What Do the Metaphors in Song of Solomon Mean?

Added: 2026-05-27

[00:00:00]What do you feel when somebody tells you they're going to write their own vows?

[00:00:03]>> Well, I did because it was it was so apppropo apppropo.

[00:00:07]>> When you're such a wordssmith, >> well, and I remember Jonathan and I still tease. Uh the end of it was I love you. I love you. I love you. I could say it a million times and those words would never fully express the contents of my heart.

[00:00:20]>> Now, that's I know. But sometimes it can get a little dorky, right?

[00:00:24]>> They're like bad beeges lyrics. I love you. And I will never ever say a cross word. I'm like, >> "Oh, wait. Just let a week go by."

[00:00:33]Usually, it's this flowery, you know, you just It's all you do not to chuckle when they're 22 and they make these, you know, just flowery ods.

[00:00:42]>> Um, in this era, usually it was just the bridegroom who would speak the vows >> and what he says to her in chapter 4.

[00:00:49]When you equate this to the gospel, Solomon says to Shuy, "Behold your be."

[00:00:54]These are wedding vows. Remember, that's public declaration. Everybody's watching, right? They're next to the temple, top of the hill in Jerusalem. He says, "Behold, you're beautiful, my love. Behold, you're beautiful. Your eyes are doves behind your veil. Your hair is like a flock of goats, leaping down the slopes of Mount Gilead. Your teeth are like a flock of shore that have come up from the washing, all of which bear twins, and not one among them has lost its young. Your lips are like a scarlet thread. Your mouth is lovely.

[00:01:18]Your cheeks are like halves of a pomegranate." Goes on to say, "She has a beautiful elongated neck." Okay. Now, remember, he's speaking in Hebraic poetical style.

[00:01:28]>> So, when he says, "Your hair is like a flock of goats."

[00:01:31]>> He's not saying you need better conditioning.

[00:01:34]>> He's comparing her hair to black sheep and black goats descending Mount Gilead.

[00:01:38]>> I love that.

[00:01:39]>> So, a lot of times in this era, black sheep and black goats would come down from the high places to the lower places late in the afternoon as sun was setting. Why?

[00:01:48]>> Um to be watered. to be watered and because they didn't have plumbing, they couldn't get water at the top. Streams flow downhill. Also, because the shepherds needed to protect them from predators.

[00:01:58]>> Yeah. Okay. So, the shepherds would bring them down for safety and protection. Well, if you watch them descend late in the afternoon, sunsetting behind it, it looked like satin black ribbon encircling the top of a mountain. So, because she's probably Egyptian, maybe African, he's saying you have long, dark, curly or wavy hair. I love that. He says, "Your teeth are like sheep that have just been washed."

[00:02:21]What's he saying?

[00:02:22]>> I think they're kind of white.

[00:02:23]>> They're clean.

[00:02:23]>> They're clean.

[00:02:24]>> Each of them has a twin.

[00:02:25]>> There's no missing tooth.

[00:02:26]>> There's This is predental gear.

[00:02:28]>> Yeah.

[00:02:28]>> He's saying you have a full set of teeth. They're white. They're You have a beautiful smile. He says, "Your cheeks are like halves of a pomegranate.

[00:02:36]>> I think they're rosy." And >> you don't need bronzer.

[00:02:39]>> Yeah. You don't need bronzer.

[00:02:40]>> You don't need bronzer. You you you have a natural color to your cheek. Your neck is be he's describing your physical beauty. Now, we're going to go here. And fellas, >> yeah, >> those we are so grateful we have brothers on the porch. If you are driving, I suggest you pull over to the side of the road. If you're on the elliptical elliptical, step off for just a second because this is in the Bible.

[00:03:01]But >> this is going to be fun. Um, girls, this is awesome.

[00:03:05]>> Verse five. We never ever ever ever talk about verse 5 in church. Would you just real quick? It's in the Bible.

[00:03:11]>> Yes. And this is People magazine.

