All right, Song of Solomon, Chapter
8. Song of Solomon, Chapter 8. Heavenly Father, bless our gathering
this morning. Once again, show us your Son. May we see his majesty, his glory,
and his desirability. And may our hearts be captivated by faith's sight of him. In Christ's name we pray, amen.
Now, chapter 8. Of course, it contains essentially
the same information or certainly the same message that you would
find in the rest of Song of Solomon. In fact, the same message you
will find in the rest of scriptures. But there is a little bit of
a shift here because rather than detailing or rather than it being a back
and forth conversation between Solomon and Shulamith, we have
here, actually, the first part is Shulamith
speaking to Solomon, and then the friends say something, and
a little bit more interaction. But then in chapter, excuse me,
verse 8, we suddenly have the friends speaking up, and they
bring up what would be unknown in our culture, and that is they
bring up the appearance of a prepubescent female who is nonetheless being
set up or prepared for betrothal. Now we don't do that. We don't
you know, take our young daughters, 9, 10, 11 years old or whatever,
dress them up to look as womanly as they can in a celebration
in which she is betrothed to be married, probably to an adult. But that was the way things were
done. I doubt we'll get to that particular passage, but just
to let you know, the Jews did that kind of thing. It's typical
of societies that have arranged marriages. But even though they
were betrothed, the young girl still lived with her mom and
dad until such time as she reached maturity. And we'll see that
in this scripture. And it was only when she had
achieved maturity that there was a celebration of a wedding
and that those wedding arrangements made many years before would
be consummated by a physical relationship. So we're not going
to charge the Jews with pedophilia in that they would marry off
their prepubescent girls. It was just marriages were arranged
and often arranged when The woman and sometimes even the man, actually,
were still children. But then it goes on, and the
beloved Shulamit speaks of herself and describes herself in terms
of physical maturity, and that in such a state, She is capable,
and it is suitable that she enter into the full marital relationship
with Solomon. But we'll get to these. I always
have in mind I'm going to get so far, and then I don't get
that far. So we'll just get as far as we
do, and when it says about 10, 15, I'll quit. She says in verse
one, if only you were to me like a brother who has nursed at my
mother's breasts, then if I found you outside, I would kiss you
and no one would despise me. I would lead you and bring you
to my mother's house. She who has taught me, I would
give you spiced wine to drink the nectar of my pomegranates.
His left arm is under my head, and his right arm embraces me.
Daughters of Jerusalem, I charge you, do not rouse or awaken love
until it so desires." Now, of course, this is Shulamith speaking.
And it's Shulamith speaking as a grown woman in full maturity. And quite frankly, she's speaking
to Solomon as her husband. We're going to have to understand
something about the cultural norms of this day when it came
to how men and women behaved with one another when in public,
to understand what she means here. Now, we can actually learn
a little bit from Islamic nations. The Jews were never as violent. as the Muslims are, to my knowledge,
they never did treat their women with such How would you put it? Oppression,
as is often found in Islamic states. But we can see some of
the basic rules that even now are in these countries, and they
applied to the Jews back then. And one of the rules is An unmarried woman or a married
woman, for that matter, there are rules concerning both of
them, when she is out in public, what are the rules? Well, I know
in Islamic nations, a woman is not to be out in public. An unmarried
woman is not to be out in public. without one of her brothers or
her father being present with her. Now this is in the severely
Islamic. countries. Islam's a whole lot
like broad Christianity. You've got some that are very
severe, and you've got some that are pretty well. We say we're
Christians. We go to church Sunday. What
you do doesn't really matter to me. But among those, like
in Iran, and I believe it's still true in Saudi Arabia and that
like that, a woman doesn't go out without a male companion. And it must be, well, it could
be her husband. It could be a brother. It could
be a father. But they are not to be seen going
about town or whatever with a male that is not their relative. And then also, I think you will
find in these countries, and it would have been likely been
true back in the days of Solomon, if a woman was out with her husband,
It was not considered, how would you put it? Well, it wasn't according
to norms that they exhibit much public display of affection. They walked together. You could
tell that they were husband and wife. But there were not caresses. lengthy kisses, that kind of
thing. And I mean, we still have some of that. I mean, we have
an idea that husband and wife go out. There's only so much of their
affection for one another they're supposed to display physically.
