Song of solomon

Because men and women are so different. You've heard the saying, "Opposites attract? Yes and they also attack. 
a. A man will pay $10 for a $5 item he wants. A Woman will pay $5 for a $10 item she does not want, or need.
b. A woman worries about the future until she gets a husband. A man never worries about the future until he gets a wife. 
c. A successful man is one who makes more money than his wife can spend. A Successful woman is one who can find such a man. 

Men and women are different and this book gives us a lot of insights into the differences. 

What does love mean? 
A group of professional people posed this question to a group of 4 to 8 year-olds. answers they got were broader and deeper than anyone could have imagined. See what you think: 
"When my grandmother got arthritis, she couldn't bend over and paint her toenails anymore. So my grandfather does it for her all the time, even when his hands got arthritis too. That's love." 
Rebecca - age 8 
"When someone loves you, the way they say your name is different. You know that your name is safe in their mouth." 
Billy - age 4 
"Love is when a girl puts on perfume and a boy puts on shaving cologne and they go out and smell each other."
Karl - age 5 
"Love is when you go out to eat and give somebody most of your French fries without making them give you any of theirs." 
Chrissy - age 6 
"Love is when my mommy makes coffee for my daddy and she takes a sip before giving it to him, to make sure the taste is OK." 
Danny - age 7 
"Love is what's in the room with you at Christmas if you stop opening presents and listen," 
Bobby - age 7 
"There are two kinds of love. Our love. God's love. But God makes both kinds of them." 
Jenny - age 8 
"My mommy loves me more than anybody. You don't see anyone else kissing me to sleep at night."
Clare - age 6 
"Love is when mommy sees daddy smelly and sweaty and still says he is handsomer than Robert Redford." 
Chris - age 7 
"I know my older sister loves me because she gives me all her old clothes and has to go out and buy new ones." 
Lauren - age 4 

Song of Solomon is a love story.

Love Defined is 
Love  – 1. A feeling of strong attachment induced by that which delights or commands admiration; preëminent kindness or devotion to another; affection; tenderness; 

Song of Solomon or as some say Song of Songs.

There are some that claim there are as many different views of this book as there are with the book of Revelation.

Because of its nature, it is about love, it is about the physical attraction and love, between a man and a woman.  It is probably also one of the most neglected.

I must admit, this is also the case with me.
 
Verse 1, the phrase “Song of Songs,”means the greatest of songs ever composed. The Song of Solomon has often been viewed as an allegory of Christ and the Church.
10. Key “Quotable Quote”
“The historical books I may compare to the outer courts of the temple; the gospels, the epistles and the psalms bring us into the holy place, or the court of the priests; but the Song of Songs is the most holy place – the holy of holies, ...”
C.H. Spurgeon 
Key Word Commentary: Thoughts on Every Chapter of the Bible.

Song of Solomon is historically attributed to Solomon.

1 Kings 4:32 (KJV)  32 And he spake three thousand proverbs: and his songs were a thousand and five. 

Out of 1005, this is the one.

This book is one that deals with the physical attraction between a man and a woman, between a husband and a wife.

If this book was written in today’s language and it stood alone, outside the context of the Bible it would not be in the family friendly section of the book store.  This is because of the perversion of the world!

But it was not written alone and it does not stand alone.

Now let me say for a moment, I realize that we are in a mixed crowd and there are families here, so I will try and be as polite as I can.

Song of Solomon is about the natural attraction and consummation of a relationship within the boundaries of marriage, it is about two adults enjoying and taking pleasure in their physical
relationship.

God is not opposed to the physical relationship between a married couple.  It is not, in God's eyes, something that is dirty, it is not something that is shameful.

But what it is is something given to us by God to enjoy.

James 1:17 (KJV) 17 Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning. 

But it is given to us with specific boundaries.

It is to be enjoyed by a man and a woman in a marriage.

Song of Solomon has a natural context and reading.  It has to do with a physical relationship between a bride and groom.  It begins before marriage when there is a physical attraction, yet they wait, they acknowledge that there is desire there is an attraction, yet they wait.

