Week 38

Ecclesiastes 10-12, Song of Solomon 1-8, James 1-5, and Isaiah 1-7

Did you have a book titled Song of Solomon? Because my Bible does not; I have Song of Songs! So right off the bat, I want to know more- how do different versions of the Bible have the same book with different names?! Could someone just start calling the book of Matthew, Notes of Matt? So even though we’re still staying at the 10,000 foot level, I did a little digging and it turns out this book of the Bible has a very interesting history-

Song of Songs doesn’t actually give a specific account, laying out the history of an important event, or even detail “rules” for living as a Christian, as other books have done for us. It seems to be merely a poem or song that was written/ is recited between a husband and wife, spoken alternatively between the man and the woman. The title “Song” indicates that is was a single song, not a collection of songS and that the author considered it to be the best of all songs ever- song OF SONGS. (Well now I’ve said “song” too many times and it’s no longer a word for me) At some point in history, people give authorship credit to Solomon because his name is mentioned within the song so around then the title was changed from Song of Songs to Song of Solomon. But interestingly enough- earlier churches, not all that long ago, wanted this book taken out of the Bible because it was too risqué. But what is interesting to me here is this is showing us that a Christian marriage is be a beautiful thing- the man and the wife should like each other, enjoy being around each other, miss each other when they aren’t together. Some sources equate this book as an analogy- because a Christian marriage should mirror and be an example of Christ and the church.

But regardless, let’s get back to our broader task of reading to get a general understanding the Bible, as a whole-

In James, I really liked that it seems to reinforce the reoccurring “rules” that we keep seeing repeated but presented in a more normal narrative format.

And then we get it Isaiah. Remember, we’ve already met Isaiah, back in 2 Kings. He was the prophet during Hezekiah’s time, about 700 years before the birth of Jesus, but now we are focusing more on him and learning about some of his visions. I think (again, not an expert- just figuring this stuff out with you guys!), this is the first time we hear about Jesus’s birth, the first time it was foretold and we start to get some details on what “that will be like”. It’s kinda funny to think about- we obviously already know about Jesus, his birth, his life, the overall account- but back then they didn’t. So even though we hear, “the virgin will be with child” we immediately know what he’s talking about and who he’s talking about, but back then they probably thought he was crazy! So thankful not only for our all-knowing, loving Heavenly Father but also for the fact that we do know the end of that story. We may not yet be at the end of this story or the end of our story- but know the Jesus story and how it played out- quite to our advantage. 🙌

What about you- what were your takeaways from this weeks passages?