Song of Solomon 8 - Verse by Verse Bible Study

Song of Solomon 8 - Verse by Verse Bible Study

Video

September 18, 2013

So, tonight we are finishing up this fascinating book of Song of Solomon Chapter 8, Verse 1, the Bible reads, "O that thou wert as my brother, that sucked the breasts of my mother! When I should find thee without, I would kiss thee; yea, I should not be despised."

Now, if you would go to Lamentations, Chapter 4, it's interesting, the Book of Song of Solomon talks a lot about the breast, and in this Chapter that’s something that comes up a lot, and you know, first of all let me say this, a lot of people consider the Book of Song of Solomon to be explicit, because there are so many references to breasts in the Book of Song of Solomon, they then think, well this book is really explicit, this is in appropriate for children.

But in reality we've gone through all eight chapters of Song of Solomon, and really there's been nothing explicit, there's been no description of, the act that takes within marriage, there's no description of that act taking place, nothing overt anyway, and there's nothing talking about private parts or anything like that, it's actually a completely clean book, because we now that God's word is clean, and we know that every word of God is pure, the Bible teaches. He is a shield onto them that put their trust in him.

So, although there are a lot of intimate acts that are alluded to, or insinuated, the book is very clean and it does to go into any graphic detail about those types of things. But just because of the mentioning of the breasts, that’s basically why people think of it that way, but part of the reason for that is because our society kind of has a strange view toward breast, and here is why. I'm not trying to be inappropriate or anything, but honestly it's because of the fact that, breastfeeding used to be pretty much the only way that children were fed.

If you go back to just a few generations back, I mean, breast feeding was how babies were fed, they weren’t doing Enfamil, and this kind of formula-fed thing, and even in the Bible you'll notice that if a woman is not able to breastfeed her child, or doesn’t want to breastfeed her child, they would hire another woman to breastfeed that child. That was the other option. Or they would sometimes the grandmother even breastfed, like in the case of the Book of Ruth. Remember Naomi actually breastfeeds her grandchild, Ruth's son. And so we see throughout the Bible there's a lot of talk about breastfeeding, throughout the Bible.

Go to Lamentations 4, where I had you turn, and I'm taking the time to talk about this subject, you say, well, you are a preacher, you shouldn’t be talking about this, or you are a man, and you don’t have the right to talk about this. But do you see, here is the thing, I believe that everything in the Bible should be preached by a man, because I don’t believe in women preachers, in church.

RESPONSE: Amen.

If it's going to be preached in the house of God, and I believe that the whole word of God should be preached in the house of God, it's going to be preached by a man in this church. Look at Lamentations Chapter 4, and this is a very subject and this is why I want to cover it, but Lamentations Chapter 4, Verse 3, it says, "Even the sea monsters draw out the breast, they give suck to their young ones; the daughter of my people is become cruel, like the ostriches in the wilderness."

Again, the Bible is always scientifically correct, understanding the fact that whales are mammal, and that a mammal breastfeeds, that’s what mammal even means, is that it's something that gives suck to its young. So, the Bible gets it right here, because the sea monsters here is referring to whales, the great whales that God created, the huge animals that swell in the sea, that draweth the breast and give suck to their young ones. It says, the daughter of my people, by contrast, is become cruel, like the ostriches in the wilderness.

What does he mean by that. God to Job 39, and we can see exactly what he means by the ostrich, two animals are being compared here. The whale and the Ostrich. The sea monster draws out the breast and give suck to its young, on the other hand, the daughter of its people had become cruel like the ostrich. Look what it says in Job 39, Verse 13, "Gavest thou the goodly wings unto the peacocks? or wings and feathers unto the ostrich?"

Now watch what the ostrich does, "Which leaveth her eggs in the earth, and warmeth them in dust, and forgetteth that the foot may crush them, or that the wild beast may break them. She is hardened against her young ones, as though they were not hers. Her labor is in vain without fear; Because God hath deprived her of wisdom, neither hath he imparted to her understanding."

Now it's pretty interesting God is comparing certain women onto an ostrich, and he says the ostrich does not care about its children, I fact it's hardened against them, meaning it doesn’t have that natural tender-hearted soft spot that natural love and affection that a mother would have for her child, it says the ostrich has hardened against her children, like they are not even hers. Doesn’t even care or realize that a foot may crush them, somebody might step on them, they might be devoured by a wild beast. Doesn’t even care, because God has deprived her of wisdom.

Now, what I want to cover with this, is that, breastfeeding is important, and it's something that women have done for thousands of years, and you might say, well, it's optional, and again, this sermon might offend people but whatever. Now here is the thing about breastfeeding though, okay. Breastfeeding actually requires you to be with your child, because breast-fed babies, and by the way, putting your child on a -- a lot of people recommend a four-hour schedule, put that newborn on a four-hour schedule.

Let me explain something to you, my wife and I do not use any birth control. We don't practice birth control. Now, say, why do you preach about this, because here is the thing, most people knew this for the last 6,000-some-odd years, but today our society has lost a lot of knowledge and a lot of wisdom, and it needs to be brought back, and God's word has the answer here.

