Firstly you will notice that the title of this post is 'Song of All Songs' i think this conveys the meaning of the book better than simply calling it Solomon's song. This book is the Song of All Songs, it's the song of life, the song the Lrd sings throughout all history and creation. It relates to individuals on a personal level, Israel on a national/ race level, and all peoples on a global level. The Song of All Songs is describing the process of the redemption of the whole universe and each of its parts. It's basically the whole Bible squished into one 8 chapter book. Dont have time to read the whole Bible? Grab Song of All Songs! :)
I was surprised to find out that historically speaking it has been the most studied book of the Bible. Only in the last few centuries has it not been studied so much. No idea what the contributing factors are on that, just thought it was interesting.
The book is written in the language of ancient agriculture and so it's kinda hard for us modern 21 century folks to wrap our heads around. This is why i've decided to transliterate the book into my own vernacular. Also, i believe this process will help me really understand it better as well. Obviously it's not about serious scholastic studies. I'm not a scholar. Lets keep it fun here people! :)
Song of All Songs has three main characters in the CJV: She, He, and Chorus. [She] is a representation of us/a young wife/Israel/the maturing Church. [He] is a representation of a husband/King Solomon/G-d/Yeshua/the Holy Spirit. The [Chorus] represents un-mature believers/friends of the young bride/gentiles. There is some disagreement between the CJV and the version Bickle uses in regards to whom is saying what. To make things fun i will stick to the CJV and try to figure out how this changes the meaning.
The book is split into two parts the first 4 chapters are about our/Israel's/the worlds inheritance from Yeshua/G-d/the Holy Spirit, and the last 4 chapters are about Yeshua's inheritance in us/Israel/the world. This is noticed when the maturing bride switches from calling her garden hers and begins to call it his. This is found in 4:16b - "Let my darling enter his garden and eat its finest fruit."
It was written to help us understand how the Father loves us and what His love for us looks like. He wants us to be mature people who are completely devoted to Him because He loves us, not based on how that love makes us feel or that He enables us to do incredible things in teamwork with Him. He does want us to feel good and He does want to do amazing things through us, but He doesn't want that to be the foundation of our obedience to Him.
My next few posts will be my take on Song of All Songs and some commentary here and there. I'm looking forward to really making it my own! Hope you enjoy reading it too. :)
That's great, J, thanks for sharing. Look forward to it.
ReplyDeleteHow do you know it's the most studied book?
well, maybe i should have said, 'one of the most studied books.' Most everything that i've learned about the book is from Bickles 24 session series on Song of Songs. thats where i heard about it being the most studied books.
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