Song of Songs 2:7 (KJV) I charge you, O ye daughters of Jerusalem, by the roes, and by the hinds of the field, that ye stir not up, nor awake my love, till he please. 
Song of Songs 3:5 (KJV) 5 I charge you, O ye daughters of Jerusalem, by the roes, and by the hinds of the field, that ye stir not up, nor awake my love, till he please. 
Song of Songs 8:4 (KJV) 4 I charge you, O daughters of Jerusalem, that ye stir not up, nor awake my love, until he please.  

I want to look at Song of Solomon in its natural context and finally look at the ultimate picture it portrays.

In its natural context Song of Solomon, Song of Song is about the relationship between a man and a woman.  The longing, the desire, the courtship, all of these are involved.  What you cannot avoid in
reading Song of Solomon is the physical relationship that these two are involved in.  

As I have already shared before the truth is that God gave the gift of a physical relationship to us and for us.

1. God gave that gift to us for our pleasure.

Song of Songs 7:6 (KJV) 6 How fair and how pleasant art thou, O love, for delights! 

Proverbs 5:18 (KJV) 18 Let thy fountain be blessed: and rejoice with the wife of thy youth.

Ecclesiastes 9:9 (KJV) 9 Live joyfully with the wife whom thou lovest all the days of the life of thy vanity, which he hath given thee under the sun, all the days of thy vanity: for that is thy portion in
this life, and in thy labour which thou takest under the sun. 

2. God gave us the gift of a physical relationship to promote unity

Genesis 2:24 (KJV) 24 Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh. 

Matthew 19:3-6 (KJV) 3 The Pharisees also came unto him, tempting him, and saying unto him, Is it lawful for a man to put away his wife for every cause? 4 And he answered and said unto them, Have ye not read, that he which made them at the beginning made them male and female, 5 And said, For this cause shall a man leave father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife: and they twain shall be one flesh? 6 Wherefore they are no more twain, but one flesh. What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder.

Think back on the marriage of Adam and Eve, in that instance it was literally and physically the re-uniting of flesh.  God had removed from Adam a rib and created for him a woman and in Genesis 2, the first wedding or marriage, if you will, it was a re-uniting of flesh a bringing together of what naturally belonged together.

3. Finally God gave to us the gift of a physical relationship to produce children.

Genesis 1:26-28 (KJV) 26 And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth. 27 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them. 28 And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth. 

Christ and His Bride

Now I want to look at the picture that Song of Solomon is pointing to.  I wanted to first look at the natural meaning because I believe sometimes we look at the Old Testament only in the eyes of the New Testament and it can loose some of its meaning!

But there is in this book a beautiful picture of a bride and her groom and that naturally points to another picture we begin to see in the New Testament and I believe it is relevant.

2 Corinthians 11:2 (KJV) 2 For I am jealous over you with godly jealousy: for I have espoused you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ. 

Ephesians 5:24-32 (KJV) 24 Therefore as the church is subject unto Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands in every thing. 25 Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church,
and gave himself for it; 26 That he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word, 27 That he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish. 28 So ought men to love their wives as their own bodies. He that loveth his wife loveth himself. 29 For no man ever yet hated his own flesh; but nourisheth and cherisheth it, even as the Lord the church: 30 For we are members of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones. 31 For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall be joined unto his wife, and they two shall be one flesh. 32 This is a great mystery: but I speak
concerning Christ and the church. 

Song of Songs 7:10 (KJV) 10 I am my beloved's, and his desire is toward me. 

His desire is toward me.  Think about that truth, outside the context of Song of Solomon but in the context of Christ toward His church.

Dr. Karl Barth is considered to be one of the greatest theologians in the 20th century. Although
I disagree with many of his theological positions, I do admit that Dr. Barth was certainly one of
the most influential theologians in the church in the last 100 years.
Several years ago while giving a series of lectures in Chicago and in Princeton, New Jersey a
question was posed to the Swiss theologian.
 “Dr. Barth what is the greatest thought that has ever passed through your mind?”
Barth paused for quite a long time as he obviously gave serious thought about his answer.
Then he raised his head and said with childlike simplicity:
 “Jesus loves me!  This I know, for the Bible tells me so.”