GodSpeak for the Week of June 3
“Your Hair Is Like a Flock of Goats”
This week, we begin a new, recurring series – “Missed Links.” While we have this three-year, assigned reading schedule for worship (called the Lectionary), if we just followed that schedule we would miss important, insightful…even funny…parts of God’s Word. “Missed Link” Sundays will feature these passages of God’s Word overlooked by those who cobbled together the Lectionary. We begin this series with the seemingly humorous “compliments” (?) found in Song of Songs.
Day 1…Read Song of Songs 4:1-4
- Answer this – what do you make of these “compliments” the man is offering to his love?
- Answer this – what is the man really trying to say to his love (despite the fact that the metaphors he uses, may leave some of us laughing)?
Day 2…Read Song of Songs 4:1-4, 7 (focusing, especially on v. 7)
- Answer this – when you consider v. 7, who ELSE could these words be spoken of?
Day 3…Read Song of Songs 4:1-4 (again and especially v. 4)
- Consider this – up to this point, all of the compliments have been sweet and gentle (e.g., hair like goats, teeth like shorn sheep, lips like scarlet ribbon).
- Answer this – in v. 4 the man says of his beloved: “Your neck is like the tower of David, built with courses of stone…” How is this different, than the other compliments?
- Why significance might this have?
Day 4…Read Song of Songs 8:7
- Answer this – how does this verse illustrate and point us to the love God has for us in Jesus?
Day 5…Read Song of Songs 4:1-4, 7-9 (again)
- Consider this – Song of Songs is quite unique when it comes to books of the Bible: a) it’s the only book which is exclusively dialogue/monologue speaking; b) it doesn’t have any discernable structure; c) God never is mentioned or appears once.
- Answer this – why, then, is Song of Songs in the Bible?
- What purpose does it have in God’s Word?
Day 6…Read 2 Timothy 3:16
- Consider this – God in His Word has said clearly through Paul that ALL Scripture is “God-breathed” and is useful for a host of faithful things.
- Answer this – given the unique nature of Song of Songs, how is this book both “God-breathed” and useful for our teaching?