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Reading Song of Songs 8:4-14 and closing out this series with the final words between this husband and wife as they continue this journey of love together, forever. Visit wwutt.com for all our videos!
At the beginning of Song of Songs we saw this man and this woman who were in pursuit of one another. At the end of Song of Songs we see them growing in their love and yet still pursuing one another when we understand the text.
This is When We Understand the Text, a daily Bible commentary to help encourage your time in the Word. Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday we feature New Testament Study, an Old Testament book on Thursday, and our Q &A on Friday.
Now here's your teacher, Pastor Gabe. Thank you, Becky.
Today we will be finishing our series through the Song of Songs. Starting today in Chapter 8, if you want to open up your Bible and join with me there. Counting the introduction, this is the 13th lesson, and all of these lessons have been archived on our podcast page, www .podbean .com.
It's all free and you are welcome to access these lessons at any time. I'm going to begin reading in verse 4 through verse 7 of Song of Songs, Chapter 8. This is the word of the Lord, beginning with the response from the man.
I call you to solemnly swear, O daughters of Jerusalem, why should you arouse or awaken my love until she pleases? Then the villagers respond, who is this coming up from the wilderness, leaning on her beloved?
And then we have this response, beneath the apple tree I awakened you. There your mother was in labor with you. There she was in labor and gave birth. Put me like a seal over your heart, like a seal on your arm.
For love is as strong as death, jealousy is as severe as sheol. Its flashes are flashes of fire, the very flame of Yah. Many waters cannot quench love, nor will rivers overflow it. If a man were to give all the riches of his house for love, it would be utterly despised.
So a reminder as to where we are. The husband and the wife have just made love again. That was in Chapter 7. And then they ran away together. They ran to see how their love might continue to grow and flourish in this relationship, this family that they are building together.
The woman said in Chapter 7, verse 11, come my beloved, let us go out into the fields and spend the night in the villages. Let us rise early and go into the vineyards. Let us see whether the vine is flourished and its blossoms have opened and whether the pomegranates have bloomed.
And there I will give you my love. So we had a time previously where the man had come to her and had wanted to make love to her, but she was not receptive to his desire. He went away into the city and she thought that she had done something wrong now at this point and he had gone to find fulfillment somewhere else, which of course we know was not the case, but this was her guilty conscience that was plugging her.
So she ran away to go and find him after they have found one another and have enjoyed and tasted of each other once again. Now the woman does not ever want to be separated from him. Wherever we go, let us go there together that our love may grow with one another.
And so that was the statement there at the end of Chapter 7. And this exploration to see whether the vine had flourished and its blossoms have opened. This is the woman saying, let us see how much more we can get out of this relationship together.
But in addition to that, as I mentioned last week, there is also hints of fruitfulness in the marriage, in the sense of being able to start a family, to have children. Let us see if we can have children, if our love can multiply all the more in this way.
For as God had commissioned the man and wife when he created them, be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth. And that is a creation command that has not expired. We are still to be fruitful and multiply.
God intends to expand his kingdom through the bearing of children, that we would raise up our children in the training and the instruction of the Lord and that they would hear the gospel and grow to know Jesus Christ and put their faith in him.
It's one of the best church growth strategies out there, raising up children in the Lord. Of course, we're supposed to be out there preaching the gospel. We have that in the Great Commission in Acts 1 .9.
You will be my witnesses to Jerusalem, to Judea and Samaria and then to the ends of the earth. And so the apostles, the disciples went out and did that. But we also expand the kingdom of God through godly families.
And so here this husband and wife desire to be fruitful and multiply. And they're going to see if the Lord will bless them with children. And so we see there the intimacy that they have with one another growing and flourishing.
This is one of the ways that intimacy is grown between a husband and a wife. It's not just through sex, although that's certainly one of the ways that we think about it, not even just through communication and praying together and attending church together or studying God's word together.
We also grow in intimacy by raising families together. So a husband and wife grow their intimacy by having children. Hence why this statement here in chapter seven, verses 11 and 12 is not only about growing their love together, but also literally growing as a family together.
That will grow their love. At the start of chapter eight, those first three verses, the woman talks about how she just wants to dote on the man. She wants to serve him. And what will the result of that be?
Verse three, let his left hand be under my head and his right hand embrace me. I will serve him and he will draw me close to him. We see this closeness that's growing between each other. Last part of chapter seven and early part of chapter eight.
His response, which is what we start with today in verse four, I call you to solemnly swear O daughters of Jerusalem. Why should you arouse or awaken my love until she pleases? Now as we consider song of songs to be a song, you typically think of a song as having verses and then a chorus, right?
Well if song of songs has a chorus, a refrain that gets repeated, this is probably it because this is the third time we've heard such a phrase. Now the first couple of times were worded a little bit different.
