Song of Solomon 8 (Sermon 2017.7.2)

July 5th, 2017 | John Chandler

Kevin Jordan shares from Song of Solomon 8.

The Song of Songs (also known as the Song of Solomon) is a passionate love song depicting the love shared between a bridegroom and his bride. Traditionally, though, it has also been understood to be an allegory or a picture of God’s love, particularly the love of Jesus Christ (the Bridegroom) for His bride, the Church and the Church’s love in response.

Song of Songs 8:6-7:

Place me like a seal over your heart, like a seal on your arm; for love is as strong as death, its jealousy
unyielding as the grave. It burns like blazing fire, like a mighty flame.Many waters cannot quench love;
rivers cannot wash it away. If one were to give all the wealth of his house for love, it would be utterly scorned.

From Kevin:

In the words of the Apostle Paul from Ephesians 3:17-19, “I pray that (we), being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that (we) may be filled with the measure of all the fullness of God.” Amen.

How many of you have ever been bullied by the strong hand of death?

At the age of eighteen I left home to go to college. . .and I never again saw my mom healthy. Within a
year she was dead, her body ravaged by cancer. . .

Death, like a bully, pushes in uninvited, wreaking havoc in our lives, leaving in its wake tremendous pain
and grief. . .

Some of you in this room know exactly what I’m talking about: You too have been struck, stung, even
slammed and wounded by the strong hand of death.

Have you ever been pursued, captured, and held captive by the Strong Hand of Love, the Strong Hand
of God’s Love, which according to the Bible here in Song of Songs 8, is “as strong as death”?

“I could never myself believe in a God, if it were not for the cross. The only God I believe in is the One
Nietzshe ridiculed as ‘God on the cross’. In the real world of pain, how could one worship a God who was
immune to it? I have entered many Buddhist temples in different Asian countries and stood respectfully
before the statue of the Buddha, his legs crossed, arms folded, eyes closed, the ghost of a smile playing
round his mouth, a remote look on his face, detached from the agonies of the world. But each time after a
while I have had to turn away. And in my imagination, I have turned instead to that lonely, twisted,
tortured figure on the cross, nails through hands and feet, back lacerated, limbs wrenched, brow bleeding
from thorn-pricks, mouth dry and intolerably thirsty, plunged in God-forsaken darkness. That is God for
me! He laid aside his immunity to pain. He entered our world of flesh and blood, tears and death. He
suffered for us. Our sufferings become more manageable in the light of his. There is still a question mark
against human suffering, but over it we boldly stamp another mark, the cross which symbolizes divine
suffering.” (John Stott, The Cross of Christ, pp.335-336).

Song of Solomon 8 (Sermon 2017.7.2)

July 5th, 2017 | John Chandler

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