Tuesday, November 25: Song of Solomon 3- passionate love God's way.

There is a lot of cultural detail that I didn’t understand so I sought some help. Verses 6-11 tell of the bridal procession, but what is going on in 1-5? About verses 1-5 I read:

“Our next poetic unit seems clearly to be a dream sequence. The lover is the maiden's obsession night and day (v.1). So in a dream she seeks him. She goes about the city in the night querying those whom she meets about her beloved (vv.2-3). She finds him and will not let him go until she has brought him into her mother's home, into the very room where she was conceived (v.4). She is not looking for an illicit consummation of their love. Consummation she wants, but even in her dream she wants that consummation to be right. Where in human literature does one find a text so erotic and yet so moral as this?” (Expositor's Bible Commentary)

Marriage not illicit sex is in view throughout.

The commentator’s last line grabbed me. Where in human literature does one find a text so erotic and yet so moral as this?

TV, film, books, magazines are filled with sex, but these days rarely is sex within God’s definition of a man and woman in marriage. In our world, sex is a passionate act with whomever. It may not be a one-night stand, but it is commonplace to move in prior to marriage. And if that relationship doesn’t work out well then it ends and you move in with the next ‘love.’

How refreshing to read the passion of love and the desire for intimacy, but to read it aligning with God’s Will and Word!

Lord, my world is sick.  We are sex crazed with little regard for Your Will, Word and Way. And is seeps regularly into your Church, Your people, Your body. Help us, Your church and the members thereof, to regain Your sexual moorings. O, God, help us; our world has left Your moorings and it is dragging us away too. Forgive us and help us stand for righteousness with our becoming prideful and arrogant in our witness to the world. In Jesus’ name, I pray. Amen.

 

Monday, November 24: Song of Solomon 21- His banner over me is love.

Every now and again I hear someone speak of the Lord, commenting that ‘his banner over me is love.’ What a great picture that is, God’s banner over me (us) is love.

In college I remember my college Christian group singing, “He takes us to the banqueting table, his banner over me is love…” It was a song about God’s love and care for us. Again what a comforting image.

This morning I read Song of Songs 2:4, the text from which song comes: He has brought me to his banquet hall, And his banner over me is love (NASB).

Fascinating, in its biblical context it is a statement by the woman about her beloved, her husband! The woman sings that her husband brings her to the banqueting table. His banner over her is love!

This launched me into considering, “How well do I love and care for my wife?” Would my wife say of me, “His banner over me is love?”

Most often my time with the Lord leads me to considering my relationship with Him. But today, God has me considering how well I love and care for my wife...

Lord, thank You for the gift of marriage and for my wife, the wife of my youth. I am a different person in life and in faith because of her. I treasure her as a gift and a gift from You. May I be for her as this man was for his wife. May I be for her as You, Jesus, are for Your church (Eph 5:25ff). I pray this in Jesus name. Amen.

 

¹ I realize that not all of my readers may be married, so today’s devotion might not fit you. My prayer is that you will hear something from the Lord in this passage that speaks to your heart as this one did to mine.

 

Saturday, November 22: Song of Solomon 1- Expressing one's love .

Song of Songs perplexes most believers. Dennis F. Kinlaw writing in the Expositor's Bible Commentary notes, Song of Songs is patently a collection of ancient Hebrew love poems celebrating the experiences of a lover and his beloved as they taste the beauty, power, agony, and joys of human sexual love. What do we do with a book like that in the Scriptures?

Let’s see as we take this devotional reading of Song of Songs.

With the first words of this book we understand why many are perplexed. This chapter is a lover’s dialogue, with the words of some friends tossed in as well. This chapter is two lovers expressing their love and attraction to one another.

Love rightly ordered is good. Love, emotion, and beauty expressed to one’s beloved is a beautiful thing.

Biblical believers are oft-time thought of as prudes. If prude means we have a different sexual ethic than the world, i.e. sexual love is to be shared between a man and woman in marriage, then I accept the moniker of prude. However, being a ‘prude’ does not mean that within the marital covenant relationship a couple does not passionately and affectionately express their love for one another.

In this vein, Song of Solomon is refreshing, reminding God-honoring couples that passion and expressing one’s passion for one’s spouse is a good thing… a very good thing!

Readers who are married… express your love today to your mate.

Readers who are not yet married… there is joy ahead if you walk in God’s Will.

Think about it…

Lord, thank You for my wife of many years, a gift from You and a partner in You. Thank You for my wife. Amen.

 

Friday, November 21: Ecclesiastes 12- The final word.

Ecclesiastes has been difficult to follow. The writer seems pessimistic, even fatalistic at times. But in chapter 12 his closing words give light and meaning to the rest.

