Song of Solomon is one of the Biblical poetic books and has both a literal and an allegorical interpretation.

This study uses an allegorical rather than literal interpretation.

Characters:

Maiden represents you and me

Solomon/the King represents your enemy using all the pleasures of this world to entice you

away from Jesus your Beloved

Daughters of Jerusalem represent people who entice you away from Jesus

Shepherd represents Jesus, your true Beloved

Scenes:

Scene 1 (Chapters 1-2) the maiden is captive in the king’s harem

Scene 2 (Chapter 3)      the maiden devises her own plan

Scene 3 (Chapter 4)  –  mutual love is expressed

Scene 4 (Chapter 5)     the maiden has no time for her Beloved

Scene 5  (Chapters 6-7) Solomon and his 700 wives & 300 concubines try to entice her

Scene 6 (Chapter 8) –  the maiden is freed and with her Beloved

In today’s lesson we examine scene 2

Scene 2 (Chapter 3) the maiden devises her own plan

Maiden’s coping strategies –

Forget faith and devise own plan that compromises her testimony

Chapter 3

¹ By night on my bed I sought him whom my soul loveth: I sought him, but I found him not.

² I will rise now, and go about the city in the streets, and in the broad ways I will seek him whom my soul loveth: I sought him, but I found him not.

³ The watchmen that go about the city found me: to whom I said, Saw ye him whom my soul loveth?

Realize acting on impulse without seeking the Shepherd’s Word has consequences

Chapter 3

⁵ I charge you, O ye daughters of Jerusalem, by the roes, and by the hinds of the field, that ye stir not up, nor awake my love, till he please.

Shepherd’s strategies

Make His presence in His own time and His own way

Chapter 3:

⁴It was but a little that I passed from them, but I found him whom my soul loveth: I held him, and would not let him go, until I had brought him into my mother’s house, and into the chamber of her that conceived me.

Solomon’s (your enemy) strategies

Delight the senses for impulsive action; power, money, extravagance

Focus from the simple to the sophisticated

Your enemy wants you to act on impulse and not seek the Shepherd’s Word

Chapter 3:

⁶ Who is this that cometh out of the wilderness like pillars of smoke, perfumed with myrrh and frankincense, with all powders of the merchant?

⁷ Behold his bed, which is Solomon’s; threescore valiant men are about it, of the valiant of Israel.

⁸ They all hold swords, being expert in war: every man hath his sword upon his thigh because of fear in the night.

⁹ King Solomon made himself a chariot of the wood of Lebanon.

¹⁰ He made the pillars thereof of silver, the bottom thereof of gold, the covering of it of purple, the midst thereof being paved with love, for the daughters of Jerusalem.

Daughters of Jerusalem strategies (people)

Entice you away from the Shepherd to the counterfeit

¹¹ Go forth, O ye daughters of Zion, and behold king Solomon with the crown wherewith his mother crowned him in the day of his espousals, and in the day of the gladness of his heart.

Scene #2 Questions for Reflection

1) Identifying potential triggers for your impulsive actions

2) Identify 2 or 3 times when you acted impulsively

3) What caused that impulsive action? People, emotions, pressure

4) Ask the Lord Jesus to help you call on Him when those triggers occur – John 14:

¹³ And whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son.

¹⁴ If ye shall ask any thing in my name, I will do it.

5) Journal His help for future reference

Hebrews 12:

¹Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us,

² Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.

Let us run with patience the race He set before us, looking unto Jesus,

Coach Patti