I want to speak very frankly about the book the Song of Solomon. People often ask why the book is in the Old Testament?
The Jews call the OT the Tanakh. It is interesting that the rabbinic Jews forbid the reading of the Song of Songs until a man reaches the age of 30. At least they were honest about the subject matter. The book is highly erotic and describes many intimate sexual behaviors.
The importance of the classic book is inestimable, but only if it reveals the hidden chains and imprisonments that bind humanity. Yet these very chains that escape human detection are the very real but metaphoric cords that Sampson broke before he brought the house down.
But the Christian world seems to have little insight for a clear discovery of these cords, because in their defense of God they cover their eyes from the truth. They cover their eyes by sanitizing this greatest Song. In a futile defense of God they turn the Song into a metaphor of God’s perfect wooing of His Bride the Church. To them the Song is about Christ and the Church. But this flawed view is anything but the truth! So what then?
In vivid detail and graphically displayed images, the man Solomon was a prisoner with tremendous bondages. The Song is about a man wrapped in the cords of grave clothes like Lazareth. But just as Jesus commanded them to let Lazareth go and then unwrap him we are called to do the same! It's time to let Lazareth go and this we will do as we peruse the truth with insight into the Greatest Song ever written.
The Song is not about a great romantic love affair. It is not about Christ and the Church. It is about the unbridled appetites of a man who represents every man.
For example, what man is there who does not want to be fabulously wealthy? Solomon was at that time the richest man in the world! In today's terms he was a multi-multi billionaire. Maybe a trillionaire. There was nothing out of his reach!
In addition to the tons of gold and silver holdings He owned fleets of ships, and many fortifications throughout the land. His holdings of herds of sheep and cattle was without number. The daily need of food in the feeding for his household was like feeding a city. He had multitudes of servants attending for just his evening table. His political authority was renowned as people from all over the world would come to him for council. He was the wisest man on earth!
What man on earth would not wish to be in his position of power and wealth?
But in light of all his wealth and political power his greatest appetite was his desire for women! He couldn’t get enough! Certainly his passion is the condition shared by every man. Solomon's story expressed in the “Song of Solomon” is the dilemma of every man. Mankind finds itself imprisoned and impassioned with almost uncontrollable sexual desire!
Solomon had 700 wives! But even that was not enough! He also had 300 concubines! This is an astonishing number of sexual partners. This number for the average guy is unimaginable but certainly is encouragement for great fantasy.
But now, in the story of the Song of Songs, even with all this he was not satisfied. Now he wanted to add one more in the Shulamite!
One of the great episodes in the Tanakh is described in the book of the great prophet Ezekiel. The story describes a moment where the prophet is called to look at a hole in the wall of the temple. It is the wall that partitions off the inner chamber. The inner chamber is described as the “chamber of imagery.” The inner chamber was actually the Holy of Holies.
To understand the importance of Ezekiel’s experience in light of this great man Solomon, it is important to describe not only the pristine set up of the Holy of Holies, but also what had become several hundred years after it had been set up.
Inside the Holy of Holies was the Ark of the Covenant. The Ark was the most holy of all the temple implements. Inside the ark were the instruments that represented God’s provisions which were to serve as reminders of how He was always present in their wilderness wandering.
There was a jar of manna which was the food He provided every day for their sustenance. There was the copy of the Ten Commandments, and there was the reminder of the appropriate priesthood of Arron in the rod that budded. These elements meant many things but they were all inside the Holy Ark of the Covenant which was placed inside the Holy of Holies. Again Ezekiel was called to look inside into the Holy of Holies through a hole in the wall. He would not have seen the three articles inside the ark but he would have seen the two angels whose wings spread over the top of the ark.
He would have noticed on the four walls of the Holy of Holies something horrific. Almost like visiting a kitchen whose walls are covered over with bacon grease, the walls of the Holy of Holies had become indistinguishable. Originally the walls were decorated with angels, palm trees, and flowers, but now as he observed they were covered over.
