Song of Solomon 1:1-4:16, 2 Corinthians 8:16-24, Psalm 50:1-23, Proverbs 22:22-23
Today is the 6th day of September, welcome to the Daily Audio Bible, I’m Brian, it is great to be here with you today as we take the next step forward together, which is what we repeatedly do, every day, take another step forward together in life and in the Scriptures. And this next step forward leads us into some new territory. So, we’ve come through the book of Job, we’ve come through the book of Ecclesiastes and explored some of may be that that kind of stuff we avoid exploring. Kind of stuff we just keep running and running and running to avoid. But the Bible puts it right there in the middle and it’s there so we can, well, so we can take the time to look into what we’re wrestling with. So, in Job we certainly watched Job claim innocence and seek God while his friends were telling him of his guilt and his need for repentance and then we heard from God, who very clearly revealed there’s a whole lot more to any of our stories than we really understand and we remember those famous words from Job when he’s speaking to God, “I had only heard about you before, but now I’m seeing you and I don’t have any, I put my hand over my mouth, I’ve already said too much.” And then we moved into Ecclesiastes and looked at cautionary wisdom from the perspective of a person who had done it and seen it all and ultimately arrived at a place that we spend our whole lives chasing the wind, we could spend our whole lives in meaningless pursuits. But if we can be present and awake to the now to what’s actually happening now and treat what is happening now as a gift and be grateful for what God has given us, then we won’t waste our whole lives trying to achieve the next thing which isn’t to diminish achievement, it’s just what we were talking about, how we can run and run and run and we’re running away from some things and we’re running towards some things but we’re only ever running we’re never actually grateful in the moment that we’re in, we might have gratitude for what God has yet to do in front of us or what he’s done but to be here now is in fact, one of the greatest gifts that we get, we get to be alive in God’s presence now. So, we move through that territory which brings us today into some new territory. This is still part of the grouping of what we would know as wisdom literature, but a very different complexion. This new book we’ll read today and tomorrow and it is known as the Song of Solomon or the Song of Songs and so it’s very, very different than the territory we were in Job and Ecclesiastes. It’s short, like I said, we’ll read it in a couple days but it…it touches a lot of our lives, depending on how we want to read it. So, let’s begin with the fact that this is poetry, and whether we’re poets or whether we’ve studied poetry or whether we’ve maybe rarely ever read a poem, we probably should all understand that poems, they say thing things and rhyme and phrase that is well beyond their words so stanza of poetry that’s super beautiful and super well-constructed can say what all page would need to say if it were just being explained. Poetry uses plenty of metaphorical language so this is like that or allegorical language, symbolic language, where the symbolism has greater meaning and so the Song of Solomon can be read in a number of ways. If…if we just read it as a poem, literally, for what it’s saying, then we will encounter the story of passion and a passionate consummation of love between a man and a woman who are deeply in love with each other, lost in love with one another, and so the poem itself stands on its own, just as it is, a witness to marital love and the bliss that occurs when two become one a, passionate, physical relationship which bothers some people because knowing what’s a sex book in the Bible for? I guess because God created this type of intimacy, invalidates this type of intimacy, but there are other ways, if we look allegorically or metaphorically and look at the Jewish tradition, then this is an allegory of a poem that is intended to show the passionate love, the desire for intimacy that God has for his children, and in this case the Jewish people and that has been a way of reading the Song of Songs for a very, very long time and it’s a fine way to read it. There’s a Christian tradition about the Song of Song’s and that is that it’s an allegorical look at Jesus, at Christ’s love and desire and passion for his bride. So, as we go through this and go through this in any number of ways using any of these lenses and all of them are fine. How is it getting you? How are you receiving it? And so, let’s dive in and drink deep of this beautiful poetry, known as the Song of Solomon and since this poem is largely an interaction between a man and woman, we have a tradition around here at the Daily Audio Bible that my wife Jill, she comes in and we read this together and it’s a favorite for us and she is of course over at Daily Audio Bible chronological, and so, they in the chronological order came to Song of Solomon a little bit earlier and so I was able to read Song of Solomon with her over on chronological earlier this year. Now she’s here with us to read the Song of Solomon together over these next couple of days. So, let’s dive in, Song of Solomon chapters 1 through 4.
