Video Transcript: The Key Interpretive Choice

We're looking at this Song of Songs sometimes called the Song of Solomon. And as I  mentioned last time, the key interpretive choice is whether we understand there to be two  dominant male voices, or one dominant male voice, we hear the voice of the Shulamite maid,  we hear the voice of the chorus, we hear a narrator or someone talking about things that are  happening along the way. But is there a triangle going on or a love duet, If one chooses, and I  think from my perspective, the love triangle is really the more appropriate way to interpret  the book as a whole. Now, that doesn't mean that it's the only way or that I have God's own  authority on that, I want to make that very clear. I think that this is probably more in tune with the rest of the teachings of the Bible, and that it has better outcomes for us to understand the book as a whole. But I am not at all have any difficulty with those, especially from a mystical  point of view, who think of it as a love duet, and we echo the voice of the Shulamite maid in  response to God's great love for a spoken allegorically through Solomon. But personally, I  believe that the better interpretation of the Book of Song of Songs as a whole is to understand that Solomon wants to have this young woman in his harem, which is constantly expanding.  But she already has a good relationship with someone else, a meaningful one on one  relationship that one might say supersedes all that Solomon can bring to her. And if that's the  case, then here's a possible reading or a plot to the Song of Songs. It starts with King Solomon bringing this young woman into his palace harem. Now remember, Solomon is the ruler of the  land, by virtue of His sovereignty in an ancient Near Eastern society. He essentially owns  everything so that no matter what anybody might say, This is mine, or that's mine. The King  has a right to everything. And somewhere along the way, he's evidently seen this young  woman, maybe she was a servant, who was sent to the city and he saw her in the  marketplace. Maybe she is the daughter of one of his other advisors, who has family out in  the country. Maybe he was traveling through his kingdom, and he saw her in the fields, we  don't know exactly what happened. But we understand along the way, that she's from a small town at some distance from Jerusalem, because Solomon will come with a royal procession to  that little town later on. And that somehow he she has caught his eye did she intended, it  doesn't appear. So from the writings of the Song of Songs. Somehow, Solomon has initiated  the relationship with the Shulamite maid, and now has chosen to bring her into his palace  harem. And he's meeting with her and he talks to her in language of certainly lust, you might  say, and maybe some love, but lust is certainly at the forefront, whether that's good or bad. I  mean, if you're an intelligent, female or male human being, you understand that love and lust play a big part in our lives, it's part of our identity. In any case, Solomon, addresses the shoe  of mine made with essences of his power, what he can do and what he can do for her, and  expressions of lustful poetry in which he affirms her great beauty. Well, she's in the harem, of  course, the other women and the eunuchs in the harem, will be preparing her for an eventual  wedding or a consummation of her relationship with Solomon, however, that takes place and  that's where the second stage in the development of the possible plot comes into play.  Because in chapter two verse 8 through chapter three, verse five, there's one of those search  narratives. The young woman is in a room, and the room seems to have a window or a  doorway toward a street or an alley. And while she is sleeping, or while she is resting for the  night, her friend from the country come seeking her and tries to get her out. But before he  can, he's chased away. She goes looking for him, and somehow they get together and they  return to their country community. This means that the Shulamite maid while she receives the attention of Solomon Her heart is given over to her one and only lover from her hometown.  Certainly her lover from her hometown is not powerful or as wealthy as Solomon is, and  there's much to be gained by her, and probably certainly her family as well, if she remains in  Solomon's harem, however, her heart is given to her one true lover, and they escaped  together to the country community where they grew up. Well, of course, Solomon is not going to take that lying down because he's the king and he's chosen this woman and he needs to go and bring her back to Himself. And so what we have in chapter three, verse six, through  chapter four, verse eight is the royal procession that he mounts, he comes with his camels, he comes with all of his glittering entourage, he makes a big scene, marches out of Jerusalem  and goes to the small town where this young woman's family lives, seeking to bring her back,  of course, you can almost see the mayor of that small town following falling down and saying,

