SEASONS - THE KING IS IN THE FIELD

(Written by Sheila Gail Landgraf)

Oh, how I love the writings of King Solomon in The Song of Songs! In Chapter 6, verse 3, I can read my favorite words from his writings; "I am my Beloved's and my Beloved is mine."  

When written in the original Hebrew language the first letters of each word form an acronym that spell the month of Elul.  This is the Hebrew month that will be coming up in 2016 beginning with the civil calendar date of September 2nd.  

Elul's acronym, "I am my Beloved's and my Beloved is mine", illustrates this concept; its first letter, aleph, stands for "I" (in Hebrew, "ani") – and the second letter, lamed, represents, "my Beloved's" (in Hebrew, "ledodi") - God. The meaning of this verse is that of being “face-to-face” in expressing one's love for another. This is the idea that the heart of the giver is entwined with the heart of the receiver and vice versa. There is a reciprocal relationship of this love. Each one has the other's heart.  One cannot help but think of the soon coming return of Christ and wonder how much longer it will be before He returns for His Bride, the Church.

On this last month of the Hebrew calendar, many of us try to focus on the past year of our lives.  

It is a time to bring before our Beloved our misdeeds, mistakes, and wrong actions so that He can show us how we can make changes for the new year to come.  

I have come to look at this act the same way you would look at preparing for a wedding.   How do these shoes work?  What veil should I wear?  Is my dress ready?  What should I keep?  What should I change?  What about all of this is in keeping with my heart for my beloved?  Have I spoken to the groom about everything?  

 If you are engaged to be married, you need to discuss all the skeletons in your closet before the wedding.  You wouldn’t want your loved one to discover these from someone else, or to be surprised and hurt by them after your marriage.  You need to confess everything that your future spouse might not yet have heard about you, so that you will know for certain that all past mistakes are forgiven and forgotten, and you are safe with the one that you have chosen to live your life with.  You MIGHT just be surprised at what they know that you don't know they know!  You would, of course, promise them never to revisit these things.  With the love between the two of you, it is possible to begin a fresh new page of life.

This is how I have learned to speak to my Beloved, Jesus, during the time of Elul.  He knows I am not perfect.  He loves anyway.   

In The Song of Songs Solomon speaks of the conversation that is held between two lovers.  

They are not afraid of one another.  

They are comfortable enough in their love that they can speak of their faults and mistakes.  

They are humble enough and so much a part of each other that one can come to the other and ask forgiveness for things done wrong because this one knows that anything they have done will have an instant effect on the other.  No sin is a sin all alone.  Every sin we commit hurts our Beloved.  

This is a time for the healing of this pain.  Healing begins with honesty and confession.  

Healing always comes before joy.

Elul is definitely a time to say “I want to change for you and never put you through such pain again.”   The honesty, love, truthfulness of this confession only makes the bond of love stronger.  The stronger the bond between lovers, the less likely it will ever be broken.  

It is a time of the weaker seeking strength from the stronger.  There will be encouragement that comes from the stronger lover that will change the spirit of the weaker lover from sadness to joy, from being ashamed to being confident and sure of their love.  

Together they will be capable of things they could never achieve apart from one another.  

All of the conversations in The Song of Songs seem to be very relational.  This is the state we should be in during Elul, a relational state, totally in tune to the desires of the One we love the most, looking to see what He will show us, listening to hear what He will tell us.  

If we are out of step, He will help us pick back up on the beat of the dance through the rhythms of life.   

It is a time of bearing our soul to the only One who truly understands our souls.  He truly loves us as we are, and accepts us with all our flaws; even enough that he would die for us and all our imperfections;  but He has a loving desire to help us change into the person that He created us to be.  

When we seek His face and ask His forgiveness, He loves us, flaws and all.  He reaches out to us to pull us up and help us to change.  

One secret to knowing how to change is that of dwelling on the words of the scriptures that tell us; "I am my Beloved’s and my Beloved is mine.”  If you divide this sentence down into two parts you begin to see they each represent a different aspect of our relationship with God. 

