Worthy of Love

Introduction

Thank you for all the feedback on the possible sermon series in the Fall. We’re talking about the feedback we have recieved, so thank you to those that gave us your thoughts and opinions. We’re meeting as a leadership team tomorrow and discussing the feedback we recieved. So stay tuned.

We’ve concluded our study in Daniel but are continuing our Series: Longing for a Savior as we jump into two studies in the Song of Songs. This is also known in the index of our Bibles as the Song of Solomon. I will be referring to our text as the Song of Songs as traditionally it was know as this as it was the first two words in Hebrew used in the first verse.

The book of songs is a book of poetry. It’s not intended to be read in a literal or wooden way. Like much of the music we listen to today, there is metaphor, simile, and other poetic structures at work to convey layers of meaning. It is a collection of love poems that have a unified purpose becoming the Song of Songs.

Song of Songs I. Title

The Song of Songs was read on the eighth day of Passover, an association that likely arose because the book was read as a historical allegory beginning with the Exodus and ending with the coming of the Messiah

Rabbi Aqiva Ben Yosef who lived in 100AD said that this of the Song of Songs as to how to interpret it… it was sung during wedding banquets and on the 8th day of Passover… in disputing the idea that the Song had no authoritative status, the Rabbi exclaimed:

“God forbid!—no man in Israel ever disputed about the Song of Songs [that he should say] that it does not render the hands unclean, for all the ages are not worth the day on which the Song of Songs was given to Israel; for all the Writings are holy, but the Song of Songs is the Holy of Holies.” It appears that the lines were drawn early over the question whether the surface meaning of the text had to do with human sexuality or the relationship between God and humanity.

If you have some familiarity with the Bible you might be thinking to yourself, Pastor Peter… can we be reading this in church (fanning yourself)… wooophf. The song of songs is erotic poetry but it is not pornographic. While it is erotic poetry, it is not just erotic poetry its so much more than that.

God cares about us as whole people… The Song affirms human love, intimate relationship, sensuality, and sexuality.

the Song also issues a warning about the danger of love, and not just illicit sex. Love is a potent force as is most vigorously articulated in Song 8:6–7:

Set me like a seal on your heart,

like a seal on your arm.

For stronger than death is love,

severe like the grave is jealousy.

Its flame is an intense fire,

a god-like flame.

Many waters are not able to extinguish love,

nor rivers flood it.

Even if a person gave all the wealth of his house for love,

he would be completely despised.

This potent force can lead not only to ecstatic joy but also to heartbreak and a longing that makes one faint or even sick (2:5; 5:8). It is this that leads the woman to warn the “daughters of Jerusalem” not to arouse love before its time (2:7; 3:5; 8:4).

It is a powerful thing about love… there is nothing on Earth like it (when I mean love, I don’t mean sex) and at the same time because of love, it can be very difficult to navigate circumstances because of our love for someone else.

We need often time to reorient our love, we need to make sure that the object or the affection of our love is correctly and properly faced.

When the Bible speaks of love, there are usually four ways that the Bible speaks of it. These four ways are using the Greek words agape, eros, storge, phileo.

Agape: often called divine love, some argue that title, but the idea is around that this love is deriving from from the individual towards another person regardless of their reciprocation. We call it, unconditional love. It is the love God has for us. This seems to undergird all forms of love.

Storge: this is a familial love. This is a love of family and a bond between generations. We would talk about it like blood is thicker than water… we take care of family.

Phileo: this love is what we often refer to as brotherly love. In the ancient near East, this type of love was highly valued. It was understood that the other loves (storge, agape, eros) were inescapable… but the devotion that came from phileo was one that was a choice and then reciprocated by someone else and their choice to love.

Eros: this is considered the form of erotic love. This includes but is not culminated in physical intimacy and/or sex. This is the love relationship that SoS is leaning into. But it is more than just physical touch, intimacy, or sex. It has it’s root in understanding, knowing, or being deeply aligned with someone. In the Bible we’ll see where Adam knew his wife (Gen 4)… this is biblical language for intercourse and conception. But as we’ll see in SoS it’s also being deeply aligned with God.

That throughout the Bible (old and new testaments) that God’s desire is that we would be deeply aligned aligned with him.

This is why the Bible says that Romans 4:3 “For what does the Scripture say? Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him for righteousness.”

This is the mystery that Paul speaks of in Christ and the church in Ephesians 5:31-32 “For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two will become one flesh. This mystery is profound, but I am talking about Christ and the church.”

