ATS Song of Soloman 3
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prayer
prayer
Father to God, we thank you now again for our opportunity to be here together. We pray, Father,
that you would bless in the study of the Song of Solomon this great ignored book.
Lord, as we begin this evening to get a real focus and an understanding of the book,
I pray that you would take and enhance that by your Holy Spirit. Give us, Lord, an extra measure of
grace tonight to be able to see and perceive with our mind's eye. those things which you have for
us now in Christ's name. Amen.
As we begin tonight, let me mention that Solomon wrote three books
in the Old Testament, not counting the Psalms that we noted that he wrote last week. He wrote the
book of Proverbs, he wrote the book of Ecclesiastes, and he wrote the book of the Song of Solomon.
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The book of Proverbs was probably written in the middle of his life.
The book of Ecclesiastes would have been written at the end of his life,
after he had gained much wisdom through folly, and the book of the Song of Solomon then would have
been written in the beginning of his life.
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Of course, again leads to the idea that the marriage that we're seeing here depicted in the Song of
Solomon may well have been his very first and not the result of numerous weddings and marriages to
differ. Women, as we know, did occur, but later on in his life.
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Tonight what I'd like for us to do is to look at some of the geographic references in the book of
the Song of Solomon. It is so filled with word pictures that you and I just really can't appreciate
until we kind of walk where they walked. We have to understand that this was a courtship among the
hills and mountains and meadows and plains. of some of the most beautiful backdrop, the most
gorgeous scenery that anyone could possibly imagine. It was a courtship which involved the out of
doors, God's creation, in a most wonderful manner and way. And if we miss that,
we kind of miss some of the flavor of the book of the psalm.
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So let's tonight try and picture a few things. Now what I'd like for us to do, is if you're
familiar with the Holy Land at all, you know that the Sea of Galilee is kind of right in the center
of it. So what we're going to do is use the Sea of Galilee as our center. And around that,
we're going to picture then the various places that are talked about, either above,
to the right or left, to the bottom of that central aspect of the Sea of Galilee.
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So let's take the first, which is mentioned in... of Song of Solomon 5:15
15 His legs are as pillars of marble, set upon sockets of fine gold: His countenance is as Lebanon, excellent as the cedars.
, chapter 5, and verse 15.
There is a rather large and well-known mountain range.
Notice verse 15. His legs are like pillars of marble set upon sockets of fine gold.
His countenance is as Lebanon, excellent as the cedars.
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The Lebanon mountains run right down
through the top part. into the Sea of Galilee.
So they are actually above the Sea of Galilee. And as we can imagine them,
the beautiful purple, the beautiful foliage that is there. We can imagine the glorious aspect of
these beautiful mountains as they fall and as they're pictured there.
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The one group, it actually forks into two groups. One is called Lebanon proper.
The other mountain range is the Ante. Lebanon mountains, and they are some of the loftiest in the
whole of the area there of Syria and the Holy Land.
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The anti-Lebanon mountains have several
different mountain peaks that are involved in it. One of the most predominant is Mount Hermon.
Mount Hermon. It was the place of consecration, and the Arabs called it the gray-headed mountain.
The gray-headed mountain. Now, Mount Hermon had a beautiful view that
looked down from its lofty peak on a beautiful extended plain.
And the beauty of that was just absolutely breathtaking, as you can imagine.
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Another name for Mount Hermon is Mount Sheenir.
Sheenir. And this is what the... Amorites called the mountain with Shinir.
And we can see this mountain in the Song of Solomon 4:8, chapter 4, and verse 8.
8 Come with me from Lebanon, my spouse, with me from Lebanon: Look from the top of Amana, from the top of Shenir and Hermon, From the lions’ dens, from the mountains of the leopards.
And so we see the idea here that... courtship extended to some of these lofty mountaintops.
And as they overlooked this breathtaking scenery and literally the concept or the idea of the just
overwhelmingness here of this, Mount Hermon actually rises over 9,000 feet above sea level.
And it was also the site, most people feel, of the transfiguration in the book of Matthew.
Chapter 17 and verse 1 and 2,
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Jesus takes Peter, James, and John, you'll remember, up into the mountain, a high mountain apart,
it says, and was transfigured before them. And his face did shine as the sun,
and his raiment was white as the light. And so if we can imagine walking up this high mountain,
and the view that must have been seen, even in Jesus' day, would have absolutely been breathtaking
as the Lord Himself was transfigured. And of course, there on the top of this gray-headed
mountain, the Lord would have been shown in all of His glory for who He was.
