Year 5, Day 350: Song of Songs 8

Theological Commentary: Click Here

Discipleship Focus: In

• In: This is the word we use to express our relationships with our spiritual family.  These are often the people who hold us spiritually accountable.  They are the ones to whom we typically go for discussion and discernment.  These are the ones with whom we learn to share leadership.  They are the ones with whom we become family on mission.

In this concluding we have a great passage of reconciliation, love, and comfort.  While that is a great message, I am going to focus today on the community’s response.  In this book we’ve seen Solomon and his bride court, marry, and then overcome an emotional barrier in the marriage.  As the book comes to a close, we hear the response of the community as they witness this progression.  As the book comes to a close, we get an opportunity to see In at work.

The community around the bride reflects back upon the bride before she was married.  They worried about her.  They protected her.  They tested her to find out where she was strong and ready to be built upon.  They also tested her to find out where she was too open and needed a door in her life to be built so that she could be protected.  But here’s the point.  The community was there to support her.  The community was there to protect her.  The community had a stake in her upbringing.  The community had a stake in her future.

This is what In is all about.  In helps to teach us.  In helps to protect us.  In supports us. In celebrates when we grow and mature and find ourselves in a position of success.  That’s what we hear at the end of this book.  The community around this bride of Solomon looks back at a time when she needed to be taught, protected, developed, encouraged, and mentored.  Now they look at her and realize where she’s come.  They celebrate.

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