Loading summary
Transcript1 lines
- [00:00]
A
Hey, Bible nerds. This is Dr. Manny Arango and I'm your host for the Bible department podcast powered by Arma. This podcast follows a Bible reading plan we created to help you read the entire Bible in a year. You can head to the show notes or thebibledepartment.com to download our reading plan and join the journey. All right, family, welcome to day 327. We are back in the book Song of Songs. Today we are going to trek through chapters four, five, and six. I got so much to say about Song of Songs. So, ah, I hope today's episode's not too long. I got so, so, so, so much to say. Like I've. Like I said yesterday, if you were here, we have a full course on this book. I think the book A Song of Songs is really, really, really, really helpful. A really vital book. And I hope that today's episode is going to be a value add. If you haven't done the reading, how about you stop the video, pause the audio, go get the reading done. For those of you who have done the reading, you just read a whole sex scene. So here we go. Let's break it down. Okay. I'm going to give you context clues. I'm going to give you nerdy nuggets, and I'm always going to leave off of the timeless truth. And you know, my timeless truth is really going to help the fellows today. I don't really have any. I don't have any. I don't have a lot of timeless truths for the ladies today, but I definitely got some timeless truths for the guys. All right. It's going to be fantastic. You want to make sure you stick around for the end of the episode if you want my timeless truth for all the gentlemen. All right, context clues. What is the correct title of this book? Let's start with that. Is it Song of Songs or is it Song of Solomon? Okay, so I know that may sound like such a nerdy little detail, but I. I think it's really, really important. So Song of Songs. So what does Song of Songs even mean? Well, already in the Bible, you've seen this exact combination of words. Okay, Holy of holies, King of Kings. Right? What does that mean? The holy of holies was the holiest place amongst other holy places. It is the best. The summit of holiness. The King of kings is the king who. Who is king over other kings. He is the most kingly of all kings. He is the best. The summit of kingship. Okay, that's what it means. That's what King of Kings, Lord of Lords, holy of holies means. So this song right here, this collection of poems, this song is the song that is above all other songs. It is the best, the summit of all songs. This title is simply saying, this is the greatest song ever written. Now I know what a lot of you may be thinking. You may be thinking that's a bold statement given that scripture contains many, many songs. Lots of songs in the Bible. Okay? This is a. This is a whole book of songs. And a couple of books ago we looked at Psalms. Are you telling me that the Song of Songs in the Scriptures is not Psalm 119? Are you saying that this book right here, Song of Songs, is superior to all the psalms that we've studied? What about all the Songs of the Prophets or the Song of Moses? The title actually claims superiority over all of them. And there's more to it than that. There's a rabbinical saying that went, all scripture is holy, but the Song of Songs is the holy of holies. Such was the esteem that this song had amongst the Jewish people. Which is surprising, but is another fascinating insight into how different the worldview is between ancient Judaism and modern Christianity. Okay, though I cannot iterate this enough. The worldview difference between ancient Judaism and modern Christianity couldn't be, could not be further than each other. The mindset of ancient Judaism is wealth is fantastic, wealth is great. It's like, it's like proof that like the blessing and fan of the God is on your life. Whereas modern Christianity, you're like villainized for being a wealthy person. I mean, it's just, I mean, pretty bass ackwards if you ask me. So another, you know, just big difference between ancient Judaism and modern Christianity is the celebration of sex, purity, culture would not even be fathomable in ancient Judaism. For the church, this song is something that has to be dealt with somehow. Like, for modern Christianity, you gotta, like, deal with it. Its erotic content has to be allegorized away or its edge taken off through scholarly, you know, hermeneutical backflips and jumping through all these hoops. But for the Jewish people, the erotic content, the sexual union between man and woman was something that was celebrated. This was not something dirty, sinful or embarrassing, but the heart of all humanity. Like, none of us