Day 328: Song Of Songs 7-8 | Bible Reading Plan | Bible Study with Commentary by Dr. Manny Arango

Welcome to the Bible Department podcast powered by ARMA. We are walking through the entire Bible in a year. You can go to the description or thebaldapartment.com to download a reading plan and join the journey. (upbeat music) - Family, welcome to day 328 here on the Bible Department podcast. I hope I didn't lose you yesterday. I hope you're still rocking with me. I hope either you're more interested in song of songs than you ever have been or you're like, this ain't the book for me. Either way, we got one day left in song of songs. Don't skip out on today, all right? We got songs, song of songs, chapter seven and eight. If you have not done the reading, you can go do the reading now, stop the video, pause the audio, go get the reading done and then come back. Like every day, we are gonna dive into context clues. We're gonna dive into some nerdy nuggets. I'm gonna try to give you as many as I can. And then we're gonna leave off the episode with the timeless truth. And then tomorrow, we are in the book of Ruth, all right? We can wave bye-bye to song of songs. All right, let's get into the context clues for today. I'm gonna give you a big 30,000 foot kind of idea

for song of songs. Remember I said that of the four interpretive approaches that we could pick for this book that allegorical actually had some semblance of legitimacy. And then I said, like cultic, absolutely none. Dramatic, eh, I could take it or leave it, but it may be helpful for some people to read the book that way, but that lyrical was my favorite way to read the book and the most academic way to read the book. And so let's talk about that, you know, ounce of legitimacy that we have in the allegorical way to read this book. Now, there's five books of the Hebrew Bible or the Tanakh that create what's called the megalote, okay, or the five scrolls, that song of songs, Ruth, Lamentations, Esther, and Ecclesiastes. These five books of the Tanakh or the Hebrew Bible are gonna get read at certain festivals, all right? So it's almost like liturgy in terms of there are certain things that you read at certain times of the year, okay? So I'm gonna kind of tell you all of them and I'll leave song of songs last. Okay, Ecclesiastes was to be read at the Feast of Tabernacles. The book of Esther was to be read at Purim. The book of Lamentations was to be read on the 9th of of, and that is festival or that really culminates in mourning. So you could Google 9th of of,

I won't dive into it here 'cause I don't have time. It will make total sense why Lamentations gets read on the 9th of of A.V. of. Ruth got read at Pentecost and then song of songs was read at Passover, okay? So we need to kind of ask the question why? Why was song of songs read during Passover? And there's a really, really good reason for that, okay? The connection between Passover and the song of songs might not be obvious at first, but you begin to consider the ways these poems have been interpreted over the years, then it starts to make a lot of sense. A Jewish interpretation was that the poems reflect the relationship between Yahweh and Israel, his bride. A relationship that begins in Egypt where he rescues them from working through the, or rescues them from slavery or rescues them from working. Same as the female figure, okay? Here in Son of Songs. Through the Passover and takes them to Sinai for a wedding covenant for the wedding. You can see straight away that even in Jewish times, not everyone was sure of what to do with this book or how to interpret it, okay? So there is some legitimacy to the fact that there is an allegorical nature. That doesn't mean that allegory should be the dominant way that we interpret the text.

It just means, hey, there's an allegorical layer, but one layer by itself shouldn't define the whole cake, right? It's one layer, one layer. All right, kind of wanted to start off the episode with that, okay? Second thing is I really want to give a disclaimer. You may be thinking to yourself, man, I shouldn't let my high school student read Son of Songs, or I shouldn't let my middle school student read Son of Songs, or maybe you just feel uncomfortable with, teenager or child. And I just want to say this to you. Okay, I want to kind of push back a little. Okay, if you would, if you would allow me to kind of speak pastorally into your life, here's just an idea that I think maybe most parents haven't considered. Okay. And that's this, that the first person to introduce an idea to your children by default becomes the expert on that topic. Say that again, the first person to introduce an idea to your child or to anybody really by default becomes the expert on that topic. So the first person that ever talked to me about Bitcoin or cryptocurrency was a guy named Daniel Welsagabriel. He's like the first person to really talk to me about it. There could be people who know more about it than him, but he introduced it to me. And therefore, every time I have a question about it, I talk to him. Okay. And you could probably find that in your own life. Okay, whatever the topic, whoever introduces that topic to you, in your mind, that person becomes the de facto expert, just by default, they become an expert. And so I always ask parents this question, who do you want to be the expert when it comes to sex as it relates to your middle school student or high school student? Do you want pornography to be the de facto expert on all things sex? Do you want a boyfriend to become the de facto expert on all things sex? Do you want a girlfriend to become the de facto expert? Do you want the middle school health instructor to become the expert? Do you want the sex ed teacher to become the expert? Do you want a vlogger? You want a trans vlogger to be the expert, the de facto expert? Like who do you want to introduce this idea to your kid? And if you'd like to be the expert, then that means that you are going to have to have an active relationship with this conversation, not a reactive or passive relationship with this topic as it relates to your daughter or your son. And the reality is that for many of us, here's what did not happen. And this is the conversation