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Now, because this mountain was so high, it was often used as a source or a place of worship.
Both the Jews and pagans used the top of this mountain for worship.
Many times for pagan worship. For the worship of Baal and some of the other gods.
The mountain itself would be located directly above the Sea of Galilee.
Directly above the
Sea of Galilee.
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And of course because of that would have been that lofty aspect.
It would have looked there as a prominent part of the landscape as it stretched out.
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Now notice real quickly the book of... 133. Psalm 133:3
3 As the dew of Hermon, and as the dew that descended upon the mountains of Zion: For there the Lord commanded the blessing, Even life for evermore.
The dew of Hermon. what would occur is the snow would condense the vapors on the mountain,
and it would look like there were heavy dews, very heavy dews. We think of the song,
I Come to the Garden Alone, while the dew is still on the roses. Well, Mount Hermon would condense
such heavy dew that it would literally look as though it had rained on the mountainside most of the
time. It was also called... by others at the time,
the Father of Dew. The mountain itself was called the Father of Dew.
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It was a sacred mountain, known as a sacred mountain, and oftentimes, as I say,
would be used for many different kinds of worship.
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Mount Zion was also another name for this
highest mountain in Palestine. And we often think of Mount Zion. Many psalms have been written
concerning that. And again, it was a place of worship and a place of consecration.
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Another mountain in the area, or another prominent mountain in the range of the Lebanon mountains,
was Mount Ammonan. And it was a little lesser peak, but the significance of it was the meaning of
the word. It meant a covenant. And we'll consider more about that a little later.
But it means... covenant. And we just looked at where that was found here in the psalm.
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Now one of the oldest cities in the east is Damascus.
Damascus is located again directly above the Sea of Galilee. It's situated near Mount Hermon on the
river Abayna.
And it's about 30 miles northeast, actually, of Hermon. It was founded by Uz,
UZ. And you'll remember that that's the place where Job was from. And Job,
of course, goes way back to within about 300 years of the flood itself.
And it was a country there. It was not just a city at that time, but a country,
a region. And Damascus grew up out of that. and became one of the most significant cities of the
day. It's also the city where Paul was on his way to and overlooking the city,
found the Lord Jesus Christ and was converted to Christianity. And the situation of this river
below it was significant because this particular river was called the Golden River.
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And so Paul certainly found something more precious than gold. At the Golden River,
he found the Lord himself. And of course, it flowed, this river flowed to the bottom side or to the
baseline of Mount Ammonite.
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It was also at the base of this mountain where the land of Shunem was,
which is where the Shulamite lived. So her homeland was at the base of Hermon.
There was also a great plain that stretched out over this area, known as the Valley of Abanah,
which of course got its name from the river. But it was a great fertile plain, and we can imagine
again the beauty that must have been there as she grew up in that area and lived there until the
time when Solomon came to get her and took her to the palace. It was also an area of a great oasis.
And, of course, being well watered by the river and the canals, it became a major traffic point.
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The city of Damascus became a major traffic point. And actually, three major highways kind of found
their junction point there, one going from Galilee to Mecca and from Mecca to Baghdad.
And so we had this crisscross there in this area as the traffic and trade used to come in to this.
particular city.
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Another mountain that is in the area that's rather significant is Mount Carmel.
Now, if we think of Mount Carmel, we need to think of it a little bit to the left-hand side of
center. So if we imagine the Sea of Galilee and a little bit to the left-hand side, as you would
think of it, you would find Mount Carmel.
And again, a very beautiful city, excuse me, a very beautiful mountain.
Overlooking, again, the beautiful valleys below, many of the trees and foliage,
Mount Carmel means the garden of orchards.
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The garden of orchards.
Notice in the Song of Solomon 7:5, chapter 7, Song of Solomon, chapter 7,
5 Thine head upon thee is like Carmel, And the hair of thine head like purple; The king is held in the galleries.
The loftiness again and the beauty can be seen here in the depiction of this garden of orchards or
literally garden of gardens.
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It was here on Mount Carmel, if you remember your Old Testament,
where Elijah met the prophets of Baal. And of course they had the conflict and God showed himself
to be mighty in the prophets of Baal. Almost on every mountain area around Jerusalem,
they worshipped false gods. And so this was not an unusual thing.
