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Today’s passage is a book of the Old Testament. It is called the Song of Songs or the Song of Solomon. Have you ever read this book? Or have you heard of it? I grew up in the church but I remember that this book was not read much.
Many Christians find this book puzzling and surprising, for it is unique within the Old Testament. It is part of the Bible but it is not like other books of the Bible.
At least on a surface level, it doesn’t talk about God, God’s law, or history of God’s people. It doesn’t prophesy. It doesn’t teach or explore wisdom. Instead, it describes love. It does not shy away from expressing a sexual aspect of love. It is so explicit that some people say it should be R-rated. Some Christians even tell a joke, saying, 'if you think that the Bible is too boring to read, then you haven’t read the Song of Songs.
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“ She followed all my directions. It was really easy to contact her and respond very fast as well. ”
You can’t say that the Bible is boring when reading this book!”
The Song of Songs is a book that celebrates love. In this book, you can hear the voices of two lovers. You can hear them praising each other, yearning for each other, offering invitations to enjoy.[footnoteRef:1] You may wonder who the lovers are and ask, “whose love does this book talk about?” Some people think that it is love between a man and a woman, between King Solomon and his bride.
Some say that the book is just a collection of unrelated love poems with no overarching story line. There are several speculations about who the lovers are in today’s passage. But we don’t really have to have to struggle with them. If you believe that the Bible is God’s word inviting us into fellowship with Him, the very purpose that the Song of Songs serves in the church should be clear. It is to reveal a kind of relationship that God is inviting us to have with Him. [1: Garrett, Duane (1993). Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song of Songs. B&H Publishing Group. ISBN 9780805401141. p366
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In the Bible, we see different analogies that describe a relationship between God and His people, such as Lord and servants, and Potter and clay. God says in Leviticus 25:55, “… My servants… I am the Lord your God.” And God’s people confesses in Isaiah 64:8, “We are the clay and You our potter.” There are also more intimate analogies such as “Father and children, Mother hen and chicks, and Groom and bride.” Here are related passages that we need to hear. “O Lord, You are our Father,” says Isaiah 64:8. “…how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings…,” says the Lord in Luke 13:34. “…Your husband is your Maker, Whose name is the Lord of hosts…,” says Isaiah 54:5. And today, we hear the Song of Songs that reveals another aspect of the rich relationship between God and us, His people, that is, a passionate love between the two lovers. So moved by God’s revelation shining through this book, Rabbi Akiba even said, ”The whole world is not worth the day on which the Song of Songs was given to Israel, for all the Scriptures are holy, but the Song of Songs is the Holy of Holies.”[footnoteRef:2] Probably, for the same reason, Bernard of Clairvaux in the 14th century wrote 86 sermons on the Song of Songs! [2: Mishnah Yadayim 3:5]
Though the book talk about passionate love between the two lovers, don’t let anyone think that you can read it as if it were like one of vulgar romantic fictions in the world. Then, how should we read it? According to Henry Matthew, the Song of Songs is like a parable. It is a parable that “makes divine things more difficult to those who do not love them, but more plain and pleasant to those who do.”[footnoteRef:3] That is to say, we need to read it as God’s people, as those who love divine things. We should read the book in a way that we read other books of the Bible. We should read it reverently, praying that the Lord may enable your soul to taste the sweetness of communing with Christ.[footnoteRef:4] It is my prayer that in today’s passage, you will hear the voice of the Lord calling you away from the world to have sweet fellowship with Him. I pray that you yearn for Him always and go deeper into passionate love with Him. [3: Matthew Henry] [4: John R. Rice]
Let’s turn to today’s passage that begins with how this woman views her lover. She says in verses 8 and 9, “The voice of my beloved! Look, he comes, leaping upon the mountains, bounding over the hills. My beloved is like a gazelle or a young stag. Look, there he stands behind our wall, gazing in at the windows, looking through the lattice.” Here we see the man coming in strength, not in a violent way but in a gentle way. He is climbing the mountains and leaping on the hills. He is strong and energetic but not compared to a lion but to a gazelle and a young stag. He is gentle. When he comes to her place, he doesn’t force his way into her house. He just waits outside, looking for the windows for his beloved. She does not describe him as a type of peeping Tom but as one who longs for his love, beckoning her to come out to be with him.
We can get a sense of God’s love for us in this man. God is passionate about us. He loves us and desires us. He wants us to come out of our own little cage and to join the adventure of passionate love with him. God didn’t just leap upon the mountains and bound over the hills. He leaped over something infinitely greater than them. He leaped over the infinite distance between heavens and earth. He leaped over the infinite gap between God and us. In doing so, He arrived on our side to be with us. In other words, He became human in Jesus Christ. He became one of us, to be with us. His love for you is so great that He even went further, even to a cross of shame and death, that you may not be lost but be found in Him. He loves you passionately. He desires you. He wants you to come with Him and enjoy His love. So, He came to you despite all His sacrifices. Isn’t it amazing that God wants to be with you? We are not talking about a pet or another human. Of course, it is great that someone, either a pet or a human, loves you and wants to be with you. But I want you to take your time to think about it. How incredible is it that God, the almighty Creator, the source of every blessing, loves you and wants to be with you?
