Today we will continue to address your questions about the Song of Solomon.
1. Why is the Song of Solomon so full of sexual references?
The sexual references are for us to understand the intimacy of our connection with the King. Poetical images are often used in Middle Eastern poetry to convey deep and penetrating emotions that can’t be easily conveyed in prose. I think it is difficult to describe the intensity of Jesus’ love for us in human terms so the author has used sex, the strongest comparison that he knows to describe connectivity between 2 human beings, as a starting point to describe the complexity, profoundness and fathomlessness of the union.
Jesus came to find a wife but it wasn’t for sex – it was for far more than sexual pleasures and delights. In fact, the way the Song of Solomon describes their union makes sex look feeble and anaemic!
2. Why is the Song of Solomon so disjointed with sections going backwards and forwards?
The song is a lyric idyll with lots of flashbacks. It’s like a movie where the action gets suspended while the audience is treated to images from the past to provide insight and understanding.
The Book of Revelation is written in a similar way with events viewed alternatively from heaven and then from earth. Both books require intense focus to follow the action.
3. Why is the Shulamite referred to as “my sister, my spouse”?
These 2 terms, “my sister, my spouse” usher us in to the deep and exclusive intimate fellowship that the Jesus follower has with the person of Jesus Christ.
The bride isn’t actually His sister because the Bride, at one point, wished that the King was her brother (8:1) so that she could bring him into her family home without let or hindrance.
As a sibling the King could have had an exclusive relationship with the Bride, enjoying her day to day activities with her family. There could be no secrets about who she was, where she lived, what she ate and what she had done. All would have been laid bare before her Lover.
As His spouse, there came a change in position, inheritance and headship. The Bride’s desire was to be totally and only for her husband. To join these 2 positions together injects a new level of intimacy that Jesus has with His cherished Bride.
I propose to continue to answer your questions tomorrow! Please keep them coming!
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