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The mountain of Carmel rises 1
,742 feet above sea level. And of course, it's the inland route which reaches out and comes toward
the Jordan River. It crosses the plain of Sharon. And the beautiful flowery beauty of Sharon can be
seen and viewed. And we'll consider that a little more later. But in Isaiah 35:2
2 It shall blossom abundantly, and rejoice Even with joy and singing: The glory of Lebanon shall be given unto it, The excellency of Carmel and Sharon, They shall see the glory of the Lord, And the excellency of our God.
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. And so we see this beauty all around them. We're moving around and as we can imagine,
they're just encompassed in a most beautiful setting with all the blooming flowers and foliage and
all the wonder of God's creation about them. Now,
it's amazing because in the midst of all this beauty, and the plain of Sharon was known for its
beauty, and of course the headwaters of the Jordan find themselves also there as it flows down into
the valley and crosses the valley. But in the midst of this beauty, we find a rather striking
contrast, and that is there lived a better place.
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Now the Ishmaelites are referenced here in
5 I am black, but comely, O ye daughters of Jerusalem, As the tents of Kedar, as the curtains of Solomon.
. What a contrast between the beautiful curtains
of Solomon in all their splendor and the black.
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This Ishmaelite tribe or Bedouin tribe of the area
would camp out on the beautiful slopes of Carmel and down in the beautiful valley of Sharon.
And it would look as though there were black blotches on the beautiful scenery of Sharon.
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And so if you can imagine... a beautiful picture of blooming trees and foliage,
and then just splotching it with these black tents, these black camel-haired tents,
goat-haired tents, and ruining, really, the picture. That is what the Shulamite here says,
in the midst of all this splendor, in the midst of all the beauty that I see around me,
I am like one of the black tents of Kedar. And she remembered seeing those tents.
As she looked down from Carmel's slopes and from the top and how it seemed to mar the countryside.
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And so she related to herself that same aspect of in all the midst of God's beauty and splendor
there, how black her nature seemed to be. It's also this same Bedouin tribe that Joseph,
remember, was sold into slavery to. He was sold to the Ishmaelites and they were traders,
tradesmen. that would take and go down into Egypt and make their living by trading.
And so they were on this plain, which extends out to the Mediterranean Sea there, the plain of Sharon.
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So it was a beautiful contrast between the two. Now the next would be the city of Tirzah.
And if you would think of it being left of center, center again, and we're left of center now.
We're moving on down around the Sea of Galilee.
And so Tirzah was situated on this beautiful,
fruitful plain and was there in the midst of
all that beauty.
And yet, at the same time, dwarfed by the beauty of the city itself.
However, the
city was kind of what we would think of as a city of great contrast.
splendid gates that had an outward beauty that was absolutely magnificent. But the people, once you
entered the city, the people dwelt in abject poverty. And so there was this beautiful city,
and yet at the same time, it was only skin deep, so to speak. It only looked good.
Inside, it was filled with all kinds of poverty and just horrible things.
it did eventually become the capital of the northern kingdom. And in 1 Kings chapter 15,
22 Then king Asa made a proclamation throughout all Judah; none was exempted: and they took away the stones of Ramah, and the timber thereof, wherewith Baasha had builded; and king Asa built with them Geba of Benjamin, and Mizpah.
chapter 15 and verse 22, we find the following reference to it.
And it came to pass when Basha heard thereof that he left off building of Ramah and dwelt in
Tirzah. And so the capital city... this city of great contrast.
The city itself means delightfulness or pleasantness…….. Q33
Delightfulness or pleasantness.
And if you can imagine a beautiful city with all the splendor of the walls and yet located in the
midst of the plain of Sharon. And again, we have this great contrast that's being shown here in
Tirzah. like the tents of Kedar. The blemish was the poverty that it experienced within.
Now another prominent aspect is the Dead Sea, which of course would be down toward the bottom,
and even below it, under the center of Galilee, as we would think of it, down below,
would be Jerusalem itself, which is where, of course, the entire aspect of the story of the psalm
takes place.
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What we have in all the references that are given are the courtship that went on
before they came for the marriage week to Jerusalem. And the bride and Solomon both reflect on the
beautiful courtship that they've had and all the scenes that they've seen, all the places they
visited and where they stayed and lived at that time. Like her there at the foot of Hermon and so
forth and then going, traveling around and seeing. Carmel and so forth. And so in the midst of all
that, we find then Jerusalem becoming the center of the story of the song itself.