You have to understand, in Josiah Chapter 1, Josiah talks about the fact that when his wife weaned their child, it says, when she had weaned Loruhamah then she conceived, and brought forth another child. You see, when a woman breast feeds her child, she does not conceive again until she weans that child. Now, a lot of people will dispute that, doctors will laugh at that, oh, yeah, that’s a myth, and that’s a wives' tale. No, it's the truth.

Here is the thing, my wife and I don’t use any birth control, we don’t believe in birth control.

RESPONSE: Amen.

We believe in letting God open and close the womb. People will say; ah, you are just going to have children every nine months, that’s not healthy. You are going to just, your wife's uterus is going to fall out. Here is the thing. We don’t have children every nine months, if you look at our children they are naturally spaced, and we do not use any type of birth control, and a lot of times, they will say, oh, I know what you mean, you just don’t use this kind of birth -- No, we don't use any kind.

When I say that I'm including abstinence. I believe abstinence is a form of birth control, and we do not believe in that and we do not use that. We do not use any kind of birth control, because here is the thing, our children are naturally spaced through breastfeeding. If you are putting your child on a four-hour schedule, you are right, it's not going to work.

You are going to conceive again. But if you feed the child on demand, meaning when it's hungry you feed it, and if you sleep with the baby in bed with you or feed it on demand throughout the night, it will cause your children to be spaced further apart, because it will only be once they are weaned that you even are able to become pregnant.

Now, what we see though, is we see women today sometimes, and I'm not trying to insinuate anything about anybody, but I'm just saying that there are women today that I've seen and known they were hardened against their young ones as if they were not theirs, and they are just like, just gave birth, how fast can I get back to work, how fast can I drop this thing off, and go to great America, how fast can I drop this thing off and take a three-day vacation with my husband.

How fast can I drop off my eight-week old and go back into the workforce, that is not normal, that is not natural, that is not biblical. Women are supposed to give birth to children and care for those children, and part of that is through breastfeeding. That is something that causes a lot of bonding, that’s something that’s very healthy for the child.

Obviously, look, the milk that is made by the mother, is better than what's made in a factory. That should just tell us if God designed it, that’s the healthiest for your child. I get ads in the mail telling me that my child is going to be smarter if it starts on formula. I don't believe that for one second. I believe that the best option for your child is breastfeeding. Now, you might say, well, you don’t understand my situation, or whatever, okay, that’s fine, I'm not judging you, I'm just preaching to the church here, that that’s the best solution. Science will tell you that, the Bible is telling us here, that drawing out the breast giving such to the young one is a loving act that a mother does for her child. It's a good bonding time, it cause them to spend time together, unlike the society that says, two weeks after you give birth, six weeks after you give birth, you are dropping your newborn off as if it's not yours, and you are going to work.

Who knows what's going to happen to it. It's like the ostrich. Who knows? You are dropping it off at some random daycare, who knows what they are doing to it there, who knows the way that they treat it there, and how it's going to grow up.

And so I'm a strong believer, and I always have been, and it offends people sometimes, but I'm a strong believer in women staying home and raising the kids. No daycare, no dropping them off to go to work, stay home. If you say, well, it takes two incomes, then dad needs to get two jobs.

RESPONSE: Yes.

It's no fun working two jobs, but do you know what, children need their mother, that newborn needs its mother. What I wanted to say about the breast, go back to Song of Solomon, if you would, Chapter 8, is that part of the reason why when we see breast, we are just thinking that it's a taboo subject, it's partially because there's a lot less breastfeeding going on than there used to.

So many people are using formula, so many people are using bottles, that basically now, breastfeeding is like, if you see a woman breastfeeding, you freak out. Look, I've been in a church where there was no breastfeeding allowed in this church. It's like they expect you to show up for Sunday school, church, go through the whole thing without being able to feed the child. Look, I understand that they don’t a woman just completely whipping out her breast, just completely exposed, and just like not even trying to cover anything up, just letting it all hang out, but I get that.

But this church, they got upset eve if a woman had a blanket over it, completely covering it, and we said to the pastor, like, what in the world is the problem, if it's completely covered. He is like: yeah, but everybody knows what's going on under that blanket, so that could come -- It's like, are you insane, this is how women feed their child. Is this like that thing where pregnant women can't go in public, because everybody is going to know how they got that way or something, I mean, it's ridiculous. It's nonsense.

Look, and I'm telling you, I'm offended by it, because what it does it's this birth control culture is what it is. It's a birth control culture, because whenever you try to complain about it, and say, hey look, my wife needs to feed the baby. Or, hey, we don’t want to stick our kid and drop it off for three hours in your nursery. This is what it always is; oh, this is just a short little phase you go through in your life, and you'll get through it. That little phase when you have little kids.

That’s not a phase for me, having little babies and toddlers in the phase, it's my life. Okay? And so it's this birth control culture that basically doesn’t want to cater to people who are having a lot of kids, like God told you to. Be fruitful and multiply. I take a stand against it, I don’t think that anybody in our church should ever be hassled for breastfeeding. Do you know what I mean? Just understand that it's a normal part of life, and look, honestly, when the Bible talks about your nakedness, it talks about from your loins to your thighs.