I plan on having with my son. I plan on sitting him down when he's probably seven, eight, nine, and just saying, "Hey, I want to tell you about the most beautiful thing God made, the most beautiful thing that God ever created." Because right now my son's four, and he's just like, "God made everything." He's like, "Dad, did God make that table?" I'm like, "Well, God made humans and humans made the table in anyway." Anyway, so I plan on telling him, "Hey, I want to tell you about the most beautiful thing that God made. It's not the mood. It's not the stars. It's not the sun. It's not giraffes. Not me. It's not you. It's not humans. Okay, the most beautiful thing, the most beautiful thing that God made, is the sexual relationship between a man and a woman. It's beautiful. It's the most mysterious, it's the most captivating, it's the most beautiful thing that God ever made. And it's so important. It's so precious. It's such a fascinating topic that Satan likes to pervert it. I want to talk to you about the most beautiful thing that God ever made, and it's called sex, and it's the sexual relationship between one man and one woman in the context of a marital relationship. It's like a fire, and a fire can do so many great things, right? A fire can warm your hands. A fire can cook food without fire. Where will we be? But a fire could also burn down your house, and God made this. God made this, and water's good, and water can, you know, you can get fish out of water. Water, it sustains life, but it could also flood a village and kill everybody. Okay, so surfing, fantastic, tsunami, not so good. Okay, and so sex is the most beautiful thing that God ever made. And I want us to have an open dialogue as it relates to attraction, arousal, sexuality, sexual expression. I want you to feel like you can always talk to me, and I'm going to talk to you about it. I'm not going to wait for you to talk to me about it. I'm going to be talking about it. I'm going to be asking you questions, and I want to know what you know. And I just want you to know, like, dad, dad has every answer to every question you could ever imagine. And the goal of that conversation is not to weird them out or to creep them out. The goal of that whatever age he is, and he's got questions that he goes, "I can ask my dad. I can ask my dad." Now, the voice of puberty and the voice of the enemy is going to be in his ear saying, "No, keep a secret. No, ask your friend. No, ask your uncle. No, ask this person. No, ask that person. No, Google it. Ask Jack GBT." But, and I can't control all that, but what I can't control is the planting of the seed, the planting of the thought in his mind that, man, I think my dad's

the expert. Like, I think he knows. And that's just, that's my goal, is to set myself up as the expert when it comes to sex and sexual expression and sexuality with my son. And hopefully, at some point, me and my wife have a daughter. And my goal is that my wife would become the expert with my daughter, with our daughter. But that's my job as a dad, is to create a judgment-free space where he can ask me anything about sex and about women and about girls and about his attractions. And for me to be able to love him, parent him, pastor him, guide him and train him up in the way that he should go so that when he gets old, he won't depart from it. Okay? And I think that there's too many parents advocating that responsibility to a sex ed teacher at school, to a boyfriend, to a girlfriend, to pornography. By the way, the average age of exposure to pornography in 2025 is eight, eight years old. So the average eight-year-old has seen pornography. So if the average eight-year-old has seen pornography, if you are naive enough to believe that your kid just doesn't know what sex is at all, I'm not saying you're wrong, but I'm saying that you're making a wager and I'd rather be safe than sorry. Okay? All right, that's context, that's a disclaimer. I've used up a lot of my time. All right, poll number seven is song of songs chapter six verse four to eight verse four. Poll number eight, we are going to go to song of songs chapter eight and we are going to go to verses six. Okay? First thing I actually want you to know in verse five is it says, under the apple tree, I roused you. So we're going to get tons of garden imagery in most of these poems. Okay? I know I kind of hinted at that maybe yesterday or the day before, but we're going to get tons and tons and tons of garden imagery. Why are they underneath the tree? They're underneath a tree because the couple that is personified here is a new atom and a new Eve. They're naked in with no shame. And so next, okay, is the word seal. Place me like a seal over your heart, like a seal on your arm. This is verse six. For love is as strong as death is jealousy unyielding as the grave. Let's talk about what a seal would have done in context. Okay? Obviously, many of us are not sending letters in sealing it like with a signet ring. Like, that's just not what, you know, many of us are doing. Okay? The seal would bear the name of the one who sealed the letter or the scroll. It signified their authority that the words were indeed theirs and theirs alone. What was inside was only available to the one who sealed it or who they sealed it for and the one to whom it was given. Okay? One giver, one recipient. The bride is saying then that her name is on his heart and arm. It belongs to her. No one else has the authority to open it

