5- I rose to open for my beloved; My hands dripped with myrrh, And my fingers dripped with myrrh, On the handle of the lock.
6- I opened to my beloved, but my beloved turned and passed away. My soul went out at his word. I sought him, but I did not find him; I called to him, but he did not answer me.
7- The guards found me in the city. They beat me and wounded me; the keepers of the walls lifted my veil from me.
The Church is a Ship in the Sea of God's Word
Those who plan to go on a sea voyage abroad have a lot of anticipation for the voyage, and sailors offer a prayer at the start of the voyage, asking God for a safe journey. Then the ship sets sail under the captain's command. In their prayer, the sailors ask for a moderate wind to push the ship's helm in the direction desired by the captain. The sea does not cause any distress when the wind is in a suitable direction, the sea is calm and the waves are light. The ship continues to glide over the waves, and the sailors hope for great wealth as long as their voyage goes smoothly before any danger arises.
I use these examples as an introduction, because what I mean is clear to anyone who pays attention to me.
The vast sea represents the vastness of meditating deeply on the Word of God, and we expect great wealth from this journey. The church is the living ship that expects the riches of God’s holy leadership in full force.
But the text of the hymn acts as a guide, and does not touch the hand that steers the ship until the whole crew has offered up prayer to God so that we may breathe the power of the Holy Spirit upon us and move the waves of our thoughts. In this way, He guides our prayer as a captain guides a sea voyage.
After we have crossed the sea with deep contemplation, we can move in the richness of knowledge if the Holy Spirit comes through prayer and pushes the sail forward.
Let us open to our Bridegroom with our fingers filled with myrrh (the life of mortification)
Let us begin with the words of divine revelation, which read as follows:I got up to open the door for my beloved, my hands dripping with myrrh, my fingers dripping with myrrh on the handle of the lock.“[5:5]. The Word of the living God cannot be present within us (I mean the pure, invisible Bridegroom who unites the soul to Him in purity and incorruption) unless we remove evil from our bodies by mortifying our bodies on earth. In this way we open the door for the Word of God to enter and dwell within our souls. This is evident from the holy teachings of the Apostle. Also from the words of the Bride: “I went to open for my lover“By making my hands springs of myrrh, from which sweet and fragrant scents flow, and my fingers appear to be filled with myrrh.
The bride opens the way for her groom with the following words: “Therefore we were buried with him through baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also might walk in newness of life” (Romans 6:4).
The miracle of resurrection from the dead cannot be accomplished in us unless we die before it by our own will. This, i.e. voluntary death, is symbolized by the drops of myrrh dripping from the bride’s hands, her fingers filled with this perfume.. She says that the myrrh did not come to her hands from any other source. If this is true, then the myrrh becomes something accidental. Involuntary, the myrrh (the faculties of her working soul) drips from her hands, and this means the trust of her bodily emotions with her will. For this reason, all her fingers are filled with myrrh.
fingers of virtue
The hymn explains every act of virtue by using the word “fingers.” We can understand this in the following sense: “I acquired the power of resurrection from the dead by mortifying my members on earth. I freely took upon myself this obligation of mortification, as if the myrrh that flowed from my hands had been the result of my free will.” So the same tendency appears constantly in all the acts of virtue that are known as “fingers.”
As for those who practice virtue, some of them may be dead to one passion while alive to others. We notice that some people put to death the life of excess (pleasures) while still practicing pride or other soul-destructive passions such as love of money, anger, greed, love of appearance, or something else of this sort. If these evil passions are attached to the soul, bitterness does not appear on the person’s fingers, because mortification and separation from evil does not extend to all aspects of his life.
Souls rise and open themselves to the Bridegroom when the fingers are filled with what we call myrrh. Therefore it appears that the great Saint Paul fully understood the words of the Lord Christ: “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it produces much fruit” John 12:24. Paul taught this theory to the church, so death takes precedence over life, because life does not enter a person until he passes through the gate of death..
