Hurry My Beloved!

Text: Song of Songs 8:8-14

Thesis: Live in pure love.

Application:

Intro

Chiastic Structure Review

Final Landing Point for the Song

Reading of the Word

Song of Songs 8:8-14

The Return of the Brothers

Song of Songs 8:7-10

Parallel Mention of Brothers in Song of Songs 1:6

The earlier mention at the beginning of the Song gives us a clue that the brothers are not positive characters. Rather, they are negative characters which impede the love of the Bride. Upon first glance, the brothers’ words might be interpreted as protective, but when read in light of their first mention, and the Bride’s words in Song of Songs 8:7, we see that the brothers’ motives are self-centered. The brothers care not for their sister, but for the advancement of their family.

An Illustration of Purity

The brothers’ statements about their sister being as a door or wall can first be understood as an illustration of her purity and integrity. Was their sister promiscuous, seeking every fling and fancy? Or did their sister maintain integrity?

The brothers’ selfish concern is motivated by the ability to find a groom for their sister. If she were to be promiscuous, finding a husband would be more difficult, especially one who would benefit the family through higher status, wealth, etc.

An Illustration of Attraction

The brother’s response to their sister’s status as a door/wall should also be understood as adornment. The brothers’ objective here is to make their sister as attractive as possible (which is contrasted with the work they made her do in chapter 1) for the purpose of finding a suitor.

The Sister’s Response

The sister responds by insisting on her integrity (“I was a wall”) and declaring that she had no need for her brothers’ adornments (“my breasts were like towers, then I was in his eyes, as one who finds peace”).

The sister outright rejects the brother’s wrongful motive for finding love, and rejects their outlook that she needed to be bolstered to find a suitor. The sister does not reject the concept of beauty, for she has a desire to be attractive and beautiful in the eyes of her groom. Rather, she has a pure foundation for beauty. The bride recognizes that:

Money cannot buy true love, and therefore has no ability to grant someone true beauty.

The bride’s beauty is not for her own self-esteem, nor is her beauty a commodity which can be traded for love. The bride seeks to be beautiful as a gift for her groom.

The Song has not shied away from describing elegance, extravagance, attraction, perfume, etc. Rather, the Song anchors these pleasures as responses to love, not items which can obtain love.

The Bride has found true love, and is at perfect peace. She is not running the rat race of trying to make herself commercially viable. She refuses to sell herself. Instead, she is at perfect peace in the perfect love of her Groom who sees her true beauty.

Vineyards for Sale

Song of Songs 8:11-14

The Second Direct Teaching Point

This passage contains the second direct teaching point from the Bride on the nature of love. While the first direct teaching point was centered on declaring the power of love, the second direct teaching point is centered on declaring the purity of love.

Solomon, the Anti-Example

While the first teaching point used the illustration of fire, the second direct teaching point uses the illustration of vineyards - imagery which we have encountered many times throughout the Song already.

The Bride makes a comparison between Solomon’s vineyard at Baal-hamon, and her own vineyard.

The location of Solomon’s vineyard is incredibly important in understanding what the teaching point is. Baal-hamon is only mentioned once in the Bible, and is most likely not a real place. Some scholars have attempted to equate Baal-hamon with other areas which share somewhat similar names, but this is all conjecture.

The name of the location is what is really important, for “Baal-hamon” means “Lord of many” or “Master of a multitude.” The name is a play on words describing the extravagant wealth of King Solomon, and the enormous size of his harem. The Bride artfully describes Solomon and his ridiculous amount of wives/concubines as a large vineyard which has been rented out to keepers. For Solomon, love is not pure, love is for profit. He has gained wives for the political power and wealth they offered. And in turn, his own body has been rented out to them. In a sad turn of events, the most powerful man in the world has devalued his own body, denying it true love, and instead using it as a commodity to be sold.

The Bride, a Vineyard that Cannot Be Bought

With a bold declaration, the Bride denies Solomon any opportunity to purchase her vineyard. “You can keep your money!” she proclaims.

The Bride is not for sale. Her love is not for sale. Her body is not for sale. The Bride’s desire is for love, true love.

There is no price tag which can be placed on love. The Bride’s passion is not a commodity to be traded, it is a pure gift to be freely given to the one person she has found the divine fire with.

[Possible Illustration - indie/punk/anti-corporate mentality]

Hurry!

And so the Song comes to a close. The Bride echoes her previous longings for the Groom by calling for him again. This ending paints a picture of a never-ending song - one that describes love a continual cycle of pursuit and passion. Through the ups and downs, closeness and separation, joy and nightmares, the call of love continues to sound.

True love is not a one-time decision. True love is perpetual, eternal, one which seems like pure fantasy to us mortal temporal beings.

And yet this Song leads us to see the truest love which actually is eternal, for it is this sentence right here which lingers in John’s mind when he finishes writing Revelation.

So many people wonder why the Song of Songs is even in the Bible, yet the final line of the Song is the same line as the final line of Revelation. Whereas the Song is about a fictional couple, Revelation is about a real one. To be a Christian today is to echo the words of the Bride, come Lord Jesus! Maranatha! Come my beloved!

And so the Song of Songs gives us a fantastical, yet true, eschatological framework. We live today as one who has been unified with Jesus already, yet we wait for His arrival. We are already married, but we live as we are betrothed waiting for the day when our love is made complete!

The Song of Songs is not a random or disconnected Scripture. The Song of Songs is the story of the Bible condensed into one poem!

The Bible is a fantasy, a true fantasy. The Bible is a love story, the love story.

After the Sojourn Conference I was talking with one of our speakers about a myriad of topics, one of which was the connection between the Song of Songs and Revelation. And as we were talking, he said something along the lines of, “there’s a lot of truth in saying that the story of the Bible can be summarized with the simple fantasy: kill the dragon, get the girl.”

The Song tells this love story from the perspective of the Bride, Revelation tells this story from the perspective of the Groom - the one who has come to kill evil, crush the head of the serpent, and rescue His Church.

And so, I am really excited to enter into these next few seasons. As a church we are going to:

Dwell on the gifts God gives us and how we should respond

Tell the story of Jesus’ arrival leading to our rescue

And then go into a long study of Revelation, seeing how Jesus does indeed defeat evil and rescue us

But for today, live in pure love.