I had commented to someone that I probably would have preferred to wait until I was 65 to preach on Song of Solomon, In a series such as this, where we're going through every book of the Bible, I can't exactly just not preach on this book. So, here it is, right? And actually, I found this book to be a real delight in studying this. I have studied this book before, but my eyes were opened to some different things in going through it this time, and I trust that we will be encouraged as we take the time to examine this book. This book is nothing to be afraid of. It's given here by inspiration of God. It's profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, as every other book of scripture is. So let's not be afraid of it. Let's face it head on, right? But we wanna start in Song of Solomon, and I wanna start by looking at verses six and seven as we get into our message tonight. Song of Solomon, chapter eight, verse six. And maybe some of you, you may have a study Bible that indicates the speakers. It's sometimes a bit difficult to entangle who is speaking and when, but we believe here that it is the woman, the Shulamite woman, who's speaking in these verses. Song of Solomon, chapter eight, verse six. Set me as a seal upon thine heart, as a seal upon thine arm, for love is strong as death, Jealousy is cruel as the grave. The coals thereof are coals of fire, which hath a most vehement flame. Many waters cannot quench love, neither can the floods drown it. If a man would give all the substance of his house for love, it would utterly be contemned. Father, we thank you for this precious book and our Bibles. We praise you that, as John testified, God is love. Lord, we delight in the triune God of Scripture, knowing, Lord, that you are the only true God, that all other competitors are mere illusions. They are not real gods at all. Lord, we acknowledge that you are love, and we also acknowledge that as humans, we have perverted your precious gift of love. We've twisted it in all kinds of bizarre directions. Our culture is rife with all kinds of things that are called love, but yet bear no resemblance to the biblical description of love. Please forgive us, Lord, for where we have participated in our culture's twisting of this sacred gift that you've given. Oh Lord, thank you for the gift of marriage. We thank you for each one of us that have a spouse. Lord, he that findeth a wife, findeth a good thing and obtaineth favor from the Lord. Lord, I know I can testify to that in my own experience as I suspect many of us here can. Oh Lord, I pray this evening for wisdom to rightly divide the word. I pray that that would be true, not just of me, but of all who are gathered here. Lord, we want to understand this portion of scripture and we do not want to misunderstand it or misapply it. So Lord, give us clarity of mind as we come to your sacred word tonight. Lord, we need great skill. Lord, I need great discernment because there are things here that are not likely to be addressed at any other time in a Sunday message. So Lord, give me the clarity that I need. Give me the discernment. Give me the delicacy where that is called for. But Lord, also give me the ability to be straightforward and not to shy away from what the scriptures tell us. And Lord, it is in Christ's name that we pray all of these things. Amen. The late Bible teacher and author Warren Wiersbe is well known for his series of popular level commentaries through the Bible. And maybe some of you have studied some of those. If you have read Dr. Wiersbe's commentaries, you know that each of them begins with the word be, B-E. So for example, his commentary on Revelation is entitled Be Victorious. His commentary on Hebrews is entitled, Be Confident. His commentary on Joshua is entitled, Be Strong. And when Dr. Wiersbe was mentioning to an audience that he was trying to determine a title for his commentary on the Song of Solomon, a young man shouted out, Be Careful. And so it is my intention tonight to be careful as we approach the Song of Solomon. And sadly, this book has often been ignored, even by expository preachers who go verse by verse through the scriptures. And that's a shame, because this is an absolutely wonderful book. Solomon, in fact, tells us as much in the very first verse. If you go back to verse 1 of chapter 1, this verse really serves as the title for the book. Solomon writes, the song of songs, which is Solomon's. And some of you may have a copy of the scriptures that actually says song of songs rather than song of Solomon at the top of your page. Now, what does Solomon mean when he says the song of songs? Well, let me remind you of the description that is given of Christ in Revelation 19 and verse 16. Christ is said there to be King of kings and Lord of lords. Now we understand what John writes there when he says Christ is King of kings and Lord of lords. He means that Christ is the highest of all kings. and he is the highest of all lords. And so when Solomon writes here that this is the song of songs, he is saying that this is the highest, it is the greatest song. Now that would be a presumptuous claim for Solomon to make, were it not for the fact that he was writing under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. Now isn't it interesting that when the Holy Spirit gave us the greatest of all songs, He didn't give us a song about substitutionary atonement? Now you or I might think that would be what the Spirit would do, but that's not what happened. You might think that the greatest song would be about the holiness of God. That's not the case either. You might think that it would be about justification by faith alone, but the greatest of all songs as identified here is a song about married love, if you can imagine such a thing. I don't think we should shy away from this particular description. Now there was a famous Jewish rabbi by the name of Rabbi Akiva who once declared concerning the Song of Solomon, he said, quote, the whole world is not worth the day on which the Song of Songs was given to Israel. All the writings are holy and the Song of Songs is the holy of holies. Now that's quite a strong claim. But this very precious and important book has been subject to a great deal of controversy, and to widely varying interpretations. We need to take a few moments to untangle some of this controversy. In regard to this, there are three specific areas of debate that I want to address, before we actually get into the book itself. First, who is the author? Second, what is the proper way to interpret the book? Third, who are the main characters in the book? First of all, let's begin by talking about the author. Now, the rendering that we have in our copy of the scripture seems clear enough. The song of songs, which is Solomon's. There are, however, those who think that this Hebrew construction here should be