May virtue live in us and evil die
free will:
Our nature has two sides: one is transparent, secret and light, the other is thick, material and heavy. Therefore the movement of each has a certain activity that cannot be exchanged with the other side. Intelligence and light are characteristics of the activity that rises upward, while the heavy material activity tends downward and takes place there. Since the nature of these two types of activity is opposed and opposite in direction, the movement of one does not work efficiently unless the other slows down its movement. We have the ability to freely choose between these two activities, and this ability can change weak activity into strong activity or vice versa: it is the will that ensures the victory of the activity that supports it. Therefore the Gospel praises (Matt. 24:45) the faithful and wise servant, whom his master put in charge of his household to give them food in due season. (The servant, in my opinion, represents our free will.) He was praised because he preserved his master’s house by destroying his enemies. And the destruction of enemies is considered food and health for what is good.) On the other hand, the wicked servant who befriends drunkards is condemned because he mistreats and beats the servants of God’s house.
Virtue suffers a severe blow when evil triumphs. Therefore, we gain good if we are enthusiastic about the word of the prophet, which is, to destroy all evildoers on earth, early in the morning, and to banish all evil thoughts from the city of God (the city is the soul) (Ps. 101:8). Good activity is revived in us after evils are removed from our souls. Thus we can live after death, because one thing within us dies, while the word of God gives life to the other. As the prophet says, “I kill and I make alive” (Deut. 32:39). So Paul lived after he died.And he became strong in his weakness, and continued his struggle while he was bound in chains. He had wealth in poverty and was rich even though he owned nothing.And he always carried in his body the dying of the Lord Jesus Christ (2 Corinthians 4:10).
But let us return to our discussion, namely, that the soul rises and ascends through death. (If it does not die, it remains forever dead and incapable of life. Through death the soul passes into life and rejects everything that causes death.) The Bride confirms these teachings for us: “I rose to open for my beloved, my hands dripping with myrrh, and my fingers dripping with myrrh on the handle of the lock.“.
Man was not created to die
Myrrh is a symbol of death; no one who knows the Bible doubts that. How then can death arise? I think we must seek a clearer understanding of this subject. We will respond to the best of our abilities and study it in an orderly manner: God created all things in wonderful beauty, as the Book of Genesis testifies (Gen. 1:31). And man was among these things most beautiful, and in fact God endowed him with a beauty that surpassed all other creatures. What could be more wonderful than the image of eternal beauty? If anything was so beautiful, and man was among them, and was created to be superior to them, surely death was not within him. It is impossible for man to be beautiful while he bore the sad seal of death within him. But man was in the image and likeness of eternal life, of true beauty and great beauty, and adorned with the appearance of a radiant and beautiful life.
eternal paradise life
God's garden was for man, and it was teeming with life because of the abundance of trees. God's commandments were the law of life, which promised that man would live forever. In the center of the garden was planted a tree that was full of life: how necessary it is to understand what this tree meant, whose fruit was life! On the other side was a tree that caused death, and whose fruit brought good and evil. This too was in the center of the garden. These two trees could not occupy the same place in the center of the garden: if one of them was in the center, the other would have to be far from it. The center of a circle is the point that is equidistant from the circumference. Since the circle has only one center, it cannot have two centers that occupy the same place. If we take another point as the center of the circle in place of the present center, we must make another circle. Therefore, the first center is not suitable to be the center of the second circle. But the Bible says that both trees are in the center of the garden, and that each has a power that opposes the other (Gen. 9:2, 3:3). That is, one tree gives life, while the fruit of the other causes death. St. Paul calls the final fruit sin, saying: “For the wages of sin is death” Romans 6:23
The lesson to be learned here is that life is at the center of God's plants. Death was not planted and had no roots or place of its own, because it was barren in life and did not participate in goodness and had no benefit or fruit for the living. The tree of life was at the center of all things planted by God, but the nature of death is to terminate or stop life. The tree of death is in the garden, presented to us symbolically and its fruit bears the qualities of opposing forces.
The text clearly states that good and evil appeared at the same time, indicating the nature of sin. Pleasure actually precedes everything done through evil. For sin does not exist except when it is connected with pleasure, as are the sins of anger and lust. For this reason the fruit is called “beautiful” as a result of the wrong judgment of those who find their good in their pleasure. Therefore, we reveal that the fruit is evil because of its bitter taste. According to the proverb: “For the lips of a strange woman drip honey, and her palate is smoother than oil” (Prov. 3:5). The honey that comes from the lips of evil and moistens the throat for a time turns bitter in taste to those who taste its sweetness with evil intentions.
