God’s Word for You
Song of Solomon 8:2-4 Where she taught me
by Pastor Timothy Smith on Sunday, August 25, 2024
2 I would lead you.
I would bring you to my mother’s house—
where she taught me.
I would give you spiced wine to drink,
the juice of my pomegranates.
This verse, from the mouth of the bride, is strange to consider from the standpoint of earthly marriage, since the significance of what she says is lost to our culture. The Holy Spirit did not give us any other examples of this return to the mother’s house in the other poetry of the Bible, or in the prophets, because we don’t need to know.
For the spiritual application, we must look at the words, “she taught me.” This feminine verb has “my mother” for its subject, and the church learns from itself, generation to generation, congregation to congregation. We are informed about our faith and about many things (especially warnings about false doctrines) down the years. So Christ was also taken into the synagogue and the temple as a boy, and was found by Mary and Joseph “sitting among the teachers, listening to them and asking them questions” (Luke 2:46). The Lord grew during his boyhood; “he grew in wisdom” as well as in stature. He learned the Scriptures just as we do as children. This was part of the way he had emptied himself, humbling himself as a student who practiced and memorized his catechism before he even humbled himself to be obedient to death (Philippians 2:8).
We would suppose then, without pressing the comparison too strongly, that the spiced wine and the juice of pomegranates is a reference to other human things—his learning and education, perhaps, as well as the joys of friendship, the trade he learned under Joseph as a carpenter (Mark 6:3), sailing with his apostles and the human manipulation of wind, tide, wave and canvas to subdue the earth and make it serve man as the Father commanded (Genesis 1:28). This seems to be the right understanding, since pomegranates were not a symbol of love but of more everyday prosperity. But then there is also the “spiced wine.” Luther prefers to let this mean the “new wine” that is not like Moses and the prophets (Matthew 9:17), but is the New Testament.
3 His left arm is under my head
and his right arm embraces me.
4 Daughters of Jerusalem,
Swear an oath to me:
Do not arouse or awaken love until it so desires.
As the couple falls into an embrace, we remember that these things happened earlier (2:6). At that time, I did not think there was any special significance to his left arm under her head, and I still do not. But Luther had something additional to say, and it’s never a waste of time to listen to the Reformer: “Here he uses yet another amorous image borrowed from the marriage embrace. By this image he indicates that this kingdom is in God’s protection, and is ruled and directed by God… We are plainly not to be in doubt concerning God’s favor towards us.”
Here the oath is shorter but still similar to the other times it has appeared (2:7; 3:5). Is it shorter because by now it is so familiar? Is it shorter because here in the final chapter, the couple is perhaps not yet married, and the songs within the Song are not in chronological sequence—and therefore we are not being told with a hint that the man and woman are now in a passionate embrace? Perhaps this is so. Certainly those who are not married need this same caution, even more than married couples do (although we have shown that husbands and wives must also be mindful of one another and their desires). But in any case, our spiritual application remains very much the same. It is only by invitation that we enter into fellowship with God. We do not by our own reason, strength, thinking or choosing come to faith in Christ. Faith is a gift.
Our Lutheran Confessions summarize the passages in which Scripture teaches us how faith comes to us: For us to obtain faith, “God instituted the office of the ministry, that is, provided the Gospel and sacraments. Through these, as through means, he gives the Holy Spirit, who works faith, when and where he pleases, in those who hear the Gospel. And the Gospel teaches that we have a gracious God, not by our own merits but by the merits of Christ, when we believe this” (Augsburg Confession V:1-3). And the Confession adds: “In addition, those who teach that the Holy Spirit comes to us through our own preparation, thoughts, and works, without the external work of the Gospel, are condemned” (V:4).
Daughters and Sons of Jerusalem, the true Jerusalem which is the Holy Christian Church (Revelation 3:12, 21:2), treasure your faith, and know that your Lord keeps you safe in his embrace.
In Christ,
Pastor Timothy Smith
Pastor Smith serves St. Paul’s Lutheran Church in New Ulm, Minnesota. To receive God’s Word for You via e-mail, please visit the St. Paul’s Lutheran Church website.