Sitting Under the Shadow

The luxuriance of the flowers, and the abundance of the fruits of an Eastern garden, are so very different from the beauty and the crops of those of England that we sometimes miss the force of the Bible illustrations on the subject. The favorite orange is termed the apple-tree in our Bibles. The apple is essentially an English fruit, but in the gardens of the land of Palestine we should find the lovely orange. There is a great charm about this tree, for it is ever green, and it bears flowers and fruit at the same time: pleasant shade, reviving perfume, and refreshing and sustaining food, are its gifts to its owner.
The orange when gathered fresh from the tree has a very different taste from the fruit as brought to us in this country. Its real charm, however agreeable we may consider the taste of what we obtain, is lost by its being gathered unripe, and by lengthy transit from its native soil.
There is a very beautiful text in the Song of Songs about the orange: “As the orange tree among the trees of the wood, so is my Beloved among the sons. I sat down under His shadow with great delight, and His fruit was sweet to my taste.” (ch. 2:3.) The favored speaker, in answer to the words of Solomon, had spoken of herself as a humble wildflower of Sharon, a little common wayside blossom, expressing her nothingness, as it were. And what are we but poor, common things? Yet the Lord in glory loves us, and has set is love upon us. He, speaking through Solomon, the king in glory, says of His people, “As the lily among thorns, so is My love among the daughters.” He does not reckon the feeblest of His as common and insignificant―no, but fair and beautiful as a flower painted by the hand of God amongst the thorns of this sorrow-stricken, sinful world. Such gracious words call forth the language of the text we have quoted about the orange! And, indeed, it is the Lord’s own love toward us, believed and rejoiced in, that calls forth our admiring love of Himself.
The trees of the wood, not the trees of the garden even, for the contrast is drawn between forest trees, are in the lips of the speaker as nothing compared with the fruitful orange. Under this tree is a favorite place for seats in Eastern gardens. Our artist has portrayed the owner of one of these seated by his well-filled cistern, reading a roll of the law of God, and pleasantly shaded from the fiery sun by the thick and leafy orange boughs. Now, what a happy lesson lies herein for us! Our place of rest and of refreshing shade is nearness to Christ Himself. When the sun of affliction beats down fiercely, if we have come to Him, we can say, “I sat under His shadow with great delight,” for He gives real joy and pleasure of soul. And at such a time how sweet to the parched spirit is the taste of His fruit! His fruit―my taste―are exquisitely brought together in this lovely figure; and may they be so in the experiences of all of us who know His Name.
How delightful it is to see a christian bearing fruit and flowers at one time! There are too many who bear flowers, but bring little fruit to perfection. Young life is full of the perfume of promise. We should seek to be not only always promising, but also always ripening. On the other hand, too many Christians settle down into a very autumnal state as years advance. Their early love is like the memory of the perfume of spring in autumn. Ripening and producing, producing and ripening, should characterize us all, and surely would do so if we were like Christ, and the only way to be like Christ is to be in spirit near Christ.
Evergreen is another happy characteristic of a christian walking with God. He does not wear out and become sere and dry. There is no more charming sight than that of a believer who is continually full of his or her youthful freshness of love to Christ, and what He loves, and who in old age is flourishing, living over again the early joys of christian life in the spring-time joys of others. People always like to sit down under the shadow of an evergreen christian, while the poor dry tree is little comfort to anyone! Here we must not omit to mention that the orange likes―as the gardeners say—plenty of water at its roots. Now it is the unseen water that really keeps us fresh―the Holy Spirit’s gracious work of bringing Christ continually before us. Herein lies the secret of an evergreen life.
The grand old age of the orange is another of its noble characteristics. We like to think of our old oak trees, but the orange attains to an age of centuries, all the while evergreen, blooming, and fruit bearing! What a tree of life it is! It portrays our gracious Lord to us, and expresses graces in His people who resemble Him. It should ever be our grand aim to be Christ-like in our walk and ways. We are in Christ, and accepted in Him by grace, but resemblance to Him in our life on earth should be our earnest longing. Let us close these remarks with the beautiful verse of the first Psalm about the godly man: “He shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season; his leaf also shall not wither, and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper.”

Bible Subjects. Redemption.