Prayer:
Father,
we thank You for Your word. We thank You for this new week. We thank You for
this new territory that we are in as we move through the Song of Solomon. Come
Holy Spirit as we transition into some new territory in the Scriptures, open
our hearts, open our minds and we might love You well and we might love You from
a whole heart, that we might surrender to You, knowing that is the safest thing
in the whole and the experience of life that we could ever do. Surrender and
walk with You. Come Holy Spirit we pray, all of this we ask in Jesus’ name. Amen.
Announcements:
dailyaudiobible.com is home base, it’s the website, it’s where you find out what’s going on around here. I always love it when we get to this time that we’re doing Song of Solomon, and Jill gets to join me and I look forward to that every year. That’s fun and that will be happening tomorrow as well and we’ll finish the Song of Solomon and that’s one of the things that are going on around here. But stay tuned and stay connected by being aware of dailyaudiobible.com or the Daily Audio Bible app. If you don’t have the Daily Audio Bible app you can download that from your app store. It’s free and its good way to stay connected stay connected with the journey through the Scriptures because it helps you keep track and see your progress but you can also access the things that are on the website as well. And so, like the Community section. This is, this is a place to get connected, the different links to the places on social media where the Daily Audio Bible is, you can find those there as well as the Prayer Wall and the Prayer Wall is a beautiful thing in this Community because it does matter what time zone, we’re in, we’re all over the world is the Global Campfire Community. And so, when it’s night for me in the rolling hills of Tennessee, it’s daytime somewhere else in the world and so the Prayer Wall is just always on, always happening. There are always things to pray about and maybe it’s our turn. Maybe we’re carrying some things that we’ve been trying to shoulder it all by ourselves, or dragging along all by ourselves and maybe we’re exhausting ourselves when we have brothers and sisters, we have a spiritual family that we can reach out to and the Prayer wall is a very, very good place to do exactly that. So, that is in the Community section, whether on the web or in the app, check it out.
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And
that’s it for today, I’m Brian, I love you and I’ll be waiting for you here
tomorrow.
Prayer and Encouragements:
Hi,
I’m a first-time caller. I’ve only been listening to the DAB for less than a
year, I found it by accident. It’s been a great blessing to me. I want to let
you know that I pray for all of you and sometimes I pray later and do it again.
I’m asking for prayer for my adult children that come back to the Lord and also
for I have three grandsons with Autism, that one that’s the worse is non-verbal,
he has aggression and self-injurious behavior. And his life is not good, he’s
got medical issues and I’m asking for prayer for Willam. And thank you very
much. Bye Bye.
Hi DAB this is Ani from Nigeria. First of all congratulations ….. and I’m so thankful for all God is doing for you and in this time, it was much needed journey. Family, I just need prayer to be, today was a hard day, it was a hard day and then I came home. What I need prayer for is just (inaudible) my family. My family is not – towards me but just being around me is almost like – damage. And I – and most times I try to block it out. (Inaudible) And so I’m just praying for healing for myself and for my heart and for my family. There’s a lot of pain and I don’t necessarily know what the solution is but God is able to do exceedingly and abundantly more than I can imagine. So, I am just desiring this prayer for healing for myself especially. And as I’m going into another season of my life, I’m praying that I don’t carry any of this that I have seen or I have experienced into my own life and internalize it. So, that’s really what I want healing from and just freedom really. Freedom from this situation and everything that it in. So yeah, thank you very much guys, I really appreciate this community and I appreciate this family and I would have never have thought this would have become such a stable force in my life but I’m so thankful for it. Have a good day everybody. Bye.
