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The Song of Songs is a most powerful allegory, relating to the conversion of Israel and Judah. This paper attempts to tie the Song into the New Testament and to aid Judah to conversion. By understanding the Messianic nature of Esther and Proverbs 31, one can see from the Old Testament, that people of old understood what was happening in the Messianic prophecies. The New Testament reinforces the Old Testament, and does not replace it.

The paper gives Malbim's interpretation of the Song of Songs, from the Soncino, and this is a very interesting comment on the story.

However, because the Rabbis have taught that the Messiah has not yet come, they do not understand that the Song of Songs is the story of the Church and Messiah and that it extends into the nation Israel; that it is the history of the Church after the death of Messiah, and after the dispersion of Judah.

The Rabbis reject Jesus Christ, yet Malbim's language is unmistakably Messianic, and mirrors the symbols of the Gospels. They relate the Song to the concepts of the soul (the Babylonian influence) because of their inability to relate the text to Messiah, as the Beloved and the Church as the maiden.

Chapter 1 to Chapter 2:7: There are Hebrew words used in Song of Songs, which do not occur anywhere else in the Bible. For example, 'ahabah’, the Hebrew word for love in the abstract, has been transliterated by the Greek as "agape", and denotes the love of God. The Greeks had words for love, one for sexual love, eros, and one for brotherly love, philadelphos, but no word for the love of God. They had no concept of the love of a superior for a subordinate. Their philosophical ideas were that only like can love like; that only like can satisfy like; and only like can befriend like. Therefore one can only be reconciled to God by the sacrifice of a God. And so the trinity was evolved, elevating Jesus Christ to be God, as God, to reconcile us to God. This is in the face of many scriptures to the contrary, and is a Greek concept. The Hebrew concept is that a superior can be reconciled to an inferior through an intermediary sacrifice.

The maiden (the Church) loves her Shepherd (Messiah), who also loves His Church. The Shulamite woman is dark, because she was forced to work in the vineyards. Israel is the vineyard of God, and the woman (the Church) has had to tend this vineyard on her own. The reference to the tents of Kedar, takes into account the Gentiles, and so she and the Gentiles can be washed of their spiritual darkness and whitened by conversion.

The maiden demurs to her shepherd that she is a rose of Sharon, a lily of the valleys, very humble. But Christ said the lilies of the field put Solomon to shame - thus the maiden, the Church, is greater than Solomon and the Judaic system. She was a lily among thorns, i.e. the elect among the daughters of Jerusalem, the Pharisees and priests, who held captive the Jews in their oral law, and who did not heed the warning of Messiah, within the sign of Jonah.

The Shulemite pleads with the temptresses not to try to seduce her from her first love, towards another. We must have a continual relationship with Messiah.

Chapter 2:8-17: So the Church was in Jerusalem and the Jews tried to stamp out the Church. Messiah calls to His own and they answer and listen to His voice.

The maiden hears the voice of her beloved and his footsteps over the Hills.

The Jews wanted a King-Messiah, but He came as a Priest-Messiah and they could not accept that, and so fell away from the truth and have been in error for 2000 years. Christ came as a humble servant of God, as a shepherd. The Jews of the time of Christ were aware of the 2 advents. The Dead Sea Scrolls (DSS) is quite clear.

Chapter 2:12: "the time of singing" is rendered in LXX as "the time of pruning the vines". In other words, it is tribulation for the Church, which marked the councils of Nicea, Constantinople and Chalcedon. The reference to the dove in the rocks being called, is symbolic of the Church in hiding during persecution and Christ calling it to action.

Verses 15-17: "the little foxes that spoil the vineyard" refers to the elements that entered the Church of God, like Gnosticism (which Judah resisted) and the false prophets that undermined the truth, thus creating the mainstream Christianity of the past 2000 years. Judah has been blinded and does not accept Christ as Messiah, but that blindness will be enlightened by truth in the very last days and Judah will be converted and restored first. The Rabbis understood there was a separation (verse 17 comments), which entailed reconciliation at the end - that is to be part of the marriage supper with Christ and the Church. Once Judah understands the Song of Songs as meaning the establishment of the Church and its relationship to Judah, they will be converted.

Chapter 3: We see, Christ cannot be found in the bounds of Judaism - one must be called into the Church, in the wilderness of this world. The Jews have preserved the Physical understanding of the scripture and long for the Messiah, though He has been at the first advent.

The Song of Songs is about the Church being called out of Judah, out of the constraints of the later Talmudic precepts and tradition, and being put into the wilderness, and taught from the Bible, so that true love of the Messiah can be established.

Verse 4: The Church and Lover go to the house of the Mother - i.e. to Jerusalem. Christ will return to Jerusalem and set it up as the permanent centre of the Millennial system.

Overall, the Song of Songs can be addressed as a symbol of the eras of the Church of God. This concept can be more fully understood from the study of the whole paper (see the paper Song of Songs (No. 145).

Chapter 4:1-16: This text deals with attributes of the beloved maiden. The veil covers the face, only the lovely innocent eyes are seen. Or it can be thought the beloved is beautiful regardless of the constraints imposed by the Rabbis and the limitations of the disclosure of the mysteries of God.