This was in chapter two verse seven. I call you to solemnly swear O daughters of Jerusalem by the gazelles or by the hinds of the field that you do not arouse or awaken my love until she pleases. The second time we heard it sounded very similar.
Chapter three verse five, I call you to solemnly swear O daughters of Jerusalem by the gazelles or by the hinds of the field that you do not arouse or awaken my love until she pleases. Slightly different when we read it here in chapter eight verse four.
I call you to solemnly swear O daughters of Jerusalem, why should you arouse or awaken my love until she pleases? So there's not the call to swear on the gazelles of the field this time. The previous times they weren't yet married.
The marriage or the wedding did not happen until chapter four and then they consummated their union at the end of chapter four and start of chapter five. So in those times before they were married, the man is saying, don't arouse or awaken my love until the proper time, until it's time for that.
She expresses her desire for this man, which is good, but there, there must be some restraint. We can desire one another, but it can only go so far until the day the time is right for us to consummate our union.
So the charges given to the virgins or the villagers, however you want to see this company of maidens, the, the wedding party that is with the bride. He says to them, I charge you to solemnly swear not to awaken or arouse my love until the proper time.
And of course the previous two times they're swearing on the gazelles of the field. This time it's not swearing upon anything. I call you to solemnly swear O daughters of Jerusalem, why should you arouse or awaken my love until she pleases?
This is no longer an imperative like the previous two times do this. It's now interrogative. Why would you do this? And it is as though to say that to awaken love too soon is a vain thing. This love that we have with one another, this is right.
This is where it's supposed to be. As this is the testimony now that the man is given to the maidens who were with the woman and saying to the villagers that all may know, here's the proper context of love.
This is our testimony. This is what God intended for husband and wife. This is where this is supposed to be. So don't arouse or awaken love until the time is right for this. Now, that's important here that this instruction be given to those villagers or the others because of the way the others are going to respond a little bit later on in verses eight and nine.
I'll address that when we get there. But their immediate response to this is a question. Verse five, who is this coming up from the wilderness leaning on her beloved? And it's interesting that the virgins or the villagers now it's almost as if they don't even recognize her because she is with her love who has utterly transformed her.
She is a new person now, a different person, united with her spouse, growing with her husband in that whoever she was previously is unrecognizable to the woman that she is now. Now, let me apply this to something spiritual, as we often consider song of songs to be allegory to the way that Christ loves his church when Christ loves us and draws us to himself.
And we are, as the bride of Christ is his church, leaning on our beloved. So may the others look at us and say, who is this coming up from the wilderness leaning on her beloved? You look at who we were before Christ and who we are now.
And it's two completely different people. We have been transformed by the Lord. Previously, we were dead in our sins and our trespasses in which we once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience, among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind and were by nature children of wrath like the rest of mankind.
That's what it says in Ephesians chapter two, verses one through three. But God, who is rich in mercy, did not leave us dead in our sins, but made us alive together with Christ. By grace, we have been saved.
We have been transformed into something else and are being conformed to the image of the son, as said in Romans 8, 29. So we're no longer sons of disobedience. We are sons of the living God. And having been adopted into the family of God, rescued from this fallen world, which is coming to destruction, and we have been transferred to the kingdom of light, which is coming into glory, we are new people.
We are different people. And we should look different than the people that we once were. No longer living in the passions of our flesh and the desires of our mind, we are living for Christ and in his righteousness.
And so let us turn from the ways of the world and the desires of our flesh and let us turn to Christ and desire the Lord. So there is even application in this question that is asked from the others, who is this coming up from the wilderness, leaning on her beloved?
They should know. But she looks so wonderfully beautiful and different being with the man that she is united to for life. Our marriages need to be that way too, incidentally. So a man is to leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife and the two shall become one flesh.
That's stated in Genesis 2. That is in Matthew chapter 19. Jesus repeats it. The apostle Paul uses it in Ephesians 5, where, by the way, he says marriage is to be a picture of the way that Christ loves his church.
So a man leaves his father and his mother and holds fast to his wife and the two become one flesh. And so we come up out of the wilderness together with our beloved in a husband and a wife. That man and woman have been transformed.
They are someone different. The two of them are now someone different, not who they were when they were individuals, but they are one flesh and they are now one family. And there is going to be something different about that man and about that woman when they unite together in this covenant vow for life.
Now that is the extent of the response from the others. Just those two lines. They're going to speak up again one last time in verses 8 and 9. But here in the mid part of verse 5 and going through verse 7, it's a little confusing as to who is speaking here.
And I've read from different commentators that have had different opinions. Some have said the husband is speaking. Others have said the wife is speaking. I'm going to argue that it's the husband. And I'm going to support that argument in two ways.
First of all, with contextual support. And then secondly, with a support from allegory. So first of all, with contextual support, let's look at the line here. Midway through verse 5, beneath the apple tree, I awakened you.