translated, which is about Solomon, or which is for Solomon. But I would argue that those renderings are very unlikely. This construction most often in the scriptures refers to authorship, and that's the way that I'm inclined to take it here. Now, let's get into the issue of interpretation. Now, you may be aware of the fact that down through history, both Jewish interpreters and Christian interpreters have taken the Song of Solomon allegorically. Now, what do we mean when we say allegorically? Well, an allegory is a story that has a meaning that is different from what's on the surface. It is not a literal historical tale, but it is a story filled with symbols that have to be decoded in order to determine the proper meaning of the story. A classic allegory is John Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress. Maybe many of you have encountered that book. And that book tells us the story of a man named Christian who leaves the city of destruction and heads for the celestial city. And all along the way, he encounters all manner of obstacles, all of which are symbolic of the types of things that we encounter in the Christian life. And so many interpreters have approached the Song of Solomon as an allegory. Jewish interpreters have regarded this book as an allegory of God's relationship with Israel, and Christian interpreters have regarded this book as an allegory of Christ's relationship with the Church. But in either case, the man and woman in the story are not a literal married couple who lived at some time in history, but rather they are symbols of a deeper spiritual reality. Now, if you were present for the lesson that we had on Wednesday night about the interpretation of scripture, you probably know that I reject the allegorical approach to the Song of Solomon. In that lesson, we stressed the fact that scripture should be interpreted literally. Now, literally doesn't mean that we ignore poetic language, that we ignore figures of speech. Certainly, there is much of that in the Song of Solomon. But even that kind of language should be interpreted in a plain and straightforward type of way. And that's based on another lesson that we had on our Wednesday night series on the clarity of scripture. God has spoken in order to be understood, not to be misunderstood. And so as a consequence, it follows that scripture is clear. It is not some kind of hidden code that we are expected to decipher. Now, it's noteworthy that when you look at a book like Pilgrim's Progress, an allegory, Every detail of that allegory is clear based on the names that Bunyan assigns to the particular characters and places in the story. Christian, the sloth of Despond, worldly wise man. You know what those things are because the names make it obvious. But interpreters that have come to the Song of Solomon have not been able to agree on what all of the characters, events and descriptions mean. It has been said that there are as many interpretations of the Song of Solomon as there are interpreters. Once you begin the allegorical approach, there's no way to determine for sure what all the symbols mean, because there's nothing in Scripture that tells us what they mean. For that reason, it is my contention that we have to reject the allegorical interpretation. The second option that we have for interpreting this book is the typological interpretation. Typological. The Greek word tupos refers to a pattern or an example. And certainly we do know that there are numerous types in scripture. For example, we would say, based on John 1, that the tabernacle is a type of Christ. Because John 1 tells us that the glory of God dwelt in Christ just as the glory of God dwelt among men through the tabernacle. And so you have the tabernacle is a pattern, it's an example that points forward to Christ. Now there is a measure of truth here with the typological interpretation because Paul tells us in Ephesians that the marriage relationship between the man and the woman is a picture of Christ and the church. And so there's a measure of truth there. Typological interpreters would acknowledge that the man and woman in the Song of Solomon are a literal man and woman who lived in history. But they would also argue that this book points forward to the relationship between Christ and the Church. The caution that I would have with this approach is that sometimes when interpreters go this direction, the historical significance gets lost because we're focused simply on bringing forward to the New Testament with Christ and the church. And so in that process, there is no focus on the fact that this was really a real marriage relationship and that we can actually learn things for our marriages based on this book. It is my conviction that we should take a strictly literal interpretation of the Song of Solomon. Now again, we have to define our terms. That term literal, that can be misunderstood. We do know that there are figures of speech in this book. There's a lot of metaphorical language. There are a lot of analogies that are given. Analogies to plant life, analogies to animals and so forth. So we certainly don't ignore that. But what we are arguing for is that this book should be interpreted as what it clearly appears to be, which is a love story. Or, if we want to put it more precisely, we would say a love song about a married couple. Now, with this untangled, We then have to address the third area of debate with this book, and that is the main characters in the Song of Solomon. And there are two main views about the characters of this book. The first view suggests that there are three main characters in the Song of Solomon. The Shulamite woman, her shepherd boy lover, and Solomon himself. And this view argues that Solomon is basically a womanizer who seeks to woo the Shulamite woman away from her shepherd boy and add her to his harem. Now that view would certainly be a convenient way to explain much of the sexual language in the book because one can simply attribute this language to Solomon rather than to the shepherd boy. I would argue that this view has absolutely nothing to support it in the text of scripture. There is no evidence in this book that there are two men in this story who are vying for the love of the Shulamite woman. Furthermore, I would argue that this view makes Solomon out to be a complete creep. It is true, of course, that Solomon was no paragon of morality. We know that He is condemned for the fact that at the end of his reign he had 700 wives and 300 concubines. But we also have to remember the fact that aside from Solomon's compromise at the end of his life, Solomon otherwise has a fairly positive track record in the pages of Scripture. We are told, for example, in 1 Kings 3 that Solomon loved the Lord and the Lord regarded Solomon highly. So I would argue that the second view is preferable here, and that is that there