““Draw me after you and let us run! The king has brought me into his chambers.”
(Song 1:4 NAS95)
This prayer that the Shulumite prayed is one that God always answers in the affirmative. The Hebrew word “draw” can also be translated “drag.” This is the reason that probably the best translation would be “Take me away with you; let us run.” We were created for fellowship with God; a fellowship so intimate that only the word “union” can describe it. What I love about this verse is the language of urgency that is used by the Shulumite. Not only is she crying out for the Lord to take her away with him to that place of intimacy and destiny she was created for, but her language is one of desperation. “Let us run!” This is probably the most important language we ever use when talking to the Lord. These are the words he longs to hear. He longs for us to long for him with a sense of urgency and desperation; the idea being “I do not want to live one more day without knowing more of you oh God.”
The word in the Old Testament “zealous” is more often translated as the word “jealous” from the Hebrew. In 1 Kings 19:10, the King James version says that Elijah was a man who was “jealous” for God. In other words, he wanted to know everything there was to know about God. I don’t mean to know in the sense of information, but to “know God” experientially. I believe that this is the kind of heart that the Shulumite is expressing here. She was jealous for intimacy and experiential union without measure, and she was full of urgency to move from where she’s been to where she knows Christ has already prepared for her. Notice the response from the king. As I said earlier, the king always responds affirmatively to a heart that is jealous for him. The King will certainly draw you in deeper, and higher when he finds your heart jealous for him.