Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread,"
In His last-days' message to the shepherds of His flock in Laodicea, Jesus says something strange in Revelation 3:20. It grips our attention--"Behold, I stand at the door, and knock." He is quoting the Old Testament, but not the Hebrew text. He decides to use its Greek translation instead. And therein lies a profound revelation.
Jesus has quoted His Old Testament Bible from the Song of Solomon, chapter 5, verse 2. The ancient Greek translation (known as the Septuagint, LXX) has three little words that are not in the Hebrew version--"at the door" (epi ten thuran, if you want the Greek). And why this miniscule but tectonic choice on the part of this divine Author? Why does He quote the Greek version? Jesus reveals Himself here as the disappointed Lover who has just come from His safari to His Beloved. It's night; it's cold; it's raining; He is hungry; He is lonely; He wants her. But she doesn't want Him, apparently. He is hurt.
Standing outside in the cold, He says He goes on knocking, knocking "at the door." The object of His love has just gone to bed, is in that twilight zone between waking and sleeping. Then she hears Him. (You can't understand this unless you've lived in a mud hut with a cow-dung floor!). She is annoyed; why does He bother her at this hour? She doesn't want to get her feet soiled on that floor--she's comfy in bed. Finally, however, she stops thinking of her own selfish laziness, and thinks of Him outside. Belatedly she gets up to go to the door to let Him in. And, lo, He is gone. He got tired of waiting, waiting. (Yes, there is evidence that Jesus and the angels do get tired waiting.)
Hundreds of years ago a few thoughtful scholars in Europe discerned that the Laodicean message is tied to the Song of Solomon. Has it somehow eluded us? This is a love story! It brings us to Revelation chapter 19:7-9 where the long-disappointed Bridegroom is perplexed about what to do with His dilatory Bride-to-be. He can't force her to marry Him. The next move is hers.
--Robert J. Wieland
From the "Dial Daily Bread" Archive: December 14, 2002.
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