are two main characters in the book, a man and a woman, who are both describing their marital bliss. Now, among two character advocates, however, there is a debate about who the man is. Some will argue that the man is Solomon, and others will argue that he is someone else. Those who say that it's someone else will point to the fact that okay, well Solomon is clearly not an example that we should follow, right? He was a polygamist, he had all these different wives and concubines who ultimately motivated him to build altars to foreign gods just to satisfy all these foreign wives. And so it is argued that Solomon should not be held up as a model for pure marital bliss. And I would argue that we have to come to the text. The text is the one who answers that question for us. And the question is, what does the text say? Well, let me draw your attention to chapter three. Because in my mind, I've seen this view, I just have not seen a satisfactory explanation for what we find in chapter three. Look at chapter three in verse 11. Solomon writes here, go forth, O ye daughters of Zion, and behold who? King Solomon with the crown whereof his mother crowned him in the day of his espousals. In other words, his wedding day. Now, if you can find a way to explain that other than the fact that this is Solomon, please let me know. The rationale that is often given is that, well, this is just explaining a marriage in this kind of fluffy, royal type of language. But clearly, that is not the most straightforward way to take the text. If we are committed to literal interpretation, I believe we have to conclude that there is one woman in this story, there is one man, and that man is none other than King Solomon. Now, this does bring us to a thorny issue. Because from what we know about King Solomon, certainly if you or I were writing a story about true love, would we be inclined to use Solomon as an example? And the answer is probably not. But let me remind you of something. In the ancient world, kings that practiced polygamy did not necessarily do so for romantic reasons or for even sexual reasons. Many times, kings practice polygamy purely for political reasons. You find, for example, in Solomon's life, in 1 Kings 3, that he made affinity with Pharaoh's daughter. And it appears that what is described there is a sort of national alliance with Egypt that was established through this marriage. Now, that is not to justify Solomon's behavior. We do know from the book of Deuteronomy that kings were forbidden from multiplying wives. But I would suggest this, that probably the woman that is described in the Song of Solomon was Solomon's only true love. He may very well have had 999 other marriages out of convenience, out of political necessity, but he only had one true love. Now that doesn't necessarily resolve all the issues in our minds. It is still admittedly a difficult issue, but again, we don't come and set the agenda for the text. We don't come to the Bible and say, well, this is what I want the Bible to say. No, we let the Bible speak for itself. And if we have trouble making heads or tails of it, we say, Lord, this is your word, I submit to it. We don't try to impose on the Bible what we think it should say. So that's very critical for us to be reminded of as we come to this particular book. Now, we should also mention, now that we're talking about characters, that there are two other minor sets of characters who appear in this book. First of all, you will find numerous references to the daughters of Jerusalem. And we don't necessarily know a great deal about who these daughters were, but they appear to have been maidens who served in some kind of role in the royal court. You find, again, if you have a study Bible, you might have sections marked off where the various speakers are speaking. And you might notice that there are particular places where the daughters of Jerusalem speak in the book. You will also find several places that they are addressed in the book. The other set of characters that occur less frequently are the brothers of the Shulamite woman. You will find that these are referenced briefly in chapter one, and then there is also another reference in chapter eight where the brothers actually speak, which we will get to in due time. Now, a real romantic union between Solomon and his bride is presented in vivid colors in the Song of Solomon. And as we've mentioned, this is a song. It's not a set of do's and don'ts like what we would find in Ephesians or Colossians when Paul addresses marriage. But this is delightful poetry, and it's poetry that communicates a powerful lesson. And I would argue that the lesson that is communicated in this book is actually repeated three times in the course of the book. So let me draw your attention to the first of those, chapter two and verse seven. Song of Solomon chapter two in verse seven. And notice, and I would argue that this is the woman speaking here. I charge you, O ye daughters of Jerusalem, by the rows and by the hinds of the field, that ye stir not up, nor awake my love till he pleads. Now, in your King James, you may notice that the word my is in italics. And if you know the practice of the King James translators, you may be aware of the fact that those words that appear in italics in our King James are words that have been added by the translators. They've been added for the sake of clarity. But in this case, notice what happens when we take out the word my. I charge you, O ye daughters of Jerusalem, by the rose and by the hinds of the field, that ye stir not up nor awake And I would argue this message is repeated three times in the course of the book. The emphasis here is that the woman is calling on these daughters not to awaken love until it pleases, or in other words, until the appropriate time. Now as Christians, committed to the authority of scripture, we know what that appropriate time is. that appropriate time is marriage. As Hebrews chapter 13 and verse four testifies to us, marriage is honorable in all, and the bed undefiled, but whoremongers and adulterers God will judge. And so there's this indication that there are all manner of delights to be enjoyed in the context of marital love, but one must wait until the proper time, one must not awaken love prematurely. So the main point of the Song of Solomon is this, that God intends for us to delight in pure romantic love awakened at the proper time. God intends for us to delight in pure romantic love awakened at the proper time. Now, we can divide the Song of Solomon into five shorter songs in this book. Now, I also have to say something just briefly about the structure of this book because the way that I interpret this book is a bit different from many other conservative interpreters. Many conservative interpreters will argue that this book has a chronological development. In other words, it