Kamina Wüst / Author and Theologican, in conversation with Heidi Combs
Kamina you completed a Phd on the Song of Solomon, have written books on it, spoken at conferences and generally thought deeply about the words, message and meaning of this book. It is a book that is not regularly on the preaching roster or even regularly referenced in Christian circles. Why is that?
So many Christians I speak to have never read the Song of Solomon and many ministers I talk to say they have never preached on it or even heard it preached. I suspect that people stay away from it because its interpretation is so contested. There’s no consensus on quite a number of significant issues – authorship, dating and even meaning. I also think maybe we struggle to see the relevance of it because it doesn’t explicitly talk about God and Jesus, and it doesn’t hook into the history of Israel in a very obvious way.
The sexual content of the book can also be a bit of a taboo topic. Preaching the Song to a mixed congregation can be challenging when you think about talking to youth and kids, single people, or people experiencing problems in their marriage.
One day at church I had a woman come to me and say, “I’m reading through the whole Bible from the beginning and I’ve gotten up to the Song of Songs and I don’t see why I should read it. I’m single and I don’t see what I could learn from a book that’s about two people being in love.”
If we think the application of the book is all about marital love, it’s very difficult to preach that in a way that’s inclusive of everybody.
The Song is unashamedly all about love, but I think you would agree that it talks about love at a number of different levels – from human love and marriage to the love of God and Israel.
A number of scholars would contend that the Song is only about human love—and a number argue that it’s only about God’s love—but I am convinced that the Song makes most sense in light of the story of Solomon. He is used as a negative example of both human love and relationship with God.
Solomon’s approach to ‘love’ is positioned in the Song as the antithesis of the main relationship between the woman and her Beloved. Solomon’s love for foreign women, as depicted in 1 Kings 11, is not portrayed as emotionally intimate. His relationships with his 700 wives are not committed, exclusive and monogamous. The Song, in contrast, shows us that God’s idea of good human love is an intimate, covenantal relationship, where there is no abuse of power.
We think of love as being inherently good, but the Hebrew Bible is full of examples of people loving something in a way that’s actually destructive – both to the people involved and to their relationships with God. The author of the Song uses Solomon as a cautionary tale. His love of foreign women led him away from God and had consequences which were really problematic for Israel. This is a warning for the reader of the Song: be discerning about who and what we love and how we love them.
It’s really helpful to remember that for the Israelites in the Old Testament world their choice of marriage partners and the way they acted in marriage, whether wisely or foolishly, was often very much tied up with their worship of Yahweh and how closely they followed Yahweh and walked in his ways and lived wisely for him. So it’s difficult to separate wisdom about sex and spirituality in the way modern thinkers are inclined to do. It’s about both.
The Song, along with the book of Esther, are the only two books of the Bible that don’t directly mention God. How does the Song teach us about the nature of God?
In chapter eight there is a cluster of poetic images that are strongly resonant with poetic imagery about Yahweh in other parts of the Old Testament. The poetry explodes out of its boundaries from being a poem about a man and woman and is now talking about God, calling us to cast our eyes towards Him.
Set me as a seal upon your heart,
as a seal upon your arm,
for love is strong as death,
jealousy is fierce as the grave.
Its flashes are flashes of fire,
the very flame of the Lord.
I think it might as well say God’s love is as strong as death, God’s jealousy is fierce as the grave. God’s jealousy is a component of his love. He loves his people so much and he is jealous if they worship other gods.
This all-consuming fire, this ‘God-flame’ (Shalhevetyah in Hebrew), is very scary if you’re faced with it, but at the same time, the author says this love can’t be quenched by many waters. It can’t be drowned in floods. So, if you are shielded by that love, if you belong to God in that love, then you will be protected from enemies. (And ultimately, I think, from God’s judgement.)
The Song talks at the end about God’s love in hyperbolic, poetic terms, and it reminds Israel: God’s love is so strong for you. It is big and beautiful and capable of protecting you, but his jealousy is this terrifying white-hot flame. It is a warning: be on the right side of that love.
When we have that picture of God’s love alongside the story of Solomon, I think it’s calling Israel to continued faithfulness. Be faithful to God because you want to be protected by that love. You don’t want to be counted among his enemies, so stay on the wise path. Keep guarding your hearts. Keep turning towards God. Don’t turn away from God the way that Solomon did.
It seems that you think it is important reading even if the metaphor used makes the reader, whether it is the minister preaching or the congregation listening, feel uncomfortable.
The Song of Songs makes me feel uncomfortable! But it’s a piece of wisdom literature, and part of the way God teaches us his wisdom is to actively work in our hearts, making us think. The Song is aimed at making your heart feel something in order to transform your posture towards God. The discomfort has a purpose, and as people who know the transforming grace we have through Jesus it is worth meditating on.
Kamina completed her Doctor of Philosophy in 2022: ‘The Song of Songs in the Hebrew Bible: Inner-biblical Allusions Embodied by Solomon and the Daughters of Jerusalem’