Again, I don’t believe that women's breasts should just be exposed because of modesty. Right? Obviously we believe in modest apparel, and obviously when we talk about the breasts, they have two functions, biblically. Go to Proverbs Chapter 5, there are two functions of the breast according to the Bible, and we need to understand both functions.

The number one function is to feed the child, and the Bible talks a lot about that, and I'm not even turning -- if you want to I can just take the whole sermon, and we can go through all the breastfeeding passages. "Blessed is the womb that bear the in the paths which thou hast sucked."

We can go down the whole list, there is so much scripture on this subject, it could be a whole sermon, but what I'm saying is, we ought be squeamish or act like somebody is doing something when they are feeding their child, and breastfeeding their child. That's the way God designed it. Do you know what? God did not design it on a four-hour schedule, and newborns often need to eat every hour, I mean literally. Anybody who has kids know, a lot of times they need to be nursed constantly when they are a newborn.

The Bible says, "As newborn babes desire the sincere milk of the word that you may grow thereby." I question the sincerity of some formulas. Sincere means pure. I know that what's coming from my wife is pure, as long as she's eating pure food going in. Because it ends up going through the process whatever you do.

Look what the Bible says here, it says in Verse 19, of Proverbs 5, ”Let her be…" just talking about your wife, the wife of your youth, it says, "Let her be as the loving hind and pleasant roe; let her breasts satisfy thee at all times; and be thou ravished always with her love."

So obviously there is an erotic component to the breast, obviously we are not ignoring the fact that there is an aspect that has to do with husband and wife there, for the breast, but here is also a nursing or breastfeeding aspect, both of those two things exist. And so we have to understand that a child nursing his mother has nothing to do with anything obscene, it's just a normal activity. Do you know what, if you see a woman breastfeeding at our church you just need to chill out.

I mean that literally. Have you ever seen these articles in the news, where women are getting arrested. They are arrested in a restaurant, one of them got kicked off an airplane, just for nursing, just for breastfeeding. People have a weird view of it, because of that. People probably think that this sermon is over the top, what I've been preaching for the last 15 minutes.

Honestly, it's just because our culture has drifted away from just a normal culture where breastfeeding is just like an everyday thing that’s just constantly happening all the time, they are not really going to think anything of it, right? Whereas to us it's this rarity. Oh, wow, normal human behavior is happening, I'm shocked, because we live in such an artificial synthetic society.

On that same note, go down on the chapter, Chapter 8 -- Okay if you couldn’t handle what I just preached you are definitely not going to handle this. God down, if you would, to Verse 5, it says, "Who is this that cometh up from the wilderness, leaning upon her beloved? I raised thee up under the apple tree." Watch this, "There thy mother brought thee forth." Just in case you didn’t get it the first time, "There she brought thee forth that bare thee."

Where was she born? Where was she born? The Apple Tree Methodist Hospital? No. She was born under the apple tree. Now you say, whoa, that’s crazy, can you imagine giving birth outside, under a tree, oh that’s so unsanitary. But do you know what's really unsanitary, going to a place where sick people go, to give birth. Why would you got to a hospital to give birth. If you try to bring a newborn to the hospital, here is what they say, you can't bring that baby in here, way too many germs. It's like, well, they are giving birth in there.

And again, I understand that sometimes there is a need to go to the hospital and I'm not against hospital, and if you just choose to say: Pastor Anderson, I'm just doing a hospital birth, I'm going to be completely doped up, I'm going to be numb from the waist down, I'm going to just schedule a cesarean. You do whatever you want, I'm not trying to tell you how to live your life here, but I'm just trying to give you some wisdom that -- My first child was born at the hospital, Solomon, and we had such an awful experience, that the subsequent six children were born at home.

My wife has given birth at home six times with no anesthetic, no pain killer, just natural childbirth six times, and every time turned out great, healthy, no problem. You say, well, what if something goes wrong. Well, if something -- first of all, if you have a midwife, we don’t use a doctor either, we use a midwife, the midwives that we use are so knowledgeable, they can prevent like 99 percent of problems. They’ve done so many births, they are so knowledgeable, they do such a good job, that they can actually preempt a lot of problems.

A lot of our medical system, they create problems and then fix the problems. Whereas, the midwives seem to be more like trying to prevent problems from happening in the first place. For example, your baby is in the wrong position, the doctor is just like, cesarean. But then if it's in the wrong position the midwife is like, I don’t know, stand on your head, and do this and that, and they flip over. They are able to do a lot of stuff like that, and they are pretty smart.

It depends on the midwife that you are, there are some midwives that are awful, and there are other midwives that very good at what they. Honestly, if something goes wrong at the hospital, they still have to wheel you over, and get the staff and get the surgery ready, and if there's an emergency C-section, well do you know what, unless you are living out in the boonies, they can do that while you are on the ambulance ride.