would be here had, like our parents not, you know, done what they needed to do. Okay, so when God looks at Adam and Eve and he says, multiply, be fruitful, he is telling them to like, go at it, like have fun, like explore each other's bodies. Like, let's do the dang thing. Okay, let's go. And so ancient Judaism has a totally different mindset when it comes to lots of things, but sex is one of them. Now, the second part of the first line of the book shows its connection to Solomon. So let's like, why do some people call it the Song of Solomon? The Song of Songs, which is Solomon's. This later is shortened and people began to call it the Song of Solomon. The title reflects a traditional association with. With King Solomon and the connection between Solomon and these poems. He is seen to be the author of them and is there as an overriding story within the poems. Then he is traditionally seen to be the beloved, the king who falls in love with a country girl. Okay? There are tons of ways to interpret that one word of. And let me give you five ways that we can interpret it. When we say of Solomon, okay? It could either mean, these are Solomons because he wrote them. These are Solomons because he was the patron of the author, which means he paid the author, okay? These are Solomons because they are dedicated to him. These are Solomons because they are written in his style or written about him. These are Solomons because these poems are a gift to him. Added to this are the different opinions of whether there's even a story here. Is Solomon the hero or is he the villain? Is he the king that falls in love with the country girl, or is he the king who attempts to steal the girl away from her shepherd lover? If we're just wondering, let's just consider who in the world Solomon even is, okay? If there's anybody who's famous for marriage, ding, ding, ding, it's this guy, okay? His name is Solomon. We are told that by the end of his life he had 700 wives and 300 concubines in these poems. In chapter six, verse eight, we read that there are 60 queens and 80 concubines and virgins without number who are a part of the procession to come try to get the girl that he's in love with. Now, not quite a thousand, but it does mean that if Solomon is the hero that he marries and marries this girl, then she'll be one of 141 women in his life. Which begs the question, how can an authority of a series of poems that celebrates true romantic love within the confines of marriage be a credible source when he already has been married 60 times and has 80 concubines? If the beloved is Solomon or if Solomon is writing this, then this perfect picture of love is just one amongst many. And I'm not saying that's not possible. I'm just saying we have to, like, take into account if Solomon is, like, the author in a traditional sense, then we have to really think, is Solomon really a credible source for, like, erotic love poetry between a man and a wife? Okay. Now, God could be using Solomon in spite of things that would disqualify him. That's totally fair, and that's totally an option, and that's totally up to you to decide. Okay. If that's the route you want to go down, that's the interpretive route you'd like to take. Now, if there's no story, if we abandon the dramatic approach which would try to string together a story, then perhaps we have a situation where maybe one of these poems is written by Solomon. I also think that there's an element here where Solomon's the villain. I actually think it's some bold person was. Was courageous enough to write something where Solomon's the villain. I would go with, there's a shepherd who's in love with this. This country girl, and Solomon's trying to steal her away. I do think that First Kings, chapter 11, verses 14 is very clear that it was the many marriages of Solomon and his large harem that stole his heart from Yahweh. And actually, I would contend that Song of Songs is just a poetic approach to telling us the facts that we find in first kings, chapter 11, verses 1 through 4. Okay. So that I would match up his villain role in Song of songs with what first kings, chapter 11, verses 1 through 4 say about Solomon and say, I don't know, that he wrote this content. Maybe he wrote One of the 34 poems that we find here. But what I am comfortable saying is that the same boldness that it took to write 1 Kings, chapter 11, verses 1 through 4 is the same boldness that it would take to really critique Solomon's, like, marriage choices by centering an entire book of the Bible on one man, one woman, for one lifetime. And to celebrate the Edenic ideal in the midst of Solomon, like, veering away from that Edenic ideal. Okay, all