Death enters man
Man separated himself from the fruits of good works and was filled with the fruits of destruction through disobedience (the name of these fruits is sin that leads to death). Then man died directly to the good life, because he unreasonably exchanged the holy life for the animal life. And when death was mixed with human nature, it was passed on by inheritance to successive generations of children. Therefore our life became death, because in any case our life died in reality because it became burned from eternity. But the one who knows that he is between two kinds of life can pass from the mortal life to the eternal life. And he can do this by removing the first, bad one, and thus give victory to the second. Therefore man exchanged the true life through death and chose for himself the mortal life. But if he dies, that is, renounces this mortal, animal life, he can pass over to the eternal life. And without a doubt, no one can enter into the life of grace unless he dies to sin. The text in Genesis explains this idea by saying that there were two trees at the center of the garden, one of which was present in nature, and the other followed after a while and with it was a prohibition. The exchange of life and death occurs through the sharing or lack thereof in relation to the same thing.This can be explained as follows: He who does evil is dead to the good life. But he who lives in virtue and does good is dead to evil. Therefore the bride's hands appear full of myrrh. And by dying for all sins, she rises to establish an entrance for the Word.And the word that enters it is life.
Life is a constant movement
The soul that looks to God is raised to the highest heights, as we have already observed. It does not know as it ought, according to Paul (1 Cor. 8:2), nor does it claim to have understood, but it seeks what is above, pressing forward to what is ahead (Phil. 3:13).
The hymn introduces the bride’s words:On the handle of the lock I opened for my loverThen she addedBut my beloved changed and crossed over, my soul went against his word“[5:5-6]. The Bride teaches us here that the only way to understand this power that surpasses all understanding is that It never remains in a static form, but its greatness is constantly rising and never stopping.The bride is called “fingers” to symbolize the death of evil in every act of life, because she was filled with myrrh. She also showed her free conviction of virtue with her hands that were dripping with myrrh. She said that her hands touched the lock of the door, meaning that her good work approached the narrow entrance, the keys of which the Word of God gave to Peter (Matt. 16:19). So the bride was able to open the door of the kingdom: with her hands that do good works through the keys of faith. Because through works and faith the Word of God prepares the keys of the kingdom in us..
When the bride, like Moses, wished for God’s face to be shown to her (Exodus 33:13-22), the one she wanted to see disappeared from her. She says, “My love has changed and passed away“He did this not to reject her desire but to draw her to Himself. It is a great blessing for her to go out to meet her beloved according to His word. “My help comes from the Lord, who made heaven and earth. He will not let your foot slip, and he who keeps you will not slumber.” Psalm 212:2-3 God guards the coming and going of these deserving ones, and our exit from our present state becomes our entrance into the unspeakable goodness.And the soul that follows the word of God who says: “I am the door; if anyone enters by me, he will be saved, and will go in and out and find pasture” John 10:9. The bride never stopped going in and out and was only calmed by advancing towards the one who guided her forward and her idea of him rose the more she knew about him..
God's face was expressed to Moses in a similar way, so the soul of the one who gave the law advanced in the knowledge of God as it followed him as he guided it.
Who does not know the steps of progress that Moses took during his ministry? Moses continually rose to the heights, and did not remain stagnant as he grew. Moses’ first step was right when he put the reproach of Christ before the kingdom of Egypt, and chose to share the pain and suffering of God’s people rather than enjoy the temporary pleasure of sin.
Moses became more angry when the Egyptians fought the Jews, so he killed one of the foreigners and fought for the Israelites.
We can truly understand these steps of growth if we consider these examples symbolic.
Moses matured during his quiet life in the desert, and was filled with light by what he saw in the fire of the bush: then he took off his sandals made of dead animal skin, and his staff devoured the serpents of the Egyptians, and delivered his people from the tyrant Pharaoh, and the pillar of cloud led him, and parted the sea, and drowned the tyrant's army, and turned the water sweet, and struck the rock, and water gushed forth from it, and was provided with angelic food, and heard the trumpets, and Moses ascended the burning mountain, and touched its summit, and entered into the cloud, and moved into the midst of the cloud where God was, and received the commandments, and became as bright as the sun, and hard to approach.
Indeed, who can count all the steps that Moses took to the top or enumerate his religious emotions?!
