As I posted last week, my friend and colleague James-Michael Smith is leading “Let’s Talk About Sex,” a four week class on developing a mature, biblical sexual ethic.
Last night’s session focused on The Song Of Songs and was titled, appropriately enough, Hot Bible Sex.
A literal rendering of the name of that Old Testament erotic opera is “The Songiest Song”; meaning, the best song ever. By the way, in September of 2014, I gave a series of sermons on The Song Of Songs called Love Song. You can see those messages here.
Here are some of James-Michael’s winners from last night:
- The sad truth is that with all those concubines, Solomon was a human trafficker.
- You have to know the culture that surrounds any song to make sure you don’t read too much into it.
- How does a book this overtly sexual get into the bible? We give bibles to third graders! And tell them to read it!
- Song 1:9: “I liken you to a mare among Pharoah’s horses.” At first glance it’s not too flattering to call a woman a horse. But do you know what a mare among Pharoah’s horses did? Egypt and its Pharoah had chariots, which made them invincible in battle. So the Jews would release a mare in heat into the middle of Egyptian chariots. All of a sudden the Egyptian horses were . . . distracted! So the song writer is telling his beloved that she is a “head turner.”
- What happens in the bedroom is private. But the relational context (marriage) is very public.
- In married sex, two image bearers of God come together.
- The Song contains unashamed appreciation of the other person’s body.
- The guy in 5:14 has guns: “His arms are like rods of gold.”
- Sexuality is our Garden of Eden. How are we treating our Garden? Who are we letting into it? Who are we locking out of it?