Today, I am reading and commenting on  Song of Solomon 1-8.

Many people take the Song of Solomon as an allegory for our relationship with Christ.  That has never worked for me, although I can see it when someone else makes the connections.  Others take it as a tale describing the love of a particular couple.  That seems closer to the motivation for writing it.  However, I think it represents an allegory about what we should seek in a romantic relationship.  In fact, the central lesson I think we should take from it is this “Do not awaken love until is so desires,” or as other translation render it, “Do not awaken love until it is ready.”  The love being referred to here is erotic love, not the love which God commands us to have for our neighbor.  While the love we are commanded to have for our neighbor should be part of what we feel when we awaken erotic love, there is a physical part of the love being talked about here that is not part of that love.  The Song of Solomon makes clear that erotic love is not ready to be awakened until both parties feel it.  These two lovers were irresistibly attracted to one another.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.