And through all and in you all, Ephesians 4, 1-6. Here's a question that was just submitted to me, and we'll look at this quickly before we take some more Easter specials from you. Here's a question. Why is Song of Solomon in the Bible? Why is Song of Solomon in the Bible? I was thinking about this. I will say, when someone comes to me and say, I am planning to read the Bible through in a year. I'm planning to read the Bible through in any number of times. My first inclination, as it should be, is that is exciting. There should be no nobler goal to spend time in God's Word. Although at times I think it's wise also to not only just spend time with the goal of reading through the Bible in a sitting, but also to really dig into one particular book of the Bible at the same time. But I'm also, if you're planning to read through the whole Bible, I'm also a little worried for you because I know where you're going. There can be a very daunting task, and there can be books that you get to that can be very intimidating and challenging to read through. Song of Solomon is certainly one of them. For one thing, the book of Song of Songs is all poetry. And poetry in the Bible can be very intimidating, and that can be scary because 40% of your Bible is poetry, including the book of Job. And most people think of themselves as pretty much knowing how to read a story or a parable or history, but they get a little deer in the headlights when they get to the portions of poetry which are in the Bible, and Song of Songs is certainly one of those portions. Now, there's one dilemma when these questions are submitted to me that I have to face even as I answer this question, and that is this. The actual question is, why is Song of Solomon in the Bible? And because these questions were submitted to me without context, all I get is the actual words on the screen, or on the card that you now see on the screen, I get the chance to interpret the context. What did they mean? when they asked that question. So I am going to interpret it, not that they had a lack of understanding of inspiration, but a lack of understanding of interpretation. Specifically, it's challenging to interpret the book of Song of Solomon. In fact, Sidiya, a medieval Jewish commentator, said famously that the Song of Songs is like a book which has lost its key. That's what he called it. If you feel that way, by the way, you're not alone. Let me give you some long quotes. Franz Delitzsch, an Old Testament scholar from yesteryear, put it this way. The Song of Songs is the most obscure book in the Old Testament. Whatever principle of interpretation one may adopt, there always remains a number of inexplicable passages. And just such, if we were to understand them, would help to solve the mystery. And yet, The interpretation of a book presupposes from the beginning that the interpreter has mastered the idea of the whole and has thus become an ungrateful task for however successful the interpreter may be in separate parts, yet he will be thanked for his work only when the conception as a whole which he has decided upon is approved of." By the way, Franz Delisch wrote in German. So we are translating it over into English. So if it sounded choppy, here's what he's saying. It's really hard to interpret. That's basically what he's saying, all right? Roland K. Harrison put it this way, few books of the Old Testament have experienced as wide a variety of interpretations as the Song of Songs. He's writing in English, so he's a little easier to understand. The absence of specifically religious themes is combined with the erotic lyrics and the vagueness of any plot for the work to furnish for scholars an almost limitless ground for speculation. He says it's really hard. Now, to add to the interpretational perplexity of the books is actually its own reflectment in its placement. Now, in our Bibles, we're used to where the song of songs is, at least if you're, you know, one that as you're, you know, the Bible and the pastor says, open in your Bibles to this particular book and you don't remember where that is in your Bible, you immediately begin to sing the old Sunday school song that tells you which order they are. with that. But that's not always where it was. Of course, the Song of Solomon appears in the, not the secreted writings, the sacred writings of the Jewish canon as one of the five Megaloth, or you might be more familiar with it as the Scrolls. In fact, to this day, the Jewish text would still have this. This would include Ruth, Lamentations, Ecclesiastes, and Esther. And the reason they put it in that order or that placement with the Song of Songs being first is because the Song of Songs was to be read at the first Jewish festival of the year, namely the Passover. The connection with the Passover is not accidental. The Jewish Targum at the time, the interpreters, interpreted this song as a picture of the history of the Hebrew nation beginning with Exodus and even most naturally associated with the Feast of Passovers. So they were placing it in line with their allegorical interpretation of the book, making Israel being the bride, as this picture is. So that's why they placed it, so it adds the perplexity of it. But, when we get to the Septuagint, which is of note, because Christ quotes from the Septuagint, Septuagint is placed after Ecclesiastes, which is a decision, in turn, reflected in its placement with all of our translations that you have now. If you're singing the old Sunday School song, you know where it's at. You know that it comes after Ecclesiastes. Again, then, the question at hand, which was asked, why is Song of Solomon in the Bible, is really, I believe, catalyst, the catalyst for that question is how I would reword the question. How do you interpret Song of Solomon? I think that's probably the main thing. I don't think the person asking that question was debating its inspiration, but its interpretation becomes a debate. And the interpretation of it is maybe what makes it unsettling for it to be in the Bible. And before we get in, let's get into this then. Any solution to understanding the Song of Solomon must be settled at the hermeneutical level. What is hermeneutics? It's a really fancy word that Pastor Caleb just wanted to use tonight to make sure you were awake. No. What is hermeneutics? It's the study of Bible interpretation. So if we're going to answer this question, we need to start there. And there are principles for interpretation that are valid for dealing with these. And we must ask then, is there sufficient warrant for departing From what we at Faith, what