Beloved 9: The Wedding Day
Notes
Transcript
Bookmarks & Needs:
Bookmarks & Needs:
B: Song 3:6-11
N:
Welcome
Welcome
Bye, kids!
Good morning, church family!
It's a joy to gather together this morning as the family of Eastern Hills. Whether you're here in the room or joining us online, thank you for being part of our worship gathering today. I'm Bill Connors, senior pastor here, and I'm grateful for the opportunity to spend this time worshiping Jesus and studying His Word together.
Before we go any further, I'd like to take a moment to thank our Kids Ministry Shepherds. Week after week, they invest their time, energy, and hearts in the children of Eastern Hills. They teach God's Word, build relationships, offer encouragement, and help create a safe and loving environment where kids can learn about Jesus. Some of them are serving right now and won't hear me say this, but we're grateful for every one of you. Thank you, Kids Ministry Shepherds, for the faithful way you minister to the next generation.
If you're visiting with us today, welcome! We're honored that you've chosen to spend part of your Sunday with us. We'd love the opportunity to get to know you and thank you personally for being here.
If you're here in the room, you'll find a communication card in the back of the pew in front of you. If you'd take a moment during the service to fill that out, you can either place it in one of the offering boxes by the doors as you leave, or bring it down to me after the service. I'd love the chance to meet you, say hello, and give you a small gift as our way of saying thanks for visiting. If you're joining us online, you can visit ehbc.org and fill out the communication form on our "I'm New" page.
Announcements
Announcements
Worship Night this Friday at Rio Church on Juan Tabo: Wanting this to be a whole community thing every couple of months at different churches. Our plan is to host a worship night in the future.
Walk for Life for Carenet this Saturday at Hoffmantown.
Opening
Opening
We are a little more than halfway done with our series Beloved through the Song of Songs. One thing that bears repeating as we come to today’s passage is that my interpretive framework of the Song is that it is a poem written by Solomon about an ideal, even Edenic, love between an idealized woman and an idealized man, in fact an idealized Solomon. I believe that it was likely written by an older Solomon, looking back with regret upon his own choices in the arena of love. He did, after all, have 700 wives and 300 concubines (1 Kings 11:3), and they turned his heart away from the Lord. The Solomon in the Song isn’t Solomon himself, but a perfect version of himself in the rearview mirror of life—what could have been, even what should have been.
Though many biblical scholars suggest that there is no real “narrative” in the Song, I disagree: I think that we've been watching the relationship between the Lover and the Beloved develop chapter by chapter. Over the last several weeks, we've seen them learning to communicate, establishing healthy boundaries, pursuing one another faithfully, dealing with the “little foxes” that threaten relationships, and longing for the day when they will finally be together.
Last week, we saw through the Beloved’s dream of searching for her shepherd-king that we have been made for meaningful human connection: that it’s something that we long for, look for, and rejoice in, though sometimes we have to wait for it with patience. And all of the emotions that surround our need for human connection reflect an even greater need for connection that we all have: the need for an intimate relationship with God through faith in Christ.
And now, at last, the day has arrived. This morning, we come to what is essentially the wedding scene of the Song.
So please open your Bibles or your Bible apps to Song 3:6-11, and stand as you are able to in honor of the declaration of the Word of the Lord:
6 Who is this coming up from the wilderness like columns of smoke, scented with myrrh and frankincense from every fragrant powder of the merchant? 7 Look! Solomon’s bed surrounded by sixty warriors from the mighty men of Israel. 8 All of them are skilled with swords and trained in warfare. Each has his sword at his side to guard against the terror of the night. 9 King Solomon made a carriage for himself with wood from Lebanon. 10 He made its posts of silver, its back of gold, and its seat of purple. Its interior is inlaid with love by the young women of Jerusalem. 11 Go out, young women of Zion, and gaze at King Solomon, wearing the crown his mother placed on him on the day of his wedding— the day of his heart’s rejoicing.
The Word of the Lord. PRAYER
Many of us love weddings. My family had a wedding right here in this room last night as my niece married her fiancé. We had a great time, and we’re really happy for them.