It must be remembered that it was Solomon who was given charge by his father King David to officiate over the construction of the Temple. It was Solomon who took great care in making sure all the details of the temple were in effect and most certainly the Holy of Holies was immaculately prepared. Again remember the Holy of Holies is referred to as the Chamber of Imagery.
When Jesus arrived into this world He began to reverse the world view of human preconceptions. His focus was to redirect the way humans grasped reality. This reversal was most obviously displayed in His working of amazing miracles, such as the feeding of thousands with just a few loaves of bread and a few fishes. His walking on the water is perhaps the most famous. But it should not be forgotten how He healed many people of demonic possession and cured people of various diseases. He was essentially reversing the curse. He was inverting the perceptions.
As His human life was reaching an end He enraged the religious leaders by telling them if they destroyed this temple He would raise it in three days. But they had no idea what He was talking about assuming He was a lunatic, for they thought he was talking about their physical temple. But He was referring to His physical body. He saw His body as His earthly temple. The Apostle Paul in his writing does the same. The human body is the temple.
So then there is an enormous shift from seeing a physical Solomon temple to the redefining of and the reality of the true temple. Nevertheless, the Solomon temple of 1000 BC, becomes today, a shadow and metaphor of the re-defined temple which is our human body.
In our present existence we have a body, which answers to the whole edifice of the outer court and temple, a soul which answers to the inner court and a Holy of Holies which answers to our spirit. The Holy of Holies within is the heart. But it is not to be understood as our feelings. The feeling realm is of the soul. When Jesus died He said unto the Father into thy hands I commit my spirit. Stephan the first martyr said the same. Into thy hands I commit my spirit. So spirit is often rendered as heart. Our heart is our Holy of Holies. Hence…..
“Keep thy heart with all diligence for out of the heart flow the issues of life.”
There are many things yet in the heart that need God’s healing and deliverance. So then possession of our soul or psyche is not to be assumed as the heart. Our heart/spirit and our soul are not one and the same.
As we look at the vision of Ezekiel looking through the hole in the wall, looking into the Holy of Holies, we see the defilement of the walls of the inner sanctum. He could not see what had been originally on the walls. The walls had been covered over with filth. This is a perfect illustration of what can happen even after accepting cleansing. “Therefore keep thine heart with all diligence”! This can only be accomplished by repentance and application of the Blood of Christ in prayer. This is the meaning of communion. Communion is not a ritual it is personal. And confession is not a penance and neither is it repentance! And there is no way we can keep our temple, our inner temple, clean without a fanatical grasp on the New Covenant.
“Unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and the
Pharisees you will not enter the Kingdom of Heaven.”
Trying to emulate prominent religious leaders or anyone is a great folly and demonstrates a colossal failure of faith
So when we look at Solomon's temple we are looking at a metaphor and model of our present being!
On besetting sin(s) and the horns of the altar!
But the Christians on the other hand cover their eyes and try to make Solomon's book out as being a picture of Christ and the Church. They proclaim that it is a metaphor and a romantic love story. They claim it is a road map to the ultimate and true love story. Sadly they try to sanitize the truth and in so doing they cover their eyes from the real meaning and message of the story. (Actually the Song was most likely a stage a play)
The Song was forbidden to Jewish men for a reason, and it's because there are a number of sex scenes in the Song that are explicit and very graphic. Their are scenes of premarital sex, oral sex, sex in various outdoor places, and finally the obvious reality that she awakens to is a womanizing Solomon.
The Son of Solomon is a siren song of a man with enormous appetites! It is in the Bible because it is a message and admonition to all men that Solomon is the supreme example for all men of their own “unbridled tendencies and appetites.”
Without going into the salacious details it should be remembered from the outset that Solomon had 700 wives and 300 concubines. The poor Shulamite couldn’t compete! She ran home.