The Bible Series Song of Songs
Notes
Transcript
I would like to begin today by reading from: Genesis 2:18-25
Then the Lord God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone; I will make him a helper suitable for him.” Out of the ground the Lord God formed every beast of the field and every bird of the sky, and brought them to the man to see what he would call them; and whatever the man called a living creature, that was its name. The man gave names to all the cattle, and to the birds of the sky, and to every beast of the field, but for Adam there was not found a helper suitable for him. So the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and he slept; then He took one of his ribs and closed up the flesh at that place. The Lord God fashioned into a woman the rib which He had taken from the man, and brought her to the man. The man said, “This is now bone of my bones, And flesh of my flesh; She shall be called Woman, Because she was taken out of Man.” For this reason a man shall leave his father and his mother, and be joined to his wife; and they shall become one flesh. And the man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed.
It was NOT GOOD for man to be alone
God the Father brought her to Adam
HELPER: same word and term is used of the Lord for Man!!! (an aid, one who supports, strengthening and helping)
WOMAN! wow God, one who is like me, able to enter into relationship!!!
Marriage: man leaves and cleaves to his WIFE! God designed it and planned it!
NOTICE: the “man and his wife” were naked and not ashamed… ASHAMED!!!
SEX SHAME
SEX SHAME
For far too long the church has been embarrassed, awkward at best, to talk about SEX! When we do it is in the NEGATIVE FORM:
Don’t have sex
Sex is wrong
Sex is worldly
Sex is only for married and STOP talking about it!
Don’t ask about sex
Don’t think about sex
For the longest time the Church as a whole had a stance of
Don’t ask
Don’t tell
Don’t talk
Don’t do
Don’t know
Don’t care… and the very thing God created, the gift He extended was brushed under secret carpets and should make one blush if it was ever even spoken of because we DIDN’T CARE to teach the scriptures as a whole…
WHERE THE CHURCH DROPPED THE BALL… THE WORLD PICKED UP!
The world began to teach our children, grandchildren, and people as a whole and they now DEFINED:
Sex
Marriage
Genders
Love
It was slow at first… in the dark cover of hidden places… BUT NOW:
On every cell phone readily available
Super markets at checkout
On billboards
Taught in our schools even in elementary
It is even on prime time TV in our homes
Statistics:
51% of male students and 32% of female students first viewed porn before their teenage years.
By the time a child reaches age 13… over 71% have seen or viewed pornography
Every day in the USA 37 new porn videos are made
EVERY SECOND 28,258 users are watching porn
OVER 1/3 of viewers are women (almost half now)
The Porn epidemic has created huge increases in:
Teen pregnancy
Hinders sexual development
Greatly increases risk of depression
90% of teens are neutral concerning porn
96% of young adults feel the same
Only 43% of teens feel porn is bad
That number goes down to 31% for young adults
68% of divorce cases deal with pornography
1 in 5 youth pastors and 1 in 7 senior pastors struggle with pornography!
We see these statistics increasing each year, we see it even on prime time TV now… and predominately the church has remained silent on the issue… shame, shame, shame… but God’s Word said, “And the man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed.”!!!!
NO SHAME!!!
NO SHAME!!!
I understand that was a little longer introduction, but I felt we need to understand where we have been as the church as a whole to properly and passionately move forward now as the church TODAY!
Our wise, passionate God gave for us a book in His Word to us centered around the RELATIONSHIP between a man and a woman!
God created the attraction
God created the desires
God created Marriage
God created sex
God created the emotions
God created LOVE in all its forms
Phileo: affection, intimate sexual love, deep bond, closeness
Agape: 1 Corinthians 13:4-7 God’s pure love… not a feeling but a choice!
Love is patient, love is kind and is not jealous; love does not brag and is not arrogant, does not act unbecomingly; it does not seek its own, is not provoked, does not take into account a wrong suffered, does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
Eros love (erotic) as we will see in the confines of marriage in Song of Songs but warned about outside of marriage in many other places of scripture.
Let’s look deeper into this eros and phileo love we see on the pages of Song of Songs…
Song of Songs Overview
Song of Songs Overview
The title is really an interesting thing… of all songs this one is the greatest! It is the masterpiece so to speak!
The authorship has been debated: some hold that Solomon wrote this in his younger years before he was lead astray by his many (over 1000) wives. Others hold to that it was written for or to Solomon. I hold to the first, but understand as we read this it is “God’s Word”! It is preserved and part of His scriptures to us…
a song, a poem, a dialog of love and passion between a young Shulammite woman (the loved) and her (lover) the King!
