1 00:00:02,720 --> 00:00:05,400 Speaker 1: Life Audio. 2 00:00:11,360 --> 00:00:14,640 Speaker 2: Thank you for listening to your Daily Bible Verse, the 3 00:00:14,720 --> 00:00:18,400 Speaker 2: podcast that examines one verse each day to learn more 4 00:00:18,440 --> 00:00:21,680 Speaker 2: about God and his will for our lives. I'm your host, 5 00:00:22,239 --> 00:00:26,240 Speaker 2: Kyle Norman. After a brief message for one of our sponsors, 6 00:00:27,040 --> 00:00:41,800 Speaker 2: we will continue with today's verse. Today's verse can be 7 00:00:41,800 --> 00:00:44,960 Speaker 2: found in the Song of Songs, Chapter two, Verse ten. 8 00:00:46,920 --> 00:00:50,640 Speaker 2: My beloved speaks to me and says, arise my love, 9 00:00:51,040 --> 00:00:55,760 Speaker 2: my fair one, and come away. What is your favorite 10 00:00:55,840 --> 00:00:59,120 Speaker 2: love song? What is the song that seems to touch 11 00:00:59,160 --> 00:01:02,760 Speaker 2: you in the deepest part of your heart? From classics 12 00:01:02,840 --> 00:01:06,399 Speaker 2: like Frank Sinatra's fly Me to the Mood to recent 13 00:01:06,480 --> 00:01:12,160 Speaker 2: hits by Taylor Swift, love songs are ever popular. In fact, 14 00:01:12,200 --> 00:01:16,600 Speaker 2: even today, the theme of love outstrips every other theme 15 00:01:16,720 --> 00:01:23,120 Speaker 2: in modern music, politics, religion, spirituality, family and friends, personal struggles. 16 00:01:23,440 --> 00:01:26,960 Speaker 2: They are all less frequent as a theme than the 17 00:01:26,959 --> 00:01:30,640 Speaker 2: theme of love. I wonder if this is why the 18 00:01:30,680 --> 00:01:34,800 Speaker 2: Bible contains a love song roughly in the middle of 19 00:01:34,840 --> 00:01:38,959 Speaker 2: the entirety of scripture. Now, we might not always read 20 00:01:39,000 --> 00:01:42,039 Speaker 2: from the Song of Solomon. If you're like me, you 21 00:01:42,160 --> 00:01:44,880 Speaker 2: might even forget it's there. We jump from the Psalms 22 00:01:44,920 --> 00:01:48,840 Speaker 2: to the prophets. But this book, which is unique in 23 00:01:48,920 --> 00:01:53,440 Speaker 2: all of Scripture, is beautiful and deserves our attention. It 24 00:01:53,520 --> 00:01:58,120 Speaker 2: is romantic in nature, even sensual at times. And on 25 00:01:58,240 --> 00:02:01,680 Speaker 2: one hand, this is a song sung between a lover 26 00:02:02,200 --> 00:02:06,960 Speaker 2: and his beloved. It is a romantic love poem. But 27 00:02:07,040 --> 00:02:11,160 Speaker 2: on the other hand, this small book declares God's heart 28 00:02:11,280 --> 00:02:16,160 Speaker 2: to us. All Jewish commentators have always seen this romantic 29 00:02:16,240 --> 00:02:20,560 Speaker 2: poem as an expression of God's desire for God's people, 30 00:02:21,360 --> 00:02:24,360 Speaker 2: and the history of the Church has continued this interpretation. 31 00:02:25,800 --> 00:02:30,200 Speaker 2: From Origin in the two hundreds to Charles Spurgeon in 32 00:02:30,240 --> 00:02:33,720 Speaker 2: the eighteen hundreds. The Song of Songs has been seen 33 00:02:33,800 --> 00:02:38,800 Speaker 2: as describing this union between God's spirit and the human heart. 