Lesson 7 “Confess your sins often”

“Dark am I,….like the tents of Kedar”

 Song of Songs 1:5

 

 

Context

Context of the Song.

The Song of Songs is about the union and communion of the coming Christ with His people.  It illustrates the Love of God for us in union and communion with the coming Messiah in a marriage parable between King Solomon and and enemy slave girl needing redemption.

Context of the section:

Song 1:2-2:7  From separation due to ignorance and sin to overwhelming experiences of His love through deepened and continued communion with God in Christ.  So she is feeling separated and wants to feel close so she confesses her sin and darkness.

She is a sinful, enemy, slave girl, needing redemption who is separated from but wants peace and rest through union and communion with King Solomon in marriage.  She feels despised, rejected and unworthiness due to her past and current sins, so she confesses her sin.  “Dark am I,…like the tents of Kedar.”  She desires a closer more intimate relationship with God through the King to whom peace belongs because it is better than anything else.

Context of the verse:

Her confession comes right after greater revelations of Christ.  The Name of Jesus is like perfume poured out and she senses His worthiness of praise, adoration and delight. As she grew in her understanding of God in Christ, she gets a right view of her sinfulness and imputed loveliness so she tells her testimony to other believers which is summed up in the words “Dark am I, yet lovely” Song 1:5.  She understood more of her sin and her loveliness in Christ so she confesses “Dark am I (with sin), yet lovely (in Christ) to the daughters of Jerusalem/or other Christians.  This lesson will focus on the confession of her darkness, then the next lesson (8) will focus on the confession of her loveliness in Christ.

1. Her confession of sin.  “Dark am I,… like the tents of Kedar”
   1. “Dark am I”
   2. Why the metaphor.  “Like the tents of Kedar.”
2. What brought about this confession
   1. Greater revelations of Christ
      1. “Your Name is like perfume poured out.”
   2. Comparing herself to other upright believers
      1. They were upright
      2. They were praising His love more than wine

1.  Her confession.
   1. What she confesses.  First her “darkness”.  Dark am I.   Dark because of my current and past sins.  Dark am I with sin.  Miserably dark am I with sin.”Dark am I,.. like the tents of Kedar….My own vineyard I have neglected.”  As an enemy of God, I was enslaved to sin and my own sinful desires I followed.

      As we grow closer to God in Christ we gain a greater knowledge of Him and ourselves.    “Dark am I…” is the confession of a broken and contrite heart.   As you see your sin worse see your tent darker more evil than before.  Not that you are sinning more but that you see the same sin worse than before because you saw God more beautiful than before.   Each time we get a greater revelation of Christ we see our tent darker and our holiness more lovely than before. Not because the tent got darker but because we see the dark tent darker and more evil than before.  Our darkness is unimaginably evil.  We were enemies of Holy, Holy, Holy God!

      Sin=Missing the mark, failing to do something you know is right (James 4:17), anything that “falls short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23).

      Trespasses=“to fall away after being close beside.” A trespasser is someone who crosses a line or climbs a fence that he should not cross or climb.

      Trangresssions= refers to presumptuous sin. It means “to choose to intentionally disobey; willful trespassing.”  This type of disobedience God particularly hates.  Proverbs 6:18  “The Lord hates…A heart that devises wicked plans.”

      Iniquity=“premeditated sinful choice, continuing without repentance.” Micah 2:1 says, “Woe to those who plan iniquity,”

   2. Who it is that is dark?
      1. A single female, in debt, enemy slave girl that needs redemption.  She is a natural born enemy of God and His kingdom.  1 Kings 9:20-23  She is in slavery, “made me keeper of the vineyards” Song 1:6.  She is sinful, “My own vineyard I have neglected” Song 1:6.   She is ignorant of how to get close to and hold communion with God in Christ.
   3. Who she confesses her dark sinfulness to?
      1. She confesses her dark sinfulness to the “Daughters of Jerusalem”  Basically, you can think of these as other Christians.
2. Why does she pick the metaphor “Like the tents of Kedar”
   1. The tents of Kedar were the dwelling place of evil people.  She compares her sinfulness to a godless Beduin desert dweller.  Descendants of Ishmael, not descendants of the promised one.
   2. Metaphors are used to highlight similarities between two things.  To get a better idea of your sin an outward illustration of an inward spiritual unseen reality is needed for greater understanding of your evil indwelling sinfulness.  The evil left inhabiting your soul after conversion.  The sinful dark part of her physically unseen soul that God can see but she doesn’t want God to stare at.  The metaphor of a dark tent is used so that we can compile all our sin into the idea of a dwelling place inside us that is evil, sinful and worthy to be despised and hated.  “Tents of Kedar”  Dark am I with unredeemed flesh, unredeemed sinful part of me, sinful garment of evil like a tent. She is in distress of her heart for the remainder of the imperfections in her character.  She see’s her imperfections and confesses “Dark am I,…” yet also she see’s some loveliness or holiness about herself and says, “yet lovely” through union and communion with Christ our Lord and righteousness.

“Dark am I..like the tents of Kedar.”  This is the bride to be confessing her sin and guilt using  a metaphor that helps us to understand sin and evil better.   Dark is a good metaphor for sin.  Scriptures uses the term darkness or dark to describe sin and its effect on the soul of man.  She see’s her darkness as “dark like the tents of Kedar”  These were black, very black tents that had evil people dwelling in them.  Her sin is a dark dwelling place of evil.  Her unredeemed flesh is a dwelling place of evil.  “Dark am I…like the tents of Kedar”

Application

1. Resolve to confess your sin as often as God convicts you of it, yet see your loveliness in Christ.
   1. In Psalm 32:5, the psalmist says, “I acknowledged my sin to you and did not cover up my iniquity. I said, ‘I will confess my transgressions to the LORD.’”
2. Confess “Dark am I,…   like the tents of Kedar”  when feeling convicted of your sin.   When confessing your sin think of your sin as a dark dwelling place of evil as part of your soul.  You did the sin.  It came from your heart.
3. Confess sins of commission.  Sins of commission are sinful things you committed but should not have. Sinful things we did that make us dark.   Like hating God or hating our neighbor.  Sinful things we commit are having other Gods, having a wrong idea of God, finding pleasure in sin, misusing the Lords Name, lying, stealing, cheating, coveting, adultery, lust, pornography, anger, gossip, backbiting, slander, and any addiction.  These are things God commands us to do.  We disobeyed God’s direct command in His word.  We distrust God.  Unbelief is a sin and confess it.  We ignore and rebel against Him and His Word.  We think less of God and more highly of ourselves, this is pride. We trust our own power and strength instead of depend on Him.  We are “Dark like the tents of Kedar.”
4. Confess sins of omission.  These are sins we omit.  You didn’t do them.  Here is a list of things that make us dark because we omitted them.  We sin by failing to forgive others, witness, read our bibles, do right, help the poor, tithe, grow in the the knowledge and Love of Jesus, tell the truth, be faithful, pay taxes, taking communion in an unworthy manner etc.  Anything we omit.

 

 

 

Questions for further understanding

1. Who are the daughters of Jerusalem?
2. What can we do to get a clearer view of our sin?
3. How does confessing our sin keep us in communion with God?
4. What are the 4 types of disobedience to God?
5. How often should we confess our sin?
6. Is the bride of Christ having a balanced or unbalanced view of God in Christ?
7. What happens if you don’t confess your sin and darkness?