Many have approached this in allegorical fashion due to the steamy content of this book striving to make it more “fitting” for the church and “comfortable”… “amazing how our own shame and sins taints God’s Word”
Some see it as a painted picture of the deep passion and love God has for his “wife” Israel
Ezekiel and Hosea give these pictures but they are clearly stated as such
Some see it later as a picture of the love and passion Jesus has for His Bride the Church
Scripture does call the church the bride of Christ and we can see some imagery here but once again we depart from the intended purpose of the writing of this book…
The scenes in this book unveil for us a beautiful picture and story of
the joys and excitement of courtship and marriage
it teaches throughout the pages the PHYSICAL beauty of sexuality in marriage
it shows these are things to enjoy in marriage and not be despised or feared or unspiritual
it shows human love for a man and woman void of the sinful extremes of lust and sin
There story unfolds between them celebrated by those around them...
In 1:1-3:5 we see love FOSTERED as they court each other growing closer to their wedding day with excitement and expectation!
There is physical attraction even desire in their courtship… Song of Songs 1:2-4
“May he kiss me with the kisses of his mouth! For your love is better than wine. “Your oils have a pleasing fragrance, Your name is like purified oil; Therefore the maidens love you. “Draw me after you and let us run together! The king has brought me into his chambers.” “We will rejoice in you and be glad; We will extol your love more than wine. Rightly do they love you.”
In 3:6-5:1 there is FULFILLMENT as they celebrate the wedding, the procession, and then the deep love and sexual passion they share, they enter into an “intimacy” (into me see) deep love all three Agape, Phileo and Eros woven together as they become “one”
His love and affection is described in Song of Songs 4:1-7
“How beautiful you are, my darling, How beautiful you are! Your eyes are like doves behind your veil; Your hair is like a flock of goats That have descended from Mount Gilead. “Your teeth are like a flock of newly shorn ewes Which have come up from their washing, All of which bear twins, And not one among them has lost her young. “Your lips are like a scarlet thread, And your mouth is lovely. Your temples are like a slice of a pomegranate Behind your veil. “Your neck is like the tower of David, Built with rows of stones On which are hung a thousand shields, All the round shields of the mighty men. “Your two breasts are like two fawns, Twins of a gazelle Which feed among the lilies. “Until the cool of the day When the shadows flee away, I will go my way to the mountain of myrrh And to the hill of frankincense. “You are altogether beautiful, my darling, And there is no blemish in you.
In 5:2-7:10 we witness a period of FRUSTRATION, difficulties and struggles enter as they do with any marriage, fear is present along with doubt, yet love is reassured and passion takes them even deeper as their love broadens. The emotions of love are tested and truth of love prevails.
There is a working it out
Communication between the two and honesty
There is a reassurance and restating of commitment to their love
In 7:11-8:14 we see FAITHFULNESS emerge as they continue to engage in life, love and marriage together. They return to her home, but love proves to be “a wall” love is virtuous. the closing verses demonstrate that there is a desire for their love to only intensify all the more for one another recalling the early days of their love and passion.
Song of Songs 8:13-14 is a picture of an ongoing and growing love...
“O you who sit in the gardens, My companions are listening for your voice— Let me hear it!” “Hurry, my beloved, And be like a gazelle or a young stag On the mountains of spices.”
The book leaves the relationship in this ongoing and growing love… as it should be with all marriages.
WHAT ABOUT GOD?
WHAT ABOUT GOD?
God is not mentioned in this book… yet we see His design and plan for a monogamous relationship between a man and a woman. He made sure we had this in the scriptures.
The Song of Songs is a beautiful picture of God’s “endorsement” of physical love between husband and wife. Marriage is to be a monogamous, permanent, self-giving unit, in which the spouses are intensely devoted and committed to each other, and take delight in each other. “For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and they will become one flesh” (Gen. 2:24).
Deere, J. S. (1985). Song of Songs. In J. F. Walvoord & R. B. Zuck (Eds.), The Bible Knowledge Commentary: An Exposition of the Scriptures (Vol. 1, p. 1025). Victor Books.
Just think… As the church, teaching God’s Word
We can rightly define gender, relationship, love, marriage and yes EVEN SEX!
Our marriages have an amazing opportunity to teach the world about our great God
Our church has an obligation to define what God has created… AND help each other in our marriages without shame
What a Song of Songs God has given us… What a gift marriage is!