moves from courtship to the wedding, to the marriage. That's a common way that you will see this book outlined. But I would contend that when you take the language in a straightforward way, we just cannot see chapters one through three as a reference to this couple's courtship. Now let me just give you one example. Song of Solomon chapter one in verse 13. This is the woman speaking, She says, and I'll give you a fair warning. We won't read all the really dicey verses, but there will be a couple that we read that you might blush a little bit, okay? So just try to bear with me. Remember that this is inspired scripture, okay? But there's a point that I have in reading this. The woman says, a bundle of myrrh is why well beloved unto me. He shall lie all night that twixt my breasts. Now I certainly don't think that that is an ideal for courtship that any parent in this room would hope for. And some will argue that this is simply anticipatory, but I think the more straightforward way to take this is to say that really what Song of Solomon gives us is not necessarily a chronological development. These are five different songs, and we can say that they're snapshots of marital love. And they're not necessarily in chronological order, but all of them develop this same unified theme of marital bliss. So let's consider each of these snapshots. Snapshot number one, overcoming insecurity. Overcoming insecurity. And you find this one in chapter one, verse one, all the way to chapter two and verse seven. So let's pick up the Song of Solomon in chapter one, beginning in verse two. And we start out with the Shulamite woman speaking. She says, let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth, for thy love is better than wine. Because of the savor of thy good ointments, thy name is as ointment poured forth. Therefore do the virgins love thee. Draw me, we will run after thee. The king hath brought me into his chambers. We will be glad and rejoice in thee. We will remember thy love more than wine. The upright love thee. One of the things that becomes apparent right off the bat in this book is all of the sensory language. This is a book that engages all five of the senses. Now, right from the get-go, we have references to taste, in verse two, thy love is better than wine, and smell, verse three, because of the savor of thy good ointments. A few verses later, Sight comes up, notice verse six. Six, look not upon me because I am black because the sun hath looked upon me. And all throughout you find these descriptions that relate to sight. There's touch as you go over to chapter two in verse six. His left hand is under my head and his right hand doth embrace me. And then chapter two, verse 14, there's hearing. Oh, my dove that art in the clefts of the rock and the secret places of the stairs, let me see thy countenance, let me hear thy voice. Of course, we are told in Genesis 2.24 that when a couple joins together in matrimony, they become one flesh. And marital intimacy truly engages all of the senses. And that's why the Shulamite woman expresses such longing here. You notice, by the way, and it's a curious point, that the woman is the first one to speak in the book. And if we dare say it, she is the one to initiate a sexual encounter with Solomon. Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth. Notably, the woman's speech takes up about two thirds of this book, believe it or not. Now, a popular culture around us tends to see physical intimacy as the domain of men. Women are simply supposed to tolerate sexual intimacy so that they can get on to the things that they really care about, like friendship and communication. But throughout the book, the most provocative calls to intimacy do not occur from the lips of the man. They occur from the lips of the woman. And so I would argue that God gives his stamp of approval on both men and women finding delight in the physical aspect of marriage. But there's a problem for the woman. And it's expressed in verse six. Look down at verse six in chapter one. Look not upon me because I am black, because the sun hath looked upon me. My mother's children were angry with me. They made me the keeper of the vineyards, but mine own vineyard have I not kept. This is not intended to be a racist statement, as we might tend to think of it in American culture, but really, we have to remember that the culture of this day would have prized light-toned skin. Darker skin was an indicator that one was not a person of means. It was an indicator that one was forced to spend his days doing manual labor out in the hot, blazing sun. And so we learn here that the woman has a degree of insecurity because of her physical appearance. Because her brothers forced her to keep the vineyards, she has not been able to keep up her own vineyard or her appearance because of all of the manual labor that she was forced to do. Now, her husband, as a wise man, knows exactly how to put his wife at ease. Look at chapter one in verse nine. I have compared thee, O my love, to a company of horses and Pharaoh's chariots. Thy cheeks are comely with rows of jewels, thy neck with chains of gold. We will make thee borders of gold with studs of silver. Solomon does two things here that it would be wise for many of us as husbands to do. First, he reassures his wife of her beauty. And second, he tells her he's going to buy her more jewelry. Those are good things to do, right? And it seems that the woman embraces this message and her insecurities are assuaged when you come to chapter two and verse one. She calls herself there the Rose of Sharon and the Lily of the Valleys. By the way, our hymnody gets it wrong. Christ is not the Rose of Sharon and the Lily of the Valley, as much as I like many of those hymns that use those references. The reality is it's the Shulamite woman describing herself. Now, women, as you may know, men, struggle a great deal with insecurity. And this is especially true when it comes to their appearance. When your wife asks, does this outfit make me look fat, she's not looking for clinical feedback. I do know a friend that answered yes when his wife asked that question. Believe it or not, he is still alive today. But a wise husband recognizes how to soothe his wife's insecurities. When was the last time, man, you told your wife how beautiful she was? When was the last time you bought your wife flowers? When was the last time you expressed appreciation for things that your wife does around the house? I know I'm hitting close to home. I'm preaching to myself as much as anyone else. But we would do well, men, to heed the example of Solomon. And so we saw, of course, the way that this section concludes in verse seven with this call not to awaken love until the appropriate time. And then we move to snapshot number two. which I have entitled, Growing Love Amid Growing Challenges. Growing