Do you know what I mean? The hospital is still there, 911 is still there, the ambulance is still there, if something to go wrong, you can rush to the hospital, or drive yourself to the hospital. As far as the husband or the midwife, okay, don’t drive yourself. The husband or the midwife can get you there is what I meant by that. Anyway, I mean drive her to the hospital yourself.

What I'm saying is, people are like, wow you are this daredevil, having a home birth, you are just playing Russian roulette, but honestly, look up the statistics. It's safer. Just look at the statistics. And by the way, the statistics that the hospital does are fraudulent. They have been doctored to make it look better than it really is. But even their fraudulent statistics, home birth comes out better. Look it up, and the numbers don’t lie.

So, I think I read a quote a few days ago by Hypocrites, who is called the Father of Modern Medicine, he said, "If the doctor can't do anything to help he must be prevented from harming you." That’s pretty much the way I look at doctors a lot of the times. So they need to make sure that they do no harm, but what I'm saying is that giving birth under the apple tree used to be pretty normal. Now I'm not necessarily recommending an outdoor birth, simply because of the fact that today, you're probably not going to be able to privately do that, or modestly do that, because we live so close to one another.

If you were out in the middle of nowhere on your property, this could be viable, this could happen. Honestly, giving birth at home, we live in an overly sanitary society. Here is the thing, when you go through life in a plastic bubble, you don’t really develop any immunity, if you never let your kids go out and play in the dirt. And you just constantly just hand sanitizer washing, and just -- and I'm all for being clean, but if you read the Bible, there weren’t sandals, their feet are dirty all the time, they are outside they are giving birth under apple trees. Do you know what I mean?

Jesus is like; don’t worry about washing your hands before you eat. To each with unwashed hands defileth not a man. Now here is the thing, because there are so many germs, yeah, if you are touching a lot of other people, or getting around other people, you should wash your hands before you eat. But if you just have literal dirt, like soil on your hands, I've eaten with unwashed hands many times.

I quote that verse first just so that God, I'm like, God I'll do this. I quote the verse, "He with unwashed hand defileth not [SIC] a man," then I eat with dirty hands. But I wouldn’t like, if I touched other people, or if I touched something dirty, or if I shook hands with somebody, then I'll definitely need to wash my hand before I eat, because there is so many germs that people are carrying today.

As far as dirt, goodnight. I get so much dirt in my mouth, man, we swam in a dirty river a few days ago. Anyway, I'm just saying this overly sanitary, overly hospitalized. Look, women have been given birth for thousands of years, birth is not a disease. Pregnancy is not an illness. You say; why in the world did you give birth at home? It's like, what do they do at the hospital? The woman does all the work. And really, the only reason we even have a midwife, is just in case something goes wrong, that’s the only reason.

Our midwife pretty much doesn’t do anything. She just monitors, she checks signs and monitors, just to make sure everything is fine, but the less we need her, the better. We just let nature take its course, God has designed it in a very good way.

And part of the pain of childbirth is what produces the joy and ecstasy when it's over, and it's a bonding between mother and child. That's a whole other sermon of itself. Anyway I just wanted to show you that in here, that we need to understand that some things about our culture are a little bit imbalanced, and a little bit weird, and we are a little bit too obsessed with overly sterilizing and overly sanitizing everything, and it's actually harmful for our immunity.

It's good to get out in the dirt a little bit. You don’t have to just be obsessively, like Howard Hughes or something, about germs. Then also we see here that the Bible is talking a lot about breast, just relax, it's nothing weird, just take it easy.

Anyway it says in Verse 2, "I would lead thee," she said, "I would kiss thee; yea, I should not be despised." Verse 2, "I would lead thee, and bring thee into my mother's house, who would instruct me. I would cause thee to drink of spiced wine of the juice of my pomegranate."

Now what's interesting about this verse is that this is the only place in the whole Bible that the word juice is ever used. And the word wine is used many times, isn't it. The word juice is only used one time in the whole Bible.

Now go to Isaiah, keep your finger Song of Solomon, go to Isaiah 65, because a lot of people when they read the Bible that think that every time the word is used, they think it's always alcohol, they think Jesus turned water into booze. They think that every single time you see wine in the Bible it's alcohol, but in reality the word wine in the Bible is used to refer to both juice and wine.

Because back then the word juice was not the most common word. You see in English there are almost two words for almost everything in English, and the reason for that is because English was originally a Germanic language. It was a purely Germanic language when we were speaking Anglo-Saxon, Old English. But in 1066 AD, William the Conqueror invaded England, and the French Normans ruled over England, and they got rid of a lot of the English nobility, and so therefore the ruling class was all French, and all of the underclass were all speaking English, Old English, Anglo-Saxon.

And what happened is, over the next hundred years, they developed like a hybrid language, sort of like Spanglish. Except they developed a hybrid language between English French that they can communicate with one another. That hybrid language of English and French became what we would call Middle English, then over the next few hundred years, so by about 1150 AD they are speaking Middle English, and then that slowly evolved from Middle English to Modern English, and the King James Bible is written in Modern English.