Of course, I’m biased… but the best wedding I’ve ever been to was my daughter Maggie’s, when she married Nathan in January of 2020, again, right here in this room, on this platform. Many of you were here. The wedding itself was a great opportunity to worship together, to witness the promises that the two of them made to one another: to love one another sacrificially, to honor one another, to cherish one another… And while we didn’t know it at the time, the reception that night was the last major party we’d go to for quite a while, as the COVID pandemic landed that March. Regardless, it was SO much fun!
Even if you're not normally an emotional person, weddings have a way of getting to us. There is something powerful about watching a man and a woman publicly commit themselves to one another. There's a reason we gather family and friends. There's a reason we decorate, celebrate, take pictures, eat cake, and spend far too much money on flowers and food.
A wedding isn't merely about getting through a ceremony. It's a public declaration by this husband and wife about what this relationship IS, what it MEANS, and what they promise that it WILL BE. It's a moment when what has been anticipated becomes reality—a reality that is meant to last into the future.
Of course, anyone who has been married for more than about five minutes knows that the wedding day is not the finish line. It's the starting blocks. Wedding vows are not the completion of love. They are the beginning of a lifelong commitment to keep loving.
That's one of the reasons I find this passage so beautiful. At first glance, it’s a grand royal wedding procession complete with soldiers, luxury, and celebration. But beneath the pageantry, we're shown something far more important. We see what love actually does.
And as we walk through this passage, we're going to discover that the very things that make love beautiful on the wedding day are the same things that help love flourish long after the reception is over.
First, we see that love approaches.
1: Love approaches
1: Love approaches
Admittedly, this point is a bit of a double entendre: it both speaks to what is being described in the text of the Song’s narrative, and also to the point that I’m meaning to make: that love moves: it moves toward its object.
6 Who is this coming up from the wilderness like columns of smoke, scented with myrrh and frankincense from every fragrant powder of the merchant?
Two things for us to consider here: First, who is speaking? And second, what’s the answer to the question? We’re going to spend a little time on these questions, because how we answer them colors the way we take every verse in this passage.
If we go back to the first message in this series, I mentioned that there are (arguably) four voices that speak in the Song: the female character (who I’m calling the Beloved); the male character (idealized Solomon, or the Lover); the chorus (essentially the “young women of Jerusalem”); and the narrator (who has only said the first verse of the Song at this point). There’s one person that this cannot be of the four: The Lover. He’s spoken of third person in three of the verses here (7, 9, and 11). It is doubtful that that Beloved is speaking, though it is possible. But verse 6 would be unconventional for this (more on that in a moment). It could be the chorus of young women… the only problem being that they would speak in the third person about themselves (v10) and in the second person to themselves (v11). Given that the “young women” who are the friends of the Beloved are certainly not all of the young women of Jerusalem, it could be that some of the young women speak about and to some of the other young women.
But the simplest answer is that it is the narrator (who hasn’t spoken since 1:1), breaking in to heighten the drama of the scene, almost like a sports commentator giving play-by-play. So this is the perspective of someone outside of the story, in a way, looking in on the wedding procession. This is poetry, after all.
But who is the one “coming up” from the wilderness? There are only two candidates: the Lover, and the Beloved. The “up” part doesn’t help us geographically, because Jerusalem is situated on a hill—you would have had to go “up” from just about every direction. Also, the word for “wilderness” could refer to anywhere that was sparsely inhabited, including the desert. At first blush, because of all of the mentions of Solomon, we might jump to the conclusion that it’s the Lover who is coming up. But I don’t think that’s the case.
There are four keys in the Song to help us with this interpretation. The first is the language, which the English translation obscures a little bit. In the Hebrew, the word for “this” is actually feminine singular. However, it could be referencing the word “bed” from verse 7, which is also a feminine singular noun. But then we aren’t talking about a person, but a thing. The Hebrew word translated “who” at the beginning of 6 is mi, but a thing would normally be introduced by ma: “what.” So the language seems to say that it’s a female—our heroine—who is coming up, even though it’s not explicit.
Second, we saw in chapter 2 that when he went to visit her at her home and they went on their walk together in the countryside (2:12), he came “leaping over the mountains, bounding over the hills.” (2:8). When he went to see her, it wasn’t in the city. And when she dreamed of searching for him as we saw last week, she dreamed of doing so in the city (3:2-3). It seems that she is more likely to be the one who lives in the “wilderness,” the one who would need to come up to the city for the wedding.
