Title: 13
Author: Joe G
Last saved by: Auth User
Company: GDC

© 2005 Joe Griffin		05-10-23-B.CC02- /

The Virgins Sing about Wedding Dresses: Temptations from the Details of Life, SOS 1:11; Shulammite’s Reveries of the Shepherd: Occupation with Christ, v. 12

SOS 1:11 -	[DJ]  “We will make for you orderly rows of gold with beads of silver.”
1.	The virgins are those members of Solomon’s harem that actually do the work around the palace.  They have no sexual relations with him but instead take care of various duties associated with “housework.”  Some cook, some tend to household logistics, and some manage the king’s wardrobe.
2.	The latter category sings the lyric in verse 11.  They are among the seamstresses who sew Solomon’s outfits and they picked up on the king’s comment about the orderly bone structure of the Shulammite’s face.
3.	The royal couturiers try to interest the Shulammite in a wedding dress which they will make for her that is decorated with “orderly rows of gold and beads of silver.”
4.	They again try to tempt the Shulammite with the details of life:
Youngblood, Ronald F. (gen. ed.).  Nelson’s New Illustrated Bible Dictionary.  (Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 1995), 1307:
Among the Israelites a wedding was a festive occasion in which the whole community participated.
When the day for the wedding arrived, the bride put on white robes (often richly embroidered), decked herself with jewels, fastened a bridal girdle about her waist, covered herself with a veil, and placed a garland on her head.
5.	The wardrobe virgins describe the embroidery they will incorporate into the Shulammite’s robes.  But this is a detail of life that if pursued would require her to betray her Shepherd in order to marry Solomon.  The details of life are defined in:
Hughes, Rick.  Practicing Your Christianity: An Overview of the Christian Life.  (Cropwell: Rick Hughes Evangelistic Ministries, 2000), 71:
Details of Life are those things which we cannot take with us when we die.  Preoccupation with the details of life keeps the Christian from concentrating on God’s grace blessings and on the spiritual life.
6.	If the Shulammite was minus doctrine she might have been tempted.  But understanding the provision of a right man for her keeps her locked-in on her Shepherd.
7.	However, women who are marriageable age but are also minus doctrine are vulnerable to the temptations that many men can offer involving the details of life.
8.	The motivation is from negative emotions.  The lust for material things can cause a woman to be lured by the pick-up lines of a man.  A desire for an improvement in her financial status can cause a woman to be attracted to a man’s bank account.  Anxiety over remaining single and thus without adequate income can motivate a woman to marry too early to a man whose pick-up lines are effective.
9.	Women who do this may actually enjoy the details of life that such marriages provide but they can never be happy in the marriage.
10.	In God’s plan there is generally only one man for each woman’s soul.  But a woman can be distracted from the proper identification of her right man by the opportunity to instantly possess the details of life she desires by marrying a man she is convinced can provide them.
11.	The Shulammite is protected from this by means of her devotion to the Shepherd and the edification complex of her soul: (1) The foundation of the filling of the Holy Spirit, (2) objective thinking from Bible doctrine in the stream of consciousness, (3) humility and teachability, (4) the motivational virtue of personal love for God; (5) the functional virtue of unconditional love for all mankind, (6) sharing the happiness of God, and (7) the penthouse of occupation with Christ.
12.	The combination of these assets enabled the Shulammite to resist Solomon’s temptations.  Her knowledge of doctrine gave her the wisdom to discern the fallacy of his pick-up lines and to remain focused on the presence of her right man in her soul.
13.	These things which are accumulated in the thinking of her kardia are what protected her from the king’s advances.  
14.	The Virgins’ effort to interest the Shulammite in the wedding-dress detail fails which becomes obvious when the Shulammite immediately begins to turn the discussion back to her Shepherd Lover:
SOS 1:12 -		[SW]  “While the king was at his table, my perfume gave forth its fragrance.”
1.	This is an expression of occupation with Christ.  The king in context is Solomon who represents the temptations of the devil’s world.  The fragrance of her perfume indicates the ability of the Shulammite to concentrate under pressure.
2.	The events described in Song of Solomon are historical but they have layers of meaning.  The Shulammite’s capacity to concentrate on her Shepherd Lover while being romanced by the king of Israel is a picture of occupation with Christ.
3.	Occupation with Christ is the summum bonum of the Christian way of life.  It is the consistent ability of the believer to concentrate on the doctrines of the Bible so that whatever the circumstances of life his focus is on reciprocal love for Jesus Christ.

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