The first part:  “I am my Beloved’s” alludes to our main thoughts during Elul, to cry out to God, to communicate our love and loyalty to Him.    This is our speaking.  

The second part; “and my Beloved is mine,’ hints to God’s activity toward us in this time, in which it is possible for a divine revelation to descend upon us from above.  This is our listening.  Good communications involve both speaking and listening.

We speak joyfully to our Beloved during this month, not simply because we are about to begin a new sacred year, but because God is shining forth his attributes of mercy toward us.  

We know that we need to use this time to atone and work on our selves, and God empowers us to do so when we approach Him seeking forgiveness.  

This is the time of us expressing our desire for complete atonement.  At the end of the time, when we reach Yom Kippur, that is the time He expresses His complete desire to atone us, so much that He died to redeem us.  He inspires us and arouses our spirits to awaken to His desires.

There is a beautiful Jewish parable that speaks of this very act.   It is printed below for your reading and meditation:

THE PARABLE OF THE KING IN THE FIELD

A King returns to his city following a long absence. The city's inhabitants stream out to the countryside to greet him. When the king enters the field a new phenomenon occurs. The field equalizes everyone who is found there. Now, for the first time, virtually everyone is empowered and permitted to greet the king. All partitions which usually separate him from the populace are nullified. The king, in turn, graciously receives each and every one. This phenomenon does not take place outside the field. For, within the capital, and surely within the palace, only select dignitaries can access the king.

Is this parable not a beautiful portrait of how Jesus loves us? 

He went up to Heaven to send His Holy Spirit so that we could communicate better with Him and The Father.  So many times when we pray, we are looking up to heaven, seeing him on a royal throne, knowing His kingly power is at work constantly redeeming us, but often it seems we are at a distance, further away than we want to be from Him. We tend to see Him like a King of a city who went away.  We know He is still in control. 

We know He still exists and is coming back, but then one day He does come back!  He walks through the fields of the city.  These are the fields where the common workers toil and labor every day.  This is where they have broken the ground, planted the seeds provided by Him, watered them, weeded them, watched the crop grow to be ripe and ready for harvesting.  The citizens are so proud of the harvest that is just ripe for the picking!  They can’t wait to tell the Master about how beautiful and bountiful it is; then they look up and see Him actually walking through the fields!  They are overcome with joy!  It is Him, The One they have been laboring for all along!  He had returned!  They run to greet him.


As the everyday ordinary people run to great their King who has come down to walk in the field, they all seem somehow the same.  

Their differences are not showing.  

No one is more important.  

No one voice is heard above the other.  

All are equal in the field.  

It is not formal here, like it might be in the royal palace.  No one is announced, or proclaimed.  They all just come toward Him, one at a time, each one special and unique, yet everyone sharing the same honor of greeting the King and having the King recognize them and speak to them of their own particular tasks.

 Here all feel free and comfortable to discuss the physical aspects of the harvest with the King.  Who would know more about harvesting than a King who is also A Creator?  Who could possibly know more about preparing for a good harvest?  

They drink in His advice.  

They sit at His feet to listen to His instructions.  

They freely admit their mistakes and short-comings to Him because they can look into His eyes and see how much He loves them.  It is not hard.  They are not afraid.  They all feel safe. 

The King looks happier here, in the field among the people of His city, maybe even happier than He ever looks on His Royal Throne.  He is glad to be here.  Is it not what He has purposed to do all along?  He is smiling and gracious and generous.  He uses the ordinary existence in the field to explain to all the important principles of His Kingdom and here in the field the lowest realms of existence are transformed into a dwelling place for a King.  

Everyone is excited to know that The King is in the field! 

It is the strangest thing to think about, but even when the King is walking through the field, the primary mundane matters of life must still be carried out!   

It is a time for pausing, but not stopping.  

It is a time of reflecting while still working.  