right. That's a lot of context. Family. The wait is over. My brand new book, Crushing Chaos, is out now and available everywhere. Books are sold. Literally. Today I walked into a Barnes and Noble and I signed a bunch of copies at a physical location. So you can grab this book at a physical Barnes and Noble or you can go to a Books A Million or Amazon or anywhere books are sold and grab a copy if you Enjoy reading the Bible from an ancient perspective. If you understand that the beauty of scripture is actually knowing it in context, then you'll love this book. And if there's any chaos in your personal life, I think that reading the Bible from an ancient perspective can actually help to crush the chaos in your life. I think this book is going to be a New York Times bestseller. I really do. I think we wrote a good one. I think you should get a copy today. All right, back to the episode. Let's dive into some nerdy nuggets. Okay, I got a couple of ideas for you. In a timeless truth. Okay, Paul number four starts in chapter three, verse six. Goes all the way to chapter five, verse one. Definitely. Like, there's. There's. There's. There's definitely a sex scene. Okay, In. In that poem. Okay, Chapter. And then poem number five is song to song, chapter five, verse two to verse eight. Also, some sexual activity happening to poem number six is. Is starting in chapter five, verse nine, and goes to chapter six, verse three. Okay, so six poems that we got on the docket for today's reading. Couple things I want to highlight. Number one, in Song of Songs, chapter four, you. We start to get a physical description that the man is going to speak to the. To the female character. Okay? How beautiful you are, my darling. Oh, how beautiful your eyes behind your veil are doves. Your hair is like a flock of goats descending from the hills of Gilead. Your teeth are like a flock. Okay, now a couple of things. Number one, he starts with the eyes, okay? The first words out of his mouth are, not, you thick, girl. Like, that's not the first thing he says, all right? So, hey, gentlemen, women don't just want to be like, you know, talked about like they're a piece of meat, all right? Like, hey, beauty, beauty eyes. Okay, girl. Dang, you got all your teeth. That's hot. Okay, your teeth. Teeth looking good, girl. Okay, Each one has a twin. Not one of them is alone. That's not you not missing no teeth. That's a fantastic thing to say. Okay? Your lips like scarlet ribbon. Your mouth is lovely. Temples behind your veils like hazel apartment. Your neck. Okay, and then. And then we get down to the breasts, all right? It's not the first thing that comes out of homie's mouth. And I love this one. Okay? Your breasts are like two fawns. Like, like twin fawns of a gazelle that browse among the lilies. Like so, number one, two. Two words here. Twins, okay? Hey, you know, they match. They. You Know, the left one looks like the right one, you know, we're off to a good start, you know what I'm saying? And then. And then. I love this. I love this. No, like gazelles, okay? You know, I don't know if. I don't know if you. You immediately get an image in your head. You know, gazelles, they're. They're real. They're real hoppy, you know what I'm saying? They be. They be. They be jumping, buoyant. They're buoyant. You know what I'm saying? They be bouncing. So my guys out here, he's like, look, look, they match, and they moving. They got motion, you know? I didn't know you had that much motion. I love this. We just. We just. We just reading the Bible. We just reading the Bible, okay? That's all. We do it. Till the day breaks, shadows flee. I'll go to the mountain of myrrh. You are altogether beautiful, my darling. Okay, so the breast is the last thing my man gonna talk about. He starts with the eyes, you know, the neck, teeth. And then. And then he lands on. On the thing that's gonna, you know, be the most titillating. Okay? That's not how he leads, you know? Words of affirmation. Titillating. No. No pun intended, but, you know, that's a timeless truth right there, gentlemen. And I. I won't steal my thunder from my timeless truth. My timeless truth is gonna be good today. It's gonna be. To be fantastic. All right? Next thing, I need you to see, okay, first of all, the words of affirmation. Okay? Sex is not just some silent thing that you do, like. No, no, there's words. Part of the sexual experience is talking. Okay? Words. And one of the harmful effects of purity, culture, is that you just. You. You feel so awkward about sexual, that you're not good at, like, talking, like. Like talking with someone. And. And I do think that, you know, communicating someone's