And this is probably true in every culture. However, one of
the ways or one of the things in which a woman was quite free
to express her affection was with her brothers. Now, we've
got to understand what it meant to be a brother back then. And
we go back to the story of Amnon, half-brother to Absalom, and
then Absalom's sister. And I can't think of her name
right off. You know, David had multiple wives, and he had children
from all of those wives. Now, you could say that Absalom
and Amnon were brothers. Strictly speaking, they were
only half brothers, because they did not have the same mother. Now, Amnon He saw Absalom's sister. And I won't say he fell in love
with her. He fell in lust with her. I don't
know under what circumstances he saw her, but evidently he
saw her and saw enough of her that he counted her beautiful.
And he desired her as a sexual partner. And so he made arrangements
that he could go into, get into her bedchamber. And there, or
excuse me, he got her into his bedchamber. And when she was
there, he took advantage of her and actually raped her. Now,
there's an interesting point made in that whole business.
When, was her name Tamar? I think it was. I think her name
was Tamar. There's more than one Tamar in
the Bible, but I think she's one of them. But we'll say Tamar,
and if it's not, you read in your Bible that Tamar wasn't
her name, just substitute her name for every time I say Tamar.
And he comes in, or she comes in, having prepared food for
him. Now remember, Tamar is what we
would call his half-sister. Both of them have David for a
father, but they come from different mothers. So Tamar comes in with
the food, and once she gets close enough, he grabs her and I think
said, you know, lay with me or whatever. And she is horrified
at this. Now, here's the interesting thing.
She is not horrified at this because this is her half-brother,
because back then, It didn't matter if you shared the same
father. If you didn't share the same mother, there was probably
no familial affection between you. You recognized they were
part of the household. But also, it was not considered
a matter of incest for the two to be married. Because Tamar
went on to say, don't do such a wicked thing. Surely the king
will give me to you if you ask him. So you see what's going on here
is the idea being that each one of these wives kind
of had a household under them. And it was only those who were
considered to be of the same family to the degree that it would be incest if they were
to intermingle. So now she says, If only you
were to me like a brother. Now again, that would creep us
out. Why would you say to the person you're married to, I wish
you were like my brother? Well, technically you could acknowledge
someone as a brother, and yet it was not a brother who was
out of bounds as a marital partner. Now, understanding these things,
By the way, another matter from that story with Amnon and Tamar. Tamar was full-blooded sister
to Absalom. Amnon just shared a father with
her. So he thought she was fair game. And when he tried to take inappropriate
advantage of her, Absalom, looked at his half-brother Amnon as
though he were any other man. It didn't matter. They shared
the same father. And in his mind, he had a plan
in mind to kill Amnon. He felt an obligation to his
what we would call full-blooded sister to avenge her dishonor. at having been raped. Now, none
of the other brothers felt that. Again, we're just showing how
they perceived their familial relationships. But the men in
any household were charged with the protection of the women in
the household. and charged with the vindication
of the women in the household. Now, one thing that is superior
about the way Jews handled this, as opposed to what you hear in
the Muslim countries, in Muslim countries, quite often, if a
woman gets raped, what do they do? They kill the woman. She's brought dishonor on the
family. And you think, you know, I hear things like that. And
I think, are you all brainless? If you are raped, it's not something
you did. It's something that was done
to you. And you're not responsible for what's done to you. But no,
in the society, that's looked upon as a stain on the family.
And they do these honor killings. Now, how much it still happens,
I don't know. But I imagine if you go back further, it happened
a lot more. Well, Absalom. went after the right person.