There your mother was in labor with you. There she was in labor and gave you birth. And it's just those three lines right there that lead me to believe the husband is the one who is speaking. How do I say that?
Well, because in chapter 2, verse 3, the woman said, like an apple tree among the trees of the forest, so is my beloved among the sons. In his shade, I had great desire and sat down. So she sees her love as the apple tree and she sits under his shade.
And he says beneath the apple tree, I awakened you. So it has to be the woman. That's the first argument there. Then there is the statement there. Your mother was in labor with you. There she was in labor and gave you birth.
The only one that is said in the Song of Songs, the only one who is referenced to having been born of her mother and having this close, intimate relationship with her mother from birth is the woman. Of course, the man is born of woman and his mother is even referenced on the day of their wedding.
She is the one who gave him his crown. But this closeness of intimacy with the mother from birth is only talked about with regards to the woman. So there your mother was in labor with you and there she was in labor and gave you birth.
This is the man talking to his wife. Now I said there was also allegorical support for the fact that this is the husband speaking. If we understand that the man here represents Christ, the husband is Christ, and the wife is the church, then it can only be the husband that's speaking here as saying, I awakened you.
Does the church awaken Christ? Does the church influence Christ or draw Christ to itself? No, Christ draws the church to himself. And so it doesn't seem in that allegorical sense, sensible to say that the wife is the one who is saying beneath the apple tree, I awakened you.
So therefore, in as far as the allegory goes, we would see this as being the husband speaking to the wife beneath the apple tree. I awakened you there. Your mother was in labor with you there. She was in labor and gave you birth.
Verse six. Now, this definitely sounds like something Christ would say to his church. Put me like a seal over your heart, like a seal on your arm. For love is as strong as death. Jealousy is as severe as she'll.
It's flashes are flashes of fire. The very flame of yaw. That is the name of the Lord as it appears here in song of songs. And I'll explain the name yaw, which is Yahweh here in just a moment. So start of verse six, put me like a seal over your heart and like a seal on your arm.
What is the woman's posture here? What did the others say about her? She is coming up from the wilderness, leaning on her beloved. So as she's clinging to his arm and leaning against his chest, it's as though he says I will be a seal on your heart and I will be a seal on your arm.
Hold me close to your heart and may we walk side by side with one another. That is, that is as a husband and wife should be so that even when we are separated, we are still bound to one another to these vows, to this oaths swearing to the Lord and to each other till death do us part.
So we're bound to one another heart to heart and we walk with each other side by side. And so should our relationship be with Christ. He is near to our heart and we walk side by side with him in this walk of faith.
The next statement for love is as strong as death and jealousy is as severe as she'll notice that both of these things are being compared with death. You would think of love and jealousy as being opposite things.
But here it's a teamwork, love and jealousy together. Love is as strong as death. Jealousy is severe as she'll. So we understand the love of the Lord in two ways in that he rescues us from death. His love is even stronger than the grave.
We will dwell in his presence in glory forever. The very flame of yaw, that's the last line in verse six. So this love that a husband and wife have for one another, this intense, deep passion that we have in this beautiful union of marriage, the love that is kindled between us is a gift of God.
It comes from Yahweh. But as we apply these things spiritually, we know that God is a jealous God. That is in Exodus 20, verse four, you shall not make for yourself an idol or any likeness of what is in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the water under the earth.
You shall not worship them or serve them. For I, Yahweh, your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children, on the third and the fourth generations of those who hate me, but showing loving kindness to thousands, to those who love me and keep my commandments.
And so the Lord is jealous for us. There is a kind of jealousy that is good, that we are jealous for each other in a marriage. You desire only your husband or your wife and no other till death do you part.
Now, this reference to the name Yah, that is a shortened form of Yahweh. It's the same name. It's not like a lesser version of the name or anything like that. It's just a shortened version of Yah. We say it every time we use the word hallelujah.
You're saying praise be to God. It is the name Yahweh there at the end of that word. It comes up something like 50 times in the Psalms. And then there are other places in the Old Testament where it is used.
We don't use it very often. At least we don't consciously think of using it very often. But like I said, you use it every time you say the word hallelujah. Every time you say the name Jeremiah. Yeah, believe it or not, the name Yah is right there on the end of the name.
Like when you say Daniel or Ezekiel, the name El is at the end of those names. That's a reference to God like Elohim. So the names appear there in more places than you're probably aware. Here it is the name of Yahweh.
That is the Tetragrammaton, the Hebrew name for God, as it appears here in Song of Songs. So we have this love that is kindled between a husband and a wife. Again, as I said, this intense passion is the very gift of God.
Many waters cannot quench love, nor will rivers overflow it. If a man were to give all the riches of his house for love, it would be utterly despised. You cannot buy it. It cannot be afforded. No one can gamble me away from my bride.
