1 Solomon’s best work

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3 Allegory ▫ Christ & the Church Celebration ▫ Sex is good or fun ! ! Manual ▫ "Six E-Z Steps" Allegory Celebration Manual

4 Of this “Reader’s Theater” or “Opera” Groom / Husband Bride / Wife Daughters of Jerusalem (DOJ)

5 1.Please stay with me to the end… 2.Poetry is powerful and sometimes inexact, but... when you put the whole book together the basic message is clear.

6 1A Courtship & Fulfillment, 1:1—5:2 2B Conversation...wife & DOJ, 1:2-8 3B King rejoices in his wife, 1:9-10 5B Conversation between couple, 1:12-- 2:6 I love him and I love being married to him!

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8 1A Courtship & Fulfillment, 1:1—5:2 2B Conversation...wife & DOJ, 1:2-8 3B King rejoices in his wife, 1:9-10 5B Conversation between couple, 1:12-- 2:6 I love him and I love being married to him! 6B Initial “charge” of the Wife, 2:7--3:5 2:7 I adjure you, O daughters of Jerusalem, by the gazelles or the wild does: do not arouse or awaken love until it is ready! (NRSV) BACK OFF ! ! ! Don’t get physically involved

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10 2:7 BACK OFF ! ! Easy for YOU to say ! ! We had every reason... 2:8-9 He is PHYSICALLY attractive 2:10--3:4 He is ROMANTICALLY attractive He initiated the relationship and invited me 14 Desired to know me 15 Resolved to avoid conflicts Mutually committed 3:1-4 Always searched for one like him 3:5 BACK OFF ! !

11 7B The Glory of a pure wedding, 3:6-11 8B The Lovemaking...wedding night, 4:1--5:2 2A Conflict & Reunion 1B Cause of the Problem, 5:2-7 2B Her attempt to resolve it, 5:8--6:3 3B The reconciliation of the couple, 6:4-13

12 3A Contentment & Security 1B The Couple Express their love, 7:1- -8:3 The kind of relationship which endures conflict and continues to grow is one founded on committed & informed relationship rather than mere physical attraction.

13 3A Contentment & Security 1B The Couple Express their love, 7:1- -8:3 2B A Final Word of Counsel concerning Moral Purity, 8:4-14 1C The Theme: Don’t get involved before the right time! 8:4 2C Why? Because of the uncontrollable power of (sexually-charged) love, 8:5-7 It makes you crazy and you think there’s more to the “relationship” than there really is! 3C The understanding response of the DOJ, 8:8-9 8 What shall we do for our sister on the day when she is spoken for? 9 If she is a wall, we will build on her a battlement of silver; but if she is a door, we will barricade her with boards of cedar. Wall = no entrance, then we will encourage her Door = “loose” then we will barricade her 4C The blessedness of purity, 8:10-14

14 Physical Relationship ? Personal Relationship ? 1) May or may not be deeply compatible 2) You won’t have the personal integrity or spiritual walk to build an intimate, personal relationship with another. Marriage Covenant

15 Physical Relationship Personal Relationship 1) May or may not be deeply compatible 2) You won’t have the personal integrity or spiritual walk to build an intimate, personal relationship with another. Respect, Self-control, Integrity Marriage Covenant

16 “Every man who knocks on the door of a brothel is looking for God”“Every man who knocks on the door of a brothel is looking for God” --GK Chesterton You were designed (from the ground up)You were designed (from the ground up) for intimacy with God first andfor intimacy with God first and then with another personthen with another person in the bonds of a covenant.in the bonds of a covenant.

17 “the rightness of sex is tied … to a solemn and public covenant for life between two individuals, and sexual arousal and delight is a response to the gift of a uniquely personal intimacy with the whole person that each partner has conferred in enduring faithfulness upon the other.

18 Intimacy is the mutual mingling of souls who are taking each other into themselves to ever increasing depths. The truly erotic is the mingling of souls

19 Intimacy is a spiritual hunger of the human soul, and we cannot escape it. This has always been true and remains true today. We keep hammering the sex button in the hope that a little intimacy might finally dribble out. In vain. For Intimacy comes only within the framework of an individualized faithfulness within the kingdom of God Dallas Willard, The Divine Conspiracy, p. 163

20 Why does this wisdom ring true? Relationships are founded in the soulRelationships are founded in the soul They’re only celebrated in the bodyThey’re only celebrated in the body