He determined to kill Amnon. And this is also seen when some
people there in the land of Canaan, when Jacob and his 12 sons still
lived there, someone took advantage of a sister, one of the sisters
in Jacob's household. And the brothers rose up. And
actually, the household of the man who had raped their sister,
they came and said, we want to have her as wife, which they
thought would fix things. And Jacob's sons acted every
bit like Jacob. And they said, sure, but if you're
going to be part of our household, you have to be circumcised. And
so the men of that household all agreed to it. And they were
all circumcised. And it is written that while
they lay sore in their tents, the male household of Jacob descended
on them and killed every one of them. Well, that's the way
they did it. But still, you see, the brothers
felt the responsibility. for the purity, to preserve the
purity of the women in the household, and to avenge their honor on
anybody who had violated that purity. So she says, now, if
only you were to me like a brother who was nursed at my mother's
breast. Now, what's she saying there?
She's saying a full brother. You and I have the same father.
We have the same mother. It's just being expressed poetically. Now she says, then if I found
you outside, I would kiss you and no one would despise me.
Now once again, we're looking at the cultural norm that said
a husband and wife should not be engaged in those kind of displays
of affection. So she's saying, you're my husband.
Well, when we were outside, I wish I was sister to you, because
then I could kiss you. Now, certainly, brothers and
sisters did not kiss the way a husband and wife might. But
nonetheless, she's saying, if you were my brother, I could
at least express my particular affection for you. to some degree,
without being thought of as contemptible. She said, then if I found you
outside, I would kiss you and no one would despise me. So what we have here, I believe,
is the reality, at least a good picture of it, that in this world,
When believers are out in the world and they express their
great love for the Lord Jesus Christ, they are disdained. Now, we come to church like this
and we can give full expression to our love and affection for
our Lord Jesus Christ, can't wait. Who here is going to disdain
someone who expresses their undying and unbounded love for Jesus
Christ? What do they say outside? It's
OK to be religious, but you've got to keep it in check. And right now. because of the way that our culture
is being given over to its own wickedness. Even the smallest indication
of love for Christ is being met with name-calling. You get written up in newspaper
that, oh, that should be kept inside the church. Or if you,
out of love for Christ, refuse to perform certain services that
your business might offer to others, you can be sued and lose
everything you have. Just recently, there's a fellow
down in Texas, Jack I think is his name, but he was a baker. And the state of, no, it's not
Texas, it's Colorado. The state of Colorado has sued
him so many times. And what happens is gays set
him up. Gays and trans people set him
up. They know he's a Christian. And there are Christians being
purposely targeted on this matter. But they would come there, and
gay men would ask if he would bake them a cake for their wedding. And he did not judge them in
the sense of saying, what you do is filthy, and I can't have
a part of that. He just said, I cannot do that in good conscience.
That's all. And they've taken him to court.
He went all the way to the Supreme Court, and the Supreme Court
backed him up. That'd be a violation of his religious conscience.
You can't force a person to do that. And I can't remember now
whether it's already been once or twice in the Colorado Equal
Opportunity Commission or whatever, they're out to get this guy.
And really, you've got to admit, refusing to bake a cake in celebration
of a perverse relationship is not a really overblown demonstration
of one's love for the Lord Jesus Christ. But they're mad, and
now they sued him again because some trans people came in and
said, we want a cake, a pink cake with blue icing. He's perfectly
happy to do it. But then they said, because we
want to celebrate our transgender relationship. Well, then he said,
I can't do that. And they had carefully designed
this because he didn't have to write anything on the cake. Because
that's the arguments they've used, by the way, in law right
now. You can't force someone to say
something contrary to their beliefs. And an appeals court at this
point has said, well, no, baking a cake with pink cake with blue
icing, you're not saying anything. So he has to bake the cake. Now, my personal opinion. The
guy should be able to open the shop and serve who he wants for
any reason he wants or refuse anybody for any reason he wants.
But that's a political issue. That's not a spiritual issue. But you can see what they did.