and take what is inside. It is available to her alone. I want you to think forward to like the book of Revelation when it's like, who can open the scrolls? Who can unseal the seal? Well, only the lamb who's been slain before the foundation of the earth. Okay? Only he can open it seal. Okay? So in the same way marriage is a union whereby a seal can only be given from one to another and can only be opened from the one from which it was given to the one it is received by. Okay? Her love is as strong as death, such as the passion, dedication she has from him. Here we are also going to see our next nerdy nugget. Okay? The word jealousy versus envy says this. I'll start at the top of verse six. Place me like a seal over your heart like a seal on your arm. For love is as strong as death. It's jealousy. we are now gonna dive into just that word jealousy often times today jealousy is used really as a synonym to envy which is a mistake because jealousy and envy are not the same thing okay but jealousy and envy don't mean the same thing jealousy is the defense of the desire to keep for yourself what is already yours envy is to desire that which belongs to someone else so so what the the male voice is saying is that his heart belongs to her alone and so her jealousy for it was as strong and inevitable as she all itself the same way that people die is the same way that I am jealous okay so jealousy and envy not the same which explains why Yahweh can describe himself as jealous as opposed to why envy could be a one of the Ten Commandments right don't covet that which belongs to your neighbor okay so envy is desiring something that belongs to someone else and wishing that was yours jealousy is not that those are not the same jealousy is one to defend that which actually belongs to you it's actually yours all right next is we're gonna get into a metaphor where you kind of need to understand that there's between a door and a wall okay so chapter 8 verse 8 we have a little sister and her breasts are not yet grown okay so this is a pre-pubescent girl what shall we do for our sister on the day she is spoken for that means on the day that she's betrothed okay so this is a girl who's not yet at the age to be betrothed six betrothed age was right around 13 so who knows this girl may be 10 she may be 11 okay she may be eight who knows and it says this if she is a wall we will build towers of silver on her and then the

metaphor the metaphor about to make sense if she is a door we will enclose her with with panels of cedar I am a wall and my breasts are like towers thus I become in his eyes like one bringing contentment okay wall versus a door what's a wall a wall would be a woman who's like you know placed a wall there you can't get in a door is some is a woman who's wide open okay it can open and close so what what they're saying is hey like our little sister hasn't been betrothed yet is she gonna be a door or is she gonna be a wall okay is she gonna be someone who's absent it or is she gonna be someone who allows men in and out okay is she a wall or is she a door which really gets me into my time was truth for the day and I'll kind of steal my own thunder but I think that the goal of the scriptures and of song of songs is to have purity without purity culture I think sometimes when I tell people that I'm anti-purity culture they think that I'm anti-purity that I'm anti-ashinets celibacy that I'm against you know people having a vow to stay sexually pure until marriage and that couldn't be further from the truth I'm all for that what I mean by purity culture is shaming people guilty people into making that decision and then incentivizing that decision by making false promises like if you are pure you will have earned a spouse in a great sex life it's like well that's crazy and saying things that are just not true about sex saying not admitting that sex is pleasurable and it's great and it's awesome and so the Bible is all about purity it's just not purity culture and I think that we've got to separate the two and we've got to keep helping people to be pure because sex will damage their life if used in an unwise way okay so and you can hear it this older sister is like hey man we got to help our little sister be a wall and not a door and then goes on to say I'm a wall like I have proven throughout all of these poems and all these songs that I wasn't sexually active with my lover until our wedding so next is It says this in verse 11. Solomon had a vineyard in Baal, Haman. He let out his vineyard. He let out the rented out or leased out his vineyard to tenants. Each was to bring, each was to bring for its fruit, a thousand shekels of silver. But my own vineyard is mine to give, okay?

