“Do not stare at me…”
1 My main point. 2 Context. 3 Her testimony, request and confession. 4 Why is confession so important? 5 Application. 6 Motives to sincerely confess.
(The longer livestream version of this post is here on Youtube. Feeling wrongfully judged.)
1 My main idea or thought is that, in order for a close and closer, stricter relationship with God and His people we must have a sincere confession of sin to God and one another’s.
Sincere confession of sins is a fruit of Love to God. It is absolutely important, fundamental, and foundational in order to get closer to God, His Messiah and His holy people (which included the daughters of Jerusalem). The song is not just about two enemies that become close friends in marriage but also about how the born again Gentile gets closer to the daughters of Jerusalem. As a couple they become one and closer due to their union with God in love. She also get closer to His people.
2 Context. Read Song
It is about 971 BC. David is alive but old and dying. Adonijah set himself up as king when it should have been a promised Messiah, Solomon. Solomon is being anointed king for the first time and a born again Gentile slave woman falls in love with Him. She desired intimacy with him because experience God’s love through union and communion with him in marriage would be better than any other experience. Better than wine. She professed her love to him and desired for him to take her away with him in a hurry! He takes her to his chambers where there are people rejoicing in the king’s love.
Not everyone is rejoicing. The Daughters of Jerusalem were looking down on what they thought was a sinful devil worshipping Gentile. She gives her testimony, confesses her sins to the Daughters of Jerusalem and the Shulammite gets accepted. (Shulammite means “peace” for she made peace with God, His Messiah, Solomon and His holy people which included the daughters of Jerusalem.) Blessed are the peacemakers for they are children of God.
Naamah was an Ammonite. I believe Naamah is the bride in the Song. (I strongly believe it was Naamah, not I preach it is Naamah. Because I could be wrong.) Ammonites were enemies of Israel. Two people groups at war with one another. They hated each other. History of Ammonites. How can a woman who hates God and the Messiah love God and His Messiah. How could that marriage work or honor God or display His Glory and Love. God’s hatred rightly abided on the wicked Gentiles. Yet, God sent His Son to die for some of them. His bride. Love to enemies is on display. God’s love to her by way of union and communion with a type of Jesus Christ. (Definition of communion is “a mutual sharing of those things that delight those in that relationship) ie. Love to God, his people, love of holiness etc.
Her sinful father was probably killed by a holy Jew, David and his men. She was a sinful Gentile but now is born again and loves the son of David, the king of peace, beloved son of God (Jedidiah), the coming Messiah (David is still alive), coregent king Solomon.
3 Her testimony and confession of sins.
“I am dark but lovely,
O daughters of Jerusalem,
Like the tents of Kedar,
Like the curtains of Solomon.
6 “Do not stare at me because I am swarthy,
For the sun has burned me.
My mother’s sons were angry with me;
They made me caretaker of the vineyards,
But I have not taken care of my own vineyard.” Solomon’s song of songs 1:5-6
What is included in her testimony? 1 Humility. She has a right view of herself in relation to God and His people. Dark am I, yet lovely. She knows she is sinful and also dark on the outside. Her being dark is a sunburn and also her sin. She compares her darkness to that of being like a tent of Kedar. A dwelling place of evil. If her original darkness was only and always then when the daughters of Jerusalem would stare down at her, their doing so would be justified. She rightly see’s her sin.
She rightly see’s her loveliness. Dark am I, yet lovely. They are looking at her as if she doesn’t belong and ought is not fit to be united to their holy Messiah in marriage. It’s not just external loveliness that she is talking about because the comparison’s are that of moral opposites. Tents of being a place of evil. And the tent curtains of Solomon being curtains set apart for God, therefore holy.
The Hebrew word for lovely also carries with it the idea of being useful or fit. So in her testimony she tries to make peace with the Daughters of Jerusalem by letting them know that, “Yes I am currently sinful and dark but lovely. Fit to be united to a holy type of Jesus Christ. What is truly lovely about a person. Are they holy or dead in their sins? If holy then truly beautiful or lovely and fit for glorifying God and Love in Marriage.
She wants to be accepted based on inner beauty rather than her sinful past.