WE will complete our consideration of the great subject of Redemption by looking at a few of the Old Testament teachings as to it. We turn first to the Book of Exodus, for redemption is not directly taught us in Genesis. The Book of Genesis is, as it were the germ or bud wherein the whole range of Bible truths lies hidden. As God unfolds His great truths, we see, at the beginning of Exodus, at the very first, Israel redeemed on of Egypt through the blood of the paschal lamb. The slaves of Pharaoh felt their slavery bitterly, and they worshipped at the tidings of deliverance, but not one step out of Egypt could they take, until the redeeming blood had been shed for them. Never let us forget that redemption through blood is the first step to liberty. It was the blood as seen by Jehovah, not the blood as seen by Israel, upon which the Lord based His passover. We may feel the slavery of sin, we may sigh for or sing of heaven, we may have anxious fears, or strong faith, but the blood of Christ the Lamb, in all its value, not our thought about the blood, is our redemption.
In direct connection with Israel’s redemption through the blood of the paschal lamb (Ex. 14), and the sparing of their firstborn sons from the destroyed, Israel was told that all their first-born sons were Jehovah’s. These sons all had to be redeemed (vs. 13). In like manner all the firstborn of cattle were the Lord’s, but if a man had the firstling of an ass he could redeem it with a lamb, and if he did not wish to redeem it, “then,” said the scripture, “thou shalt break his neck.” Either death or redemption was the solemn lesson of the figure, and given, let us remember, by the Lord upon the moment of Israel’s departure from their land of bondage; and death or redemption is the solemn fact for every soul of man, and must be announced as we speak of the redeeming blood of Jesus.
When the tabernacle was set up in the midst of Israel, every one of the one hundred silver sockets wherein the boards of that building fitted, and all the silver hooks for the pillars whereon the curtains hung, spoke of redemption (Ex. 38:25-28), for these sockets were the result of the ransom prices of the souls of all the people who were numbered as the people of God. Half a shekel a head was the ransom price for all alike. “The rich shall not give more, and the poor shall not give less than half a shekel, when they give an offering unto the Lord to make an atonement for their souls.” (chs. 30:12-16.) Hence as Israel turned their eyes towards the dwelling place of God in their midst, “a memorial unto the children of Israel before the Lord,” ever witnessed to them that God dwelt amongst a redeemed people.
Happy lesson for ourselves of that precious ransom price, which is equally for the little child as for the aged man! God dwells among us, and we draw near to Him on the ground of the redeeming blood of Christ.
The whole system of buying land in Israel was based upon redemption, as the Lord would have every such transaction in His land wrought out in memory of the first great principle of His dealings with His people. The land was the Lord’s; His people were His tenants upon it, not the absolute possessors thereof, but strangers and sojourners merely. Ah! how little do such as build and plant upon this earth regard the truth, “The earth is the Lord’s,” and realize, their brief tenancy here! And not only was this so of the land, but also of the persons of Israel, who through poverty had sold themselves to pay their debts, for they, however poor, were not to be in servitude beyond a given day. Redemption-lessons were thus mingled with the daily-life transactions of God’s people.
The poor Israelite selling himself to the rich stranger in Israel (Lev. 25:47-55) with the powers of redemption granted to the poor man’s rich kinsman is such an exquisite picture to us of the Lord’s grace to us that we must not pass it by hurriedly. We have, as man would say, a most unfortunate person depicted, with whom everything goes wrong, he loses all, and at length sells himself to pay his debts; for let us note, God demands that debts shall be paid; He is the righteous One as well as our redeeming God. “Owe no man anything,” He says, save, indeed, love; and well it would be, if we were all hopelessly indebted one to the other as to love! The poor man who had sold himself to the stranger was open to the kindly office of any of his kinsmen who, for love’s sake, would pay his debts at the price at which he had sold himself, and so redeem him. “Either his uncle, or his uncle’s son, may redeem him, or any that is nigh of kin unto him of his family may redeem him; or if he be able, he may redeem himself,” was the word.
As to poor sinners redeeming themselves―that is an impossibility. In some countries even now there is a law by which slaves are allowed to work after labor hours, in order that they may save money sufficient to buy their freedom, but no slave of Satan and sin can perform over-work and buy himself out of captivity. The sinner’s only hope lies in his being ransomed by a Redeemer out of pure love. Now, in order to become our Redeemer, the blessed Son of God became the Son of Man. He became our kinsman; He took human nature upon Himself, and, as a man, poured out the ransom price for our sakes, even His own precious blood. To Him be glory forever and ever. He has bidden us go out free, and let us see to it that the liberty He has wrought for us is used by us in loving service to Himself.