Song of Solomon 6:5

Turn away thine eyes from Me, for they have overcome Me.

Overcoming Christ

This is the language of the heavenly Bridegroom to His spouse. In great condescension He speaks to her, and bids her take note that her eyes have overcome Him. Now, it must not be supposed, because of the language of the text, that there is any opposition between Christ and His people which has to be overcome. He loves His bride far too well to allow any division of feeling to separate them in heart from one another. Nor is it to be imagined that the spouse had to gain some blessing from an unwilling hand, and therefore pleaded with her eyes as well as with her lips. Oh, no! There is a holy discipline in Christ’s house that sometimes withholds the coveted blessing till we have learned to pray in downright earnest; but the power that wins the victory in prayer has its real basis in the love of Christ Himself.

I. First, notice that looking on his Church has already overcome the heart of our heavenly Bridegroom. It was so in the far-distant past, not when she looked at Him, but when He looked at her, that she overcame Him. You know, too, when He lived down here among men, how often His inmost heart was stirred as He looked upon the people whom He loved. And, now that our Lord is risen from the dead, He still feels the power of the sight of His redeemed. He looks down to the saints on earth, and sees the myriads who are all trusting in Him, all conquering sin by His might, and all spared from going down to the pit by the merit of His precious blood; and He seems again to say, “Turn away thine eyes from Me, for they have overcome Me”; as if Christ felt that a glance at His people brought almost too much joy for Him. What a day will that be when He shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God; when all His people, raised from the dead, or changed in the twinkling of an eye, shall admire Him, and He shall be admired in them! I can well conceive of Him saying in that day, “Turn away thine eyes from Me, for they have overcome Me.” The joy that Christ will feel in His own sight of His people, and in the glances of the multitudes that He has saved, must be a delight beyond anything we can even imagine.

II. The eyes of Christ’s chosen ones still overcome Him. And, first, the eyes of His chosen overcome Him, when they look up in deep repentance, glancing at Him hopefully through their tears. There is a wondrous power in the penitent eye, in the full confession that makes a clean breast of every sin before the face of the Lord Jesus Christ. Remember that when we have once repented, we do not leave off repenting, for penitence is a grace that is as long-lived as faith; and as long as we are capable of believing, we shall also necessarily need to repent, for we shall be always sinning. So, whenever the child of God feels that he has gone astray in any way, that, though he did live near to God, he has gone back, and grown cold in heart, he has only to come to Christ again, and cry after Him, and confess his folly in having left Him, and his ingratitude in having been so indifferent to Him, and Christ will receive him back again. Another kind of glance that has great power with the Lord Jesus is when the soul looks to Christ for salvation. Then it is that the eyes vanquish the Saviour. Many times since then, you and I have looked to Jesus Christ when a sense of sin has been very heavy upon us. While the eyes of faith are thus resting upon Jesus, He is overcome by them, and He darts inexpressible joy into our hearts as He says to us, “Turn away thine eyes from Me, for they have overcome Me.” His heart is carried by storm by the faith-looks of His children. We also give another overcoming glance when we look to the Lord Jesus Christ for all things. When thine eyes are full of submission, full of hope, full of trust, it cannot be long before the Lord will, somehow or other, deliver thee, for He will say, “I cannot hold out against thee any longer.” Turn away thine eyes from Me, for they have overcome Me.” “I will deliver thee, and thou shalt glorify Me.’“ Again, there are the eyes of prayer which often overcome the Lord Jesus Christ, and this victory comes, sometimes, when we are praying for ourselves. You cannot look steadily to God and say, “Lord, I am sure about Thy faithfulness, I am sure about Thy promise, and I cannot and will not doubt it,” but before long you shall see the hand of the Lord made bare for your deliverance, and you also shall be among the happy number who have to bear witness that, verily, there is a God in Israel. Thus does prayer prevail with God when we present it for ourselves. So does it also overcome Him when we pray on behalf of others. Once again, there is another time when the eyes of the believer seem to overcome the heart of Christ, and that is, when we have turned right away from the world, and looked to Him alone. I have known it so again and again; have not you? At such seasons my soul has felt ready to swoon away in His presence. You remember how John in Parinos, when Jesus appeared to him, said, “When I saw Him, I fell at His feet as dead;” and well he might, for he had a brighter vision of his Lord than you and I can have at present. But even faith’s view of Him is enough to transport us straight away into heaven itself. Well, whenever we are thus happily engaged in contemplation of our Lord, not only is He very near to us, but He is greatly moved by our love, and He says to us, “Turn away thine eyes from Me, for they have overcome Me.” And, meanwhile, to prove how overcome He is, He begins to reveal Himself more fully to us. Last of all, sometimes the eyes of Christians have great power in overcoming Christ when they long for His appearing. Have you never seen the saints lie dying with such language as this on their lips, “Why are His chariots so long in coming Why tarrieth He?” I have heard them say, with evident regret, “I thought to have been in heaven long ere now. Why not let me go?” And they have been like a poor thrush which I have sometimes seen a boy try to keep upon a little bit of turf; it longed for the broad fields, and beat itself against the wires of its cage. So is it with Our dear suffering friends, at times; yet they have learned patiently to wait till their change came; but often, their eyes have been so fixed upon their Lord that they have said to Him, “Wilt Thou never come?” And, at last, Christ has looked out of heaven so sweetly on those sick ones, and He has said, “Your eyes have overcome Me, come up higher;” and they have leaped out of their body into His bosom, and the pierced hands have received their blood-washed spirits, and they have been “for ever with the Lord.”(C. H. Spurgeon.)