Included in her testimony is the fact that they are treating her like a sinful prostitute rather than a holy virgin. “veiled woman” Song 1:7 “Why should I be treated and cast out like an evil prostitute”
Her request. “Do not stare at me because of the way I look on the outside.” The enemies of God or Gentiles did the forced labor. She was sunburnt, therefore she looked like an enemy of God on the outside.
Do not judge me based on outward appearance. Then she goes on to confess her lack of doing her duty before God. She confesses her sin. She doesn’t point the finger at her hateful brothers but at herself. “My own vineyard, I have neglected.” 1:6 She was supposed to be a good steward of her own vineyard, yet neglected it. She was a sinful caretaker of her own vineyard. She sincerely confesses her sin. How do we know it is sincere? She had the Love of God in her heart. Song 8:7. A mighty flame above all others was in her heart. A person that loves God will be more and more sincere in their confession. Ps 51. Romans 12:9 Love ought to be humble, genuine, sincere and without hypocrisy. Repentance or not doing the sin again is proof that the confession was sincere. The sinful pattern ought to be broken.
Her request is for them to not wrongfully judge her. (It may feel at times that we are being judged by God as a sinner separated from God rather than as a child. God lovingly disciplines his children so that they may be holy.)
4 Why is a testimony and sincere confession of sins so important? We must know God in order for us to have a right view of ourselves. Her sincere testimony is proof that she is humble and able to see her darkness and loveliness properly. Dark am I, yet lovely in Christ. Dark am I, yet lovely due to my love to the holy king as his servant. When she says his name is pleasing, she professes her love of complacency, benevolence in and to him.
If we have no testimony as to our past life and new heart then we are dead in our sins that will forever separate us from God. Rather then standing in the Grace of God in Christ, having a new heart, being a new creation, having love to God in the heart verses enmity, then we can get closer to God, His people, our spouse and other’s in Christ Jesus. At our church we give our testimony at our Baptism.
5 Applicaiton
Sincerely confess your sins. Humbly confess your sins. Say what God says about your sins. Be specific. Be detailed with God. Be sincere. Hide nothing.
Confess your sins to other’s. If you have wronged someone then confess it. Ask them to forgive you. Which is the same as asking them to not hate, be angry with or bitter to due to your sin or offending them. Please don’t be angry with me.
6 Motives to confess
It will be your happiness to have a clear conscience.
Confessing of sin, evil or wrongdoing will bring you closer to the one you love rather than separation. Confession and forgiveness is crucial to a happy, loving, growing tighter and closer relationship with our beloved/Beloved. So make haste and do it.
More on this subject.
Imagine Rahab, a prostitute, wanting to join the Jews in worshipping God.
Or imagine if you were a Christian and had a Son who was a Christian and Ben Ladin’s daughter (whom you would assume was a Muslim) wanted to marry your son?
Or imagine you are at Bible Study or Church and AC/DC, a Hells Angel biker or a punk rocker with a mohawk. Imagine the looks they might get?
A woman who looks like a Gentile, their enemy, walks into Solomon’s chambers at David’s palace and the Daughters of Jerusalem are there. She is either acting as if she belongs or that it’s okay for her to be with the holy king. (I use the word “holy” because judging from outward appearance only she was unholy. What does darkness and light have in common? How can two walk together unless their hearts be in agreement?
She is feeling wrongfully judged when she says, “Do not stare on me…”
It’s not really their fault. The believing daughters of Jerusalem were looking down on her because she looked like a non believer or Gentile. She was a born a Gentile but before she fell in love with Solomon at his first anointing she got a new heart that had Love to God in it. She had a flame above all others in her heart, the Flame of YHWH. Flame Jah (in the Hebrew). A flame of Love above all other’s comes from God, is something of God and motivates the person to do good out of love to God. So when we read Solomon’s song of songs 8:7 when the bride describes the Love which she had in her heart it is no common grace love, but a special love that only believers in YHWH had. Therefore was fit to be a wife of a Jewish Messiah and ought not to be judged as having an uncircumcised heart.
Some issues needed to be delt with before engagement. These were called foxes.
List of her possible foxes 2:15. Foxes are anything that gets in the way of a blossoming relationship. What are you foxes?
As believers we might say when feeling guilty and sensing God’s displeasure, “Treat me not according to my sins and what they deserve but forgive me due to what Jesus has done for me.”
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