Song of Solomon 1:1-17
Introduction…
Appetite is what really defines and drives a person. It is quite difficult for a person to overcome their appetite.
This may be a good thing and then again, it may be a bad thing. If you can find a person’s appetite, you can control that person to make them do whatever you want them to do.
Bernie Madoff understood that many people’s appetite is money salted with greed. Therefore, he was able to control many people to the tune of $65 billion.
A great illustration of this is found in the Old Testament concerning Noah and the ark.
Genesis 8:6-9 - “6 And it came to pass at the end of forty days, that Noah opened the window of the ark which he had made: 7 And he sent forth a raven, which went forth to and fro, until the waters were dried up from off the earth. 8 Also he sent forth a dove from him, to see if the waters were abated from off the face of the ground; 9 But the dove found no rest for the sole of her foot, and she returned unto him into the ark, for the waters were on the face of the whole earth: then he put forth his hand, and took her, and pulled her in unto him into the ark.”
There was a difference between the Raven and the Dove’s appetite. When the Raven was released there was rotting corpses, both human and animal, all over the place. This was a delightful environment for the Raven. This was his appetite.
The Dove, on the other hand, had a different appetite altogether. The Scripture says, “the dove found no rest for the sole of her foot…”
She had no appetite for that environment around her, whereas, the Raven was in his heaven, so to speak, and was feasting on the decaying filth all around him. He had an appetite for that kind of thing.
Our appetite really defines us, drives us and is the explanation for the quality of our life right now.
Unless we have an inner transformation, the carnal and depraved appetites of humanity will drive our life.
Even the world realizes what a mess this world really is in. People are not being ruled by right and wrong, but by their appetites, and the more depraved the better it is.
The only successful movie from Hollywood has to have a lower level of depravity than the movies before it. Each one is trying to outdo the other in despicable depravity and moral decay.
When I come to Song of Solomon, I need to understand this whole aspect of appetite. The thing that keeps me from experiencing what God has for me is that carnal appetite that is ruling my life.
Solomon, in this book, outlines for us the kind of love affair that God created us for. As I delve into the different levels of love and relationship in this book, I begin to see myself in a very different way.
When a young lady finds the “love of her life” she changes, or, so she thinks. He is only bringing out what was really inside her
A new appetite is now dramatically replacing those old appetites that defined me and led me away from God and the things of God.
“That I might know him,” the apostle Paul prayed.
As we get into this book, we need to understand that there is a three-tier process that gets us to the place where we can experience God the way he created us to experience him.
To understand this is to truly kick evolution into the garbage heap where it belongs. Something is significantly different about mankind from all the other aspects of God’s creation.
Let’s look at them this morning.
I. A Dysfunctional Relationship
The word, dysfunctional, means…
1. Not performing normally, as an organ or structure of the body;
2. Having a malfunctioning part or element:
We sometimes hear it in the context of the family. That is a very dysfunctional family, we sometimes say. And what we mean is that they are out of sync with each other. They are not acting normally.
Each generation redefines “normal.” What was normal 50 years ago is not normal today.
At the very basis of our life is an extreme dysfunctional relationship with God. We search for God but can’t find them in anything around us and only experience and emptiness.
Let me show you three Scriptures that explains to us God’s purpose in creating mankind.
Genesis 1:26-27 - “And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth. So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.”
Jeremiah 1:5 - “Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee; and before thou camest forth out of the womb I sanctified thee, and I ordained thee a prophet unto the nations.”
Revelation 4:11 - “Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honour and power: for thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created.”
God created us for himself and for his pleasure and the enemy, Lucifer, stepped in and created such a spiritual, psychological and physical dysfunction that man is in the condition that he is in today. Confusion is his middle name.
He was created with an appetite for God, but the enemy destroyed that appetite and replaced it with an appetite for self. When self became God and man began worshiping self it created a dysfunction that has made mankind what it is today.
We were not created for all of this going on today. We have been created for God’s pleasure and anything apart from that is absolutely dysfunctional.
Can you honestly say that the life you are now living gives pleasure to God?
St. Augustine put it this way, “Thou hast created us for thyself, and we are restless until we rest fully in Thee.”
We were created with a purpose and that purpose is to bring pleasure to God. If I’m not bringing pleasure to God, I am living a dysfunctional relationship that can in no wise please God.
We now come to the second tier.
II. A Dynamic Redemption
That dysfunctional relationship had to be dealt with and that is exactly what Jesus did on the cross. This month we celebrate the death, burial and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ.