[00:03:14]Chapter 4:5. Just read it out loud out.

[00:03:16]>> It says, "Your breasts are like two fawns, twins of a gazelle that feed among the lilies."

[00:03:21]>> Okay, so he's described this is their wedding night. This is their wedding night.

[00:03:24]>> So this is not extra. This is their wedding night. They he he's already put a ring on it. They're just about to consummate their their wedding bells.

[00:03:31]Okay. And he describes their upper half as twin >> Yeah.

[00:03:36]>> fawns. Yes.

[00:03:37]>> That graze among the liies. Okay. You live in Knoxville, Tennessee. It is springtime right now. I know you've got deer on the drive home because where you live is beautiful and rural and hilly.

[00:03:49]When you see baby deer following their mama, especially if there's twins and they've got those little white flexcks on their on their rumps, what adjectives come to mind?

[00:04:01]>> For me, it's glorious because it's God's creation. It's um vulnerable. There's something vulnerable about >> about a baby deer.

[00:04:10]>> Yeah. They're soft.

[00:04:11]>> Yeah. Yeah, >> they're beautiful.

[00:04:13]>> Yeah, you just wish you could get out of the car and pet them.

[00:04:16]>> Oh, absolutely. Yeah, >> that's exactly what he's saying.

[00:04:19]>> I just went there with you.

[00:04:21]>> It's wedding night and he's saying, "I want to pet your baby dear." I mean, it's it's all there. It's all there.

[00:04:26]>> What's so awesome is is, and this is tangental, but so many of us have been taught in church that sex is dirty.

[00:04:32]>> That's right.

[00:04:33]>> And I'm like, "No, no, no, no. Sex is bounded.

[00:04:36]When you look at a fire in the fireplace, my heavens to Betsy, it's beautiful and it warms the whole house.

[00:04:42]You get it out of the fireplace and it burns the house down. God never said sex was bad or sex was dirty. He said, "I'm going to give you this beautiful boundary for sexual intimacy." Again, remember the metaphor.

[00:04:53]>> He gives us something that we understand. Who doesn't love >> Nodding Hill if you take out the naughtiness? And of course, we want to all pretend they were married before they got jiggy with it. Who doesn't love a a good love story?

[00:05:06]>> So, he gives us a love story which I believe is historical. And what he's telling Israel is, "My love for you is so much more intimate, >> so much better, so much sweeter." The verse that changed my life is verse 9.

[00:05:20]>> We're still in the wedding vows.

[00:05:23]>> You've got a king speaking to a commoner in front of everybody, a girl that really didn't think she was worth his affection. And he says to her with one >> Yeah.

[00:05:34]>> glance >> of your eyes, >> my heart.

[00:05:37]>> You've captured my heart.

[00:05:38]>> Yeah.

[00:05:39]>> And Ally, I remember as a 30-year-old woman >> reading that >> and I I almost gasped.

[00:05:47]>> Because I thought, I don't I don't believe that.

[00:05:51]>> I've been in church since I was in utero.

[00:05:53]>> Yeah.

[00:05:54]>> I came to Christ when I was 5 years old.

[00:05:56]>> And from my earliest memory, I felt dirty. Yeah, >> because the sexual molestation and my backstory, I just never felt good enough. When it comes to a holy God that I stand before, >> my first inclination is to duck my head and try to do better and be better. And maybe if I fill in all my Bible study blanks, maybe, just maybe, God won't be disappointed >> that he lowered the bar to let me in >> to Corey. The idea that this transcendent, glorious God >> Yeah. would look on a woman like me >> and say, "Lisa, I want you to look up."

[00:06:32]>> Yeah. And then he would gaze into my eyes and say, "Lisa, with one glance of your eyes, you captured my heart."

[00:06:45]>> Elliot, um, it slayed me. I mean it the even the the idea >> that that could be a remote possibility.

[00:06:56]It just that we could capture the heart.