He was constantly wanting to rise despite his great and lofty position in virtue and his many experiences in his encounters with God. He begged God to see him face to face, although the Bible says that God allowed Moses to speak to him face to face. Moses was not satisfied with the intimate relationship and speaking with God as a friend, he did not stop asking for more“If I have found favor in your sight, show me your face clearly.” And the one who promised to grant the request replied: “And the Lord said to Moses, ‘This thing also that you have spoken I will do, because you have found favor in my sight, and I know you by name.’” Exodus 33:17 The Lord passed by Moses on the holy place in the rock and lifted up his hand, but Moses could hardly see God’s back after he had passed.
It is clear to us from this that the person who desires to see God can contemplate Him by constantly following Him. Contemplating deeply on the face of God leads to an endless journey of following the Word. When the soul rises from the dead and is filled with myrrh, it places its hand on the lock of the door by good deeds and by hoping for the one desired to enter. Then the bridegroom passes and the bride comes out. She does not remain in the same place as she was, but she touches the Word of God, which leads her forward.
Let's get out of our nature and get to know Him.
The words that follow confirm what we understood from the previous paragraph: We cannot understand the greatness of God’s nature but must pass through all imaginations. The soul “leaves” its nature so that it does not prevent its habits from knowing the unseen truth, nor does it stop searching for what it does not find, nor does it stop saying that the divine nature cannot be expressed.
The bride says:I asked for it but I didn't find it“[5:6]. How can we find the Bridegroom when he reveals nothing about himself? He has no color, shape, quality, quantity, place, appearance, witness, or likeness. Rather, whatever he reveals is beyond our understanding and disappears from our search. So the bride says: “I searched for him with the powers of my soul to imagine and understand, but he is above them all and disappears from my thinking when he approaches him.”
How do we know Him who is always above anything that has a name? For this reason the bride understands the meaning of each name as a relation to the incomprehensible good. The meaning of each word does not fulfill the whole purpose intended, but rather expresses something less than the truth. So the bride says: I have called out with all my might, these names which indicate grace so great and inexpressible, because the Bridegroom has shown himself greater than any name. For example, when David sometimes calls God by a large number of names and indicates that they are far below the level of truth.“But you, O Lord, are a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in love and truth. You are my rock, my fortress, and my deliverer. In you I take refuge, your shield, the horn of my salvation, and my stronghold.” Psalm 86:15, 18:2-3. Then David admits that God’s name is not known in all the earth, yet it is looked upon with wonder and reverence: “O Lord our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth!” Psalm 8:1.
God also spoke to Manoah, who prophesied about his son. When he asked what God’s name was, Manasseh answered that it was too wonderful and too great for human ears to contain (Judges 13:18). Therefore the soul calls out the Word to the best of its ability, but it cannot do as it desires, because the soul longs beyond its ability. The soul does not desire what it is unable to receive, like God Himself, but its choice is in accordance with its desire for. And since that which God has called out to is unattainable, therefore the bride says: “I asked for him but I did not find him. I called him but he did not answer me.“.
The bride spoke as if to indicate her distress, but it seems to me that her words, which contain her ascent to a higher level, must be examined.The guards found me in the city, they beat me and wounded me, the keepers of the walls lifted my garment from me“7:5.
These sound like words of pain rather than joy, especially when you say,The keepers of the walls wounded me, they lifted my veil from me“If we examine these words carefully, it appears that the bride is proud of whomever she finds most beautiful. Therefore, her words can be explained as follows: The hymn testifies that the bride has been purified from every garment when she says:I have taken off my clothes, so how can I wear them? I have washed my feet, so how can I dirty them?!“3:5. Now the Song says that her veil was taken away from her. The veil of the bride is a covering of the head and face, as in the story of Rebekah (Gen. 24:65). How can a bride who has taken off her dress have a veil that the keepers of the walls remove from her? Doesn’t it appear from these words that the bride has advanced to a higher level? After she has taken off her old skin and every covering, she has become purer than before. It is not understood that the bride has removed what covered her body, because even after she took off her dress and veil, she found that she had to take off something else.
