Song of Solomon 2:13

He Himself tells her to arise, that the winter is past — the time of mourning and sorrow. He desires also to hear her voice. So her heart is reassured: her Beloved is hers. How truly all this shows divine affections and confidence waking up in the remnant, who had so long learned what it was to have Jehovah's face hidden. And how fully the love of Him who wept over Jerusalem — a love nothing can put out — is at work to awaken this confidence and assure the heart of the afflicted people. It is not instruction about circumstances or responsibility, but grace — Christ's (Jehovah's) own relationship with Israel.

Here in these verses of the Song of Solomon we find the remnant, the beloved of the Lord. She is hiding behind the wall of protection He has provided for her. We see she is in a waiting attitude, listening for the voice of her beloved coming for her deliverance. She hears Him coming and knows His voice... The winter, with its cold and storms, pictures the great tribulation. That has now given way to the beautiful springtime of the millennial age. She can now leave her place of refuge and enter with Him into His glorious reign, which the prophets spoke of so often.

"For behold, the winter is past" — the long winter of Israel... "The fig tree ripens its figs" — you can see here the parable of the fig tree that the Lord refers to in Matthew 24.

The fig tree puts out its early figs (the national fruit-bearing of the once cursed fig tree); the vines, too, begin to give the tender grapes. Who cannot see in the imagery of all these statements that millennial times are about to begin!

Many have thought and said that Israel's winter would last forever, and that no spring or summer would ever return for the cast-off nation. But such thoughts were never learned from the book of God. There we read in the plainest terms that in due time God will cause the descendants of Jacob to take root. Israel will blossom and bud, and fill the face of the world with fruit. The budding flowers, the ripening figs, the blooming vines, the singing of birds, the voice of the turtle-dove — these are sure signs. They show not only that winter is past but that spring has come. And though nothing in the bride's vineyard is ripe yet, the opening bud of promise is a sure pledge of a glorious summer and an abundant autumn.

The King would no longer be without his bride. He would call her away from the dark wintry plains to fairer, brighter scenes. His first word would rouse her from her circumstances: "Arise." His next word proclaims how precious she is in his sight: "my love, my beautiful one." And then comes the clear, definite call: "come away" — telling of the longing of his heart.

The King not only calls the bride from her home in the plains. He also unfolds to her a new world of blessing, where neither storm nor winter's blast can ever come. There all is beautiful to the eye, sweet to the ear, and pleasant to the taste — the land of flowers and singing, the land of green figs and the new wine. The presence of the bride is all that is lacking to complete the blessedness of that scene. So the King ends with the call, "Arise, my love, my beautiful one, and come away!"