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And of course, it was located about a third of the way back to the plain of Sharon,
meaning back up to the plain of Sharon that we just spoke of. Now,
notice in chapter 2, in verse 1, we find a reference to the Plain of Sharon when it says,
1 I am the rose of Sharon, And the lily of the valleys.
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Now, Sharon was
a beautiful patchwork quilt type plane that looked much like our Midwest would,
where you have long lengthy fields and just a plush foliage,
blooming plants and flowers everywhere. Still today known for many of its beautiful flowers that
grow just seemingly through the warm months in a most plush manner there.
Jerusalem is, of course, the city of peace. It's also called the city of Zion.
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Now notice chapter 6 of the psalm and verse 4.
4 Thou art beautiful, O my love, as Tirzah, Comely as Jerusalem, Terrible as an army with banners.
So we have two aspects here, Teresa being known for its beauty,
and then Jerusalem known for its comeliness as well. And so she's compared to both.
The city of Zion, it was a lofty or elevated city.
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It was a place where David's tower was located.
And it was also the capital of the United Kingdom of Israel under Solomon.
It was the center of Jewish worship.
Whatever went on in the area at the time was known as the worship of Jerusalem.
And of course, Jerusalem becoming that central figure also allowed it to become a predominant
aspect throughout the centuries of time.
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It was a plundered city from time to time, but it also was
a city of great beauty and wealth. It was a center of worship, particularly under Solomon's day.
when the temple and all was built there.
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All right, now, very near to the Dead Sea, just to the left-hand side,
is what is called the Oasis of Endogy. The Oasis of Endogy.
This is a particularly significant oasis,
particularly in the times of David and Solomon. It was a place,
again, of great beauty and stark contrast. Most of the area around Jerusalem and in the...
Judean area has a great contrast if you go from one place to another.
Edingi is one of those. It's an oasis. It's well watered by waterfalls. And its name means fountain
of the wild goat.
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Fountain of the wild goat.
And we would think of Edingi as being to the left hand side of the Dead Sea.
Down toward the bottom again. underneath of the Sea of Galilee. It was a place of richness and,
again, much plant life, though it was located on the side of literally a mountain,
or at the base of a mountain, of course with the waterfall and the pool
that was there. Many people still go there to enjoy the waters of energy.
It was also a place where David had some of his strongholds. in the caves and rocks which are
nearby. It was known for its palm trees and its vineyards.
Just behind Endogy is the great wilderness.
And again, it makes the stark contrast between beauty and what we would think of as ugliness.
And this seems to be kind of a set theme here,
particularly by... the Shulamite, as she sets up this aspect and probably saw herself,
even during the courtship, as one who did not seem to be comely among all the beautiful things that
Solomon had at his disposal and had displayed.
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And so we find this contrast on several hands here.
First through Tirzah, through the tents of Kedar, where she compares herself to the ugliness of the
tents against the beauty of the backdrop. And that seems to be a kind of a theme, at least in her
heart, in her mind, as she develops that going through the Solomon here.
Next, we come to another range of mountains, which are called Gilead,
simply Gilead. This would be to the right-hand side now of center. We've come all the way down,
down to the left-hand side, all the way underneath, and now we're moving back up to the right
-hand side on the Sea of Galilee.
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When we come to Mount Gilead,
now notice Song of Solomon 6 :6
6 Thy teeth are as a flock of sheep which go up from the washing, Whereof every one beareth twins, and there is not one barren among them.
Gilead, of course, was again a plush mountain.
It was known for its sheep.
Sheep and animals grazed upon the mountainside, and it was really a series of hills and valleys.
We would think of it as more a range of mountains, not just a particular mountain itself,
Mount Gilead, but a range of mountains with a height of about 700 feet below sea level,
and of course fell into the Jordan Valley, which was there.
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this range of mountains, on the side again, the right-hand side as you go up, was the Jabbok
River. J-O-B-B-O-K. Jabbok River.
And it's very interesting because the name of this river means crooked or crooked river.
And it was at this place in Genesis 32. Genesis 32 and verse 22.
where Jacob met the Lord, met with the Lord, wrestled with him.
And he arose, it says, in Genesis 32, 22, and he arose that night and took his two wives and his
two women servants and his eleven sons and passed over the ford Jabot.
And so we have this river being a rather significant river because of its twistiness.
If you look on a map, you can see how crooked it is. And it's interesting because here Jacob meets
God at the crooked river. Now the word Jacob also means twisted or crooked one.