This love that I have for her comes from the Lord. And in honor of God, in keeping of his commandments, I will hold fast to my wife. And the two of us are one flesh. So now we have the response from the others that comes up here in verses eight and nine.
Now, the interesting thing here is it's almost like what has happened here between the husband and the wife is a success. This is a beautiful story. They are on their own, and there is no need for us to try to continue to kindle this fire or this love.
There is someone else who needs us. Let's look at it. Verses eight and nine. We have a little sister and she has no breasts. What shall we do for our sister on the day when she is spoken for? If she is a wall, we will build on her a battlement of silver.
But if she is a door, we will barricade her with planks of cedar, a little sister with no breasts. Who would that be referring to? Well, there's another woman in this village, a young woman who is not yet ready for marriage.
So we're talking about a girl here. And so we're going to protect this girl until the day she is spoken for. What shall we do for our sister on the day she is spoken for? If she is a wall, we will build on her a battlement of silver.
In other words, if it is God's desire for this little girl not to be married, then we're going to protect her. We will protect her from men who want to have her and just use her. And we're also going to protect her from the desires of her own flesh that she not whore herself out with other men.
We will build on her a battlement of silver. That's something solid that cannot easily be conquered. But if she is a door, if one day a man should enter into her courts and desire her for a wife, we will barricade her with planks of cedar.
We're still going to protect her. But these are things that can be moved. And when the timing is right for him to enter in and make her a wife, then we'll help her to awaken love at the proper time. We finish with the words of the wife and the husband to one another.
Verse 10. This is the woman in response to what the others had just said. She says, I was a wall and my breasts were like towers. Then I became in his eyes as one who finds peace. Solomon had a vineyard at Baal Haman.
He gave the vineyard to caretakers. Each one was to bring one thousand shekels of silver for its fruit. My very own vineyard is before me. The thousand shekels are for you, Solomon, and 200 are for those who take care of its fruit.
We have something of a parable here, and it's demonstrating these great vineyards that belong to Solomon. And he gave the vineyards for others to take care of. Each one was to bring a thousand shekels of silver for its fruit.
But then in verse 12, she says, my very own vineyard is before me. And this is this is her saying, it doesn't matter what Solomon possesses, and it doesn't matter how great and vast and fine these vineyards are.
My vineyard is mine. And even Solomon cannot have it. It is mine to give to whom I please. And here, the reference to Solomon is actually to the king. She's not talking about her husband. She's just very simply saying Solomon can keep what he's got.
The thousand shekels are for you, Solomon, and 200 are for those who take care of its fruit. This vineyard that belongs to the bride, she gives to her husband. She is her husband's and he is hers. So he responds in verse 13.
Oh, you who sit in the gardens, my companions are giving heed to your voice. Let me hear it. So who is the one that is sitting in the gardens? Well, according to the parable we just heard, it is the woman with her own vineyard.
So he says to his bride, oh, you who sit in the gardens, my companions, the others, the villagers, they're giving heed to your voice. The people are listening to you. He says, let me hear it as though to say, let me hear of your love for me and let it be a testimony to others as well.
And she says, hurry, my beloved, and be like a gazelle or a young stag on the mountains of spices. She says to him, pursue me. Let's go. And just as we saw them pursuing one another at the beginning of Song of Songs, so they run away together at the very end.
Isn't it beautiful? I love it. I love Song of Songs, and I hope you have enjoyed this study as well. As he says, if we if we conclude with this allegorically, with the Lord saying to the bride at the church, speak, sing the praises of our love that we have with one another.
Let others hear it, that we would testify of the Lord, our God, and the love he has for us. And then we respond to the bridegroom, to Christ, pursue us, let us run away together. And we spend our lives long holding fast to Christ until we enter into his kingdom in glory.
Heavenly Father, we thank you for the goodness of what we've read here, even in Song of Songs, the blessing of marriage that you have given to us, the wonderful intimacy that relationship represents as even a picture of the way that Christ loves.
His church. So the way that we've read Song of Songs may draw us even closer to Christ as much as it would draw a husband and a wife closer to one another. May we testify and sing the praises of God for the wonderful goodness and kindness that you have shown to us so that others may know your love and repent of their sin and turn to Christ and so live.
All the days that we live and all the relationships that we have, may it be a testimony unto you, our God and King, Jesus Christ, our Lord, in whose name we pray. Amen.
This has been When We Understand the Text of Pastor Gabriel Hughes. For all of our podcasts, episodes, videos, books, and more, visit our website at www .utt .com. If you'd like to submit a question to this broadcast or just send us a comment, email whenweunderstandthetext at gmail .com and let your friends know about our ministry.
Join us again tomorrow as we grow together in the study of God's Word when we understand the text.