Oh, welcome King, and everybody in town thinking, of course, she's going to go back with  you. It's, she's been chosen by the great king. And even if she doesn't love him, she'll learn to love him. And it certainly would be better for her family and for the whole town if we receive  this favor of the great king. And so there's a lot of pressure on her to go back, which, in fact,  seems to be what happens by the end of chapter four, verse eight, so she's back in the  harem, again, stolen away from her village and her family and her lover. And that's where the  next part comes in. Because in chapters four verses nine through six, verse three, the friend  from the country, her boyfriend comes looking once again tries to get her free. She thinks  she's dreaming. That's what the language seems to indicate. She thinks she's dreaming that  he's coming to get her. And then she doesn't realize that he has actually been there. But he's  been chased away. He's been scratching at the window or at the door trying to get her  attention. But she felt that she was an in an in between state and missed him. When she does come to her senses and realizes that it was not only her dream, but actually a reality that her  friend came looking for. He's already been chased away, but she goes running after him into  the streets. And then she's beaten by some vagabonds or soldiers or wanderers, or we don't  quite know who until she's rescued by the harem guards. So her lover comes, she's not quite  sure she's dreaming, or not too late. She realizes she's not dreaming. Uh, he's gone, she goes  after him, she gets beaten up in the streets, and the harem guard has to rescue her and bring her back again. And that's when everything returns to basically chapter one because in  chapter six, verse four through seven, verse nine, some of the exact words of Solomon some  of the exact Songs of Solomon, which he's saying at the beginning his lustful songs about her  beauty, her characteristics or physical features, all comes back once again. And there he is,  thinking, well, now he's got her and she's his, and she'll succumb to his, his desires very soon, and he's just going to keep telling her that she's his and he owns her, and she ought to  respond to that. But that's not where the thing ends. There's one more section chapter seven, verse 10, through chapter eight, verse 14. Here we find the narrative going on to show the  Shulamite maid actually spurning Solomon's advances, and somehow returning to her rural  community, into the one lover who waits for her there. Now, we'll look a little bit more at  some of those things in a future lecture. But you understand that if one sees this as a love  duet, then Solomon is the good guy. And Solomon represents the power of God in our feeble  lives, drawing us into the greater good of his wealth and honor and prestige. But if one  understands this to be a love triangle, then Solomon is really the bad guy, because Solomon's designs for the Shulamite maid are not the best for her that he has her as an object as a  target of his attachments, whereas she wishes a personal relationship, one on one more on  that to come in, in the next sections. But this approach that I've just suggested with a love  triangle allows the drama to have integrity and its original storyline context, and it seems to  take into account some of those communal assessments. I mentioned them earlier, where the where the chorus of the women say something about her, for instance, In chapter two verse  seven and chapter three, verse five and eight verse four, there's this idea of don't stir up or  awaken love until it is ready the idea that maybe Solomon has taken a young girl before she is even at the point where she can intelligently or maturely participate in loving relationship that he's gotten, in fact, in infatuation with someone who's too young for that. But it also is echoed in some of the things that are said about Solomon for instance, in chapter eight verse 12,  where it said, My vineyard my very own, as for myself, you Oh, Solomon may have the 1000.  Now think about that. If Solomon had 700 wives and 300 concubines, in fact, he had 1000  women. And that was wrong, according to this judgment on Solomon, and what is necessary  is a one on one monogamous relationship. This also fits with what we know to be the  historical developments of Solomon's own life and the fact that the judgments are made  already in Kings that Solomon's many relationships stole his heart away from what truly  mattered. And it also speaks a word against the harem idea and polygamous marriages and  nurtures a stronger commitment to monogamous unions. We know that polygamous  marriages are found throughout the Bible. But we also know that Jesus and the apostles both  push toward the idea of monogamous marriages between a single man and a single woman.  And this would point in that direction as well. More on those things as we think about the 

Song of Songs in more depth, but for more information on that you can take a look at my book Covenant Documents.