I need to make note here that it was not Jesus’ death on the cross that brought to us our redemption. Thousands even millions of people died on the Roman cross. It was not the cross that brought to us our redemption.
What the cross did was to bring God into humanity, take man’s sin and sacrifice himself in payment for that sin.
When Jesus died on the cross and was buried he dealt with the sin problem. Sin has been paid for.
The fact that God was able to become a man, the incarnation, where he was perfect God and perfect man is attributed to the fact that he is the creator of man and created man in his image.
But the thing that brought this redemption package to humanity was the resurrection.
Many have died on a cross and many today are still dying on crosses if you have read the news.
When Jesus died on the cross, he proved that he loves mankind and was willing to take man’s place.
But the resurrection is something nobody else has ever done. Christianity is the only religion that has a resurrected Lord. The resurrection enables me to break that dysfunctional relationship and bring me into a pleasing relationship with God.
The apostle Peter says…
1 Peter 1:3 - “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to his abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,”
Paul says…
Philippians 3:10-11 - “That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death; If by any means I might attain unto the resurrection of the dead.”
The dynamics of redemption is rooted in eternity.
The dysfunctional relationship that I spoke of earlier is rooted in time. And because it is rooted in time, it has a limit to it and can be overcome.
Since redemption is rooted in eternity, there is absolutely no limit to it. God does not measure his redemption by what you consider to be sin. There is no person that is a bigger sinner than another person. All sin has its roots in time, but God’s redemption is rooted in eternity
And can never be overturned.
Then we come to the third tier…
III. A Delightful Reunion
No matter how dysfunctional that relationship was the dynamics of redemption has brought me to this place of a delightful Reunion with God.
What sin tried to take away from me has now been restored to me in its fullness. I have been brought back into fellowship with Jesus Christ. And what a wonderful fellowship that is.
This is how Solomon presents it.
The Woman (2-7)
2 “May he kiss me with the kisses of his mouth! For your love is better than wine. 3 Your oils have a pleasing smell. Your name is like oil poured out. So the young women love you. 4 Take me away with you, and let us run together. The king has brought me into his room.
“We will have joy and be glad because of you. We will praise your love more than wine. They are right to love you.
5 “I am dark but beautiful, O people of Jerusalem, like the tents of Kedar, like the curtains of Solomon. 6 Do not look hard at me because I am dark, for the sun has burned me. My mother’s sons were angry with me, and made me take care of the grape-fields. But I have not taken care of my own grape-field. 7 Tell me, O you whom my soul loves. In what field do you feed your flock? Where do your sheep lie down at noon? Why should I need to look for you beside the flocks of your friends?”
Becoming a Christian does not just mean that when I die am going to go zooming off into heaven, but in the meantime I can live any way I choose.
If you are living any way you choose right now, you are NOT a Christian. Because you might have some Christian ideals does not make you a Christian.
There are many people, especially in America, who believe they're a Christian because they think it’s the right thing to do.
Being a Christian means that I have absolutely separated myself from the world and surrendered fully to Jesus.
When the bride marries the groom, she separates herself entirely from everybody else and now becomes exclusively attached to the groom. Her identity is lost in him.
There are several things about marriage that is reflective of our relationship to God.
1. The groom gives the bride an engagement ring that reflects his love and admiration for the bride. That ring symbolizes all of his love and affection and commitment.
2. The groom gives the bride his last name that reflects his utter commitment to her to support her. Whatever he has she also has. His name is her name, his reputation is her reputation, his fortune is her fortune.
Romans 8:16-17 - “16The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God: 17And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together.”
The ring symbolizes his commitment to her.
The name symbolizes his absolute care for her.
This all brings us together into a delightful Reunion with God, back into that Fellowship where we belong. God’s pleasure is in this reunion.
Conclusion…
Have you come through the three piers?
• Dysfunctional Relationship
• Dynamic Redemption
• Delightful Reunion
It is a journey well worth the adventure.
Maybe some here are only in that first tier. Much confusion, exhaustion and things in your life that does not really make sense.
You are not living up to the potential God created you.
You are living according to carnal appetites that leads you away from God and the things of God.
May I invite you and encourage you to come to that point Of Delightful Reunion with the Lord Jesus Christ. Discover your purpose. Discover the joy of your life.
Many people have moments of joy and happiness. However, it does not last for long because it is rooted time.
Today you could discover the true joy of fellowship with God through the Lord Jesus Christ. Not something temporary. Rather, something rooted in eternity.
