Love Canonized? (YWS week 29)

Nick Horton 2 Comments

richardsibbessmallWelcome to a year of reading Richard Sibbes together! The reading plan for the entire year can be accessed here. I encourage you to stick with us, allow yourself time to read, and soak in the riches of this gifted and prolific Puritan preacher. You will be edified and encouraged.

If you have trouble with how Sibbes used words, check out the Lexicons of Early Modern English for definitions from the period.

Bowels Opened Study Plan

  1. Discuss Biblical Hermeneutics, which is the science of biblical interpretation.
  2. Explore various interpretations of the Song of Solomon.
  3. Brief outline of what I believe to be a correct interpretation.
  4. Canonization – Why is this book in the Canon? (This post)

Summary/Engagement

Last week I put my cards on the table and gave you what I think the correct genre and interpretation of the book is. The Song of Solomon is love poetry and must be read as such. In prior weeks we learned we must seek the meaning the author willed to intend and not put our own meaning on the text. We have no right to do so. In fact, reading meaning in to the text ends up in error at best and heretical beliefs at worst. Let the author speak through their words, and here it is plain to see those words speak of love and its physical consummation.

Why does the Bible contain a book on love and its physical aspects? Should we have such a book in the Bible? Isn’t it a little undignified for such a book to be considered the words of God?

Canon

The book has been part of the recognized Hebrew scriptures since at least 200 BC. The Old Testament Jews debated its canonicity and yet concluded that it had a place with the other wisdom literature such as Job, Psalms, Proverbs and Ecclesiastes. Wait, wait. “I thought you said Song of Solomon is love poetry,” you say. It is indeed! Books can contain multiple literary genres and yet the overarching purpose of a book is one. Historical narrative can have prophecy and poetry. Gospels have parables and historical narrative in them, and so on. This book is part of a larger genre in the bible, with the aforementioned books, called wisdom literature. Grant Osborne says that wisdom literature’s goal is “to use properly God’s creation and to enjoy life in the present under his care.” How does the Song of Solomon help us to use properly God’s creation and to enjoy life in the present under his care?

Biblical Love

Sexuality was broken in the ancient world just the same as it is now. As Ecclesiastes frequently refrains, “there is nothing new under the sun.” There were pagan fertility cults with temple prostitutes who turned sex in to religious rites. People cheated on their wives or husbands then as now. Sex outside of marriage is not new. Homosexuality is not new. The Greeks denigrated the body altogether. It is no wonder God inspired a book extolling a positive look at biblical love and sexuality. We certainly need such today, just as our brothers and sisters did.

Sex is not something to be abused, used as the ultimate end in itself, or neglected as dirty. Sex is a gift from God to be enjoyed by a man and a woman in the bonds of marriage. So let’s use our definition of wisdom literature as a definition of the book’s purpose. The Song of Solomon is a positive example and celebration of God’s good gifts to properly use our created bodies and enjoy life in the present under God’s care. The surrounding culture then, as now, uses sex and the body as tools for pleasure without any concept of the greater reality. Indeed, why shouldn’t God have a book in his word celebrating the benefits and goodness of sex in marriage?

Unashamed

When you come to Song of Solomon, do not allegorize it or attempt to explain it away as something it is not. Many of our forerunners in the faith, including Puritans like Richard Sibbes, got their interpretation of this book wrong. Contrary to the mischaracterization of the Puritans, they were not prudes. They did however take temptation seriously, which does not mean they did not take sex in marriage seriously. We are indebted to them for their example of faith, piety, and resolve to live for God. I don’t think they allegorized the Song of Solomon because they were ashamed, but did so in keeping with the traditional interpretation rather than reading the book with fresh eyes.

We should not be ashamed of the gift of sex given to us by God to be enjoyed in marriage. This book celebrates love and its joyful expression in marriage. God gave us our bodies and designed them to be used in purposes that glorify him. Sex can glorify God when it’s done according to his design and this book shows us that and encourages us to see it that way. The fight against adultery, divorce, homosexuality, promiscuity, and every other kind of sexual immorality is a fight to redeem sex and the body for its God intended uses rather than our sinful desires. This book is a positive look at unashamed biblical sexuality. Let me then like the Song of Solomon encourage you to enjoy what God has given you, in marriage, to his glory.

Helpful Links

A COMPLETELY FREE online Hermeneutics class taught by Dr. Danny Akin, President of Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary. Check it out!

Two helpful books:

  1. Robert Stein: A Basic Guide To Interpreting The Bible.
  2. Robert Plummer: 40 Questions About Interpreting The Bible.