Remember your Creator in the days of your youth, before the days of trouble come and the years approach when you will say, “I find no pleasure in them” … Now all has been heard; here is the conclusion of the matter: Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the duty of all mankind. For God will bring every deed into judgment, including every hidden thing, whether it is good or evil (1, 13-14).

Put in my own words, I might put the writer’s advice like this: Before you get distracted with life, before your faculties begin to fade and fail, remember your Creator. And by remember I mean, fear God and keep His Commandments.

And there you have it, the final words of a brilliant man: fear God and keep His Commandments and begin now while you can!

Question is, Are you (am I) wise enough to heed these words???

Lord, worldly wisdom can often lead us away from You. Overthinking can lead us away from You. Trust in self and human wisdom can lead us away from You. O Lord, those simple word are true… fear God and keep Your Commandments. May I follow these words, I pray in and for Jesus Amen.

 

 

Thursday, November 20: Ecclesiastes 11- Center your life in the Lord.

I found myself mulling over verse 9. I may no long be ‘young’ but the advice seemed appropriate for any age, particularly the second part of the verse … Follow the ways of your heart and whatever your eyes see, but know that for all these things God will bring you into judgment.

Although following the ways of the heart can get us into trouble if our heart is not stayed on God, it seems that the writer builds an appropriate caution into the general statement when he writes God will bring you into judgment.

This portion of the sentence seems to be a caution or correction to an ‘anything goes’ possibility if we were to take the first part of the sentence by itself.

On balance I hear the Lord saying,  “Understand that I am watching and knowing that, follow the ways of your heart and what your eyes see”.

Stated positively and with a little license, I hear the Lord saying, “Center your life on Me and not follow the impulses of your heart. Let your eyes guide you…” And this seems to be a good word from the Lord.

Lord, keep me stayed on You. May my heart beat with Your heart and as it does, let it lead me to things that will be fulfilling for me and glory producing for You. In Jesus’ name, I pray. Amen.

 

Wednesday, November 19: Ecclesiastes 10- Beware folly.

 

Today’s chapter reads like Proverbs with short pity sayings on wide ranging topics. I chose verse 1 to ponder.

As dead flies give perfume a bad smell, so a little folly outweighs wisdom and honor.

The image was so graphic it grabbed me. I’ve never known the specific situation, flies in perfume, but I have found any number of mice who have died but not been found for ‘awhile.’ It is the smell that first alerted me something was wrong. And that is the point. The rotting flies spoil the perfume.

What got me is the small amount needed to spoil the larger amount. As the writer says, so a little folly outweighs wisdom and honor. One foolish outburst, one foolish decision can tarnish an entire legacy.

I spoke with my mom the other day. She recently went on an outing to The Billy Graham Museum near Charlotte, NC. It was a wonderful trip. We got talking about Billy. What a man of integrity. He rubbed shoulders with US presidents and world leaders in politics and in religion. Amazing. Yet all that hob-knobbing with elite of the world never changed him. No scandals or even ‘indiscretions’ have ever come to light. He lived this verse. He was a man of integrity.

Billy understood that a little folly outweighs wisdom and honor and a little folly can easily ruin a legacy.

Today’s reading, and particularly verse 1, gave me renewed vigor to be vigilant against folly in my life! How about you?

Lord, I know Dr. Graham wasn’t perfect, but he was wise and cautious and he avoided folly at every turn. I pray, Lord, for the strength, the internal fortitude and will to live rightly so that Your name is honored in my living all the days of my life. I pray in Jesus’ name. Amen.

 

Tuesday, November 18: Ecclesiastes 9- No guarantees.

As I read this chapter I thought, “No guarantees.” There is no absolute formula for success or finding the ‘good life,’ especially when you define good life as a life filled with the things and stuff of this world. As the writer says, I have seen something else under the sun: The race is not to the swift or the battle to the strong, nor does food come to the wise or wealth to the brilliant or favor to the learned; but time and chance happen to them all (11).

I confess that I struggle with the word ‘chance’. I hear it connected to ‘fate’ or ‘luck’ as if some random force is at work. So I spent some time researching the word. Is that what it means? Not necessarily. The Expositors Bible Commentary writes this, the concept of chance in v.11 is not exactly the English usage. It contains less the idea of haphazard occurrence than an event that we meet, whether anticipated or unanticipated.

I might say it like this, ‘stuff happens.’ And stuff happens to all of us and we cannot plan for this stuff. We simply have to live into and through it.

And it is at this point that my faith in Jesus and the teachings of the NT kick in. For example, Romans 8:37-39: No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

I may not anticipate all things that come my way or even like all things that come my way. However, no matter what it is, great or horrible, it cannot separate me from Jesus’ love for me and so I cling to my Savior through thick and thin!

Halleluiah! Amen! Through think and thin, in good times and in bad, I cling to You, Jesus, my Savior! Halleluiah Amen!