“Look, there he stands behind our wall, gazing in at the windows, looking through the lattice,” says verse 9. Christ is standing behind our wall, waiting for us to come out and be with Him. The wall can be anything that can prevent us from being with Him fully. It may be idols, things, or people that we love more than we love God, whatever we enjoy more than we enjoy God. It may be our own little world that we created for ourselves where we are too busy with other things, ending up losing our sight of God’s passionate love for us. It may be simply any sin. Whatever your wall may be now, the Lord is standing behind that wall, beckoning you to come away with Him.
As you can see, although the Lord is almighty, all-powerful, He is not violent but gentle and graceful. He will neither drag us away nor come by force. He comes with a passionate yet beckoning love. So He is patiently waiting for us to respond to His love and beckoning us to come out of our wall and be in a passionate love with Him, saying, “Arise, my love, my fair one, and come away.”
He describes how wonderful it is to come with Him, saying, “Now the winter is past, the rain is over and gone. The flowers appear on the earth; the time of singing has come, and the voice of the turtledove is heard in our land. The fig tree puts forth its figs, and the vines are in blossom; they give forth fragrance.” The passage describes leaving behind our wall and coming with the Lord as spring that is full of abundant life and joy. It is like Him saying to us, “I love you. Come away with me. You will enjoy incredibly abundant life.”
A Christian couple is very passionate about ministering to others. After they got married, they thought of themselves more as one unit and thought of ways to reach out to others. The time to simply enjoy one another was somewhat, though not completely, forgotten. Later, they realized that it was harming their relationship. It is important to be reaching out to others, but people need to never forget to have time with spouses, time to simply enjoy one another.
The same lesson should be applied to our relationship with God. Often, we are too busy with other things. Sometimes we are so busy even with looking for ways to serve God, that we forget to simply be with Him, to simply enjoy Him and His love. When we forget about a taste of God’s presence and His love, everything we do, even if it is for Him, becomes just a joyless burden. But if we can constantly come away with Him in passionate love, anything in our lives can be an opportunity to enjoy God.
There are many ways to come away with God, enjoying sweet fellowship with Christ. But I would like to emphasize one particular thing this morning. It is passionate love, for God’s passionate love for us deserves our passionate love for Him. To be more specific, as much as He longs for us, we are to yearn for Him. It is necessary in order for our relationship with God to be of passionate love described in the Song of Songs.
In today’s passage, we see the woman who is so excited to hear in far distance and see her lover coming to her. And we see the man who is so excited to come and see her bounding over mountains and hills. This is what their loving relationship looks like. This is what our relationship with God is supposed to look like. This kind of great excitement comes to you when you love passionately. There will be an infinitely greater sense of joy, excitement, and satisfaction when you have passionate love for God, when you desire Him, when you yearn for Him.
I really hope that you don’t think this is just a word. It is not a god of an abstract, philosophical concept that we are talking about. It is the living God who has generously and passionately invited us to the loving fellowship with Him. And this fellowship has been experienced by a lot of God’s people as they have been yearning for God.
You might hear people asking, “How can you see the invisible God? How will you get to know the incomprehensible God?” St. Gregory of Nyssa says, “[our] mind’s only access to the invisible and incomprehensible God is through its yearning. And yet also, therein, [we] see God.” Yearning for God, Job finally came to confess before God, saying, “My ears had heard of you but now my eyes have seen you.” At that moment, all of Job’s complaints about his life and about God seemed to disappear at once. What does it mean? It means that he found a complete satisfaction in seeing God. People must yearn for the Lord, expecting to see Him along with all the wonders of life! After all, it was already taught in Deuteronomy 4:29 that says, “…You will find the Lord if you seek Him with all your heart and with all your soul. I pray that you make confessions of prophets like Isaiah and Psalmists be your confession. To say a few, they say, “…my soul longs for You. Indeed, my spirit within me seeks You diligently (Isaiah 26:9).” “Besides You, I desire nothing on earth (Psalm 73:25).” “My soul thirsts for God, for the living God (Psalm 42:2).” “O God, You are my God; I shall seek You earnestly; My soul thirsts for You, my flesh yearns for You (Psalm 63:1).”
As you yearn for the Lord, remember and trust Him saying “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to Me (John 7:37). He who comes to Me will not hunger, and he who believes in Me will never thirst (John 6:35).” And listen to St. Augustine confessing, “Our hearts are restless, until they can find rest in God.” Just as he found complete satisfaction in God’s peace-giving presence, as Jesus promised to us, we can be fully satisfied and fulfilled only in God.
Do you want to powerfully experience His life-giving presence in your life and His wondrous love for you? Do you want to know Him more and more? Or did you just forget or give up expecting it to happen in your life? Don’t lose your excitement and wonder about God and His love for you. Don’t lose your faith in what He can do. Don’t lose your sight of Him standing behind your wall, beckoning you to come away with Him.
But do respond to His passionate love for us. Accept His invitation to enjoy sweet fellowship with Him. Always yearn for Him, which is a way to arise from where you are and come away with Him. Be excited to be with God. And with confidence, expect great wonders that your life may be filled with on the wondrous adventure with Him. Listen to the Lord once again speaking to you today, “Arise, my love, my fair one, and come away.” In the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen.
Arise my love: Song of Songs. (2021, Dec 06). Retrieved from https://studymoose.com/arise-my-love-song-of-songs-essay
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