34 00:02:40,000 --> 00:02:44,000 Speaker 2: So what does this book declare about God's heart for you? 35 00:02:45,880 --> 00:02:50,800 Speaker 2: Firstly declares that God is passionate in the determination to 36 00:02:50,880 --> 00:02:55,280 Speaker 2: be in your presence. God desires to be near you. 37 00:02:56,800 --> 00:03:00,520 Speaker 2: The book talks about God leaping over mountains and bounding 38 00:03:00,560 --> 00:03:04,600 Speaker 2: over hills. There is nothing to deter the divine and 39 00:03:04,680 --> 00:03:10,560 Speaker 2: earring God leaps over every obstruction or obstacle. The Lord, 40 00:03:10,800 --> 00:03:13,200 Speaker 2: the lover of our souls, the one who is to 41 00:03:13,320 --> 00:03:16,359 Speaker 2: be our light in our life, in whom our soul's 42 00:03:16,440 --> 00:03:21,920 Speaker 2: delight is perpetually coming closer to us. This is God's heart. 43 00:03:23,160 --> 00:03:26,800 Speaker 2: And what is more, just as God is always making 44 00:03:26,840 --> 00:03:32,200 Speaker 2: God's way to us, God is always calling out to us. Arise, 45 00:03:32,320 --> 00:03:36,400 Speaker 2: my darling, my beautiful one, God says, Arise, my love, 46 00:03:36,640 --> 00:03:42,840 Speaker 2: my fair one. Just sit with those affirmations. Can you 47 00:03:42,960 --> 00:03:47,280 Speaker 2: believe that God calls you my darling? Do you believe 48 00:03:47,320 --> 00:03:52,080 Speaker 2: that God sees you as beautiful? So often we believe 49 00:03:52,120 --> 00:03:55,200 Speaker 2: that God speaks to us in anger, or God views 50 00:03:55,320 --> 00:04:00,360 Speaker 2: us as wretched. The Song of Songs declares something else. 51 00:04:00,640 --> 00:04:04,800 Speaker 2: God views us in love. Too often we view this 52 00:04:04,960 --> 00:04:08,480 Speaker 2: love as nothing more than something that we say about God, 53 00:04:09,200 --> 00:04:12,320 Speaker 2: and when we do so, we inadvertently rip away any 54 00:04:12,440 --> 00:04:17,560 Speaker 2: idea of God's passion or God's feeling. So we might 55 00:04:17,680 --> 00:04:21,320 Speaker 2: read passages like John three point sixteen, God so loved 56 00:04:21,320 --> 00:04:25,360 Speaker 2: the world, or passages like Jeremiah thirty one to three, 57 00:04:25,640 --> 00:04:29,360 Speaker 2: I have loved you with an everlasting love, and we 58 00:04:29,400 --> 00:04:33,520 Speaker 2: see this as some sort of theological declaration of a 59 00:04:33,600 --> 00:04:39,520 Speaker 2: principle for which God adopts towards us. But God does 60 00:04:39,560 --> 00:04:44,000 Speaker 2: not love us because love is some theological criteria. God 61 00:04:44,040 --> 00:04:48,160 Speaker 2: loves us because God is inflamed with passion for us. 62 00:04:48,720 --> 00:04:51,679 Speaker 2: God calls out to us, and God makes God's way 63 00:04:51,720 --> 00:04:55,400 Speaker 2: to us, because we are the ones whom God loves 64 00:04:55,440 --> 00:04:59,599 Speaker 2: more deeply than anything. And in God's calling to us 65 00:05:00,120 --> 00:05:03,920 Speaker 2: an invitation for us to find the fullness of ourselves, 66 00:05:04,240 --> 00:05:08,560 Speaker 2: the fullness of satisfaction, the fullness of our salvation in 67 00:05:08,600 --> 00:05:13,400 Speaker 2: His loving presence. Arise, my love, my fair one, and 68 00:05:13,520 --> 00:05:14,640 Speaker 2: come away with me. 69 00:05:16,560 --> 00:05:16,680 Speaker 1: Now. 70 00:05:16,720 --> 00:05:19,440 Speaker 2: If you were to read on in this poem, he 71 00:05:19,480 --> 00:05:23,640 Speaker 2: would come across many images of springtime. The winter is 72 00:05:23,760 --> 00:05:27,760 Speaker 2: pass the rains are gone, flowers appear on the earth, 73 00:05:27,760 --> 00:05:30,440 Speaker 2: and the season of singing has come. There is the 74 00:05:30,480 --> 00:05:33,839 Speaker 2: cooing of the doves, and the fig tree is bearing fruit. 