GOD’S WORD FOR DECEMBER 18 ~ ~ John 14:21 ~ ~ “ …..  he who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him, and REVEAL MYSELF TO HIM.”

Continuing in Michael Youssef’s book, “How to Read the Bible” ~ chapter 9, “Wisdom of the Kingdom:  The Books of Solomon”

“Song of Solomon:  Honest, Pure, and Chaste”

You have probably never heard of Annie Besant, but in the late 1800’s, and early 1900’s, she was a famed socialist activist in Great Britain.  She authored many books that sparked controversy in British society, including  “My Path to Atheism” (1886).  In 1890, Besant met the infamous Russian mystic Helena Blatvatsky.

After rejecting the God of the Bible, Besant had an emptiness in her soul that left her wide open to the fraudulent mystical claims of Madame Blavatsky and her Theosophical Society.  She fell for Blavatsky’s far-fetched stories of being mentored by the Masters of the Ancient Wisdom in Tibet and of experiencing miraculous supernatural phenomena.  Though Blavatsky was repeatedly and credibly accused of fraud, Besant’s gullible devotion to Theosophy never wavered.

Besant continued to attack the Bible.  One of her books was “Is the Bible Indictable? “ (an enquiry whether the Bible comes under …”obscene literature”).   Besant didn’t honestly care about so-called “obscene literature.” But as a self-proclaimed “freethinker,” she rejected the Christian church, Christian sexual ethics, and the sanctity of marriage, and she eagerly grasped at any straw to discredit God’s Word.

She called the Song of Solomon “a marriage-song of the sensual and luxuriant character.” Citing several passages, she asked,

“Could any language be more alluring, more seductive, more passion-rousing than….this Eastern marriage-ode?  It is not vulgarly coarse and offensive as  is so much of the Bible, but it is, according to the ruling of the Lord Chief Justice, a very obscene poem.”

These are, of course, the words of an enemy of the Bible, desperate to have it banned.  She slandered one of the most beautiful and unique books in God’s Word.  While the Song of Solomon rejoices in the romantic intimacy between a man and his wife, it does so with words and images that are God-breathed.

This book operates on at least two levels.  On the surface, it expresses the yearnings of our innermost being for romantic love.  It frankly explores the human experience of romantic love within the safe enclosure of marriage – an experience which has been blessed and approved by our Creator since the time of Adam and Eve.

Though the book is honest and forthright, it never debases its subject, nor does it stir unclean thoughts in the reader.  Its language is poetic, and it treats romantic love through rich and meaningful metaphors and images.  It is an exquisitely pure and chaste book that honestly describes how a husband and wife delight in each other’s love.

A SACRED ALLEGORY

On a deeper level, the Song of Solomon is richly allegorical and spiritual – and that is why it is sacred to both Judaism and Christianity.  In the Jewish tradition, the Song of Solomon is a allegory of God’s loving relationship with the people of Israel.  Among Christians, it is an allegory of the love between Jesus the Messiah and His Bride, the Church.

In 1 Kings 4:32, we learn that Solomon penned three thousand proverbs and 1005 songs.  Most of the songs Solomon wrote have been lost, but this book, inspired by the Holy Spirit, is clearly his greatest song of all – which is why, in the first verse, he calls it his “Song of Songs.”

The Song of Solomon is structured as a stage musical.  The New International Version of the Bible helpfully underscores the structure by dividing the text with subheads, telling us who is speaking in each section:  “She” (the Beloved, the Shulamite woman), “He” (Solomon, the young king of Israel), and “Friends” (the Beloved’s female friends who rejoice with her).

The play tells the story of the Shulamite, a poor but beautiful young woman who toils in the vineyards under the hot sun.  One day, she sees a handsome stranger, a shepherd grazing his flocks at midday.  Their eyes meet, and they are instantly attracted to each other.  They fall in love, then he mysteriously departs.  She dreams of him, and he eventually returns to her – and she discovers that this handsome shepherd is in fact the king of Israel.

The shepherd (king in disguise) courts the Shulamite in Song of Solomon 1:1-3.5).  the king and the Shulamite wed in 3:6-5:1.  We see them work through the adjustments of young married life in 5:2-7:10.  In the final section, 7:11-14, the king and his beloved journey to the home where she was raised and their love deepens

Three times, the Shulamite woman gives a word of godly moral advice to the “daughters of Jerusalem” – by which she means all unmarried women.  She says, “Do not arouse or awaken love until it so desires” (2:7;  3:5;  8:4)

When does love desire to be aroused and awakened?  When it is in the safe enclosure of a marriage covenant.  First, a man and woman must experience attraction, then the budding of love, then they must enter into a covenantal marriage union.  Then and only then should love be fully, physically expressed between them.

Never rush love.  Never awaken love before its time.  Keep marital love within its God-given marital boundaries.  Far from being a sensual or seductive book, the Song of Solomon three times pleads young people to live a life of purity and abstinence until marriage.

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Ephesians 3:17-19

That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height; And to know the love of Christ, which passes knowledge, that you  might be filled with all the fullness of God.

Psalm 84:11

 For the LORD God is a sun and shield: the LORD will give grace and glory: no good thing will he withhold from them that walk uprightly.

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