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Last week, we read the Third Part of Bowels Opened and discussed a correct interpretation of Song of Solomon.

Next week, we read the Saint’s Happiness. Here is an audio recording of Mark Dever reading it.

Today in Blogworld 07.25.2014

Mike Leake

6 Ways Your Phone Is Changing You

I don’t have a smart phone and I’m not sure I ever want one. The cost seems to be too great (not merely the financial cost but the cost on my heart).

Instead of Building Your Platform, Build Your Character

I can’t help but think that many scandals would be avoided if this simple truth were applied.

5 Please from Pastors to Search Committees

Yep. Also check out the equally helpful 5 pleas from search committees to pastors.

7 Different Ways to Read a Book

The most important part of this article is #7. It’s okay to fail at reading a book.

This seems like a good amount of work to cool down a drink—but if you ever just have to have a cold drink in under 2 minutes try this:

Today in Blogworld 07.24.14

Mike Leake

22 Facts About Sleep

I never knew sea otters were so romantic.

God Can Restore Your Lost Years

I need this. Badly.

When God Seems Silent

I also needed this. Badly.

When You Should NOT Submit to a Church

We need more articles like this. I fear that all of the scandals has put a dark cloud over the necessity of actual biblical leadership. Articles like this help to balance things.

I never knew bananas had such power:

Being Gospel-Centered Is a Bloody Mess

Mike Leake 7 Comments


I still remember my white-knuckled pew grabbing. When I really wanted to go forward at service and give my life to Christ. Maybe it was a rededication—maybe it was coming to Christ for the first time. I don’t know, but I know that at that time the gospel seemed so beautiful. But I was counting the cost and it seemed so huge.

During that time in my life I wrote this rather choppy line:

Standing on holy ground
With one shoe
Caught between a life of me
And one devoted to you

I deeply wanted to listen and follow the voice calling from the burning bush but I wanted to at least keep a shoe on. Then grace caught up with me and either took my shoes off completely or just threw me into the burning bush to be consumed, accepted, loved, and cleansed. I was forever changed and smitten with the gospel.

Over time my understanding of the gospel and the work of the Lord grew exponentially. I was swept up in all of the language of being gospel-centered and pursued being a gospel-centered pastor. I still am to this day.

But somewhere along the way I forgot something…

Being Gospel-Centered Is a Bloody Mess

I’m finding that the deeper the gospel goes in my heart the more entrenched is the sin that it is uprooting. Early on the Lord was dealing with surface stuff. Things like cursing and watching inappropriate things or listening to really vulgar music.

My white-knuckled pew grabbing back then had to do with whether I wanted to follow Christ or keep driving through town blaring Eminem. It feels stupid now. I’d give that up in a heartbeat.

Now the stuff that I’m hanging onto are the things that are in the depths. Identity things. Deeply entrenched patterns of thought and action and character. But it’s no less bloody than giving up Eminem. In fact it’s probably more.

Bonhoeffer once said that when Christ calls a man he bids him to come and die. I’m coming to understand that this calling and coming and dying isn’t just pertaining to initial salvation. The whole thing is a bloody mess.

Being gospel-centered doesn’t just mean that we dance in the fields of favor with the Lord. It means that…a thousand times yes…it means that. But being gospel-centered also means that we are at times necessarily afflicted by the gospel. It is not as if the deeper our understanding of the gospel goes then the easier the bloodshed will be. No, it’s likely that the deeper the gospel goes then the deeper will be the things that the gospel is transforming.

A Particularly Bloody Mess

But there is something that must be remembered. Our bloodshed doesn’t salvifically accomplish anything. We could surrender our bodies up to flames and still be as nothing.

The only blood that accomplishes anything has already been shed and is now already applied to the account of those that are trusting in Christ. Yes being gospel-centered is a bloody mess but it’s a bloody mess that is founded upon a particular blood shedding event.

It is important to not forget this, because as a believer when we are in the midst of white-knuckled pew grabbing and we are being ripped asunder it isn’t for our salvation. It’s not an event that determines whether we are in Christ or not. It’s about our joy and growth in the Lord. Our acceptance is grounded on the blood that has already been shed.

We let go of these idols because we become convinced that Christ is more beautiful than sin. Even those deep seated things that are part of who we think we are–are forsaken so that we can grab ahold of more of Christ. And so even in the midst of being torn asunder there is a quiet joy that shines through.

For Christ is sweeter! And he’s worth this whole bloody mess.