We continue our study of the wisdom literature of the Old Testament. Understanding how  those who are in a covenant relationship with God has expressed to the covenant at Mount  Sinai and guided by the prophets of the Old Testament, how these people responded to the  issues and challenges and questions of life, we've taken a look at Job. And the question of why someone in relationship with God might go through hard times and how those times might be  interpreted. We looked at the variety of the different Psalms which have different cues for  responding to God in various different settings or situations of life. We've looked at Proverbs  and began to understand more fully what it means to be married to God through the  covenant, and gain the wisdom of Heaven's perspective for our day to day living. And we've  looked at Ecclesiastes, which helps us think through the very meaning and purpose of life,  especially in the context of differing worldviews systems. Now we come to one of those books that is probably not very often read less even than Ecclesiastes, but a very important book in  the Old Testament, and in the Bible as a whole, the Song of Songs often called the Song of  Solomon. What is this strange and interesting book about? Well, first of all, it is connected  with Solomon, because Solomon's name shows up a couple of times in it. But is Solomon the  author? Is this the Song of Solomon? Or is this the song about Solomon? And that will become  part of a choice with regard to the interpretive options? How do we interpret this book? Is it  written by Solomon and therefore expresses something of great value which God through  Solomon in the Solomon wisdom that God gave to Solomon, once for all of us to know? Or is  there a reflection on Solomon, who in his wisdom, seems at one point to have lost his way?  Maybe you know, the story of Solomon, maybe you don't. Solomon was one of the youngest  children of David born to a marriage that was one of the last of David's life and one that had  its very rocky start. David was aging, he sent his armies off to war in the spring of the year, as was the case in ancient Near East. And he stayed back in Jerusalem to govern his now  established kingdom. And while he was reminiscing, on one night on the top of his palace,  catching the cool breezes in Jerusalem, he noticed a woman bathing in the back yard of her  home. And he was attracted to her and he brought her into his palace, which was he believed  his right as the guy in charge. Well, it turns out that she was married and their tryst together  resulted in her getting pregnant. And because her husband was in David's own armies, David  called her husband back in order to try to cover up this illicit affair by having his her husband  think that he might get her pregnant and it didn't work and one thing led to another. David  eventually initiated a murder so that the husband would be killed in battle, and then married  Bathsheba. His sin was declared by the prophet Nathan, who was actually a good friend of  David's, but it became public knowledge and the child died. And David and Bathsheba were  torn by this horrible circumstance, and it ripped into their family and other ways. But they did  remain married and another child was born and that child was Solomon. David himself, was a  man of war and was wanting to build a house for God which became the temple. But  eventually he had to give up that hope and dream because the prophet Nathan said that that  would be something his son would do a man of peace. Now, Solomon's name means peace.  When David died, Solomon was still very young. And when David, David's advisors came to  anoint the young man as King instead of his father, he spent time near the Ark of the  Covenant in the place of holiness and wanted to seek God's favor on his rule. And in the  dialogue with God. God asked Solomon what he would need, and he could have had wealth or power or all sorts of things that one might think one would want, but he asked for wisdom.  And because of that, Solomon gained a great deal of wisdom so much so that he was  renowned through the ancient Near East world for his wisdom, as we've seen in the book of  Proverbs, and, and other places. But what happened along the way is that while Solomon was  wise in ruling and ruled for a long time, his personal affairs became Incan, increasingly self  destructive. He married 700 women and had another 300 concubines who were like,  legitimized affairs. And so he had 1000 women who were constantly available to him many  children, and in that love became a real issue, what is love? Now, the start of those marriages often was related to political relationships, the first major marriage was to the daughter of the pharaoh of Egypt in order to form a political alliance between Israel and Egypt. And so many  of these marriages happen for political reasons. Nevertheless, they were all part of the  changing of Solomon's own relationship with himself and with women, sexually, and in terms 

