GOD’S WORD FOR YOU
SONG OF SOLOMON 8:11-12
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11 Solomon had a vineyard at Baal Hamon;
he rented out the vineyard to tenants.
Each one was to bring for its fruit
a thousand shekels of silver.
12 My vineyard, my very own, is before me.
For you, Solomon, are the thousand,
and two hundred
for those who tend the fruit.
In this tale of two vineyards, there are two sorts. There is Solomon’s kind, which is a harem. Baal Hamon means “Husband (or lord) of a crowd.” Hamon is not a place name in Israel outside a later vision by Ezekiel who sees “Gog’s Hamon” or Horde (Ezekiel 39:15-16). In this case, it is just a way of talking about a vast harem. It is remarkable that the correct number of Solomon’s wives is tossed in as “the thousand” in verse 12, since Solomon had seven hundred royal wives and three hundred concubines (1 Kings 11:3). The wife of the Song is happy that her own body is her husband’s vineyard (Song 1:6) and that she is not one of the king’s famous “projects” (Ecclesiastes 2:4). Solomon had so many wives that there is no doubt that he had to hire keepers for the harem. How many were employed just to see to their needs? They couldn’t be treated poorly; seven-tenths of them were of royal birth. Their treatment would need to continue to be royal, or their fathers and brothers would hear about it.
But the bride wants none of it. She doesn’t have any desire to compete in the harem for the favors of the king. She has her one man, and with him she is one flesh. This is as God planned and intended. Solomon can keep his thousand, and he can pay the employees who look after them all.
But the spiritual meaning comes easily spilling over into the text at this point. Solomon’s wives “led him astray. As Solomon grew old, his wives turned his heart after other gods, and his heart was not fully devoted to the LORD his God, as the heart of David his father had been” (1 Kings 11:3-4). His harem was unwise, even if it was a symbol of prestige for other kings to notice and to be in awe.
How did it happen? Audrey got him to build her a little shrine in the hall for her god. Then Betty got jealous of this, and it would only be fair if her god got a shrine, too. Then Cindy wanted a shrine, even though she and Audrey bowed down to the same god, and a little shrine became an altar outdoors. Then Diedre wanted what they had, and Evie, Fannie, Ginny, and Helen wanted it, too. Pretty soon, Solomon found himself building a veritable fanum collectio, a collection of shrines to pagan gods on every hilltop and valley around Jerusalem. But then Imogen and Judy got upset when he accompanied Kelli and Lily to their shrines, and he ended up with a choice: Go worship at every wife’s shrine, or don’t go to any of them. He made the wrong choice, and they led him astray with their pagan worship.
Would Solomon have allowed this kind of satire of his troubles to be written and published? Would he have written it himself? A repentant Solomon, stuck with a harem and aware of its dangers, might well have written this little warning. Better to do what God willed, people of God, than do what I did! Enjoy your one wife, and be content in your marriage! If one quarrelsome wife is like a constant dripping (Proverbs 19:13), then hundreds of quarrelsome wives are like living in a hailstorm! There is no peace for that man.
But there is a deeper spiritual meaning here. Jesus, of course, is the one who guides us. In the parable of the tenants, the Lord’s own vineyard is being worked by cruel and selfish tenants who kill the men sent to collect the rent and they kill the Son of God, too. Then the Owner “will bring those wretches to a wretched end” and rent the vineyard to others (Matthew 21:33-41). We are at the same time the other, later tenants of the vineyard of the Lord, and also the ones who enjoy the vineyard of godly marriage.
We must teach our children, and we must remind one another, that marriage is sanctified by the Word of God, and is something that God commands, permits, approves, and blesses. The estate of marriage was given first in Eden, before the fall, and it remains the will of God for men and women. It is something that we should desire for ourselves and encourage in one another. It is the only true path to sexual purity and chastity among almost all except for a very few and exceptional people. Most of us need marriage and are truly blessed by marriage. God gives us lifelong companionship and friendship in marriage, help in unexpected and wonderful ways, partnership in raising children and a blessing for children to be raised by a godly mother and father, and the physical benefits as well. The world has always found ways to sin against the purity of marriage, but that does not make marriage impure. When we demonstrate the goodness of marriage we give glory to God. When we happily embrace marriage we also give glory to God. It is the vineyard in which he has planted us, put a wall around us, and built a watchtower with his Word. Give him thanks for his gifts, and thank him for the godly marriages in your life.
In Christ,
Pastor Timothy Smith
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Pastor Smith serves St. Paul’s Lutheran Church, New Ulm, Minnesota
God’s Word for You – Song of Solomon 8:11-12 Two Vineyards