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

Clanking Chains		06-05-04.CC02-604 /

Solomon Gets Personal: Pick-Up Line #13 Admires Her Breasts & Identifies Him as a Paramour, SOS 4:4; Principles on Promiscuity: Emotions Override Standards

	12.		The Shulammite wore a “thousand shields” around her neck but her true shield was the faith she placed in her Shepherd in her soul.  It is faith that will ultimately deliver her from danger.
	13.		It may also be noted that in Israelite culture the emphasis of fine jewelry and attire was on the beauty of integrity.  Inward grace took priority over the attractions of outward ornaments.
	14.		Solomon was impressed with how the necklace emphasized the Shulammite’s outward beauty while to her it was a reminder of her Shepherd’s devotion to her.  She had confidence—an expression of faith—that he would protect her and her integrity stood fast in her application of these principles to the circumstances she faced.
	14.		Her integrity is under great pressure before the king and will become ever more important to her as he continues his visual analysis of her feminine form.
SOS 4:4 -		[KS: Pick-Up Line #12]  “Your neck is like the tower of David, built with a battlement of stones on which are hung in its embrasures a thousand shields, all the round shields of the army of Israel.
SOS 4:5 -	[KS: Pick-Up Line #13] “Your two breasts are like two fawns, twins of a gazelle which feed among the lilies.”
	15.		Solomon’s pick-up lines now pick up the pace.  He is now complimenting her breasts and refers to them as twin fawns.  The perfect symmetry of her breasts is depicted by the twin fawns of a gazelle and it presents a double entendre.
	16.		The Shulammite is a beautiful young woman but not yet fully developed.  Here breasts are attractive to Solomon but in the culture of the day feminine beauty was increased when the breasts were small.
	17.		Without realizing it Solomon also reminds the Shulammite of who the real owner of her breasts happens to be.  It is not him but rather the gazelle which has been identified by the Shulammite on two occasions as her Shepherd in Song 2:9 and 17: “My beloved is like a gazelle.”
	18.		Solomon has gotten personal and this is when the Shulammite must again put up her defenses.  Such is the case for doctrinal damsels who are lured by the lines of lustful paramours.  Therefore, some principles are in order:
		1)	Solomon is like a wolf on the prowl.  He desires to possess the Shulammite and enjoy her charms all to himself alone.  He is captivated by her beauty and visualizes her as his next last love.
		2)	His weapons are verbal—compliments based on truth but designed to flatter the Shulammite into believing he is sincerely interested in her.  He’s not.  He is interested in himself and his desire to possess not only her breasts but her entire body.
		3)	The Shulammite has a right to expect him to be honest and actually care about her soul.  She has arrived at such a conclusion with the Shepherd.  She has responded to the Shepherd and thus is not impressed or influenced by Solomon’s advances.
		4)	Nevertheless, many women are so influenced and they have a right to expect honesty when a man engages in conversation with them.  They are responders and all women like to hear nice things said about them.
		5)	However, this natural responsiveness makes them vulnerable to paramours if they are without enough doctrine in their souls to defend their bodies.
		6)	The Shulammite has responded in her soul to her right man who is absent while he defends her from the wrong man who is present.
		7)	Women have a right to be responsive but for a man to manipulate this tendency for selfish reasons is not only wrong it is also evil.  It is an attack on the divine institutions of volition, marriage, and family.
		8)	It is knowledge of doctrine that gives damsels the discernment to identify the ploys of paramours.
		9)	Those who do not have this power are charmed by hearing what they want to hear about themselves but fail to learn about the soul that lurks behind the pick-up lines.
		10)	This is the tragic plight of young women today, from early teens to late twenties.  A young man’s natural aggressiveness inspires him to develop deceptive compliments to satisfy his own selfish desires.  A young woman’s natural tendency to respond to them leads to premarital sex, unwanted pregnancies, and incurable diseases.
	19)		This leads us to our next principle:
Promiscuity Destroys Discernment:
1)	The attraction stage is the most vulnerable time for young damsels without doctrine.  They are prime targets for premarital sex which will destroy not only their souls but also their bodies.  I remind you of the two passages that emphasize these dangers:
Proverbs 6:32 -	Whoever commits adultery with a woman lacks understanding; he who does so destroys his own soul.
1 Corinthians 6:18 -	Flee sexual immorality!  Every other sin that a man commits is outside the body, but the immoral man sins against his own body.
2)	In addition to destroying the soul and the body such a person destroys his spiritual life as well.
3)	Premarital sex is the result of irrational decision-making influenced by emotions that submit to passions and desires.  This has lasting impact on the soul.
4)	Emotion either overrides doctrinal standards on which true love is based or it trumps establishment viewpoint upon which one’s reputation is dependent.
5)	Regardless of the pleasure of the moment the conscience will bring the wrongdoing into the conscious mind where the issue will be dealt with in one of two ways: (1) there will be guilt, shame, and depression or (2) there will be arrogance, denial, and promiscuity.
6)	The way by which some deal with shame and guilt is to become promiscuous.  To admit wrongdoing requires some form of reconciliation with one’s conscience.
7)	To rationalize that sex is natural and normal and that traditional standards are based on out-of-date ideas enables a person to deny culpability.
8)	In other words, the way to prove that what the conscience says is wrong is really right is just keep on doing what is wrong until the conscience is so seared that it no longer has any influence.
9)	Observe Romans 1:18—32.  This is Paul’s description of the destruction of the soul and the body.

© 2006 by Joe Griffin Media Ministries.  All rights reserved.	www.joegriffin.org