So it's saying that the main character, okay, and Solomon are going to respond very, very differently to this vineyard analogy, okay. She had but one vineyard and she gave it to her beloved. Solomon can keep his thousand vineyards. He has access to many women. His lifestyle cheapens the poem's champions, okay? The poem's champions is this worker girl, this country girl in her shepherd boy. Solomon, keep your thousand for one is far better. And then we get our final poem. Sambley, the weight 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. It says the thousand shekels are for you, Solomon, and two hundred are for those who tend its fruit. Then we get verse 13. You who dwell in the gardens with friends and attendants, let me hear your voice. Come away, my beloved and be like a gazelle, like a young stag on the spice laying mountains. So love is going to take on the imagery of a garden. And we're going to see that all throughout the book, but it closes with that, that for those who heed the wisdom of song of songs, they get to be Adam and Eve figure, they get to come back into the garden and be naked and not ashamed. Naked and not ashamed means that your spouse should be able to say anything. And it's not that they're what they say may not get challenged, but that what they said won't ever be met with judgment or shame. There's a big difference between shaming someone or judging someone for what they say versus correcting what they say. Last thing is that as we compare Israel's relationship with Yahweh, that's our Thomas truth, by the way, as we compare Israel's relationship with Yahweh, we want to keep in mind that Israel's relationship with Yahweh. Our relationships with our spouses include fillet, arrows and agape. Meanwhile, our relationship with the Lord really is only fillet and agape. And you may not know what those Greek words mean, but there are multiple Greek words for love, and there's only one English word for love. And one of those Greek words was fillet, which means like brotherly love. It's like Philadelphia, Folleo, brotherly love, family love, friendship love. And eros is where we get the word erotic, right? So there's eros love, there's passionate sexual sensual love, and there's agape, this like perfect godly love, like the kind of love that Jesus offers. And I think sometimes when we get into marital conversations, we need agape, we need filleo, but there's this other category of love that we don't necessarily love. That we don't necessarily have with God, that's eros love. And I've heard a lot of people say, you know, my husband should love me like Christ loves the church.

And I'm like, yeah, absolutely, like, please, like that is the standard that Paul gives men. And I then say, but I just want to give you like one caveat is that, you know, Jesus doesn't have to be in an erotic relationship with you. So, like, yes, like your, your husband needs to have agape, your husband needs to have filleo for you. But there's also like an erotic part of love that if we're not careful, we'll just overstate it. marriage. And it's almost like we'll throw out the erotic part of marriage. And I think that it's really, really important that we always remember when we talk about marriage. Yes, I have a friendship with the Lord that has to be protected. I have a grace and a perfect love with God that requires me to be obedient. Like there's a gape this fellow, but there is not an erotic element to my relationship with the Lord. And I think that sometimes if we just try to map our relationship with God onto marriage, I think that we end up essentially giving married people really bad advice. Like, like, like the kind of advice that really leads to people not emphasizing the sexual health of their marital relationships and almost ignoring the sexual realities of, of the sensual and sexual realities of, of a relationship, of an earthly, physical, human relationship. And I would just challenge us that when we talk about marriage, you have to include the friendship love, the solido love, the erotic love, and agape love. All right, tomorrow, we're going to dive into the book of Ruth. We're going to take one day to study the entire book of Ruth. It's going to, it's going to be dope. I love the book of Ruth. I'm really, really excited about it. I'll see you right here. Same time, same place as we dive into Ruth chapters one, two, three, and four. Get the reading done. Meet me right back here tomorrow. Love you guys. Peace. Thanks so much for joining us on the Bible department podcast. If this episode was helpful, how about you leave a comment,

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