“Wisdom in Covenant Love” Song of Solomon 1:1-8:14 (Overview)

“Wisdom in Covenant Love” Song of Solomon 1:1-8:14 (Overview)

An Expositional Sermon
Song of Solomon 1:1-8:14
“Wisdom in Covenant Love”

Theme/Big Idea: The desire of sexual intimacy is beautiful in the context of the marriage covenant, and it teaches us of the greater and more powerful covenant love of God for His people.
Aim/Appropriation/Application: Delight in the beauty of intimacy God has designed for the marriage covenant, and realize that intimacy points beyond itself to the beauty of the marriage of the church (the bride) to Jesus Christ (the bridegroom).

Outline:
(1) Wisdom in Attraction (Song of Solomon 1:1-2:7)
(2) Wisdom in Marriage & Consummation (Song of Solomon 2:8-5:1)
(3) Wisdom in Marriage Under Attack (Song of Solomon 5:2-8:4)
(4) Wisdom in Remembering Love (Song of Solomon 8:5-14)

Questions for Further Study and Application:
(1) In a culture that at times teaches us to belittle our spouse, and in a world where our sinful hearts look for all the negative in them, wives in the room ask yourself, do you think of your husband like this. Do you just think of him like a buffoon that so many of the caricatures of husbands that our culture makes them out to be? Or do you delight in your husband like this? She longs for him? If you find yourself with other women belittling their husbands do you enter in, or do you honestly honor him and cherish him?
(2) The garden of delight that is unlocked in the physical intimacy of the marriage covenant is only a dim reflection at the human capacity for physical and spiritual pleasure that nothing in this world can relate to in knowing God through His covenant. This is a major point of this Song; physical intimacy is good if used in it’s proper place. Do you treat sex like this in your marriage? Husbands do you delight in your bride like this groom? Wives do you delight in your husband like this bride? Do you see this type of intimacy in your marriage covenant? If not, there’s something wrong. Physical intimacy is like a barometer. I doesn’t power and drive the wind, but it is a good indicator which direction the wind is blowing.
(3) Sexual intimacy in this world is what the Lord uses to create life. It should be mutual even as both the husband and wife pursue it. Did you notice that in this book it’s not just the wife, or the husband initiating and the other comes along out of pure duty or obligation. No, it’s a delight. And it fosters permanence, closeness, mutuality, and exclusivity. When does love please? When a covenant has been made. And a marriage covenant isn’t just an agreement between two people, but a public institution where families and friends, or others here, are involved. It’s signified by a seal or signet ring. The posture of the Song of Solomon is that sex outside the bond of marriage is not when love pleases and satisfies, and to pursue it outside of marriage is dangerous and destructive. How are you doing at thinking about this?
(4) How does sexual intimacy and attraction point to something far greater than itself in the gospel of Jesus Christ?