Love Amid Growing Challenges. Chapter 2 in verse 8 to chapter 3 in verse 5. And I use that language of growing love because this is exactly the type of language that Solomon uses. He uses the language of springtime to express the budding love relationship between him and his bride. But with the growth of love comes the growth of challenges. And you see this in chapter 2 and verse 15. And this is Solomon expressing this to his bribe. Take us the foxes, the little foxes that spoil the vines, for our vines have tender grapes. Now as keeper of her family vineyard, the Shulamite woman would have been well aware of the role that the little foxes played in spoiling the vines. But it's apparent that Solomon is using this as an analogy for their tender relationship. The budding of love can become quickly spoiled by the intrusion of seemingly minor irritations. And you probably know exactly what the little foxes are in your own marriage relationship. You told an insensitive joke. You stayed out too late with your friends one night. You left your dirty socks on the floor. You overcooked the meatloaf. You left without kissing goodbye, et cetera, et cetera. Love is not just harmed by the quote, big issues of adultery and betrayal. It is harmed by the little foxes. And we have to be ever vigilant to catch those little foxes lest they spoil the tender love relationship. Chapter three really gives us a specific challenge that took place in this marriage relationship. Notice chapter three in verse one. By night on my bed, I sought him whom my soul loveth. And it is regarded by some of the commentators that the woman may be dreaming here. We don't know with certainty, but certainly, even if she's dreaming, this is reflective of some fear that she has in her heart, to be sure. Notice how she continues, I sought him, but I found him not. I will rise now and go about the city in the streets, and in the broad ways I will seek him whom my soul loveth. I sought him, but I found him not. The watchman that go about the city found me. To whom I said, saw ye him whom my soul loveth. It was but a little that I passed from them, and I found him whom my soul loveth. I held him and would not let him go until I had brought him into my mother's house and into the chamber of her that conceived me." And so this brings us to a very practical point. You see the scenario being described here. Again, even if she's dreaming, there's this scenario where she's seeking her husband. He can't be found. She's going out into the streets and finally finds him after looking very aggressively for him. But she fears separation, doesn't she? And I think, then, this brings us to something that's very practical, and that's this, that we should be willing to do things with our wives. I know that sounds like a very general statement. But I'm afraid that in many cases we're inclined to let our wives do the women things while we go out and do the men things. There's a time and place for that. But I have to say I'm vehemently against this whole concept that has become very infamous and very pervasive in our culture of the man cave. You ever heard of this? You know, well, I've got to go down to the man cave. You know what the man cave is? It's a place where men go to retreat from their responsibilities as husbands and fathers, so that they can go and watch football and drink beer with the boys. Men, we are to be engaged with our wives and with our families. We are not to retreat. And so we can take a lesson from this, that our wives need our presence. So try it, men. Go with your wife to TJ Maxx. I know it sounds painful, but try it anyway. Try going with your wife grocery shopping. Watch a program with your wife that you wouldn't watch if it were up to you. That's challenging for me, because nearly everything my wife watches is in Chinese. But force yourself to do some things that you wouldn't normally do because you find in your wife your highest joy and pleasure and delight. Because isn't it true, men, that when we were dating our wives, weren't we willing to do some things that we wouldn't normally be inclined to do just to impress her? And that's where we get into that scenario we described this morning with the woman addressing tech support, right? Once we get into the marriage relationship, those things tend to go by the wayside. They shouldn't, should they? Now, speaking of finding joy and pleasure in our wives, let's move to snapshot number three. Snapshot three, cheerful matrimony, cheerful matrimony. This is chapter three, verse six, to chapter five and verse one. And this snapshot takes us to the formal wedding ceremony of the couple. And here we find Solomon offering really elaborate praise to his bride. And I'm not going to read all of it aloud from the pulpit. You can read it for yourself. One thing that you have to be aware of is that many of the analogies that are used, we would find very strange. If you are a single man and you try to use this to impress a woman, I wouldn't guarantee that you're gonna have very positive results. But you see in chapter four, verse one, for example, thou art fair, my love, behold, thou art fair. Thou hast dove's eyes within thy locks. Probably we don't have any men here that you've ever praised your wife for having dove's eyes. We have to remember that many of these analogies are not necessarily visual. It's not that when you look at your wife's eyes, they look exactly like a dove's eyes. But we think of a dove as something that conveys innocence, that conveys purity. And this is what Solomon is conveying to his bride on their wedding day. And so many of these analogies, we're not just looking for something visual, we're looking for some underlying meaning that might convey the point that is being gotten across. Now in snapshot number three, everything is moving toward the consummation of the marriage. And you notice in chapter four, verse 12, that Solomon compares his bride's body to a garden. Verse 12, a garden enclosed is my sister, my spouse, a spring shut up, a fountain sealed. And this imagery of a garden enclosed, or we could say a garden locked up, suggests that this bride is a virgin on the wedding day. Her body has not been explored and enjoyed by other men. By the way, it does seem that there's an allusion here to the book of Genesis. Adam and Eve's original home was where? The Garden of Eden. And we are told in Genesis 2.25 that the man and his wife were naked and were not ashamed. So it seems here that this imagery of her body as a garden is really pointing back to that original state of innocence before the fall of mankind. Now, as Solomon gives this analogy, there is a response that is given from the Shulamite woman. Again, it strikes us that she gives a very strong and positive affirmation of sexual desire in this verse, in verse 16. Awake, O north wind, and come thou