People are like; ah, you are reading that Old English Bible. No, it's Modern English. This is Modern English. What we speak is called Contemporary English, but this is called Modern English, is the proper term for the language of 1611. So, because of the French influence, French is a Latin-based language. English is a German-based language, okay, so what you have is two words for everything, the Latin-derived word, and the Germanic derived word, and usually the fancier, big fancy smanchy words are going to be the Latin-based, because that was the ruling, the upper-class was speaking French.

Then the more everyday common word that the common man is using are more Germanic. Let me give you some examples, for example, in German the word sun is sonne, but in Spanish it's what? Sol, el sol, right? Here is the thing in English we have the word sun which Germanic but then we also have solar.

We have the moon which is German word, and then we have lunar, right, that comes from Latin. Because you are like, why is it lunar if it's about the moon, what is that. For example, we have fingers, with is a German word, but if we do something by hand, hand is a German word also, we do it manually. Well, that comes from the Spanish word, mono, okay Latin word mono, Spanish is a Latin language, I'm using Spanish because a lot of people here speak Spanish.

Do you see what I mean about how a lot of things can be expressed both Germanic and English. Here is the thing, juice is a Latin-based word, because if you think about it, what's the Spanish word for juice?

RESPONSE: Jugo.

Jugo. J-U-G-O, you can see the similarity with juice, right? Wine, German wein, okay, and I know it's similar in Latin as well. What I'm saying is, these are two words that mean the same thing, wine and juice. Well, in 1611, wine was by far the more common word, that’s all that’s used.

Now, you say, no Pastor Anderson, you are wrong, wine is alcohol. Okay, look Isaiah 65 Verse 8, and see if wine is alcohol, "Thus saith the Lord, As the new wine is found in the cluster, and one saith, destroy it not; for a blessing is in it, so will I do for my servants' sakes, that I may not destroy them all."

Here the new wine is found where, in the cluster, the cluster is the grape. Now are grapes alcoholic, have you been carded when you buy grapes. They ever asked you for ID, hey, you look like you are under 30, let me some idea on those green grapes. So this proves that the word wine, can just refer to juice right here, and this is one example, many times in the Bible it's referring to just juice. You say well, Pastor Anderson, why don’t they use the word juice? Because juice was not the common word. You say, okay, well then, why juice used in Song of Solomon 8?

Here is why, look at the verse again. The only reason that the word juice is used here is because the word is used in a row, and if they didn’t use it -- a different word, then it would sound weird, because look, it says, "I would lead thee, and bring thee into my mother's house, who would instruct me: I would cause thee to drink of spiced wine…" wine of the wine, you see it doesn’t right does it. Juice of the wine, that sounds better, or wine of the juice that sounds better.

It's like in Hebrews 1:1, the word divers is used many times throughout the Bible, tons of times you'll see the word divers, but the word sundry is only used in the Bible one time. It's used in Hebrews 1:1 because it says, "God, who at sundry times and in divers manners." The only reason he used sundry there is because he didn’t want to say, divers times and divers manners, it doesn’t sound good.

And the Bible that we have in English the Kings James Version, is not only translated accurately, but it's also translated into a very beautiful language. You read the NIV, it sounds like garbage, it sounds like -- it doesn’t even sound like good literature. Whoever translated it, it just seems they were this complete dweeb, that just didn’t understand anything about poetry. They just -- it's a machine -- it's like they typed in the King James in Google translate, and then out came the NIV. Literally, doesn’t it? It seems like they put the Greek into Google Translate, comes all wooden, comes all stilted and just sounding bad.

Look, you know the NIV sounds bad when you read. It's poor translation. The King J is very beautiful, and there's a lot of things in the Bible that, in the King James that rhyme, a lot of alliterations, where he uses the same letter a lot, there is a lot of time where he uses two different words to make it sound it sound more poetic, to make it sound better, and that’s what we have here, that’s the only reason why he use juice here, when you see the word wine, sometimes it means alcohol and sometimes not. You go by the context, it's easy to tell from the context.

Look at Verse 3, it says, "His left hand should be under my head, and his right hand should embrace me. I charge you, O daughters of Jerusalem, that ye stir not up, nor awake my love, until he please." We already saw Verse 5, about giving birth under the apple tree, that’s kind of a doozy there.

But look at Verse 6, it says, "Set me as a seal upon mine heart, as a seal upon mine arm: for love is strong as death; jealousy is cruel as the grave, the coals thereof are coals of fire, which hath a most vehement flame."

And here the Bible is comparing onto like a burning fire, a very vehement burning fire. Go back -- keep your finger in Song of Solomon, and go to Proverbs Chapter 6 [SIC], and also he covers in that verse, he says, "Jealously is cruel as the grave, love is strong as death. The coals thereof are coals of fire." So he compares jealousy and love to coals of fire. You see love and jealousy are something that should be a part of every marriage. Because jealousy in the bible is when we are possessive of our spouse. We don’t want to share them.

