Blood and Smoke

what is that coming up from the wilderness

like columns of smoke?

SoS 3:6

This is how the bride sees her groom coming. She can't find Him...she looks for him out of the city and into the wilderness, and how does Soloman describe the groom coming to His bride? What simile does he use?

Smoke!

Smoke! 

Smoke!

Now Soloman was the wisest man who has ever lived, except Jesus, are we supposed to think that he wasn't aware of how God lead His people through the wilderness, and that he wasn't aware, or wasn't deliberately drawing this poetic comparison to himself in this part of the poem? Why didn't he have himself coming out of the wilderness like a mighty litter of horses, like a Phoenician armada, like an Egyptian humped horse? But he said smoke. I think that really finishes any debate for me, Soloman had to know what he was writing here.

How does the way we read the Song affect the way we (Christologically) read the rest of the Old Testament? Is Christology just forcing Jesus into parts of the Bible where He really isn't? Well, no, in one sense, because Christ is all over the Bible, but i'm not sure i read the Song of Soloman any differently than i read, say Exodus 12, which is a clear picture of Christ.

I read Exodus 12 like this. Here are real events that happened. Just like the lovers in the Song. The passover happened, Israel were miraculously rescued from slavery in Egypt by their awesome God who is there. The faithful Jews who put lambs blood on the door frame were protected from the Angel of Lord as He swept though, killing the first born. This happened, in history, and it shows us that the blood of the Lamb saves us from the wrath of God. It's a picture of when it actually happened, at Calvary, when the Lamb's blood saves God's people.

And it's the same with the Song. It happened, but now we wait until it happens...until Christ ans the church are united in Heaven. The Song makes me look forward to that day...