Abraham was deeply aligned with God, so too the church is to be deeply aligned with Christ

For many many centuries, SoS was seen as not just a poetic relationship between the way of a man with a woman and the woman with the way of a man, but it is the way that God would pursue His people. This seems extremely clear as we look at the history of the Jewish people and God’s insistent pursuit of them and continued faithfulness to fulfill His promises.

More dynamically we see it in the way that Jesus pursued others in the New Testament. So we are going to give ourselves to two specific chapters that highlight this reality.

Our series is longing for a Savior, at the writing of the SoS they were looking for God’s promise of redemption.

Our Main Point today: To know Jesus, to be aligned with him, to allow him to take our shame and reproach and replace it with the truth that we matter, that we have value, and that our worth derives from Him.

In our day we know that Jesus has come, as He had promised, but we are awaiting God to fully consumate His Kingdom here on Earth, answering fully our prayers, “Your Kingdom come, Your will be done here on Earth as it is in Heaven.”

ME

The reality is we get distracted. We lose sight of what is good, right, true, and beautiful as God sees it… we like Adam and Eve tempted with the fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil begin to determine for ourselves these things.

Blinded by my own desires: Using Andrew’s guitar.

We can also get distracted by the things going on in our lives that we can be oblivious to the needs and desires of others. This can happen so subtly.

So much so a prayer that I prayed this last week was this...

Eternal God, you are welcome to disrupt my schedule today.

Give me grace to embrace Your presence.

Loving Lord Jesus, give me eyes to see You in those that I meet today,

Give me grace to embrace Your presence.

Gentle Spirit, make my heart and my home Your own today.

Give me grace to embrace your presence.

WE

Does this resonate with you? That we can be so focused on things, deadlines, opportunities, problems or situations, that we forget about our higher calling, our higher purpose as followers of Jesus.

In our frenetic pace in the 21st century, we can be driven by ambition, worldly success, and all the while wonder… God where are you.

My good good friend and I were on the phone this week. He is in very stressful and difficult situation and has been for some time. I love him dearly. He’s working this out right now, asking himself, who am i? who is God? who am I in light of who God is? How then (wanting to be deeply aligned with God) ought I to live?

How would we answer those questions? Who am I? Who do I know God to be? Who am I in light of who God is? How then ought I to live?

Our Main Point today: To know Jesus, to be aligned with him, to allow him to take our shame and reproach and replace it with the truth that we matter, that we have value, and that our worth derives from Him.

God so desires us to be deeply aligned with him… God’s word has something to say about this and the Song of Songs shows us this in deep and significant ways.

GOD

Our text that we are reading this morning comes from Song of Solomon 1:1-11, If you are able and/or willing, would you stand with me as I read God’s word.

1 The Song of Songs, which is Solomon’s.

The Bride Confesses Her Love

WOMAN

2  Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth!

For your love is better than wine;

3  your anointing oils are fragrant;

your name is oil poured out;

therefore virgins love you.

4  Draw me after you; let us run.

The king has brought me into his chambers.

OTHERS

We will exult and rejoice in you;

we will extol your love more than wine;

rightly do they love you.

WOMAN

5  I am very dark, but lovely,

O daughters of Jerusalem,

like the tents of Kedar,

like the curtains of Solomon.

6  Do not gaze at me because I am dark,

because the sun has looked upon me.

My mother’s sons were angry with me;

they made me keeper of the vineyards,

but my own vineyard I have not kept!

7  Tell me, you whom my soul loves,

where you pasture your flock,

where you make it lie down at noon;

for why should I be like one who veils herself

beside the flocks of your companions?

MAN

8  If you do not know,

O most beautiful among women,

follow in the tracks of the flock,

and pasture your young goats

beside the shepherds’ tents.

9  I compare you, my love,

to a mare among Pharaoh’s chariots.

10  Your cheeks are lovely with ornaments,

your neck with strings of jewels.

11  We will make for you ornaments of gold,

studded with silver.

The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (So 1). (2016). Crossway Bibles.

This is the word of the Lord. Let us pray… please be seated.

In verse two we see this longing of the woman for the man to kiss her. We’re dropped in on the scene, no context, no lead up, but just that a desire has been woken up inside of her for this intimate relationship with the man.

The woman is by far the most dominate in the song. There is no narration in the song, there is no overarching narrative or plot, the characters in the Song have a consistency of persona throughout.