I preach from, what I've tried to teach you through, is a grammatical, historical, contextual, literal interpretation. I'll explain that to you as we move forward. Before we get into the interpreter views, I'll begin by acknowledging my presupposition that this is in fact a book combined, composed by only one author. I think that's important. If you're already thinking about it and you've been versed in this, you'll understand that this is up for a great debate. There are those that would say the Song of Songs is like the Psalm book in your Bible. It is comprised by various other authors, multiple authors put together. And I would say it's only one author or one editor that puts it together. And I would say it for a number of reasons. First of all, the same characters are seen throughout the book. We have the same main characters, the beloved maiden, the lover, and the daughters of Jerusalem. Those are the same characters that are at play throughout the entire book. Similar expressions and figures of speech are also used throughout the book. For example, I'll give you a few, love more delightful than wine is repeated often. Fragrant perfumes, beloved's cheeks, her eyes are like doves, her teeth are like sheep, her charge to the daughters of Jerusalem. Have you ever seen some of these on Valentine's cards? Probably not. It was more romantic then, I guess. The lover is like a gazelle is repeated often, Lebanon, numerous other references that appear frequently point to one general editor or one author. Also the Hebrew grammatical peculiarities, it's a tough word to spit out, that are found in this book are found only and exclusively in this book. They're very unique to this book which make it clear that this is one general author. And finally, the progression in subject matter, there's a connection to the progression of the subject matter, points to a single work, not an anthology, meaning more than one author. So, there is one author, all right? But how do we interpret it? And there are different ways that people approach. And I'll give them all three to you, and I'll tell you which one we should land on. There's what we could call the allegorical view, and I'm going to break them. I'm going to summarize them very simply for you in threes. I understand that we can dive deeper than these threes, but I will at least give you the three major headings. What's an allegorical view? Well, advocates of the allegorical view have been adamant that there must be some spiritual message to the book that exceeds the supposed earthly theme of human sexuality in the book. And the outcome of this method has been a host of interpretations, as numerous as those that follow that approach, but there are two general approaches to an allegorical interpretation. There's a Jewish interpretation allegorically, which to be understood that the love between God and the nation of Israel is allegorically at play in the Song of Solomons. And so there's the Jewish interpretation. And then there's what we could call the Christian interpretation, which some have suggested the book depicts allegorically the love between Christ and his bride, the church. And they'll say that's the allegorical interpretation. Now, the interpretation of the details, however, become quite varied and fanciful. The outcome of this method, however, has been a host of interpretations as numerous that I could spend the rest of my time here. And quite frankly, really strange and weird in some of the interpretations that they would say that Christ and the church are a nation of Israel and God. But there's also what we could call the typical view or a type. It's very similar to an allegory. An allegorical view would say there's not a literal history at play here, like there wasn't actually a maiden and a person. This is just an allegory, like C.S. Lewis's Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. The typical view would say that there was actually a real couple, but that real couple still was a type or a picture of Christ and the church or Israel and the church. They would say it's a real event, but it's a picture of forthcoming things. Whereas the allegory denies or ignores historical factualness, the typical recognizes the validity of the account, but makes a parallel link to some kind of spiritual interpretation. But there's also still yet the literal view. One of the basic principles of hermeneutics is that any passage should be read in its plain, normal, historical meaning. In other words, read it how it was read. And that means that in the literal view, the Song of Solomon should be understood literally as a romantic and even sexual relationship between two lovers in marriage. And this has been historically, frankly, the least popular view, but I actually believe it's the right view. This is actually what Song of Solomon is. This is not a weird picture of Christ in the church. And if you read it that way and then you go back to Song of Solomon and you say it's a picture of Christ in the church, it gets pretty weird, right? It is not what that is. What this is is a beautiful picture of what marriage should be. So the question then was, why is Song of Solomon in the Bible? And I think it comes rooted from the question, how do you interpret Song of Solomon? And if you were interpreting it to be Christ and the church, you're going to have a really unsettled understanding of what that is. But you may also have an unsettled understanding of why it's in the Bible, even if you say it's a picture like I do, literally just read as a love between two people that God says. And I think it's because, frankly, we as fallen people have not understood the beauty that Hebrews actually says, that marriage is honorable in all things. And remember the rest of that? We're in an adult room here, right? And the bed undefiled. That's what it says. It's a beautiful picture of real love. In fact, when I do premarital counseling, and even when I was in premarital counseling, one of the required readings was Song of Songs, because this is a picture of marriage. This is not some kind of weird allegory of Christ and the church. It's not some kind of weird allegory of God and the nation of Israel either, even typically. This is to be read like every other book of the Bible we read, literally, normally, according to what we see in scripture. So, I hope that answered Song of Solomon for you. Any questions related to that question before I pass the baton over to Pastor Paul? All right. Keep those questions coming. There are more cards in the back. I appreciate them when you come through. Pastor Paul.