[00:07:01]>> And of course you go back to throughout all of scripture he predetermined to love us. We're a mo day. This echoes what he's been saying the whole time.

[00:07:10]That's right.

[00:07:11]>> You're a mess. You're rebellious. I love you.

[00:07:13]>> Yes.

[00:07:14]>> You're mine. You he says over and over again. You're not slaves. You're children. here. He says, "You're not unwanted, you're my bride."

[00:07:21]>> It has always been a love story.

[00:07:24]>> Um, I spent a lot of time working with women in recovery. Um, a lot of my friends have not just addiction, but incarceration and their back backstory. And years ago, one of the girls said, "Miss Lisa, how can we how can we actually learn this?" I mean, that still sounds like Cinderella to me, and I'm the I'm the stepsister. H how do we how do we begin to practice that a God like that actually delights >> right >> in women like us? And I said, "Well, you know, maybe a cool practical thing to do because very few of them have been held by arms that meant them well.

[00:08:01]>> A lot of abuse in their backstories."

[00:08:03]And I said, "When y'all when y'all go back to the dorm tonight, >> why don't you get warm laundry out of the dryer? And if you'll put the laundry behind you when you go to your rooms, lean back into that warm laundry because it'll feel almost like somebody's holding you >> and uh and then just pray for yourselves something along the lines of Jesus, give me the grace >> to lean more fully into your embrace.

[00:08:29]>> I said, I think we've got to practice, and I know this can be harder for men, >> but we've got to practice intimacy.

[00:08:36]Intimacy with God isn't natural for us.

[00:08:39]We still often times live as slaves.

[00:08:41]>> Well, Ally, I was driving home from being with my friends one day and it's a pretty long drive and I was just listening worship music and you know sometimes God will speak and I've never heard his audible voice, >> but it's louder than mere sound. Yeah.

[00:08:54]Yeah.

[00:08:55]>> It's just unmistakable.

[00:08:57]>> It's always kind. Even when he's disciplining me, there's such compassion in his voice. And he said, "Lisa, you're telling your friends to do something that you don't do." M >> and I was like, "Excuse me?"

[00:09:10]>> And he said, "You don't know what it is to be held."

[00:09:14]>> And Ally, I realized I was posing. I was preaching something that I >> I wasn't even in kindergarten in that practice yet.

[00:09:22]>> And I went home that night. This was long after I'd fallen in love with a story and the potential >> of the kind of intimacy we can have with God. And the story gets better. There's a separation cuz they're a real couple.

[00:09:35]There's a second honeymoon. By the end of the story, that's when she says, "Our love is as strong as death."

[00:09:41]>> Yes.

[00:09:41]>> She goes from being a young bride to this confident, >> secure >> woman. I think that's one of the reasons we've allegorized her >> through Christian history because if we can make her a cartoon, she's palatable.

[00:09:57]But the idea of a strong, >> confident, sexually confident woman in the context of a marriage, that >> it's a little harder for Christian culture to wrap our our minds around, >> but he he impressed me, I was 40 >> and I went home and I got warm laundry out of the dryer and I put it on my bed and do you know the first time >> that I leaned into warm laundry and I prayed what I'd been encouraging my friends to pray, >> Yeah. Jesus, will you give me the grace >> to try to learn what it is to be held by you? To lean into a God who says, "With one glance of my eyes, my eyes, >> I know my backstory. I know my sin. I know the the dirtiness in my life. I know the shame. With one glance of my eyes, not Beth Moore's eyes, >> not Priscilla Sh's eyes. Not women who've done it better. Not saints who've lived cleaner lives. with one glance of my eyes.

[00:10:54]>> Yes.

[00:10:54]>> I >> Yes.

[00:10:56]>> captured your heart. I realized there's a a corner of my heart that didn't really believe the gospel for me. Do you know the first time I did that? I I can't tell you how long I wept. But it wasn't grief, it was release.

[00:11:09]>> Mhm.

[00:11:12]>> Access more.