In our daily lives we concern ourselves with many activities that are not in and of themselves holy, but these things are performed “for the sake of the King.”  Now when we see the King walking through the field, He may stop and talk to us of our activities.   We find out that “little things” are very important to Him.  

He has noted everything, every action, every task that we have done during the times of the seasons before the harvest.  They HAVE mattered to Him.  

He has not overlooked us, or forgotten us when we could not see Him or reach out and touch Him.  He has noticed every little thing!   Suddenly we recognize that in seeking His will in all things, we have made a part of our world His dwelling place, a place where He may come down and walk with us, even in our imperfections, even into the day-to-day activities of “the field.”

Hence, to continue looking after the field of The King in the best possible manner, during Elul we chose to put special emphasis on study of the Holy Scriptures and prayer, because even while The King is walking through His field, we recognize that it IS His field and we honor Him by continuing on with our work for Him. 

SEASONS LESSONS IN ELUL ON THE ART OF TURNING

(Written by Sheila Gail Landgraf)

In the literature of Jewish mystical thought it is explained that at the beginning of the Hebrew season of Elul we are "achor el achor" which means “back to back.” By the end of the season of Elul we are said to be "panim el panim," meaning “face to face.” This concept could be more beautifully explained in a dance, possibly a lovely ballet production, but since those resources are not readily available today,  I will try to use mere words.

First of all, one must ask the obvious question.  How can it be that we (us and God) are back to back? Wouldn’t this statement imply that God has His back turned to us and that we have our back turned to God? How can we say such a thing when this is the month in which it is said that "the King is in the field"?  

Many teachings and teachers have taught us that this is the very month when God is more accessible than ever, when He is waiting for us to come out to the harvest and greet Him in the field.  We have learned that this is a time when He is there for us in the "field" of our everyday lives.  So how could we possibly be "back to back?"

The concept is much easier to see if you think of it this way;  just recall all the old classic movies of love stories you have seen through the years where  a loving couple has to part for one reason or another.   We see them beginning to walk away from each another with their faces both turned in opposite directions.   Almost always, at some point the man turns around and looks back at the woman.  You can see in his face that he is wanting to call out her name, that he longs to ask for another chance, or beg for forgiveness, or make a way for them to still be together. In these scenes he is always just about to speak, just about to call out her name, but then he realizes that her back is turned and she is walking away from him. He tells himself that it is too late, that she just doesn’t care. That there is nothing that he can do.  So he turns back around.

Seconds later, it is the woman who turns to look back at the man. She knows she doesn’t want this relationship to end. She stalls for time, walking slowly.  More than anything she wants to say something to mend the situation, but doesn’t have the right words, can't muster up the courage, or doesn’t have the strength to speak up in her despair.  And after all, why should she when his back is turned away from her?   She looks at him longingly, wanting things to be different, but it just doesn’t matter.  She assumes he just doesn't care as she sees he continues to walk away from her.

And we, the viewers watch this touching scene, sitting on the edge of our seats, hoping against hope that they will both suddenly turn around in the same second and finally realize that the other does care enough to turn and step back into the other's embrace.  We keep watching to see if maybe one of them will suddenly realize that though they both appear to be back to back, they really and truly both want to be face to face.

Sometimes that happy ending does happen, other times they simply continue to walk in opposite directions right out of each other’s lives.

I think of the song "Turn, Turn, Turn"  that was sung by the Byrds sometime around the 70's which used the words of Solomon in the lyrics.  

The words ring so true during Elul.  

There is a time and season for everything.  This is the time and season to turn around and embrace the love of a God who was willing to die for you, a God who loved you enough to give His only begotten Son to ransom you.  it is a time of changing from "back-to-back" and turning to be "face-to-face" with The Creator of The Universe.   

I think it is this very aspect of the season of Elul that keeps the lyrics of the song, and the words of Solomon on my mind and in my spirit.  

Elul is the time that teaches us the necessity of being willing to turn.