So maybe you’ve heard it said, ‘read your bible’ so you tried and failed. Our hope as leaders is that all of us will pick up God’s word and come to understand the true nature of God. After all, the bible is God’s Word curated over centuries detailing His nature, His will, the meaning of life and humanity’s historical interactions with Him. The Bible details the hidden keys to the Kingdom. Hence, the reason we are reviewing a new book each week.
The last couple of weeks, we learned from the wisdom books about the origin and power of wisdom to navigate and understand the meaning of life. This week we continue our stroll through the Old Testament by looking at the key passage from Solomon’s Song of Songs. Now, before I go any further, we might ask why there is a poem about romance and sex in the bible? 1) Poetry was considered a form of entertainment in ancient times - there were no Tik-Toks or netflix or Romcom movies. 2) God created sex. Romance was his idea. The two are interlinked and powerful in our understanding of God. 3) Finally, we read about these topics because before that moment in the garden when everything became tainted, sex was a perfect gift from God. It is only after we have made it selfish and self centered.
If you have your bible or bible app, to Song of Songs chapter eight verse 6. While you find the text, let me pray for us.
The speakers in the poem are the friends speaking about the couple. The He and She are the other voices in the story.
Place me like a seal over your heart, like a seal on your arm;
for love is as strong as death, its intensity as (ARDOR) unyielding as the grave.
It burns like blazing fire, like a very flame of the Lord
7 Many waters cannot quench love; rivers cannot sweep it away.
If one were to give all the wealth of one’s house for love, it would be utterly scorned.
Friends
8 We have a little sister, and her breasts are not yet grown.
What shall we do for our sister on the day she is spoken for?
9 If she is a wall, we will build towers of silver on her.
If she is a door, we will enclose her with panels of cedar.
She
10 I am a wall, and my breasts are like towers.
Thus I have become in his eyes like one bringing contentment.
11 Solomon had a vineyard in Baal Hamon; he let out his vineyard to tenants.
Each was to bring for its fruit a thousand shekels of silver.
12 But my own vineyard is mine to give; the thousand shekels are for you, Solomon, and two hundred[e] are for those who tend its fruit.
He
13 You who dwell in the gardens with friends in attendance, let me hear your voice!
She
14 Come away, my beloved, and be like a gazelle or like a young stag on the spice-laden mountains.
Poetry is literary work in which a special intensity is given to the expression of feelings and ideas by the use of distinctive style and rhythm. This book’s poetry tries to express the idea of deep and intense love. It’s more than physical. For the author, love is all encompassing and everlasting. So much so, it’s considered divine and eternal.
As I read the scriptures this week, I couldn’t get the singer Tina Turner out of my mind. One of her big hits was “what’s love got to do with it?” A song about telling a lover their attraction to each other will remain only that: an attraction. Tina had a history of being abused and had come to know the difference between love and attraction, between unconditional and conditional, between transactional and relational. By the time she wrote her grammy award winning song in 1984, she knew the kind of love the writer of the Song of Songs was describing.
Do you remember the first time you were really in love? The first hand holding, deep discussion, hug, kiss, fight, separation and breakup. It was intense. From that moment on, many of us hoped to find love with the same type of intensity. The truth is all love ebbs and flows. It heats up and cools down. If you’re lucky, over time it becomes a relationship of comfortable shared values and customs. However, our first experience of love is something we never forget. For many of us, its power helps all of us define the intensity of the idea of being spiritual and sets expectations for what it means to be in a relationship.
Unfortunately, our first experience of love is incomplete. The new emotions, expectations and pain come at a time in many of our lives we wonder if any love last or if it's worth the trouble. Thankfully God demonstrates His love to us in other ways as well. There are many witnesses to love:
In creation.
In the expanse of the universe.
In the beauty of nature.
In the touch of someone you care for.
In the kind words of an authentic relationship.
In the provision of our physical needs.
In all knowledge and wisdom shared.
God’s love is revealed all around us and throughout our lives. We can recognize it when we see words or deeds that change a person's circumstances for the better without a thought of repayment. That reminds me of a story.
A little boy was selling newspapers on the corner, the people were in and out of the cold. The little boy was so cold that he wasn’t trying to sell many papers. He walked up to a policeman and said, “Mister, you wouldn’t happen to know where a poor boy could find a warm place to sleep tonight would you?
You see, I sleep in a box up around the corner there and down the alley and it’s awful cold in there for tonight. Sure would be nice to have a warm place to stay.”
The policeman looked down at the little boy and said, “You go down the street to that big white house and you knock on the door. When they come out the door you just say John 3:16, and they will let you in.” So he did. He walked up the steps and knocked on the door, and a lady answered. He looked up and said, “John 3:16 .” The lady said, “Come on in, Son.”
She took him in and she sat him down in a split bottom rocker in front of a great big old fireplace, and she went off. The boy sat there for a while and thought to himself: John 3:16…I don’t understand it, but it sure makes a cold boy warm. Later she came back and asked him “Are you hungry ?” He said, “Well, just a little. I haven’t eaten in a couple of days, and I guess I could stand a little bit of food,” The lady took him in the kitchen and sat him down at a table full of wonderful food. He ate and ate until he couldn’t eat any more. Then he thought to himself: John 3:16…Boy, I sure don’t understand it but it sure makes a hungry boy full.
She took him upstairs to a bathroom to a huge bathtub filled with warm water, and he sat there and soaked for a while. As he soaked, he thought to himself: John 3:16 … I sure don’t understand it, but it sure makes a dirty boy clean. You know, I’ve not had a bath, a real bath, in my whole life. The only bath I ever had was when I stood in front of that big old fire hydrant as they flushed it out.
The lady came in and got him. She took him to a room, tucked him into a big old feather bed, pulled the covers up around his neck, kissed him goodnight and turned out the lights. As he lay in the darkness and looked out the window at the snow coming down on that cold night, he thought to himself: John 3:16 …I don’t understand it but it sure makes a tired boy rested.
The next morning the lady came back up and took him down again to that same big table full of food. After he ate, she took him back to that same big old split bottom rocker in front of the fireplace and picked up a big old Bible. She sat down in front of him and looked into his young face. “Do you understand John 3:16 ?” she asked gently. He replied, “No, Ma’am, I don’t. The first time I ever heard it was last night when the policeman told me to use it,”
She opened the Bible to John 3:16 and began to explain to him about Jesus . Right there, in front of that big old fireplace, he gave his heart and life to Jesus. He sat there and thought: John 3:16 — don’t understand it, but it sure makes a lost boy feel safe. https://stories4homilies.wordpress.com/2012/04/03/john-316/
As we came to realize last week, Life is not meaningless. Life is an awakening to, an awareness of and response to God’s love. A love for us revealed in His coming as Jesus. The entire plan for our ability to spend the rest of our lives with God is born out of love (John 3:16).
God so loved the world, he gave…..
Jesus’ own love for humanity was born out of His willingness to give His life out of love for us (John 15:13). Love is the cornerstone of our ability to be in a personal relationship with God (John 13:35;14:15, 21 and 23). Loving others is the greatest spiritual act: selfless service to others in both our words and actions without regard to the outcome.
Creative: https://bibleproject.com/explore/video/song-songs/ 7 Min
References: Quest Bible Overviews, Warren Wiersbe Commentary
https://stories4homilies.wordpress.com/2012/04/03/john-316/
