Song of Solomon 5:2

Soon a change comes over her feelings, and it troubles her deeply. "I slept, but my heart was awake." She is restless, uncomfortable, unhappy. Her heart longs after Christ, but she will not stir herself for Him. What a sad state, when the blessed Jesus is knocking at the door! But this is no uncommon case. The believer may be right at heart in the main. But he has fallen into a low, dull, sleepy state. Spiritual duties become a burden. He either neglects them altogether or does them without heart. It is well to look at both sides of this "but." She is neither asleep nor awake. On the one side there is a slumbering conscience, on the other a wakeful heart. She can find no quiet rest and no refreshment.

These words give the key to this beautiful scripture: "I slept, but my heart was awake." The bride's heart was true to her Beloved. But with it went a lack of energy and a leaning toward ease and comfort. That betrayed her into a lack of watchfulness and produced a state of sloth. His head was wet with dew and His locks with the drops of the night, while she reclined at her ease on her bed. The Scriptures are full of such contrasts. Take Peter. He sat warming himself at the fire with the enemies of Christ, while his Master faced the taunts and insults of His persecutors. (Luke 22:55-64.)

He knocks at her door, asking to be let in. In love he appeals to her affections, seeking to restore the heart that has grown cold. His touching words, "Open to me," express the longing of his heart to fill her heart. He lavishes upon her every term of endearment... He could have said, "Your King, your friend, your beloved." But love takes another way, one better suited to reach her heart. He reminds her of all that she is in his sight. Her waning love has not changed his thoughts of her. And then, as a final appeal to her heart, he speaks of his sufferings on her behalf. He has faced the night, the cold, the darkness, and the dew, to awaken her love.

He is not swayed by her sad state of soul. He does not accuse her of ingratitude and indifference toward Himself. He appeals to her in terms more tender than ever before... He had never called her his "undefiled" before. He kept this term of wonderful grace and meaning for the day of her deep failure. And he had never spoken before of the heavy dew, and the heavier drops of the night, that had come upon Him on His path of devoted, unselfish love for her.

Most Christians are more taken up with themselves and their changing feelings than with the word of God. This is the fruitful source of endless troubles and perplexities of the soul. How often believers feel a change in themselves. They jump to the conclusion that Christ Himself is no longer what He once was to them. They judge the Lord by their own feelings, instead of believing in Him according to His own word.

In the night of His absence we may seek our ease in this poor world, but He loves us too well to let us rest apart from Him... if we wander, He follows with restoring grace, and knocks at our door. What a sorrowful tale these words tell of wandering affections and empty, unsatisfied hearts. And yet what a witness they bear to His unchanging love, and to His longing to fill our hearts with Himself. It is as if He said: "You have turned to other things and found no rest. Your soul sleeps, but without rest. Your heart wakes, but without satisfaction. Now open to ME."

It is the remnant of Israel, once in relationship with God but now asleep. Her affection for the Lord, the Bridegroom of Israel, is entirely dormant... Even the remnant here has the door locked and barred against Him... But from among them the Lord will yet call a people for Himself. His voice and His knocking aroused them.