We are very possessive of them, and we don’t want other people filling any of our roles, as husband, as companion, as provider, we want to fill that role, and are jealous of that role, God's name is jealous, he is jealous God. We ought to be jealous husbands, that means we don’t just let our wives hang around with other men, hang on phone calls to other men, go out to eat with other, we need to be possessive of our wives and say, no, you are my wife.

But do you know what, it's a two-way street guys, we shouldn’t be going around and hanging around with other women either, we shouldn’t have all these female friends, we need to basically have close friends that are men, and our female companionship should all come from our wife. As a woman your male companionship should all come from your husband. Obviously a brother, or a father, or a son, is appropriate. But you know what I mean. Outside the family, there is no reason in the world, for you as a woman to have a male friend.

RESPONSE: Amen.

You say, well, he's gay so it's okay. He needs to be stoned to death then, that’s what the Bible says, all right. So don’t give me this, he's gay. These bunch of gays, these bunch of filthy faggots is what they are, do you know what, they are predators, and they all go both ways. Don’t buy into the world's propaganda of LGBT. Do you know what LGBT stands for in my book, let God burn them. That’s what I make it, LGBT, let God burn them, like he burned Sodom and Gomorrah.

And I'm not advocating killing gays, because I want God to kill them all, and to rain fire and brimstone. I'm not saying that we should do it, I wouldn’t -- I didn’t even harm a butterfly at that field trip, but anyway let alone killing someone. I'm not trying to kill people, but do you know what, they are worthy of death, and they ought to be executed by the government, okay.

RESPONSE: Yeah.

Anyway that was the law of the land back in the day, the good old days in Leviticus. Anyway, this thing of, oh, he's just a little lovable, queer little thing, do you know what, don’t you dare hang around with Sodomites. You say, well, I just have this make friend at work. And that’s the worst place for you to have a male friend at work. Because, look, you are hanging around with him all day, more than you are even at home, even. Women who work a fulltime job, and they are constantly playing around with another guy, I mean, that’s just a recipe for adultery right there.

Do you know what? Even if there is no adultery, you are going to make your husband jealous and angry. Man, if I hear somebody give my wife a compliment, I'm like, what's that’s supposed to mean. No. But you know what I mean. Obviously we are jealous of our wives; and you, as wives, should be jealous of your husbands, we as men should -- there is nothing that’s going to help enhance your life, or help your marriage, or help you serve God more by you having some close female friend.

And ladies, it's not going to help in any way, shape or form, having some male friend that you are close with. Outside of a close, blood relative, a close family member. I understand family is one thing. A non-relative, you don’t need to be buddy-buddy with the opposite gender. It's going to make your spouse jealous and it ought to make your spouse jealous.

But look what it says about adultery in Proverbs 6, because he actually uses the same illustration about coals of fire about jealousy.

Look at Proverbs 6 it says, Verse 27, "Can a man take fire in his bosom, and his clothes not be burned?" Look at the next verse, "Can one go upon hot coals, and his feet not be burned? So he that goeth in to his neighbor's wife; whosoever toucheth her shall not be innocent." Don't even touch a woman that’s married, stay away from her you will not be innocent."

He says next, "Men do not despise a thief, if he steal to satisfy his soul when he is hungry; but if he be found, he shall restore sevenfold, he shall give all the substance of his house. But whoso committeth adultery with a woman lacketh understanding; he that doeth it destroyeth his own soul. A wound and dishonor shall he get; and his reproach shall not be wiped away. For jealousy is the rage of a man: therefore he will not spare in the day of vengeance. He will not regard any ransom; neither will he rest content, though thou givest many gifts."

Do you know what that’s basically saying in a nutshell, if you commit adultery with another man's wife and die. You commit adultery with another man's wife he's probably going to kill you. I had a friend that worked with, and this guy was not a violent type guy, he was a peaceful guy. I'm a peaceful guy, but I could see myself killing somebody pretty easily in that situation.

But this guy was a pretty peaceful guy, he came home to find his wife committing adultery with another man, in the very act. And this guy that was committing adultery with his wife, was a Marine, and he was physically fit, but jealousy is the rage of a man. And my friend from work, he grabbed this guy, and literally beat him almost to death. He started beating him, and then he threw him through the front window of the house.

So the guy got all cut up, I mean the guy almost died, the guy went to intensive care, because he literally -- somebody finally pulled him off this guy, as he's just killing him with his bare hands. Obviously, we sympathize with him, because we all probably would have done something similar. And so, you understand not to play around with that. It's a wicked sin. God says those who commit it are worthy of death.

We see that also, you might be just revenged right then and there. When you start messing around with somebody else's wife. And you had better even put yourself in a compromising situation with somebody else's wife, that could even be misunderstood or misconstrued. You be very careful with that. Remember what Potiphar did when he thought that Joseph had committed adultery with his wife, he threw Joseph in prison. Obviously Joseph was innocent, but Potiphar, he believed his wife.