Hi,
this is Victorious Solider, just calling tonight, my heart was really heavy for
my precious sister Mercy, the one with the 9 children and the 22 grandchildren.
My God Mercy, that is such a challenge that only our God can do. Lord, we just
ask you to touch Mercy and her precious family. Oh Lord, in the name of Jesus,
we need your healing, not only for the children but also Lord for the mother
and even the father that they have to be apart of something of this magnitude.
Lord, we just ask you Lord, there is nothing to hard for you as you told Moses.
You said nothing is to hard for you. Lord, we just ask you to have mercy Lord
on our children Lord. We ask you to bless, we ask you to heal them, we ask you
to guide them, we ask you to touch that whole family Father. In the name of
Jesus, wrap them in Your arms and protect them Father. In the name of Jesus. I
want to also pray for Yolanda. The woman who is in the hospital with COVID and
her precious baby, about to deliver her baby. God, You are a doctor that (inaudible).
The doctors may not know how to handle this but You know how to handle
anything. We just ask your protection, we just ask your wisdom, to give them
wisdom they need. Oh Lord, that this baby and this mother will be fine. Lord, You
open doors no man can close. Oh Father, in the name of Jesus, I saw Your rainbow
yesterday and Your promises and Your promises are still fresh that you are God
that won’t hold back anything from them. Lord, they Love You so much, we ask You
to touch, we ask You to heal, we ask you to deliver and set free. And this
COVID Lord, and every aspect of a way, even in this young woman’s life, You
have Your way, Father. In the name of Jesus. I want to also pray for God’s Life
Speaker who’s struggling with her 21-year-old.
Hi,
this is Marked As His, I haven’t called in a long time. But I’m calling years
later because I realize that my husband and I need more help than we can do on
our own. I don’t know if you guys remember but I was in nurse practitioner
school, I have now completed my program. So, I’m a doctor or nursing practice,
family nurse practitioner. My husband, we got married last November, we’re both
dairy farmers and things are very, very hard right now. We don’t have enough help.
We are working very long hours because we believe in what we do and being stewards
of the land. But we’re tired and we want to start a family and we devoted all
of our time and our energy and our focus towards building this farm and now we’re
really struggling to keep it going. So, if you could all please pray for providence,
we keep praying for daily bread every day and you know, it seems like we have
enough just to get through today but we really wanna live abundantly. And,
right now, it seems like the harvest is really dry. So, thank you all and take
care, bye.
Hello,
DAB fam this is Laura from Eugene. I just wanted to thank everyone for the
updates. It has been so good to hear updates and GG, thank you for calling in. You
were such a blessing; I pray for God to continue to bless you. And it was so
good to hear about Izzy’s situation, I will keep Izzy and the family in my
prayers. I just have a little story and a prayer request to tell as well. My
friend was at the gym and he see’s this woman in a wheelchair with a
significant injury to her leg, it looks like a hole in her leg basically. And
my friend notices this and then she hears the Lord tell her to pray with this
woman. And my friend does probably what I would do and just say Lord, are you
talking to me? Do you mean hear? Do you mean now, really? And my friend wrestles
with this a little bit but she goes and speaks with the woman and the woman
proceeds to tell her that she’s been to many doctors and no one can heal her or
help her get better and so my friend says well, I would like to pray with you
and the woman immediately says well, what good is that gonna do? No doctors can
help me, I don’t think that can help, and so my friend says well, I could
either pray with you or I’ll just pray for you as I go and the woman continues
to resist and my friend says okay and she starts to leave and as my friends
leaving the woman says well, wait, what can it hurt. And so, my friend prayed
for her and I’m just gonna ask for our community to also pray for this woman,
her name is Joan and she has the hole in her leg that doctors cannot heal. And
we know that God is the great healer and we know this community prays so I
would love for God to be glorified through this woman.