Gilead was renowned for its rich pasture and numerous flocks. The maiden's hair was dark and lustrous, and the custom was to plait it in such a way as to show the white partings. So could it be that the white partings are the rows of the elect in white robes being arrayed at the dawn of the Messianic system? Gilead also symbolised the place of rest for the elite.

The maiden's teeth are paired and perfect, and white as snow. Symbolically, it represents the white robes of the elect who are perfect and none missing. There is an abundance of symbolism in this passage, covered more extensively in the paper.

Chapter 5: As we go on, the concept has to do with the marriage supper of the Lamb with the Church and friends. These are they who come out of the Tribulation, have white wedding garments, and have kept the commandments of God and the testimony of Jesus.

Verse 1 says: "I am come into my garden", the Hebrew denoting a definite future act. Christ has come, and will come again.

Verse 2: The call to the elect is to open to the Messiah. He knocks and will come to those who open their hearts (Rev. 3:20 ff;) the Laodicean church is spewed out, but He calls individuals. The Sardis Church is dead.

Verse 3 is the same language Jesus used at the supper the night before He was crucified.

Verse 4 shows the return of Messiah from the resurrection. He came to give the beloved (the Church) the means to escape the world system. Then He went away for an extended period; the 40 Jubilee period to end the times of the Gentiles and the period of Satan's rule. Judah is the blood sister of Messiah. He calls her my sister, my love, but Judah refused to heed Him.

Verse 8 shows conversion had been offered to the ladies of Jerusalem - i.e. the Pharisees, priests and people, who refuse. The maiden (the Church) is violently dealt. Judah won’t accept Messiah.

Verse 10: The description of the Beloved's beauty is to symbolise the spiritual perfection of Messiah. This perfect Lover is her beloved and her friend.

Chapter 6: There seems now to have been a change of heart by the ladies of Jerusalem, who propose to seek the Beloved. It is really Judah taunting the Church for its Messianic faith, as do the nations.

The Jewish commentators note the expiation of the sins of the maiden. This is specifically the function of Messiah, which they must recognise. Thus they are verging on "withholding the truth" from their own people (Rom. 1:18,19) and incurring the wrath of God.

Verse 4: The maiden is again praised for her beauty; i.e. the Church is praised for her purity of faith and unity of purpose. This must come after a trial on the Church, which indeed suffered persecution and infiltration by the Askenazi. This period is traditionally known as the Thyatiran era.

Solomon, in the Song of Songs, is the antipathy of God; he is the god of this world, and in fact Solomon became an idolater. Verse 8 is the Beloved saying - the whole world belongs to Satan (Solomon), give me the one I cherish.

The Beloved checks out the fruit of the valley. This means Christ keeps an eye on His Church and the nation Israel. He is about His Father's business.

Chapter 7: Apparently there is quite a disparity in the translations and the texts need to be studied in the paper.

Verse 1: God is the skilful workman (Psa. 139:133-18), and it also relates to predestination.

Verse 2: the reference to wheat could thus be the Pentecost harvest, which represents the Shulamite, who is the Church.

Verse 5: The application of the colour purple to the hair and the captivity of the King (Solomon) has the connotation of Solomon himself being subservient to the Church, as he seems to have died an idolater. The Soncino holds that Solomon gives up his pursuit of the maiden's love, and withdraws and leaves her to return to her Lover - i.e. Satan admits defeat. [However the writings of Solomon at the end seem to show repentance and conversion. Thus what is here is symbolism].

Verse 9: The wine as the blood of the Lamb is the gospel message, which is as the sweet speech of the maiden, who represents the Church.

Verse 10: The rejection of the king is final. The Church is triumphant over Satan. The Messiah and His Church examine the vine (Israel) for those producing the fruit of the Kingdom of God.

Judah will be converted, so that Jerusalem and the household of the king (the elect) cannot exalt themselves above Judah (Zech 12:7,8).

Chapter 8: The Church has been despised firstly by Judah, then by the Gentiles for Old Testament aspects, and also for keeping the Laws of God and the Sabbaths, being seen as Jewish traditions.

Verse 3 repeats 2:6 and this shows the anticipation of the coming of the Beloved. But verse 4 implies no stirring of love until people are called and particularly loved, when God chooses the time for this calling.

Verse 5: the term 'leaning on her beloved" is literally joined, associated with the beloved. The Church is finally joined to Messiah, nothing then can part them, and the church is under the protection of Messiah.

The Church is spiritual Israel, and all lsrael, both spiritual and physical, are sought for destruction by Satan, the god of this world (2Cor 4:4) and prince of the power of the air (Eph. 2:2). His aim includes any Gentile elect of God also.

Verses 8-10: This Church has been faithful, is given to Messiah, Prince of Peace.

The little sister" of verse 8, Judah and Benjamin, is converted and joined to spiritual Israel with Messiah at the advent. The last verse of the Song is a call to Messiah to come quickly, a fitting end to the Song as it is to the Bible (Rev. 22:20-21).

Come, Lord Jesus. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with all the saints. AMEN.