Word | American Tract Society - Definition |
LILLY | Of this queenly plant, several varieties are found among the wild flowers of Palestine, the profusion, beauty, and fragrance of which are the delight of travelers. The lily is a spring flower, and appears early in all parts of the Holy Land. It was introduced in the ornamental work of the temple, 1Ki 7:19-26 2Ch 4:5. In canticles it is often employed as a symbol of loveliness. More commonly it is applied to the bride and her various perfections: So 2:1,2, where the bride speaks, So 2:1, the bridegroom answers, So 2:2, and the bride again responds, So 2:3. The bridegroom's lips are compared to lilies in So 5:13, and he is described as feeding among the lilies, So 2:16 6:3; which typically represents Christ as delighting himself with the graces of his people. From the lily our Savior had also drawn one of his most striking figures: "Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow;" "even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. If God so clothe the grass of the field, shall he not much more clothe you?" Mt 6:28. We must be careful not to confound the lily of the valleys, So 2:1, which means simply the lily growing in valleys, with our "lily of the valley," which belongs to another class of flowers. |