The third key is the scents that the one coming up is giving off. We’re not there yet (next week), but the shepherd-king mentions the scents that he smells on their wedding night:
6 Until the day breaks and the shadows flee, I will make my way to the mountain of myrrh and the hill of frankincense.
Since he is making his way to these scents, they aren’t coming from him...
And finally, three times in the Song (including this one), a question like this is asked. And both of the other occurrences, the reference is clearly to the Beloved:
9 But my dove, my virtuous one, is unique; she is the favorite of her mother, perfect to the one who gave her birth. Women see her and declare her fortunate; queens and concubines also, and they sing her praises: 10 Who is this who shines like the dawn, as beautiful as the moon, bright as the sun, awe-inspiring as an army with banners?
BILL: 8:5a
5a Who is this coming up from the wilderness, leaning on the one she loves?
It makes sense that a parallel question would have a parallel referent.
So I believe that the clearest way to interpret verse 6 is that this is the Beloved coming up from her wilderness home for the wedding. This understanding helps us interpret the rest of the passage this morning. Now, I realize that this was a lot of interpretive ground to cover. But it matters because if verse 6 pictures the Beloved approaching the Lover on their wedding day, then what follows isn’t a king showing off his wealth. It’s a groom expressing his love for his bride. His love approaches!
But as I said, this is a double entendre: not only does his love approach, but this is what love does, generally: It moves toward the one we love. Moving toward the one we love is easy during dating and courting and the engagement and the wedding day as we see here.
The question is: do we keep moving toward our spouse on all the days after that one?
Brothers and sisters, love is a choice. A decision that we make. Jesus expressed the Great Commandment to love God as having a human corollary:
36 “Teacher, which command in the law is the greatest?” 37 He said to him, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. 38 This is the greatest and most important command. 39 The second is like it: Love your neighbor as yourself.
And you may, as the lawyer did to justify himself in Luke 10, ask the question, “And who is my neighbor?” The illustration that Jesus gave in response was the Parable of the Good Samaritan—a man who went out of his way to sacrificially show love to another person in need. Your neighbor is whoever is nearby who is in need of what you can provide. So who then, is your first and nearest neighbor if you’re married? Your spouse is.
Gary Thomas said it really well in his great book Sacred Marriage:
In Hollywood language, romance is expressed as a passive activity. Usually couples will say they have “fallen” in love. Or they may talk about being “swept off their feet.” Adulterous couples sometimes even say, “We couldn’t help ourselves; it just happened!” This passivity is as foreign to Christian love as the moon is to the earth. Christian love is an aggressive movement and an active commitment. In reality we choose where to place our affections.
— Gary Thomas, Sacred Marriage: What If God Designed Marriage to Make Us Holy More Than to Make Us Happy?
Just as we move toward our spouses on our wedding days in a physical sense, we are to actively move toward our spouses in a relational sense for the rest of our married lives. Right after what Peter said to wives and husbands in chapter 3 of his first epistle, he gave this instruction:
8 Finally, all of you be like-minded and sympathetic, love one another, and be compassionate and humble, 9 not paying back evil for evil or insult for insult but, on the contrary, giving a blessing, since you were called for this, so that you may inherit a blessing.
That’s what love does. Love doesn’t merely feel affection—it moves, it takes initiative, it approaches the other person even when it might be easier to retreat from them. Love actually protects the other person from our own tendency toward selfishness.
And what we see next in the wedding day narrative is a massive show of protective strength by the shepherd-king as a declaration of his care for the Beloved, because:
2: Love protects
2: Love protects
Now, if we understand verse 6 as being the Beloved’s coming up to Jerusalem from her parents’ country home for her wedding day, then what follows must still have that occurrence in view. At first, the procession is far off. But now, as it draws nearer, the viewer can see it in greater detail, as evidenced by the interjection, “Look!”:
7 Look! Solomon’s bed surrounded by sixty warriors from the mighty men of Israel. 8 All of them are skilled with swords and trained in warfare. Each has his sword at his side to guard against the terror of the night.
“So, Bill,” you might be asking in your head right now, “if this is Solomon’s bed, surrounded by the mighty men of Israel, then how can you say that this is the Beloved?” A fair question.