So, in Song of Solomon the Bible talking about the fiery, passionate, fervent love, and that’s how love should be within our marriage, it should be very strong. Now, look at Verse 7, going along with that same illustration about fire, it says, "Many waters cannot quench love." Quench meaning, the Bible often use the word quench, of putting out a fire; "Many waters cannot quench love, neither can the floods drown it; if a man would give all the substance of his house for love it would utterly be contemned."

Contemned means despised. What's that basically saying there is that love is worth more than all the money that you own. Love has more value. It says, if a man gave all the substance of his house, what he's saying that wouldn’t even be enough. Basically what he's saying is that our relationship with our spouse is more important money, it's more important than material things, it's more important than the substance of our house. Okay.

Go if you would to Romans Chapter 8. With that in mind, if the Bible is teaching us that love within marriage is more important than financial blessings, the substance of our house, our wealth. Okay, that tells me that it's not worth it to sacrifice my marriage for financial gain, or to sacrifice the happiness of marriage. For example, sending my wife to work. Now if I send my wife to work, it's possible that we could have more money, the substance of our house might increase, but then I'm also sacrificing our relationship. We are not going to have as good of a relationship. We are not going to have the right male-female rules.

The fire is going to be quenched in some ways, and we are not going to also have as much time together, we are not going to have as good as a relationship, other things that we might do, for example, you might have a job opportunity that estranges you from your wife. I've seen it where the guy goes far away to work for months or something, and his family is back.

I can see if it became a survival, but honestly, I wouldn’t separate from my family like that for months on end for financial gain. Because, honestly, we need to put people first, and things need to take a back seat. We need to not have an attitude where it's all about money, it's all about possessions, it's all about things. No, we need to have an attitude that says people are what's important, my marriage is what's important, my wife is what's important. And do you know what? I don’t really know anybody who is in danger of this, and I rarely meet people who are in danger of this, but working too much could also be an issue. Some men can be a workaholic, work too much, and not invest in their marriage.

I don't think most people have that problem, but most people don’t work enough, but some people don’t work, they work too much and that could be a danger, that’s putting things and the substance of your house before love, before your marriage, before that relationship.

But he said many waters can't quench love, he's talking about all the things that could try to extinguish the love in our marriage, that he can't do it. Look what the Bible says in Romans 8:35,"Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?" And remember the husband is supposed to love you wife, as what? Christ loves the church. Well, this is love of Christ, that means that our love as husbands should be patterned after this love in Romans 8, the love of Christ.

"Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation," we all are going to be gone, right. Just kidding. "Tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written, for thy sake we are killed all the daylong; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter. Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us. For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord."

So, that tells me that our love for our spouse should be for better, for worse, till death do us part. I mean we should not let anything come between us and the love we have for our spouse. We need to still love our spouse no matter what happens. I mean, that means when the finances are bad, maybe your spouse gets injured or disabled, or diseased, and they are not as lovable as they used to be, or maybe one spouse even goes to prison.

A lot of people divorce their spouse, because their spouse goes to prison, and maybe their spouse goes to prison, wrongfully, or maybe their spouse goes to prison, because they actually broke the law, you should still love your spouse, you should still forgive your spouse, you should not divorce your spouse who was sent to prison, no matter what they did to go there.

Obviously if they committed some really weird thing then they should be dead anyway, if they like a molester or rapist, or something like that. Most people that go to prison, 90-some percent is like drugs; 97 percent is a non-violent crime, it's drugs, it's taxes, it's embezzlement, it's something like that.

We ought to stay true to our spouse even when the make mistakes, even when they do wrong. Look, honestly, even if your spouse commits adultery, I don’t believe that you should divorce your spouse, I don’t believe in it. Now, I believe that you spouse should be killed if they commit adultery, but because we live in a society where they are not going to be killed, because it's not the law of the land. Look, adultery is not even against the law, is it?

RESPONSE: No.

Now, under God's way of life, if your spouse committed adultery, they are going to die, and then you marry someone else. But today, that’s not the law of the land, so honestly, theoretically, if my spouse ever committed adultery, I have two options, murder or stay married. But I will not divorce my wife. And I'm not saying that I'm going to murder my wife either, but I'm just saying, I would stay married, even though that would be hard, even that will be tough. Do you know what, God forbid it would ever happen, but I don't believe that there's any grounds for divorce.

I think that you should love your wife through thick and thin no matter happens, as a picture of the love of Christ. Let ask you this, if you commit adultery are you going to lose your salvation?

RESPONSE: No.

Is Christ going to stop loving you?

RESPONSE: No.

Well that’s the love that we need to have as husbands, that’s a love that knows no bounds, neither height nor depth. That's the love that we should have.

Go down if you would to Song of Solomon Chapter 8, Verse 7, we read, "Many waters cannot quench love, neither can the floods drown it; if a man would give all the substance of his house for love, it would utterly be contemned. We have a little sister, and she hath no breasts: what shall we do for our sister in the day when she shall be spoken for? If she be a wall, we will build upon her a palace of silver; and if she be a door, we will inclose her with boards of cedar. I am a wall, and my breasts like towers; then was I in his eyes as one that found favor."

