Valentine's Day is next week, so I've decided to pause our series in Mark and preach on love. Love is not ignored within Christian circles, but romance, sex, and the book of Song of Solomon has been.
It's too bad, because God gives us practical and relevant principles in Song of Solomon that can teach us valuable things about how to romantically love our spouses in a godly way. It gives us a blueprint for how to date and approach the pre-marital state as well.
There are a number of different approaches to the book though.
- Some take it allegorically, believing it is all symbolic and meant to picture Christ's love for the Church. Problem is, the language is so graphic, it forces awkward and general interpretations at too many places.
- Some view it as a collection of love songs and poetry that Solomon wrote. Yet there seems to be a story developing as the book progresses.
- Others see it describing an ancient soap opera between a wife/concubine of Solomon, a shepherd, and Solomon or another king. The woman's true love is the shepherd, but she's stuck in a position where she is property of her husband. This is possible, but would contradict the rest of Scripture's view of marriage and paints Solomon in a very negative light.
- To take this more literally requires us to understand this as the story of Solomon and his bride (possibly his one true love). Kings were often portrayed as shepherds in the OT. And while Solomon did have a total of 1000 wives and concubines, isn't it possible that God is showing that if He can give us a redemptive message about romance from Solomon, He can redeem our stories too?
I find it amazing that almost 3000 later, pop culture is still trying to capture creative expressions of what they think love is all about, but God's message stands as 100% relevant for those who will listen to it.
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