To be clear: this “bed,” together with the word translated “carriage” in verse 9, speak of what’s called a palanquin: a portable bed or litter carried on poles by servants, likely with a covering over the top. And it would have been a regular mode of casual conveyance for the king at this time. But I believe that the best way to understand this is that while it is Solomon’s palanquin, and Solomon’s soldiers, Solomon is not the one riding in it: The Beloved is.
Interestingly, we even have historical evidence from other ancient Jewish sources that nobles’ brides were sometimes conveyed to their weddings at the groom’s expense with large processions, something that fits remarkably well with what’s happening here.
So my interpretation is that the shepherd-king sent his personal palanquin to transport her, along with powerful armed forces to protect her as she made the journey from the wilderness to Jerusalem. The show of force is the first thing the narrator comments on. Sixty of the “mighty men” of Israel would have been an impressive military escort for anyone, but was especially so for a simple girl from a working-class family in the country. She’s already being guarded as if she is the queen.
The “mighty men of Israel” were the king’s elite troops. The designation was first made in connection with Solomon’s father, King David, regarding a group of thirty men and their leaders who made up his personal bodyguard and special forces. We find this in 2 Samuel 23. Solomon had apparently increased the number of “mighty men” during his reign. The best of the best were escorting Solomon’s Beloved to her wedding, swords strapped to their sides, in order to protect her from whatever dangers might arise (the “terror of the night”). With them around, she has no reason to fear. That’s really the purpose of protection: not just the absence of danger, but the presence of security.
Contextually, this passage in the Song is a wedding. The groom himself could not go and be a part of the transport, because he had to attend to the preparation for the wedding feast itself. It was his responsibility (especially since he was the king) to provide for the seven days of feasting that were to take place following the ceremony (I’m really glad I didn’t have to pay for that kind of a reception when Maggie got married!). Since convention demanded that he not go personally, he sent the very best of his military strength to escort and protect her.
There’s a picture here of the way that God protects His people as His bride as well. Psalm 91 is all about this. Here are just a couple of verses from it:
1 The one who lives under the protection of the Most High dwells in the shadow of the Almighty.
14 Because he has his heart set on me, I will deliver him; I will protect him because he knows my name. 15 When he calls out to me, I will answer him; I will be with him in trouble. I will rescue him and give him honor.
And while the Song tells us that the Lover sent sixty mighty men to protect his bride, the Gospel tells us something even better: That the One who loves us, Christ, gave His own life to protect His bride. He didn’t send protection: He is our protection. He gave Himself to protect us from sin, death, judgment, and the devil, and triumphed over them by His death on the cross. He is our example.
Do we give our very best for the protection of our spouses? This is, I suppose, more a question for husbands than for wives, but both spouses are called to a protective role in some fashion through the expression of our love for one another. John wrote in 1 John 4:18 about how “perfect” love drives out fear:
18 There is no fear in love; instead, perfect love drives out fear, because fear involves punishment. So the one who fears is not complete in love.
I literally never worry about Mel leaving me or being unfaithful to me because of how well she loves me. I am protected from such insecurities because of how well she loves me and communicates that love to me. Loving well is its own form of emotional protection for your spouse.
However, a husband has a specific calling in Scripture: to love his wife in a sacrificial manner both as Christ loves the church, and as a man loves his own body:
28 In the same way, husbands are to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. 29 For no one ever hates his own flesh but provides and cares for it, just as Christ does for the church,
You protect your own bodies as a part of caring for them, gentlemen. How much thought and care do you give to protecting your wives well? This is your God-given role. The extent to which you give yourself sacrificially in loving your wife says something important to her: it tells her how valuable she is to you, which is the next thing that love does.
3: Love values
3: Love values
Consider the Beloved: when this massive military escort in armor and weapons arrived to carry her up to Jerusalem, how valuable do you think she would have felt? Keep in mind that she knew Solomon could not come himself, so she’s not hurt by it. She knows that he will be waiting for her in Jersualem, with everything ready for them to be married. So this escort made a declaration of how he values her. But he went one step further, according to verses 9 and 10:
9 King Solomon made a carriage for himself with wood from Lebanon. 10 He made its posts of silver, its back of gold, and its seat of purple. Its interior is inlaid with love by the young women of Jerusalem.
