If you want to check it out it’s FREE and online (I printed mine) here: http://www.songofsolomondevotional.com/preview.php

SERIOUSLY. If you are looking for something TOTALLY amazing to study - check this thing out! Read the preview of the first page. There are I think 8 PDF files and they are detailed and awesome. I have only read 15 pages of the first file and I’m already beside myself with glee!!

When I like something or something hits me I gasp and underline the coolness. I had to restrain myself in this study because I’d be literally underlining EVERYTHING! I don’t know if they will all be as detailed as the following, but I didn’t want to forget the stuff God rocked my socks with this afternoon. 

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Song Of Solomon Devotional Notes - Day One

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If there was ever a family that Jesus bonded with it was "The Bethanys" Mary, Martha & Lazarus. Jesus came over to their place to teach and eat supper with them. They gave Him and His disciples shelter and a place to sleep. They sat up talking about God and the scriptures. They laughed together and cried together. They were a tight knit bunch.

So when Lazarus gets sick (John11:1), his sisters Mary and Martha send word via messenger to Jesus. They know Jesus loves Lazarus as much as they do, and Jesus has healed so many people, they know if He comes to the house, that Lazarus will be well again. So they are sitting with their brother, probably encouraging him; "Don't worry when Jesus gets here everything will be alright."

Meanwhile Jesus tells the messenger not to worry, "This isn't a sickness unto death, but that God will be glorified." So the messenger goes home and probably tells the girls not to worry. Jesus said Lazarus isn't going to die. Everything is going to be fine.

Lazarus dies.

However, it was a Jewish belief that the soul of a person hangs around for 3 days after death, so if anything could be done even if He was late, Jesus could still do something as long as it was in those 3 days.

Jesus didn't get to them house for 4 days. This would mean there was no coming back, no getting better, because Lazarus' soul would have been TOTALLY gone for a full day according to the Jewish belief.

In John 11:5&6 It says "Now Jesus loved Martha, and her sister, and Lazarus. SO when He heard Lazarus was sick, He stayed for two more days in the place He was."

Jesus knew what He was going to do when He got to Lazarus' house. If He had showed up and healed Lazarus before He died, sure, it would have been cool and an awesome miracle and everyone would have been happy. But Jesus did that kind of thing countless times a day. Jesus loved Lazarus, Mary, and Martha. He knew they loved Him, SO (there is that SO again) He waited 2 more days after word had been sent to Him that Lazarus was sick. Inf act, He flat out told the disciples that Lazarus was dead.

This is totaling 4 days after Lazarus' death so that when He did what he was preparing to do, it would not only be a miracle, it would be one that would be told far and wide and cause many people to believe! He even said to the disciples, "I'm glad I wasn't there so that you could believe." (John 11:15) He must have been so excited. This was going to be such a huge miracle that it would raise the faith of the disciples who were used to seeing a kajillion healings a day! And what a cool blessing for the Bethany family!

So 4 days after Lazarus dies, Jesus shows up with the disciples and Martha comes up to Jesus and says "Lord! If you had been here my brother would not have died!" (John 11:21) and you have to imagine Martha's tone here. Kinda saying "IF you'd been here .... but you weren't and now he's dead!" She quickly added right after that; "But even so, I know that God will give you anything you ask of Him." She's being a little religious here, saying the things she knows. Even in spite of Jesus' "failure" at letting Lazarus die, Martha knows God sent Jesus. But she is finding no peace or comfort in the reality of what that means.

Jesus says to her that her brother will rise again and she gets a little more religious, almost like you can see her reciting something she'd been taught; "I know my brother will rise at the resurrection on the last day."

This girl knew her scripture, but she didn't have the reality of it in her heart. She knows who Jesus is, she's seen the awesome things He has done. She has the theology and the religious thinking, but not the reality of what her relationship with Jesus means. You can tell this later when Jesus tells her to roll away the stone and she tells him it's a bad idea, because the dead body will have been rotting for 4 days and it's going to smell bad. She was not expecting Jesus to do anything.

I don't really blame Martha for freaking out at Lazarus' death. I mean of course she was sad that she lost her brother, but in that culture two unmarried women living alone were pretty much were doomed. Lazarus took care of them and provided for them. Their future was really bleak without him. Without him they had nothing, no one to provide! So Martha probably had all of that in mind when she went to Jesus. And it had to burn her up, knowing if He'd been there He could have healed Lazarus. She probably doesn't understand why someone who claims to love them so much would put them in this kind of position.

Martha knew all the teaching, but she was looking at the circumstance instead of at the solution.

