how the bride came to have such perfumes:
Sweet cinnamon. Scripture uses this word in only two other places. One is the sad passage we have just referred to (Proverbs 7:17). The other stands in blessed contrast: there the true bride has all these fragrant perfumes put upon her — surely, by grace alone.
One writer takes the long, mixed list of spices as a picture of what God's people should be:
The spouse of the Lord is here likened to a "garden," an "orchard," "a fountain." She is so filled with everything pleasant and fruitful to Him, and the graces of the Holy Spirit in her are so varied, that there is abundance for the heart of her Lord... What a breadth and depth of thought this should give us about what the people of God ought to be for Him in this world! Set the choicest of gardens beside the barren, howling wilderness. That is how the people of the Lord should look beside the people of the world.
Another writer looks at the individual plants in that garden:
The plants may vary in size and beauty, in fragrance and fruitfulness, but all are for the delight of the King. And so in the garden of the Lord; no two saints are alike, but all minister to His delight.
Fruit and spices are not the same thing. One writer marks the difference, and points to a woman who poured out costly nard on Jesus:
In Scripture, fruit speaks of the excellencies of Christ, but the spices, with their fragrance, speak of worship that has Christ for its object. In worship there is no thought of receiving blessing from Christ. The thought is of bringing the homage of our hearts to Christ. When the wise men from the East found themselves in the presence of the young Child, they fell down and worshiped Him, and offered Him gifts: gold and frankincense and myrrh (Matthew 2:11). When Mary anointed the feet of Jesus with "a pound of ointment of spikenard, very costly," she was not at His feet as a receiver, as on other occasions, to get instruction or to find sympathy in her sorrow. She was there as a giver, to render the worship of a heart filled with the sense of His blessedness.
The verse ends by sweeping in everything else: all the choice spices. One writer turns that phrase into a question for the reader. (Older translations read "all the chief spices" where the ESV has "all choice spices.")
Then follow various spices, "all the chief spices." How is it with us? Is there a fragrance about us of not just one or two kinds of spice, but of "all the chief spices"? These spices speak to us of many virtues, or graces of the Spirit. Together they make up the sweet and varied fragrance of a well-balanced character.
The same writer gives two examples:
Some Christians are loving, but they are inclined to be over-indulgent and lack firmness for what is right. Others are strict and exacting, firm in their stand for the right, but sadly lacking in love and grace. Such have only one or two of the sweet spices in their Christian life, not "all the chief spices."
One writer reads the bride first as Christ's earthly people, and then applies the picture to the Church as well:
The strict interpretation of the bride has Christ's earthly people in view. Even so, we may rightly make an application to the Church, the heavenly bride of Christ.
- Garden. These spices grow in a garden, not a wilderness. The Lord's people should stand out from the world as the choicest garden stands out from barren ground.
- Given. The bride did not grow these perfumes herself. Grace put them upon her — the varied work of the Holy Spirit.
- Varied. Plants differ in size, scent and fruitfulness. No two believers are alike, yet each one adds to the King's delight.
- Worship. Fruit speaks of Christ's excellencies. The fragrance speaks of worship. It comes as a giver, like Mary with her ointment, not as a receiver.
- Complete. He names "all the chief spices," not a favourite two. A character strong on love but weak on firmness, or firm but graceless, is a garden with most of its beds empty.