If my interpretation is correct, then these verses describe the palanquin that he sent for her—the luxury that she was provided to ride in. Solomon didn’t do things halfway when it came to the places he sat. For example, Solomon’s throne is described in 1 Kings 10:18-20 as extremely opulent, made of ivory and overlaid with gold, and that “nothing like it had ever been made in any other kingdom.”
The makeup of the palanquin is likewise highly valuable—the best wood (almost certainly cedar), silver and gold, purple fabric (which was highly valuable because of the process of making it)—so the fact that he would send the mode of transportation that he normally used for himself is a great statement of her value to him.
The one question is: What does it mean that “its interior is inlaid with love by the young women of Jerusalem”? We can only guess, because nothing like this phrase appears anywhere else, in the Song or otherwise. The word for “inlaid” can also be understood as “fitted.” So my guess, which I think fits well with the overall narrative of the Song to this point, is that the noble daughters of Jerusalem (her friends from the “girl talk” of 1:5-8) had been given the task of making the palanquin as comfortable as possible for her to ride in. Not only was the king sparing no expense, but perhaps he was trying to “think of everything” as well.
Solomon obviously had the wealth to be extravagant in demonstrating how much he valued the Beloved. None of us are anywhere near as wealthy as he was. But it wasn’t really his wealth that he leveraged to show how valuable she was to him—it was his thoughtfulness. He sent what was certainly the most well luxurious mode of transport in the nation, perhaps even in the world at that time, to get her. He planned for her safety, her security, and her comfort. He sacrificed his own comfort and convenience in transportation for her, at least temporarily. He put time and effort into the wedding celebration.
What’s the best way to show your spouse that you value them, that they are important to you, that you’re thankful for them? Is it to spend a bunch of money on them or buy them this, that, or the other? No. The image we see here is that of service. Serve your spouse with a grateful heart. And what this looks like is different for each of us, because each of us receive the service of others in different ways. So talk with your spouse: What makes your husband feel like you appreciate him, ladies? What makes your wife feel important to you, guys? Find those things out, and if doing that is within your power, then do it willingly. In showing your spouse that you value them, you’re declaring your love, and you’re acting like Jesus.
The core of the Gospel is that God loves us so much that He paid the penalty for our sins with the precious blood of His Son, Jesus Christ. Jesus’s death declares how valuable we are to God:
6 For while we were still helpless, at the right time, Christ died for the ungodly.
8 But God proves his own love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
The truth is that none of us deserve God’s love. And He gives it anyway. None of us deserve Jesus’s sacrifice on our behalf. And He died anyway. None of us deserve eternal life. And He offers it freely. If we will respond to His declaration of love in faith, believing that Jesus died on the cross for our forgiveness and rose again for our victory over death, and turning from going our own way and surrendering to God to go His way as our Lord, then we will be saved. There is no greater sense of just how valuable you are than to know that you are loved by God.
In the Song, the Lover has sent his palanquin to get her. He’s provided a military escort. He’s planned for her safety, comfort, and care. Every act he has taken communicates how valuable she is to him. But there’s one last point to see here about genuine love: It will eventually want to be seen. Love makes itself public.
4: Love publicizes
4: Love publicizes
If you truly love someone, you don’t spend your life hiding that fact. You gladly identify yourself with them. You happily tell others about them, stand beside them and say, “My love is mine, and I am my love’s.” (2:16). The focus in our passage this morning now shifts from her journey to the bridegroom himself:
11 Go out, young women of Zion, and gaze at King Solomon, wearing the crown his mother placed on him on the day of his wedding— the day of his heart’s rejoicing.
While it’s possible that the narrator is still speaking here, I would personally say that it’s the Beloved who speaks to the young women (of Zion, another name for Jerusalem), because she is the one who speaks to them every other time in the Song. It’s possible that it’s them speaking to themselves, or even the narrator instructing them, however. But what are they told to do?
They are told to go “out” and “gaze at King Solomon.” He’s somewhere public, accessible, visible. He’s ready to meet her, and he’s ready for the wedding. His heart is rejoicing over the fact that the day has finally arrived. Everyone can see all that he’s done to bring her to Jerusalem, and now how he is waiting to welcome her to the wedding ceremony. His love is very public. In fact, we see that now he is approaching her even as she approaches him.