75 00:05:34,520 --> 00:05:37,919 Speaker 2: These are all images of the bursting forth of life, 76 00:05:38,880 --> 00:05:43,000 Speaker 2: and that's what God invites us into. God desires to 77 00:05:43,080 --> 00:05:47,840 Speaker 2: be united to our hearts because in this unification we 78 00:05:48,000 --> 00:05:53,800 Speaker 2: experience the abundance of life. Where is God calling you 79 00:05:54,000 --> 00:05:57,479 Speaker 2: to new life? What might it look like for you 80 00:05:58,040 --> 00:06:03,160 Speaker 2: to accept God's loving in theation? See, even though our 81 00:06:03,160 --> 00:06:07,880 Speaker 2: divine lover calls to us, we have to choose to accept. 82 00:06:08,240 --> 00:06:12,520 Speaker 2: Even in this romantic poem, the beloved must choose the 83 00:06:12,560 --> 00:06:17,200 Speaker 2: lover In this poem, the beloved of King Solomon must 84 00:06:17,240 --> 00:06:20,400 Speaker 2: turn to the king and say, I am my beloved 85 00:06:20,440 --> 00:06:24,320 Speaker 2: and he is mine, and in fact, in a beautiful move. 86 00:06:24,839 --> 00:06:28,640 Speaker 2: The end of this poem shows that the beloved calls 87 00:06:28,680 --> 00:06:32,560 Speaker 2: out to the lover. Come away, my love, she cries. 88 00:06:33,360 --> 00:06:35,800 Speaker 2: She calls out to her lord as her Lord called 89 00:06:35,800 --> 00:06:39,039 Speaker 2: out to her. And that's what we have to do. 90 00:06:40,160 --> 00:06:42,560 Speaker 2: If we see God as the lover of our souls, 91 00:06:43,120 --> 00:06:46,760 Speaker 2: and we as God's beloved, then we need to use 92 00:06:46,880 --> 00:06:50,760 Speaker 2: our agency to choose the Lord. The call of love 93 00:06:51,320 --> 00:06:55,480 Speaker 2: is always reciprocal. Now, there's always a certain amount of 94 00:06:55,600 --> 00:06:58,880 Speaker 2: risk in letting ourselves be loved. When we allow ourselves 95 00:06:58,960 --> 00:07:03,120 Speaker 2: to be loved, we create vulnerability in our lives. But 96 00:07:03,240 --> 00:07:07,200 Speaker 2: that vulnerability is the very thing that allows us to 97 00:07:07,320 --> 00:07:12,400 Speaker 2: experience God's presence. So turn to the one who calls 98 00:07:12,400 --> 00:07:15,320 Speaker 2: out to you, to the one whose passion for you 99 00:07:15,520 --> 00:07:20,240 Speaker 2: is unfading, And take a step away from a life 100 00:07:20,320 --> 00:07:24,480 Speaker 2: lived behind the walls and lattices of our own sinful kingdoms, 101 00:07:25,520 --> 00:07:28,840 Speaker 2: and take his nail pierced hand and be led into 102 00:07:28,920 --> 00:07:33,600 Speaker 2: a life more vibrant, more abundant, and more blissful than 103 00:07:33,720 --> 00:07:41,240 Speaker 2: anything without him. Accept his words arise my darling, my 104 00:07:41,440 --> 00:07:44,520 Speaker 2: fair one, and come away with me. 105 00:07:49,920 --> 00:07:52,760 Speaker 1: Hey listeners, it's Kelly from the Life Audio team with 106 00:07:52,840 --> 00:07:55,920 Speaker 1: a quick favor to ask. We're working on a newsletter 107 00:07:56,080 --> 00:07:59,760 Speaker 1: and honestly, we'd rather ask you what you want than guess. 108 00:08:00,040 --> 00:08:02,040 Speaker 1: There's a two minute survey linked in the show notes. 109 00:08:02,360 --> 00:08:04,920 Speaker 1: Fill it out and shape what we make. Thanks.