south. Blow upon my garden that the spices thereof may flow out. Let my beloved come into his garden and eat his pleasant fruits. Now, this is where we have to be careful, right, in the words of Wiersbe, but clearly the woman is inviting her husband to a delightful experience of lovemaking. And so here again there is initiatory power being undertaken by the woman to initiate this relationship on the wedding night. And the beginning of chapter 5 indicates that Solomon has responded positively to this call. But I want to draw your attention to the last part of verse 1 in chapter 5. Eat, O friends, drink, yea, drink abundantly, O beloved. Now the question is, who is the one who is speaking here? It has been suggested that this could be the daughters of Jerusalem that are speaking. But the one drawback, I think, the one thing that might lead us away from that conclusion is the fact that the daughters of Jerusalem clearly would not have been present at the consummation of the marriage. And so there is really only one other witness to the consummation of the marriage, and that is God himself. I think it is likely that God is actually the one who is affirming this couple's desire for marital intimacy. And if your depiction of God can't compute that, maybe you have a woefully lacking depiction of God. You know that in 1 Timothy chapter four, Paul identifies doctrines of demons. He indicates that there are false teachers that are promoting these demonic ideas. And do you know what he identifies as a doctrine of demons? 1 Timothy 4.3, forbidding to marry. He's not talking there about denying the deity of Christ. Yes, that is a damnable heresy. But when he talks about something that's a doctrine of demons, he says, forbidding to marry. And so our God created marriage. It's his idea. And in this passage, it appears that he's actually affirming this couple's desire for intimacy. And that is how this particular section concludes. Snapshot three ends on a fairly high note. Solomon and his bride have tied the knot. They've consummated the marriage. They're delighting in one another. But we know that marriage is not an endless stream of pleasure. There are conflicts. And so that brings us to snapshot four, which I have entitled Painful Separation and Delightful Reconciliation. Painful Separation and Delightful Reconciliation. This goes from chapter five and verse two to chapter eight and verse four. Now let's pick it up in chapter five and verse two. Notice, Again, this is the bride speaking. I sleep, but my heart waketh. It is the voice of my beloved that knocketh, saying, open to me, my sister, my love, my dove, my undefiled. For my head is filled with dew, and my locks with the drops of the night. I have put off my coat, how shall I put it on? I have washed my feet, how shall I defile them? My beloved put in his hand by the hole of the door, and my bowels were moved for him. I rose up to open to my beloved, and my hands dropped with myrrh, and my fingers with sweet-smelling myrrh upon the handles of the lock. I opened to my beloved, but my beloved had withdrawn himself and was gone. My soul failed when he spake. I sought him, but I could not find him. I called him, but he gave me no answer." You get the story here? Solomon has been late coming home. We don't know exactly what he was doing. We don't know if he was tending to affairs in the kingdom or if he was just having a night out with some of the boys. But he comes home late. And I think he senses immediately that he's in trouble. How do I know that? Well, look at how he addresses her in verse two. Open to me, my sister, my love, my dove, my undefiled. I mean, he's hurling out every possible term of endearment. with the hopes of assuaging his angry wife. He's none too successful, as we see, because we find that the bride is making all kinds of excuses for why she can't get up and open the door. I've already washed my feet. I've already taken my coat off. I'm gonna have to put it on again. I'm gonna have to get my feet dirty again. We can't go through all of this. No, we're not doing it. But then we're told that Solomon begins to put his hand in the hole of the door. In other words, it appears that he's trying to unlatch the door. And suddenly, the woman's heart is stirred. And when she goes to open the door, she finds that her beloved has departed. The little foxes have come in, and they've spoiled the vine. Two little foxes that arise in particular here. The first is absence. And ladies, it's a harsh reality, but there are times when your husband is going to be absent. Sometimes it's not his choice. Maybe a meeting at work runs late. He has to work overtime in order to make ends meet in a given month. But other times, we get ourselves into trouble, simply because of hobbies that we pursue. People sometimes ask me what my hobbies are, and my answer really is that I don't have any hobbies. I know, I'm a boring person. Most of my time here is taken up with my pastoral duties, prayer, the ministry of the word, and when I have a day off, it's largely spent doing whatever my family feels inclined to do. I don't know that I have hobbies. There's nothing wrong with hobbies, but we have to consider proportionality. How much time did we devote this week to watching the Olympics? instead of spending time with our wives? How much time this week did we devote to golf, or to shooting, or whatever it might be, instead of our wives? Sometimes we really get crushed by this issue of proportionality, and much of our time gets eaten with these types of things. And so there's the issue of absence that arises, but there's another little fox that appears here, and that's the little fox of indifference. So Solomon was out too late. We don't know the circumstances, but the problem is compounded by the woman's indifference to his advances. Can I give you a newsflash, couples? You will not always feel like you're in love. And I know our culture can't really handle that. When you listen to popular music, everything is contingent upon how we feel in a given moment. You think of songs like, You've Lost That Lovin' Feelin'. And this idea is that you're just chasing after a new feeling, and once the feeling goes, so the relationship should go. That's not biblical thinking. Men, can I encourage you with something? And this is a lesson that I'm still struggling to learn. I know my wife is probably gonna say something afterward. But the reality is, men, don't fear. If your wife is indifferent now, she'll get over it. Her feelings of love will rekindle over time. But you see, Solomon didn't have appropriate patience here. He left before he could discover the fact that really she was already getting over that indifference. Sometimes we just need to give it more time, we need to give it more patience. But it's these little foxes that come in and that destroy our marital bliss. And so