One of the BIG lessons from last week is that all of our little expressions of hope in God need to be linked to our GREAT hope in God.
Our great hope is “Christ in us” according to Colossians 1:27.
So if the house of hope which faith is supporting as a foundation IS our maturation into Christ’s image, then all the bricks of hope which make up that structure must in SOME way be connected to the final product of Christ in us.
Let’s see how this works!
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Tonight we are taking a somewhat “deep dive”introduction into the Song of Solomon.
The Song of Solomon is among those books of scripture classified as wisdom – poetic literature. Its structure is complex and unique in all of scripture. The development of the story is NOT linear and unless you understand the literary structure you are likely to miss a great deal of what is going on in this book.
There are only 8 chapters and 5 characters. There is of course the shepherd/king who we assume to be Solomon himself. There is the object of his affections known formally only as “the shulammite”. Then there are three theatrical “choruses” who interact with the main characters throughout the narrative. These are the “daughters of Jerusalem” (the bride’s maids), Solomon’s friends (or attendants), and the Shulammite’s brothers.
Nearly the entire story actually takes place in Solomon’s Palace where “flashbacks” to their time of courtship leading to marriage takes place.
Interestingly, the overwhelming majority of the story is written from the 1st person perspective of “the Shulammite” woman, rather than from the main protagonist whom we assume is King Solomon.
All together this is a very interesting book in terms of layout, story telling, story development and spiritual imagery.
Of course, being an inspired book, the main person being revealed is actually Jesus and the Shulammite represents the church – His bride. The choruses represent the church, the angels and the ministers of the New Covenant whose job is to present the church as a chaste bride to her Bridegroom.
Other than the book of Job, this is the most detailed book introduction in our entire trek ‘Thru the Bible’ so far, but I believe it was both necessary and beneficial.
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For WEEKS I have pressed the need for Hope in order for Faith to have something to support.
I have pressed the fact that our Hope MUST be based upon what we can RIGHTLY expect of God.
There are 3 primary sources of Hope:
God’s inspired, written word.
The inward witness, leading, counsel and teaching of the Holy Spirit.
What we have come to experience of God ourselves.
The 2nd and 3rd in this list NEVER go beyond what the written Word has already revealed!
But the most powerful of all three is our experience because it is relational and we see this and the basis for faith among many of those set forth as our examples in scripture!
TODAY however, I wanted to play the other side of the field a bit regarding hope from experience. All REALLY hope cannot go beyond God’s personal self-disclosure in scripture and it cannot go against Hope’s primary purpose in the life of the believer – which is producing the Image of Christ!
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Sunday Worship Good Morning!!! Let your worship show forth your devotional love and heart felt gratitude… He is worthy! /
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This is the final chapter of the book of Proverbs as well as its fourth and final division.
Chapter 31 was written by King Lemuel which most likely was a lovingly familial name for Solomon, perhaps given by Bathsheba his mother.
This chapter is divided into two parts with greater emphasis given to the most important topic:
• Advice for kings and rulers to follow
• A description of a godly, virtuous woman who fears God and honors her husband.
These, too, seem to speak to Solomon’s authorship since he was a king who received godly advice regarding ruling. Additionally, he unwisely allowed his heart to be carried off by pagan women and so he knew something about the value and need of a godly wife.
The importance of a God fearing wife who possesses godly character cannot be overstated for ANY man, but all the more for a King!
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