They're trying to refine the method that they approach him
so that he has no argument. But once he said, they pointed
out, this was a cake being designed in celebration of transgenderism,
he simply said, then I can't do it. And the appeals court
is upholding them, saying, well, there's nothing wrong. There's
nothing immoral about baking a cake, a pink cake with blue
icing. Well, there is if they tell you
what that cake is celebrating. So they have assigned meaning
to the cake. And you can't buy in a cake. Well, it's on its
way to the Supreme Court. I hope the Supreme Court upholds
it. But all of that is an example of how it's becoming
more and more difficult to demonstrate any love and affection for Christ
out in public and not have the world treat you with contempt
and disdain. Now, so she says, if you were
just my brother, I could kiss you and nobody would be upset
about it. I've noticed this among liberal
Christianity When I was a young person, and I mean the kind of
liberalism that your high churches had in those days, they often
spoke of Jesus Christ in terms of his being a brother. Jesus,
our brother, kind and good, was humbly born in a stable rood.
And what they were doing was actually turning him into something
less than he really is. But such a one, setting him forth
as our brother, opened it up to where, yes, we can express
affection for him because he's just a good man. And who doesn't
have affection for a good man? And she says, you and I had a
kind of a relationship that the world could tolerate so that
I could express my love for you even out in public. We do have
to be circumspect. Now, we're not going back down.
If someone says, well, do you love the Lord Jesus Christ? OK,
they ask the question. We're going to answer them in
the fullest, which probably the most honest answer would be,
Not as much as I should, not as much as I wish I did, but
yes, I love the Lord Jesus Christ. He's everything to me. But as we are at our jobs, as
we are simply out in the world, we have to be aware that the
more openly we profess the intimacy of our relation with Christ,
the more the world is going to find trouble with us. So what does she say? If only
you were my brother who was nursed at my brother's breast, excuse
me, if only you were my brother, nursed at my mother's breast,
then if I found you outside, I would kiss you. I'd kiss you
with a kind of kiss that's acceptable for brothers and sisters. No
one would despise me, but notice what she says after that. I would
lead you and bring you to my mother's house, she who has taught
me. I don't know, you know, having
never been a mother, communicating with my daughter, But here's
a good lesson. If it's not being done, let it
be done. It is the duty of mothers to teach their daughters about
men or the man that they will marry and how best to communicate
to them within a marital relationship. Now, Because of our Victorian
sense of ethics, we can be very embarrassed to talk about it.
Teenagers do not want to hear their parents talking about sex. But back then, mothers instructed
their daughters on how to be a good lover to their husbands.
And she says, I would bring you to my mother's house, she who
has taught me. And I think there she's saying,
I will show you what my mother taught me. I would give you spiced
wine to drink, the nectar of my pomegranates. In other words,
she's there using those symbolic statements of sexual relationship. And then she goes on to say,
his left arm is under my head and his right arm embraces me.
So here's what she's saying. I wish out in public, I could
express my love for you in a way that a sister could to a brother
and not be disdained for it. And from that initiation of a
display of a physical affection, I would lead you away to a place
more private, where I could show you what my mother taught me.
And I would give you spiced wine to drink, fill his head with
romantic desire for her, such as he would be like a man who'd
drunk too much wine. The nectar of my pomegranates,
which would be another way for them to use a euphemism to express
the very best of her physical relationship with him. And what's
the response to that? What would he do in return? His
left arm is under my head, and his right arm embraces me. Daughters of Jerusalem, I charge
you, do not arouse or awaken love until it's so desired. As
we pointed out the first time we saw this particular phrase,
the idea is there's a time and place for everything. Don't arouse
this sort of love until it's the right time. And she's saying
you can't do that out in the public. You can show some affection. You can declare your love for
the Lord. for your beloved, but it has
to be in measure, because quite frankly, the intimacy of believers
with Christ is not something for the public, any more than
the intimacies of a husband and wife are a matter for public
view. However, it can certainly lead
to that. And as we think upon our Lord
out in public, and in our minds express our love for him, our
desire for him, it may lead us to where once we are in a more
suitable situation, we are able to give free reign to our passions,
our spiritual passions for him, and the result will be that he
will in turn embrace us with all his love. But daughters of Jerusalem, there's
a time and place for everything. This is one of those times and
places, brethren. We may enter into the bedchamber of our heavenly
husband. and give free reign to our affection
for him as we hear his glories told from his book. And here in, well actually we've
only got seven minutes before the next service starts. May
we have such an enjoyable time in the coming hour. You are dismissed.