Sweet Beulah Land?

Some of you may have grown up in a church that sang this song, and some of you like me may have never heard of it, let alone some place called Beulah Land.

This is largely because I use the Revised Standard Version most of the time. Which we explain in, (Which Bible Translation?)

Both translations make some since however if one is transliterating a proper noun, should they not have transliterated all the proper nouns? The KJV did not transliterate Forsaken which would be ‘azavbah. One must admit that is a bit of a mouth twister for an English speaker. The next noun is Desolate and that would be shemamah in Hebrew.

Thou shalt no more be termed Forsaken; neither shall thy land any more be termed Desolate: but thou shalt be called Hephzibah, and thy land Beulah: for the LORD delighteth in thee, and thy land shall be married. Is 62:4 KJV

You shall no more be termed Forsaken, and your land shall no more be termed Desolate; but you shall be called My delight is in her, and your land Married; for the LORD delights in you, and your land shall be married. Is. 62:4 RSV

In the end, the meaning is that those who follow God will not live in the land of Old Maids, Divorcees, or Widows. They have been living in a barren foreign land in a desolate condition. But our Lover sees in us His delight, and we shall no longer be forsaken but rather be married, crossing into the land of Married for our King delights in us.

Let us rejoice and exult and give him the glory, for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and his Bride has made herself ready; Rev. 19:7 

In Christ

In the Harem by Fabio Fabbi (1861 – 1946)

Or in the harem to stay with our little allegory. One needs to understand that the harem is where all the women’s work was done, unlike what our western fantasies are. The cooking, cleaning, and laundry where all done in the harem and by the harem.

But if Christ is in you, although your bodies are dead because of sin, your spirits are alive because of righteousness. Rom. 8:10

This is a term only Paul uses. The inherited churches have made this out to mean salvation. As if it is the same thing; Messiah in you, and you in Messiah.

In Christ Jesus, then, I have reason to be proud of my work for God. Rom. 15:17

But it is God who establishes us with you in Christ, and has commissioned us; 2Cor. 1:21

Back up the Bible Bus. Being in Messiah has something to do with that hated word, WORKS. After all isn’t a commission a JOB?

To be “in Messiah” is to follow His teachings, to be His student, His servant, to obey His words, to do as He did. Noah and his family had to be in the ark to be saved, the man-slayer had to be in the city of refuge to be safe from the avenger of blood. [Num. 35:6] To me “in Messiah” is not a metaphor or figure of speech, it is a reality. It is a job, a profession, ones life’s work.

And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him. Col. 3:17

So what are we to do? Well! to start with, there are Ten Commandments, they were never suggestions.

The Lord of the Harem is Omnipresent

The Harem

Clearly part of the typology of the Song of Songs is that all of us are typologically women of God’s harem.

For the western mind this brings up all kinds of misunderstandings as we have attached all manner fantasies often of a sexual nature to the term harem.  This is not the reality of what these place’s were.

The harem is not a prison, nor was it usually a sex palace, the word means protected place, the sanctum or the forbidden place.  For the most part the harem functioned as the family quarters.  The wives, children, and servants lived there.  Most of the cooking, cleaning, and all those chores that are the domain of women were preformed in these secluded places.