we're told in this passage, the woman goes out to search for him, and unlike what we saw in chapter 3, she goes out and the watchmen actually beat her up and they take her veil from her. And then you find this interchange that the woman has with the daughters of Jerusalem, where she tells them in glowing terms about her beloved. And finally, the woman goes back to the garden, where she finds her beloved Solomon. And she's welcomed with glowing words of praise. Chapter 6 and verse 4, Thou art beautiful, O my love, as Terza. Comely as Jerusalem, terrible as an army with banners. Again, a lot of this language is very unusual. But again, we have to bear in mind the overriding meaning that's being gotten across here. How did the couple overcome the little foxes? They overcame them by remembering their true love for one another. and by reaffirming their love for each other. You find lavish praise from the woman, lavish praise from the man in chapters five and six. You've probably heard the story of the wife who complained to her husband that he never told her he loved her. And he responded, well, I told you I loved you 30 years ago. And if I change my mind, I'll let you know. That will never do in a healthy marriage. In a healthy marriage, both parties remind one another frequently of their love for each other and of the attractive qualities that the other has. Now chapter six concludes with a call from the daughters of Jerusalem. Look at verse 13. Return, return, O Shulamite, return, return, that we may look upon thee. And then, it's difficult to entangle this if you don't have a copy of the scriptures that tells you the speakers, but it appears that it is the man who then responds to the daughters of Jerusalem. Notice it says, what will ye see in the Shulamite? As it were, the company of two armies. Now, it's difficult to decipher this in our translation here, but the word company is actually the word for a dance. What Solomon is saying here is no, actually you don't need to look at the Shulamite now, because this is a time for the two of us. Now again, this is where we have to be careful, and I wanna be discreet, but the dance that is described here is actually a dance that the woman did for Solomon's pleasure. The descriptions in chapter seven, which are, I mean, very frank to say the least, suggest that this was a dance that the daughters of Jerusalem had no business observing. This was something private. This was something between a husband and a wife. This snapshot concludes with frustration on the part of the woman, because she expresses a desire that her husband would be like her brother. You wonder, what's all of that about? Of course, it was a given cultural norm that there were not to be ostentatious displays of public affection. The thought here is that if he were like her brother, she could openly display affection. in a way that she can't under these particular circumstances. And so this actually lends new light on this call to the daughters of Jerusalem that not only is the appropriate time for love in the context of marriage, but also there are appropriate times for intimacy. And love should not be awakened at inappropriate times. And so finally we get to snapshot five, which I've entitled The Strength of divine love, the strength of divine love. And this is in chapter 8, verses 5 through 14. This is really the conclusion of the book. Now, I want us to go back to those words that we read at the beginning of the message, verses 6 and 7. This is the woman speaking here. She says, set me as a seal upon thine heart, as a seal upon thine arm, for love is strong as death, jealousy as cruel as the grave, the coals thereof are coals of fire, which hath a most vehement flame. Many waters cannot quench love, neither can the floods drown it. If a man would give all the substance of his house for love, it would utterly be contemned. Now, I don't have time to explain the complexities of this, but that expression in verse six, a most vehement flame, should probably be translated the flame of the Lord, or the flame of Jehovah. And I would suggest that this is the only direct mention of God in the book, though, as I've argued, in chapter five, we see God addressing the couple. And here we see an indicator that true love is ignited by the flames of the Almighty himself. Now notice that love here appears in parallel with jealousy. Now we often think of jealousy in a negative light, but there is also a positive sense of jealousy. That men, there is a positive sense in which we are jealous for the affections of our wives. And ladies, there's an appropriate sense in which you are jealous for the affections of your husbands. There's an exclusivity there. There is a desire that you don't want there to be any competitors with that love. And so this is the point that the Shulamite woman is driving here. Many waters in verse seven cannot quench love. This is parallel to those little foxes. And the idea here is that no matter what challenges come into the marriage relationship, ultimately, if there is the flame of the Lord in that relationship, those waters cannot quench that love. That love is solid, it is secure. And most of you have been married for longer than I have, and you can testify to the fact that your marriage has gone through struggles. It's gone through challenges. You've had some quarrels. Okay, I know there are couples that say, well, we never fight. Well, it all depends on how you define the word fight, right? And I find that some people, they just conveniently redefine the word. Well, we just have disagreements. Eh, baloney. Okay, there's challenges, there's fights if you wanna put it in that term, but if the flame of the Lord is there, that marriage will remain firm. And that true marital love is such that it can be bought with money. That's the analogy that's hinted at here. Even if you were to amass a large sum, you couldn't buy love like that. Now notice how the passage goes on here. There's a flashback that takes place to the time that the Shulamite was a young girl. And the speaker, we think, the speakers would be her brothers. Notice verse eight. We have a little sister, and she hath no breasts. What shall we do for our sister in the day when she shall be spoken for? If she be a wall, we will build upon her a palace of silver, and if she be a door, we will enclose her with boards of cedar. Now what in the world is all that talking about? Well, you see here two possibilities. If she's a young girl, her brothers are envisioning two different paths that her life could go. She could be a wall. If she's a wall, that means that she is a strong defender of her own sexual purity. She's resisting the advances of men. She's keeping herself pure. If that's the case, the idea is that the brothers are going to reward her with palaces of silver. The word here has the idea of an