The Banner is the Lord
We are all familiar with, and quote often, Song of Solomon 2:4, "...And His banner over me was love." I recently came across a passage of Scripture that I had not paid attention to before, possibly because at times banner is translated: standard or signal. The passage I noticed for the first time is Isaiah 11:10, "...a root of Jesse, who shall stand as a banner to the people." Of course the root of Jesse is Jesus. Therefore, He stands as a banner to us. He is the banner of love over us.
We are told in Exodus 17:15 that one of the names of the Lord is Jehovah-Nissi, the Lord my Banner. This gives the connotation of the Lord being a personal banner to us--that is if we have received Him into our hearts as such. He can only be personal if we allow Him to be.
Banners in Biblical days were important for many reasons. They were used to rally the tribes together for battle. Each tribe had a banner representing their tribe where they gathered together for various reasons.
Psalm 20:5 tells us, "We will sing for joy over your victory, and in the name of our God we will set up our banners..." Here we see that banners were used to mark victory over the Israelites enemies. Has our Lord, Jesus Christ not won victory at the Cross for us over our enemies?
As the banner of love over us, He wants us to rest underneath His banner knowing that "perfect love casts out fear." When times of trial come, as they often do, we are to remember He is the victorious banner of love over us, that will cast out fear if we rest in Him.
One of the words used in Scripture for banner is dagal (Strongs H1714) it means: to be conspicuous or to flaunt. The Lord wants His love for us to be conspicuous to others. He isn't afraid to flaunt it before anyone who will notice. His love is extravagant towards us, not hidden or miserly. Won't you let your love for Him be the same extravagant love back to Him that He has towards you.
