Today in God's Word—August 2023
East Tallassee Church of Christ
August 20, Song of Solomon 3
On my bed by night, I sought him whom my soul loves; I sought him, but found him not.
- Song of Solomon 3:1
Are you a dreamer? I don't mean someone who fantasizes about acquiring some possession or imagines some new product or business. I'm asking if you dream when you're asleep at night. I know I do, but I seldom remember any dreams from the night before when I get up the next day. Most of us have dreams about common themes. That’s probably because we share a lot of experiences and anxieties. A lot of my dreams are about work. Some of them are about long-ago things, college days. Sometimes I am frantically searching for something that is lost that must be found. Do you have any dreams like that?
The woman in Solomon's song dreamed about her lover. He was lost and she was searching for him. When she found him, they enjoyed a romantic reunion. I don't know if she was still dreaming when she told how Solomon came seeking her hand in marriage. He put on an impressive show, rolling up out of the wilderness in his royal bed-coach, accompanied by a 60-man, sword-wielding security detail. Kings of that time generally did not go courting the women they desired. I don't doubt that Solomon traveled like that, but most kings at that time summoned women to come to them, and sent guards to deliver the message and deliver her back. That's what Solomon’s father David did when he saw and wanted Solomon's mother, Bathsheba.
A king’s appearance at a poor country girl's gate to propose might be a cliche in fairy tales, romance movies and girls' dreams. Such an event may be the fictional story of a song. Maybe it was a dream, and did not actually happen. Many scholars don't think the man of her dreams was Solomon at all, but rather her shepherd boyfriend was her co-star in her romantic dreams.
It's true that God described Israel as his spouse in several Old Testament passages. It's also true that Paul used the loving relationship between Christ and the church to instruct husbands and wives about marriage. But it is hard for me to see the point of the interpreters who make evil, arch-polygamist Solomon a symbol representing God, and the lustful king's bed-coach a symbol of God's grace.
What if Solomon's arrival (in all its pomp and splendor) is a symbol of the distractions and temptations Satan and the evil world put before God's people in an attempt to steal the love that is rightly God’s? There's more than one way to read a symbolic meaning, especially when we do not have a clue or a code about how to interpret it. New Testament references to Solomon are few, and none of them suggest that Solomon was a symbolic representation of Messiah. He (for all his wisdom and wealth) does not compare with the work of God or the greatness of Jesus.
Either the woman or maybe the chorus admonishes the daughters of Jerusalem to go out and look at King Solomon. Note “the crown with which his mother crowned him." That reminds us of how Bathsheba pressured David to choose Solomon from among his sons to succeed him. The singer(s) told the daughters of Jerusalem to look on him on the day of his wedding. It seems like there would have been plenty of opportunities to see one of his hundreds of weddings. She also pointed out the gladness of his heart. That reminds me of the pleasure Solomon confessed he tried in Ecclesiastes and found it to be empty and meaningless.
Maybe a good lesson from a chapter like this one for us is that we should not be too dogmatic about our understanding of vague passages.
Copyright © 2023 by Michael B. McElroy. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
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