She is wanting to be with the man. She is not forcing the situation but is inviting the King (also referred to as Shepherd in the songs) to take her away.

And into His bedchamber… this being the place where the implication is that they are one.

Historically this has been interpreted in the life of the Jewish people of crying out to God, for Him to deliver them and bring them into the land that He had promised.

Biblically when we look at covenants (promises/agreements) the comprise of three things… a people, a land, and a sign/promise.

So in this song… the woman is calling the man to take her away and to make her his own. This is beautiful.

This is what I did in giving my allegiance, hope, and faith to Jesus. He extends the relationship to me… woos me… makes it available to me… and I say yes… I will follow you and no other.

In our text, we see that the Woman notices her imperfections because of the cruelty of others. In her case, her brothers were angry with her… kept her out in the vineyards.

Being in the sun it damaged her skin. She was demeaned by her looks and what happened to her to be in the working class caste. How could a King want her, let alone love her.

This possibly your story… so often we talk about the sin that we have done that we need forgiveness of. But there are two other categories of sin:

Sin we have done

Sin done in our presence

Sin done to us

Each of these creates scenarios of shame and self loathing. How can God love me if I’m dirty, broken, ashamed? I’m unwanted so how can God want me?

In her lament in verse 7 the woman says, I’m not worthy and don’t belong with those other women who are veiled (meaning available)

Who would love me?

We in our day value industrious people, we value hard work and commitment, we like the stories where people pull themselves them up by their bootstraps. Sadly, so often our value and worth is tied to our production and the results of our work (mothers, fathers, work success, etc.)

If we don’t meet our standards or the ones set for us, we feel shame and are unlovable

If we succeed we find out that it means nothing, there is no applause that suffices, there are no awards that fill completely, we prove Solomon true… that everything is meaningless

UNLESS we allow the love of God to grab a hold of our hearts. UNLESS we align ourselves to God and we know who we are in Him and believe Him in the things HE says about us. UNLESS we drink deeply from the well that is JESUS we will always be thirsty.

Jesus demonstrates this for us in John 4 with the Samaritan woman at the well. A woman comes to draw water from the well at noon. This culturally tells us that she is experiencing shame… normally women would go out together to fetch water and usually in the morning It is highly possible she is feeling shame and is there alone… but she has this encounter with Jesus

Jesus exposes the shame. It is in bringing it to light that the shame loses it’s power. In the light of Jesus, there is something greater than our shame… it is His love for us drawing us unto Himself

TODAY is the DAY when we worship the FATHER in spirit and in truth because Jesus has made us worthy!!

US

The King is calling us unto himself… that we would be deeply aligned with Him.

We know that there is a Savior, that this Savior has come, and His name is Jesus.

Will we drink deeply from the well of water that He gives where we will thirst no more?

That though we have sinned, though sin has been done to us, though sin has been done in our presence, that as 1John1:9 “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”

Let’s be reminded at the Man’s response in the Song of Songs (Song of Solomon 1:8-11)

“If you do not know, most beautiful of women, follow the tracks of the flock, and pasture your young goats near the shepherds’ tents. I compare you, my darling, to a mare among Pharaoh’s chariots. Your cheeks are beautiful with jewelry, your neck with its necklace. We will make gold jewelry for you, accented with silver.”

YOU

If you do not know, most beautiful of people, follow the footsteps of Jesus.

Follow him into those good and precious pastures, the still waters, and when difficulty arrises He will comfort and guide you.

His love for you will awake the reality of your treasured place you have in His heart.

Church will we be aligned with Him today? Will we seek to know Him intimately and deeply?

Imagine how our lives would and will be different if we seek like the woman of the song of songs to whole heartedly seek after Jesus.

Our Main Point: To know Jesus, to be aligned with him, to allow him to take our shame and reproach and replace it with the truth that we matter, that we have value, and that our worth derives from Him.

When our worth derives from Him, and he is the one we are seeking to please, heaven and earth can pass away… but we put our trust in Him.

There is an extraordinary amount of comfort, hope, and joy that derive from there. It changes everything.

We are longing for our Savior to return and to make every sad thing come untrue. Until that time, let us be reminded of who we are in Jesus. Let that reality inform and permeate through your entire life. This is surely good news that we need to hear… that a hopeless and struggling world needs to hear as well.

As you go this morning, may you be ambassadors of this good news. May God use you to draw many unto Himself.