The “crown” placed on his head by his mother (Bathsheba) doesn’t have any recorded scriptural parallel. But according to Hebrew rabbinical tradition, both brides and bridegrooms wore laurel wreath crowns to symbolize the joy and gladness of their wedding day until the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 AD.
Throughout the Song, the progression we’ve seen has all led to this day. So now, he’s standing outside, watching for the wedding procession, wearing a wreath of gladness because this is the day of his heart’s rejoicing. The day that he’s been longing for. He can’t help but show his joy.
Those of you who are married: Think about your wedding for a second. You stood up in front of a bunch of people (or even just a few) and made a public declaration of your love for your spouse, and you stood there (or here, like Mel and I did), full of joy and anticipation for what the rest of your life would bring. It was the day of your heart’s rejoicing.
One of the dangers in marriage is that over time, we can forget that delight and joy. We begin to see our wives as a fellow manager of the household or the bills. We begin to see our husband as a co-parent or a maintenance man. We see our spouse as a roommate, not someone with whom we share a passionate, lasting, abiding love. But love remembers the delight and the joy. Love remembers gratitude and thankfulness. Love declares those things publicly: both to the object of that love, and to others, both in what we say, and in what we do.
And even this points us toward something deeper in the Gospel: that Jesus is the bridegroom, and we, church, are His bride, purchased with His own blood. He doesn’t just tolerate us. He doesn’t reluctantly relate to us. He delights in us! He rejoices over us!
17 The Lord your God is among you, a warrior who saves. He will rejoice over you with gladness. He will be quiet in his love. He will delight in you with singing.”
And there is a day that we are waiting for—another wedding day—when we will finally experience the fullness of the joy that knowing Jesus brings, when we will know Him and be fully known (1 Cor 13:12), when we will be fully comforted and protected and provided for (Rev 21:4)… a day of gladness and rejoicing:
7 Let us be glad, rejoice, and give him glory, because the marriage of the Lamb has come, and his bride has prepared herself.
Once that wedding has occurred, then every day afterwards will be perfect between us and our Bridegroom, Jesus. No more death, no more sin, no more tears. It will be the finish line for such things.
Closing
Closing
But in the meantime, we have to remember that our weddings are the starting point: the declaration of everything we promise will come afterward: “From this day forward, I will keep moving toward you. I will keep working to protect you. I will keep showing how valuable you are. And I will keep gladly and publicly identifying myself with you.” Our wedding vows are promises of what we will CHOOSE in the future, not simply declarations about how we feel right now.
Jesus has promised what the future will bring for those who make up His bride, the church. And we can completely trust in those promises. On that wedding day, will you be included in the bride of Christ? It’s only through faith in Him that we can be saved. Believe in Jesus!
Baptism
Church membership
Repentance: Maybe today your response isn't primarily about your relationship with your spouse. Maybe it's about your relationship with Christ. Or maybe the Spirit has shown you places where you've stopped approaching, stopped protecting, stopped valuing, or stopped delighting in the person God has given you.
Prayer
Giving
PRAYER
Closing Remarks
Closing Remarks
Neighboring
My husband and I took our 8-year-old out to dinner. We had a very attentive waiter who kept asking us to let him know if we had any questions. Our daughter said to us, ”I have a question. Does he know Jesus?” So we encouraged her to talk to the waiter. She was so nervous but when he came she asked him if there was anything she could pray for him for. He said no but told her he appreciated her asking him. She was so nervous that when he left she started crying. Later, he came back to the table and asked her if there was anything he could pray for her for. She said no also so he pulled up a chair, sat by her and said “how about we just pray for health”. So we prayed all together as a table. When we opened our eyes, there was another server standing there with her arms full of glasses. She said she ran over because she really wanted to be a part of the prayer. We asked her if she needed any prayer and she told us her dad had just had open heart surgery and needed healing. We told our daughter her how proud of her we were for listening to Jesus when He spoke directly to her heart and following His prompting even though she was so scared. It ended up being a blessing for the servers and us.
Bible reading
Pastor’s Study tonight
Prayer Meeting Wednesday
Instructions for guests
Benediction
Benediction
3 Then I heard a loud voice from the throne: Look, God’s dwelling is with humanity, and he will live with them. They will be his peoples, and God himself will be with them and will be their God. 4 He will wipe away every tear from their eyes. Death will be no more; grief, crying, and pain will be no more, because the previous things have passed away.