So Martha goes back to the house to get Mary because Jesus asked for her. John 11:20 says Mary was "still" in the house when Martha rushed out to meet Jesus. I always thought it was because she was pouting or something. But the original Greek translates this usage of "Still" as "To be in a state of rest." Martha was running out to accuse the Lord, and Mary was staying in the house, in a state of rest, with her emotions under control, trusting that somehow everything would be ok.

She stays there, waiting patiently for the Lord to do whatever He is gonna do. Mary drew this strength and this knowledge from her time she'd spent sitting at Jesus feet while he taught. In Luke 21:16-20 Jesus warned "You'll be betrayed by family and friends... but not a hair on your head will be harmed....In your patience possess (purchase) your soul." It seemed like Jesus betrayed her by letting Lazarus die, but she waited patiently.

"In your patience, possess (purchase) your soul" is something very powerful. When you are patient in waiting for God to do what He's going to do, you'll see Him do something AWESOME and then reap the rewards. But if you are impatient, you'll get frustrated and give up. Eventually this can lead to giving up on God because He didn't do things the way you thought they should be done and in the time you thought it should be done by. So in your impatience...you walk away from God and lose your soul.

So even though Mary didn't understand, she held her peace and waited to see what Jesus was going to do. When Martha came in and said that Jesus was asking for her, Mary RAN down to the tomb where Jesus was. She didn't walk. She RAN! This was going to be her answer! Jesus would give her the lesson she was going to be learning. Mary still didn't know what He was going to do, but she trusted Him and went to find out what she was trusting Him for.

And all the people from the funeral followed her.

Ironically, Mary said the same thing Martha did when she got to Jesus, just in a different way. John 11:32 & 33 says she threw herself down at His feet and cried. "Lord, if You had been here my brother would not have died." By putting herself at His feet, she was showing she worshipped Him, But her crying shows she was also in agony at the situation. Jesus then asks her to take Him where her brother is laying.

A lot of people have John 11:35 memorized. "Jesus wept." The shortest verse in the Bible. But a lot of people don't get what it means. The people attending the funeral saw Jesus crying as he went to the tomb and assumed what a lot of us do. "See how he loved Lazarus?" They said. But Jesus wasn't crying because Lazarus was dead.

He did the whole waiting thing earlier so that He could come and give them an even bigger miracle because He loved them so much. But when He got there, the people he loved so dearly, who he'd eaten and fellowshipped with, who He'd sat up all night and talked about scripture with, didn't believe He would be able to do anything when He got there to do this amazing miracle. For all their love and for all His teaching, they still didn't understand. That must have just broken His heart. And so He wept.

Jesus heads over to the tomb with the whole weeping, wailing funeral procession behind Him. (You could actually hire professional mourners back in that time who would come and wail at the funeral.) Jesus turns to Martha and tells her to have the stone rolled away. She reminds Him that Lazarus has been dead for 4 days and the smell of the rotting flesh would be terrible. Jesus says to her; (in a little more plain a way, giving her a hint at what He plans to do) "Didn't I tell you if you believed you would see the glory of God?"

Light bulb.

Martha says "Roll away the stone!"

And one has to hope they weren't downwind.

Jesus turns His eyes to heaven, not looking at the people around Him who were full of doubt, or this seemingly hopeless situation, but instead to God from whom His help was going to come from. (There is a whole sermon in itself, hey?)

He says: (John 11:42) "Father, I thank You that You hear me. I know that You always hear me, but because of the people who are standing by, I say this so they may believe that You sent Me." And then He looks back to the tomb and in a loud voice, full of confidence He says: "Lazarus! Come Forth!"

We all know what happened next!

One Brother! No waiting!

Out comes Lazarus all wrapped up in graves clothes, probably wondering what that terrible smell is! And the crowd is so awestruck and shocked, Jesus has to prod someone to go and untie Lazarus' burial wrap!

Jesus turned a funeral into a "welcome home" party! And all the people who had followed Mary down to Jesus got to see this awesome sight! And John 11:45 says many of the Jews which came to Mary had seen these things and believed on Jesus.

Mary's faith and patience helped her not only be strong in a really hard situation but she got two blessings for the price of one! A resurrected brother and to see a bunch of people in the funeral group believe in Jesus!

What an awesome example of how far a little faith will take you. Time spent with God puts faith and strength into your spiritual reserves so that when something happens that requires faith and strength, you have something to draw on. Mary drew from her reserve some of the faith, strength and patience that she had learned in times of peaceful learning at Jesus' feet. When the chips were down, even in her fear, Mary approached Jesus the right way.

And because of it she reaped a reward not only by physically having her brother back, but imagine how much closer she felt to Jesus after that! Imagine how her faith was encouraged! The next time the bills were having a problem getting paid, or there was a troublesome situation, she probably said; "This is no big deal! If God can raise my brother from the dead, this problem is small potatoes!"

She had the experience of victory and the result of faith placed in God.