40 Weeks of Your Life: Song of Songs
09-30-2006
by Vicky Beeching

Song of Songs, or Song of Solomon as it is called in some translations, is a very unique book within Scripture. Many people have cast it aside as it seems unusual - Jewish boys were not permitted to even read it until a certain age.

There are many different interpretations of the book. I think there are two main reasons for its inclusion in Scripture.

The first interpretation is that it can be read as a picture of Christ and the Church - His Bride. It is a reminder that Christ loves His Bride deeply and sees His People as beautiful, precious and worth dying for. This fits with the metaphor the Bible carries of Christ marrying the Church, and the marriage supper of the Lamb in the book of Revelation.

Some of the romantic implications aren't fully transferable - one commentator says we can read 1:1 between us and Jesus as "Let Him kiss me with the kisses of His Word", meaning that His love is revealed to us through what He has written to us in Scripture. It may seem like an unusual concept for some people, but it's amazing to remember that we are the Bridge of Christ and that He loves us in a deep and intimate way.

The other great role of the Book is to remind us that God created man and woman to be together. As Genesis says, "it is not good for man to be alone," and here we read about the romance and intimacy that God designed for courtship and marriage. Sometimes we view God as so holy and serious that we feel like falling in love and romantic intimacy couldn't possibly be a holy or blessed thing.

Hollywood and movies have made relationships so cheapened and degraded. This Book is a good reminder that God was the original inventor of romance, intimacy and marriage! Some of the chapters read like love letters - like when a friend shows you a note that her boyfriend wrote her… We get to look over the shoulders of these Biblical characters and read their love letters and hear their praise of one another. It's an honor!

I have a number of friends who have been raised in broken homes, and other friends who have walked the painful pathway of divorce. This book stands as an encouragement to anyone who has lost faith in the beauty, joy and God-filled potential of marriage. God invented it and with His help it can be amazing!