Thus the ascension to God shows that there is always something unsuitable in the bride. Compared to the purity of the bride at the present stage, this stripped skin becomes a garment that must be taken off by those who find the bride, the guards who patrol the city (i.e., the spirit of the city). These guards of the walls removed the bride’s veil after they had beaten and wounded her. There is an advantage in removing the bride’s veil: her eyes are free without a veil and she can look carefully to see her beloved. The removal of the veil undoubtedly refers to the work of the Holy Spirit, according to the apostle’s words: “But when he turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away. Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom” (2 Corinthians 3:16-17).
No one who is accustomed to reasoning doubts that what produces good must itself be good: if removing the veil is a good act, so too the beating and the resulting wounds are good. But the apparent meaning of the text shows that the incident is painful. It is therefore useful to look for the use of these words in the Bible, that is, whether they have a good purpose.
Healing strokes
How does wisdom save the soul of a young man from death? What does wisdom advise him to do that he may not die? Let us examine the words of the bride, “If you beat him with the rod, he shall not die” Proverbs 23:13. For if you beat him with the rod, you will save his soul from death. The text in the song says, “They beat me,” and this refers to survival in the light of, “If you beat him with the rod, he shall not die.” Unless the young man is beaten with the rod, his soul will not escape death. And the prophet says that God achieves the same results when He revives by killing and heals by beating: “I kill, and I live; I am wounded, and I will heal, and there is none to save from my hand” Deuteronomy 32:39. And so the great David said that this rod does not cause wounds, but comfort. “Thy rod and thy staff, they comfort me” Psalm 23:4. By these works the holy table is prepared with all the other details mentioned in Psalm 23:5: oil on the head, a cup of unmixed wine which makes the drinker intoxicated and conscious at the same time, mercy which follows him, and a long life in the house of the Lord. If this good blow contains these elements spoken of by the prophet and the proverbs, then it is useful to strike with this rod which produces an abundance of general good.
Who are the guards?
Let us now review some of the earlier passages in the text that we did not talk about. The word passed over his bride, but she did not know her lover. He did not pass over her and could not run forward and abandon his bride, but wanted to draw her to himself. And the bride said:I went against his word“That is, her soul left the place where she was when the city guards found her:”The guards found me in the city, they beat me and wounded me, the keepers of the walls pushed my veil away from me“If the bride had experienced any special sufferings of hell or of a thief, it would have been a bitter experience for her (“The thief comes only to steal, and to kill, and to destroy” John 10:10). But for the city guards to find her is truly a blessing, because what they find cannot be stolen by thieves. Who are these guards? They are none other than the guards of Israel (Ps. 121:4). These are our guards on the right, and they are the ones who we believe keep our souls from evil and guard our comings and goings. God is the guardian of the city, and the Psalm says about Him: “Unless the Lord guards the city, the guard watches in vain” (Ps. 127:1). Those whom the text refers to as the city guards are “ministering spirits sent forth to minister for the sake of those who will inherit salvation” (Heb. 14:1).
The text says that the soul is the dwelling place of God. Here God finds the lost soul as the good shepherd finds the lost sheep, and the angels gather to celebrate this occasion, as Christ says. It is similar to the lost coin that was found after its owner lit a lamp, and friends and neighbors rejoiced (Luke 15:9). Also, God’s servant David was found, as the Psalmist said: “I have found David my servant; with my holy oil I have anointed him” (Psalm 89:20). David became the king of the one who found him, as is evident from the following: “With whom my hand is established, my arm also strengthens him; the enemy shall not compel him, and the son of iniquity shall not afflict him. I will crush his enemies before his face, and strike down those who hate him” (Psalm 89:21-23). There are other elements included in this passage of doxology.
Healing Spirit Strikes
Therefore, it is good that the angels who roam the city find the soul. David explains this by saying: “The angel of the Lord encamps around those who fear him, and delivers them” (Ps. 34:7). The bride boasts when she says, “The guards have struck me,” praising her forward and upward progress. If she says this when she is wounded, it means that the spiritual rod has penetrated her to the depths. The bride did not receive the spiritual rod on the surface of her body where it was struck, but it caused a wound of which the bride boasts. From this result the significance of the text becomes clear. The Holy Rod or Holy Spirit is the comforter whose strokes heal wounds and whose fruits consist of the good that Paul, the persevering and strong teacher of the better life, records.Paul bore the marks of the blows and wounds, but he rejoiced in these wounds, saying, “For I bear in my body the marks of the Lord Jesus” (Galatians 6:17). Paul showed weakness from a thorn in the flesh caused by Satan, so he begged the Lord to leave him, and He said to him, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my strength is made perfect in weakness.” Paul rejoiced in his weakness so that the power of Christ might rest upon him (2 Corinthians 12:9). These words illustrate the beautiful wound that removed the veil of the bride and thus revealed the beauty of the soul that the veil had hidden.