physical beauty is very, very important and gets the engine going, you know? I'm saying you're not trying to drive a cold car, okay? You got to get the engine going, all right? And that happens with words, okay? It's important. Okay, Number two, the number. The second things that I want to tell you is that garden imagery is everywhere. Okay, Go with me to chapter four, verse 12. You are a garden locked up. My sister, my bride. You are a spring enclosed, a sealed fountain. Now, now, there's a euphemism happening here, and I don't know a better way to say this, it just means ain't nobody wet yet. Okay? That's what we saying. Okay? Like, hey, look, garden locked up. A spring enclosed, a sealed fountain. The juice is not flowing, okay? No juice is flowing at the moment. Okay? Your plants are an orchard, pomegranates, choice fruits. Your garden fountain, a well of flowing water streaming down from Lebanon. Okay? By the time we get to verse 15, we got some water, we got some moisture. This is fantastic. Okay? This is good. We've moved from a garden locked up to. We got some springs. We got some springs that are flowing. That's the goal. Okay? And then here we go. The entire time the poem's been going, what are the words have been? It's been, don't awaken love before it's time. Don't awaken love before it's time. Don't awaken love before it's time. Here we go. I want you to appreciate the tension that's been building. Awake north wind. That's verse 16. Awake North Wind and come south wind below on my garden, and its fragrance may spread everywhere. Let my beloved come into his garden and taste his choice fruits. You better let. You better let him know, girl, shoot, blow on this garden. Let my fragrance spread everywhere. How things smell, that's important, K. We don't want to spread funk. We want to spread fragrance. That's good. Smells good. Okay, Chapter five. One. I've come into my garden, my sister, my bride. I've gathered my myrrh with my spice. I've eaten my honeycomb in my honey. I've drunk my wine in my milk. That, that, that. Those words right there. So from 4:16 to 51, that's. That's. That's the consummation. That. That's the sex act right there. Okay? And why is it. Why are we using garden language? Because garden. God's goal is for humanity to get back to the garden, okay? To get back to Genesis, chapters one and two, where Adam and Eve are placed in a garden and they are naked with no shame. That's God's goal. Naked with no shame. If they're shame, then God's not pleased. Okay? And if I'm, you know. Yeah. Naked and no shame. Okay, Naked and no shame. That means I can't be angelic or animalistic. I gotta be truly human. All right? Words of affirmation was the first nerdy nugget. Garden imagery. Second nerdy nugget. Do not awaken versus awaken. Third nerdy nugget. Okay? And now I just want to just make you Aware that there's a whole nother sex scene. Okay? And I want you to see how much, like, moisture language is used. All right? This is a dream sequence. And it says, my head is drenched with dew. My hair with the dampness of the night. Okay? Drenched in dampness. Okay? And what? The words are open to me. My sister, my darling. Okay? Drenched with dew, dampness of the night. And then I've washed my feet. Now, feet are a euphemism for male bodily parts, okay? Private parts. So, like when, you know, in the story of Ruth, okay, when she is at Boaz's feet, you know, she definitely ain't giving him a pedicure. I'll just say that much. Okay? And then my beloved thrust his hand through the latch opening. My heart began to pound for him. Let me tell you what's not. We're not talking about a literal latch opening, all right? There's not a literal door. This is the door into her soul. Okay? And. And what does it say? I arose open to my beloved. I opened to him and my hands dripped with myrrh. Fingers flowing with myrrh. So, you know, moisture. There's a whole nother sex scene here. Okay? And it's a dream sequence. And then we end today's, you know, reading with her describing him physically. My beloved is radiant and ruddy outstanding amongst 10,000. His head is a purest gold. Eyes, cheeks, lips, arms, body, legs, appearance. His mouth. This is my beloved. This is my friend, Daughters of Jerusalem. All right. Hope I helped you just interpret Song of Songs. All right? My timeless truth is simple, but it's definitely geared towards a gentleman. And it's this One thing is going to help your sex life, and that is your phone. Okay? This thing right here, this is either going to be the thing that destroys your relationship with your wife or this is the thing that's going to mean that your relationship with your bride