adornment. But, if she's a door, the idea is that she's going to be very open and loose. She's going to open herself to all kinds of men and sexual advances. If that's the case, the brothers say that they're going to need to take extra measures to protect her. They're going to have to build boards of cedar to guard her against the advances of men. But the woman here testifies in this passage. In verse 10, she says, I am a wall. She maintained her purity. And so the brothers didn't have to put the boards of cedar over her. Again, it all relates back to that imagery there of not awaking love before the appropriate time. Now, the book here ends on an interesting note. Verse 13, you have the man speaking here. He says, thou that dwellest in the gardens, the companions hearken to thy voice, cause me to hear it. Then the woman speaks in verse 14, make haste, my beloved, and be thou like to a roe or to a young heart upon the mountains of spices. What's notable here is that the book almost seems to end in a very open-ended type of way. You have the man still longing to hear the voice of his bride, and the bride is still longing for those intimate advances by her husband, which suggests to me that marriage is never something that we master. To be honest with you, it's a topic that I'm not terribly comfortable preaching because I don't feel like I've mastered it. I know what the scripture says. But in this walk of life, as we go through this whole deal with our spouses, our marriage relationship always has room for growth. There's always more love that we can express to our spouse. There's always more that we can learn about our spouse. There's always deeper intimacy that we can explore with our spouse. This is never something where we say, yep, nailed it, let's move on to something else in life. No, there's always work to be done, right? And that's the way all of our marriages are. Now, as we conclude with the Song of Solomon, I want to make three applications from this book very quickly. First, I wanna give a warning to those that are single. And that is, don't awaken love until the proper time. It is critical that you establish boundaries in your life that you absolutely will not cross. Have you ever been rudely awakened from sleep? and been unable to go back to bed. That's really the imagery that the Song of Solomon is giving us about awakening love. That once you awaken love, it's well nigh unto impossible to put it back to sleep. So if you start compromising, in your dating relationship, if you start pushing those boundaries, it is very likely that you will awaken love at the wrong time and miss out on the full bliss of marriage that God intends for you to experience. Now, second, here's an encouragement to those of us who are married. Enjoy your spouse. Find delight in your marriage. Well, I hear what you've been preaching on Sunday morning, Brother Nick, and I guess I have to obey my husband. I just gotta pick myself up by my bootstraps and submit. Boy, that's really absent of delight, isn't it? Well, Brother Nick, I guess I've just gotta lead my home. I've gotta love my wife as Christ loved the church. Again, where is the joy in all of that? The right attitude is really captured for us in Proverbs 5, verses 18 and 19. Let me read it for you. Has your marriage lost all trace of romance? Do you see your marriage as something to endure rather than to enjoy? Friend, go back in your mind's eye to when you were a newlywed. Remind yourself of the qualities that initially drew you to your spouse. Plan a date night. Buy some flowers. Spend some quality time together. Encourage yourself that that flame of the Lord has not been extinguished. It's still there, even if it seems faint. Finally, a sobering reminder for all of us. Earthly marriage is only temporary. Now you know the words of Jesus, don't you? Matthew 22 and verse 30. For in the resurrection, they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are as the angels of God in heaven. Does that make you sad? It makes me sad to a degree. The only time that I have to enjoy my marriage is here on earth. Solomon gives us this idea in Ecclesiastes. We read this verse last week in Ecclesiastes 9.9. Live joyfully with the wife whom thou lovest all the days of the life of what? Thy vanity. And you remember that the idea of vanity there is something that's fleeting. Solomon elsewhere uses that language of striving after the wind. Just like you can't grab a hold of the wind, so you really can't just grab a hold of married love. It's something that is a fleeting pleasure in this life. Love is elusive, and in time, marriage will slip through our fingers when we reach the golden shores of heaven. Even in the resurrection, even in the new earth that God will create, the marriages that we've enjoyed will apparently be no more. We have to remember that marriage is something that is a picture of a far greater reality. Ephesians 5 verse 31, Paul's point in Ephesians 5 is not that Christ's relationship with the church is a picture of marriage. Rather, his point is that marriage is a picture of Christ's relationship with the church. Marriage is the type. Christ and the church are the anti-type. What that means is this. Earthly marriage is fleeting, but all the joys of marriage will find their final fulfillment at the rapture of the church. when Christ weds his glorious church to himself. When earthly marriage fades, it won't be so that we can go back to living miserable bachelor lives. Rather, marriage will fade because our wedding with Christ will fulfill all of our hopes and dreams and longings in a way that our earthly spouses never did. Praise the Lord. Father, we thank you for these precious realities that we've considered tonight. Lord, we acknowledge that you are a God of truth and that your word is truth. Sanctify us through thy word, oh Father. Forgive us for failing to embrace all the counsel of God. We know that this is a portion of scripture that we have neglected perhaps. We thank you for the true delight of married love that is presented in the pages of this book. Oh Lord, for any singles in this room, my prayer for them is purity. Give them vigilance, give them determination not to be swept away by the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life of this fallen world. Lord, for couples here, give them the grace to reignite that flame of love if that love has started to wax cold. May romance be rekindled, may delight resume in our marriages, O Father. May marriage not be a drudgery, but may it be a real source of pleasure for each of us. And O Lord, give each of us a holy anticipation for the greatest marriage of all, the marriage supper of the Lamb. It's in Christ's name we pray. Amen. First of all, I want to clear the pastor of guilt. I dropped my bulletin when I left my seat. What I did was I had the sheet for the first song on one