And again, this is just referring to the erotic aspects of breast, it's just talking about the fact that, her husband likes the fact that she is well-endowed in that area, that’s all she's saying in those scriptures, as opposed to the little sister that has no breast.

Verse 11 says, "Solomon had a vineyard at Baalhamon; he let out the vineyard unto keepers; every one for the fruit thereof was to bring a thousand pieces of silver. My vineyard, which is mine, is before me: thou, O Solomon, must have a thousand, and those that keep the fruit thereof, two hundred.

Now, that’s an interesting verse because this verse goes in the face of communism. Now I know we are preaching about marriage, now what in the world, communism? But honestly, communism teaches that basically the worker should get all the benefit and all the proceeds as the owner. Basically communism teaches that the owner of the company should not make more than the worker. Everybody should get paid the same, and they are against capitalism, meaning they are against a guy owning a field, having workers come reap it and then they only get a fraction, even they are the ones doing the work.

Now in this passage, we see that there's a vineyard that’s owned here and it's hard to understand for me this scripture, but it's either owned by her or it's owned by Solomon, you know, depending on how you look at these verses. One of them two owns it, and basically the fruit thereof, when they sell the fruit that’s grown in this vineyard, it brings in a thousand pieces of silver. That’s how much the fruit goes for.

I don’t know how big those pieces of silver are, but let's say they are like an ounce, then I guess you are looking at, I don’t know, an equivalent of $25,000. I think silver is like what, 25 bucks an ounce, maybe it's a smaller coin, maybe 12, but I don’t know. It's some major vineyard, where the fruit of that vineyard goes for a thousand pieces of silver.

But look what it says in Verse 12, "My vineyard, which is mine, is before me; thou, O Solomon, must have a thousand, and those that keep the fruit thereof two hundred."

So out of that 1,000; 200 is being paid to the people who were actually doing the work. Does everybody do that? Two hundred goes to the actual worker, 800 are going to the owner. So, you say, well I don’t think that’s fair. The thing is, if you own land, and you own the vineyard, and you hire people, you can pay them whatever you want. And if you are paying them a wage, that’s a fair wage, for a fair amount of work, and you are making a killing like this looks a pretty good profit here. A thousand pieces of silver, give 200 to the people who actually kept the vineyard. Nothing in the world wrong with that.

And so, don't let people deceive you, occupy Wall Street, or whatever to try to tell you that basically, everybody should be making the same amount of money. Because do you know what, the owner of the vineyard has risk, because guess what, sometimes there's a crop failure, and then you still have to pay the 200 pieces of silver. Plus they are going tax the fire out of you when you make that kind of money too, honestly.

I didn’t understand this until I ran a business. I can honestly say that when I first started working, and I was an employee, sometimes I would be envious and think, oh, it must be nice. When you look at management, and when you look at the owner. It's easy to think to yourself, man, I'm doing the all the work, and I'm not getting paid. But do you know what, then you own your business and you realize the stuff they have to deal with. the paperwork, they are working -- they are staying up all night, they are working long days, they are on call all the time, and the risk.

I mean, when I started my fire alarm business, I borrowed $70,000, that’s a big risk. $70,000, and you don’t know, are you not going to get paid, is something going to happen, is something going to go wrong. Of course I got it all back, paid it all off in the first year, year-and-a-half of business, but still that’s stressful, right. Honestly, there are a lot of jobs where you don't get paid, there are jobs where you lose money, whereas when you are the worker it's a guaranteed thing, even though it's a low wage, it's guaranteed. Friday comes, you are getting paid. This is just a good scripture just to show capitalism in action, in Song of Solomon 8, Verse 12.

It says in Verse 13, "Thou that dwellest in the gardens, the companions hearken to thy voice: cause me to hear it. Make haste, my beloved, and be thou like to a roe or to a young hart upon the mountains of spices."

And so as we finish the Book of Song of Solomon, let me say this, there's a lot of good stuff in this book. I couldn’t even cover everything, it's such a deep book. There are some things that are difficult to understand, there are some things that are right on the service. But honestly, I hope that throughout the series the biggest thing that you take from it is that you just love your spouse that you care about your marriage, that you invest in your marriage, that you put time and energy into it, and that you go back and read the Book of Song of Solomon on your own, and try to glean from it.

I think it's a pattern book for a marriage that’s really on fire, for a marriage that’s passionate. Two people that are madly in love with each other. That’s what I want for my marriage, that’s what I want for your marriage. And so let's keep reading the Book of Song of Solomon, study it, learn it, memorize, understand it, and let it change you and help you to be the best husband and the best wife that you can be.

Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer. Father we thank you so much for this Book, and for the things that we've learned from it Lord. Please just help us to put these things into practice and to use the wisdom of your word to not fall into the trap of going the way of this world, which most marriages in this world will fail and end in divorce, and even the ones that don’t end in divorce are not where they need to be.

Help us to be different, help us to have a great marriage, patterned after your word, patterned after Proverbs, patterned after Song of Solomon, and so many other places, where you’ve taught us, in Ephesians 5 and elsewhere how to have a good marriage. In Jesus' name we pray.