is. Is hot and steamy. This thing right here. Now I get it. I'm a guy, okay? For me to be ready to rock and roll when it comes to sex takes, I don't know, 0.5 seconds. Like 30 seconds, man. No warmup time necessary. I could be thinking about video games, basketball, coffee. And then if my wife is like, hey, you down to go? Let's go. I. No warmup. But for all the gentlemen, I need you to know that's not how women operate, okay? So if you have this expectation that you're going to come home from work and your wife's just going to be chilling on the couch with some lingerie on and she's just going to be ready to like attack you. That, that is going to, that's possible, but it's going to take you sending words of affirmation to her throughout the day. And you may want to get take a page right out of, right out of song. Song, Song of Songs, Chapter 4, Verse 1. You may want to just rip this page out because the way that this brother is talking to this woman, that's the way you want to start talking to her. If you trying to get freaky with your wife at 10 o' clock tonight, you should start warming up that engine. At 10 o' clock this morning, she gonna need like a solid 12 hours of like warming it up, warming it up, warming it up. And, and here's the deal. Tell her she's beautiful, but please like be freaky, bro. Like say stuff that you know is gonna get that engine going. Because sex is on your mind all day. And now you may have married a woman who's just like, hey man, you know, I'm a lady in the streets, but a freak into bed like you, you, I don't know. I don't know. You may have married somebody like that, but for the average woman, they're not thinking about sex all day long, nonstop. That's just not what they're thinking about. They're not, they're not like men. They're not every waking moment isn't kind of connected to sex in some way. So that means that you're either going to be on this phone looking at porn or like on Reddit or on Twitter or ex, like looking at stuff that's getting you sexually stimulated and excited and then you're using that sexual energy in ways that are taking away from your marriage. Or you're going to be on this phone sending your girl stuff that's getting her engine going. Because by the time you do get home, especially if she's got kids, if you guys got small kids, or if she's got a job like I, I, I'm sorry to burst your bubble, but you're just going to have to get over yourself and know that you're not the center of her universe. But if you are going to be an important part of her life, and if sex is going to be important, and I would say that sex is a very, very important of a thriving, flourishing sexual relationship, then you're going to have to put sex on her mind. You are going to have to be the person who is wound her up so that when you do get home that she is like, I'm ready to pounce on this man. But you're gonna have to do the work of getting her to that place. And now there are some husbands. This does not apply. And there are some women. Maybe you're kind of like the guy in the relationship, so, like, your sexual urges are stronger than his. Hey, then take the advice that I'm giving to all the guys today, okay? Text that brother. Let that brother know if you have a sexual appetite that's maybe stronger than his. You guys gotta work together so that the sexual experience that you guys share together is awesome, is incredible. And let me just reiterate, there should be absolutely no shame, no embarrassment when it comes to talking about sex. There's a whole book of the Bible dedicated to making sure your fingers are dripping with myrrh. You know what I'm saying? Making sure things is. Is. Is. Is how they need to be. Making sure it's fragrant, making sure stuff is bouncing. You know what I'm saying? There's a whole book of the Bible. This is. This is God. God made this inspired by the Holy Ghost, and that's a timeless truth. That's not just for Solomon, baby. That's for you. And that's for us. That's for me. That's fantastic. All right, tomorrow we got our last day in Songs and songs. You know, it's going to be fantastic. We got chapter seven and chapter eight of Song of Song. Same place. I hope that this content has been helpful for you. We got one more day in Song of Songs. Can't wait to see you tomorrow. Love you guys. Peace. Thanks so much for joining us on the Bible Department podcast. You can find us online and learn more about the show@thebibledepartment.com and on Instagram at the Bible Department. If you enjoyed this episode and want to dive deeper into the Bible, you can get free access to our library of courses@thebibledepartment.com we'll see you back here tomorrow.