Let us recall the meaning of the text. The soul that looks to God and is filled with the desire for pure beauty is renewed in itself another desire for the infinitely high, and this desire is never satisfied. Such a soul never ceases to reach out to what lies ahead. Anything great and wonderful seems insignificant in comparison with what comes after, because what the bride finds turns out to be more beautiful than what she had discovered before. Therefore Paul died every day, for each time he took on a new life, that is, dead to the past and forgetting all things past (1 Corinthians 15:13).
The bride found no rest in her progress toward perfection as she sought her bridegroom. She made an “apple garden” with a sweet smelling scent from her mouth, prepared food for the Lord of creation from her own fruit, watered her gardens and became a fountain of living water, and showed herself perfectly beautiful and blameless according to the text. As she continued her progress, the bride discovered something more magnificent and majestic: as the Word led her, her head was filled with dew, and drops of night were in her locks. She washed her feet, removed the skin of the dead animal, and drops of myrrh ran from her hands. Then she put her hand to the lock of the door, opened the door, sought for that which could not be contained, and called for that which could not be obtained. The guards of the city found the bride, and she received a blow from the rod and imitated the rock of which the prophet speaks: “Behold, he struck the rock, and the waters gushed out, and the brooks overflowed” (Ps. 78:20). Notice the level to which the bride has risen. So the bride received a blow similar to Moses' blow to the rock so that it would overflow and satisfy those who were thirsty for the word of God (Exodus 17:6). After that, the guards revealed the beauty of her face by lifting her veil. This is the symbolic meaning.. However, there is no reason to be jealous of anyone who can provide a better interpretation of the text than the one who reveals the hidden secrets.
Isaiah's Vision and the Song of Songs
Anyone can see the connection between Isaiah's vision (Isa. 1:6) and the Song of Songs.
I am speaking of the vision of Isaiah after the king died of leprosy. Isaiah saw a person sitting in splendor on a high hill, on a raised throne, but he could not ascertain its form and grandeur. (Isaiah could have spoken of this if he had been able to, and he also described in detail other things such as the number of wings of the seraphim, their characteristics, and their movement.) But he spoke only of the voice he heard and the lintels of the doors that were raised by the seraphim’s singing and the house was filled with smoke. One of the seraphim touched his mouth to a piece of burning coal, and his lips were cleansed and his ears received the word of God. This is similar to the bride saying that she was beaten and wounded by the guards of the city and her veil was removed. Instead of the veil being removed, the lintels were removed so that they would not obstruct Isaiah’s vision and understanding, and seraphim were mentioned instead of guards, a rod instead of a piece of coal, and burning heat instead of a blow. There is one purpose for both the bride and Isaiah, and that is to purify and cleanse. The Prophet was not harmed by the burning piece of coal. But it shone and became more blessed, and the bride did not show her pain from the guards’ blows, but she was proud of her freedom after removing her veil. The hymn calls this veil the light garment..
Remove the veil of disappointment
There is another interpretation of this passage which is in harmony with what we have already stated. After the soul had gone forth at the word of the bridegroom, it sought him but did not find him. It called out to him whom no name could contain. The guards told it that it loved the unattainable and had gone after the ungraspable. They beat it, wounded it, and distressed it. Its distress increased because its desire for its beloved and its longing to see his beauty were not fulfilled. But the removal of its veil (disappointment) made it clear to the bride that the true satisfaction of its desire lies in its continued progress in search and elevation: and the more its desire was fulfilled, the more it stimulated it to generate a higher desire for the infinite and unattainable height. So the veil of disappointment was removed, and the bride would see the unattainable beauty of her beloved throughout all eternity. Her longing became more intense and she told the daughters of Jerusalem that her heart had gone forth because she had received the chosen arrow of God within her. The point of the arrow of faith had struck her heart, and she died from the wound of the arrow of love. John says: “God is love” John 4:8, to Him be glory and power forever. Amen.