So we have Jacob, a crooked man, meaning God at the crooked river.
And we literally, what we have here is Jacob who lived a crooked life because he deceived every
time he turned around. He deceived by a crooked life. meets God,
has his life changed, and his walk alters. But at the same time that he had no limp coming into the
Jabbok River area, but when he meets God, now his life is changed from its crookedness to a
straight life, but now his walk is crooked.
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And so we have a crooked man made straight at the
crooked river, who then from that day forth had a crooked walk. And so we find that God did
something special. In Jacob's life here at this place called the Jabbok River.
It was also a perfect place for growing grapes and olives. Both known on the slopes of Gilead.
Now again to the right hand side and slightly above the Dead Sea. Is the beautiful city of Heshbon.
Heshbon.
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Now the city of Heshbon can be seen in the Song of Solomon 7:4
4 Thy neck is as a tower of ivory; Thine eyes like the fishpools in Heshbon, by the gate of Bath-rabbim: Thy nose is as the tower of Lebanon which looketh toward Damascus.
Now Heshbon was a city known for its fish pools.
And what they would do is as you would come down into the city, they had these large pools of
water. and in them were some beautiful fish, and they were multicolored goldfish.
If you can imagine golden-looking fish, or perhaps what they call a brown trout,
or a gold trout, a native brown trout, which is really kind of a gold-looking color,
shimmering in the water. If you've ever seen that, they're absolutely beautiful. Well, they were
actually breeding them there.
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They were known for their fish pools and the breeding of fish. And so
what it was, the comparison here, Thine eyes are like the fish pools of Heshbon.
If you can imagine walking down and seeing the fish swim in these beautiful clear pools of water
and the color shining forth out of there of these fish,
we can get a little better... of what he must have seen when he walked into Heshbon and compared
his young bride to those beautiful pools which took everybody's attention and made everyone awe at
the beauty of Heshbon.
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Heshbon means reckoning.
And it was a city in the northern part of Moab. It was well watered by an excellent spring and of
course lent itself to the breeding. there of the fish. And of course,
the actual fish were near the gate, the Beth Rabin Gate, which was on the side there of the city.
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The last location, which is given, or last landmark given in the song,
is one that we really don't know the exact location of. We don't know if it was above, to the side,
or below in relationship. Most feel it was below, perhaps between Ed and G and Jerusalem.
And that would be Baal Haman mentioned in the song chapter eight and verse 11.
11 Solomon had a vineyard at Baal-hamon; He let out the vineyard unto keepers; Every one for the fruit thereof was to bring a thousand pieces of silver.
So this must have been a
rather large vineyard here. And Solomon lent it out,
and of course the name of it means Lord of Abundance. Now you can immediately see the word Baal in
it, can't you? Baal, Haman. And so the location of this particular vineyard would have been in
relationship to the worship of the false god in the Old Testament of Baal.
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It was a beautiful
vineyard and a very fruitful vineyard, which would have been, again,
somewhere probably... in that area of Edige to the lower part,
to the right-hand side, perhaps, of, as we think of it, the Sea of Galilee, although we don't
really know where it was located. And I think, kind of summing up our thoughts here at this point,
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I think we could see the words of the hymn writer as they penned How Great Thou Art.
Listen to the words as I read them.
And forest glades I wander. And hear the birds singing sweetly in the trees.
When I look down from the lofty mountain grandeur. And hear the brook and feel the gentle breeze.
Then sings my soul, my God, how great thou art.
And I think as we begin this study on the Song of Solomon,
we would miss a lot. If we didn't imagine and see the beauty that surrounded them,
the singing of the birds, and there are a number of references in here to the wildlife, the foxes,
the lions, the leopards that we saw, we read from, the birds singing, the turtle dove,
the spring, the flowers, the rose of Sharon, the lily of the valley, the many spices that are
spoken of that filled the air as they walked through the forest glades, as they traveled up the
mountain slopes. They would see and hear and feel and smell all of these things mixing together.
And it made for a beautiful, wonderful courtship. It made for a beautiful backdrop,
if you please, for the story of the psalm. And in the midst of that,
we have to imagine that they were two people in love, in the midst of God's creation,
and finding not only a new love for each other, but a wonderful new love for God Himself.
In the midst of all that, and from all the description that's given in the song, they obviously
were not missing the beauty and the grandeur that was there in the Song of Solomon.
This concludes our third lecture. Please fast forward the tape and turn to the next slide.