of his masculine identity. And so the Song of Songs is an important, writing in that context,  but is it about the wisdom of Solomon in rightly discerning what love is? Or is it by others who write about Solomon's relationships, and then try to figure out, should he have done  something else or what might be a better way? If Solomon himself wrote it probably was  around the end of his life, or near the end of his life looking backwards, and maybe at the  height of his life somewhere, maybe around 950 or so BC if others wrote it. They may have  written it soon after his death or even several centuries after his death, reflecting on his  experiences, his exploits and his, what his life might say to others who are looking for love.  Now, in the book itself, there are a number of different kinds of literature. There are some  love songs, particularly in two and seven and eight, where Solomon himself raises songs of  one might say, lust, at least, and perhaps love with regard to the woman that he's facing and  painting her with all sorts of gaudy attributes, physical attributes, what does she look like?  And why is he enamored with her? There are some autobiography biographical reflections,  where the Shulamite maid who is the object of his love or infatuation, however, one might  decide it responds with no why is this taking place, and also, her reflections on some other  things that are happening around her and her relations with others, there are some communal assessments, particularly what appears to be the chorus of women in the harem of Solomon.  They come up with a phrase repeated, they sing a number of things, they praise her beauty  this Shulamite maid, whether they're doing that with good hearts, or facetiously, because  she's an intruder in their midst, it's hard really to say, but they do praise her for her beauty  and for her youth and for her naivety even. But one chorus, refrain comes again and again  and again. And it says do not awaken love before it's time. And I think that becomes very  important when we think about what exactly is the message of the book. So keep that in  mind. And then there's some search narratives a couple of places throughout the Song of  Songs, the poetry becomes almost more prose like and we find the Shulamite maid herself  reflecting on things that are happening around her. And there seem to be some other things  that are happening even beyond her understanding. And they're described. So there's some  searches going on searches for her and her searches for others. So we have to keep in mind  the variety of literature that's contained in the Song of Songs. Now, the key element to  interpretation of the Song of Songs rests upon one primary choice. And the primary choice is  that whether we understand there to be two dominant characters, or three dominant  characters in the book, if there are two dominant characters, then the book is primarily a duet between Solomon, and this lowly country, hesitant Shulamite maid he's the big guy with all  the power and the wealth and the ability to change her life. It's sort of a Cinderella story.  She's the outcast or the the one who has no footing in society has no power has no access to  the channels of power, and she is noticed by him and taken into His graces and into his bed  and into his power, and into his wealth and all of that, if that's the case, there's one particular  way in which we might interpret it. However, a second possibility now in the Hebrew language that's behind the text in our various translations, we know when it's a male speaking, and we  know when it's a female speaking, we know when it's one or plural. But we know when it's a  male, and we know when it's a female. But what we do not have in the Book of Song of Songs, is a clear indication of whether there are one or two dominant males. Imagine that there are  two dominant males, Solomon being one of them, of course, but the other one being the  young man who is the original friend and country lover of the Shulamite. Maid, if that is the  real way to interpret this book, if that's the dominant opening through which we begin to look  around, it turns the love duet into a love triangle, and it becomes who has a right to this  woman's love, Solomon, with his power and his position and his lust, or the young man from  the country who has a personal relationship with this young woman and her heart. So those  are the choices and we'll be talking more about that along the way. If the idea of a love duet is chosen, then the dominant way of interpreting the Book of Song of Songs is that of a divine  and human allegory, so that Solomon in his power and wealth and influence becomes an  image of YAHWAH, choosing Israel, or Christ, engaging the church. Both of these are realistic  possibilities, because in both Old and New Testaments, this kind of allegory or interpretation,  not of the Song of Songs, but of the relationship between God and God's people is expressed  and pronounced. The whole prophecy of Hosea in the collection of the 12, the 12 Minor 

Prophets is focused on that very understanding of the relationship between Israel and its God  between Yahweh and Israel. Now, that doesn't mean it's the only way one can think about  Yahweh and Israel. But it is certainly one possible way. And if that's the case, then it makes  sense to at least consider the possibility that the Song of Songs is a similar allegory of the  great king who chooses the insignificant maid as partner and spouse. And similarly, in the  New Testament, we have Paul in his letter to the Ephesians. Writing about the relationships in  society, he talks about husband and wife, he talks about parents and children, he talks about  masters and slaves. And when he writes about husbands and wives, he uses the relationship  between Christ and the church as a co relative as a comparison of what happens between a  husband and a wife. And again, the allegorical interpretation of Solomon's relationship with a  suit Shulamite maid might take hold as one symbol of that larger relationship between the  great God who comes to us as bridegroom and Jesus Christ, and marries the Church, His  Bride, who has herself no lofty position, but is chosen out of being an enemy and an alien  from God to becoming honored in the marriage feast and the marriage kingdom. One possible way and again, that rests on the idea that one might choose the duet model for  understanding the writings of the Song of Songs, a few other possibilities. One is that it might  be a morality play that this is staged in order to show the folly of Solomon in spite of his  wisdom about so many things that his folly in love is predominant as well. And we ought not  to follow Solomon in this horrendous thing of multiplying marriages for political reasons or  other things or even infatuations, don't do what Solomon did. That's one possibility that we'll  explore as well. It could be that because Solomon was married so many times that there  were, there was a need for entertainment at the many feasts. If he got married 700 Times had 1000 women who were part of his entourage, then it was probably true that making weddings and those feasts in ancient Jerusalem was a big business. And so what do you do to entertain  people before there are the electronic devices we have before movies and television and the  internet? Well, one of the things you do is you stage plays, and some have considered the  Song of Songs to be a collection of one or more of those plays, maybe scenes from plays put  together as part of just a celebration of love itself. Some have thought about this as liturgical  ecstasy. And in that regard, it is more of the idea again of the duet between Solomon and the  Shulamite maid reflecting the duet between God and us. And so we become whether male or  female, we become the female Shulamite maid, reaching for the male spouse or partner who  in far transcends us. And the mystics of the Middle Ages and other times certainly have made  use of the language of the Song of Songs in this regard so that you can quote these words, as  the words of God to us individually in this unique spiritual ecstatic relationship, or our words  of adoration and unworthiness to the great God who comes to us. And there's some who have simply said, Look, God made us males and females. And so it's important for us to admit that  and acknowledge that and enjoy that. And that's what the Song of Songs is all about. Well,  we're going to take a look at these things more in the coming lectures in the coming studies.  But for right now, keep in mind that the primary interpretive option, in order to set one's mind on how one will interpret the Song of Songs is whether one chooses to understand it as a love  duet, Solomon and the Shulamite maid or a love triangle, that is to say, Solomon and the  country lover, both seeking to gain access to the Shulamite maid and the question is, which  will when and why? And that makes a difference for how one might understand the outcome  or the ultimate message of the book?



Last modified: Monday, August 22, 2022, 8:59 AM