Let him lead me to the banquet hall,
Song of Songs 2:4 (NIV) https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Song%20of%20Songs%202%3A4&version=NIV
and let his banner over me be love.
I proposed to my beloved on July 3, 2011. It was a little overcast that Sunday morning around 10 o’clock. No, I am not Rain Man, I just know all of this because I did it at the end of a church service in front of everyone.
There were a few things that naturally worked themselves out in my plan. One, I was on the worship team and sometimes I would be asked to do a special song at the end of the service. When I shared that I was ending the message, there were no indicators that I was up to something sneaky. Two, we often sat in the front. I invited everyone to witness this event and they all sat in the back. Since my love experiences severe tunnel vision, she never has that curiosity to look behind her.
The message finished and it was my turn. I stepped up to the mic and belted out my proposal in the form of Grow Old With You by Adam Sandler. It wasn’t until I rigged the presentation of the rings by a five-year old cutie that she figured it out. I think she said yes, it’s been twelve years…I can’t remember everything!😂
Much like what I was doing by asking my love to join me, Song of Songs 2:4 is an invitation too. The female protagonist in the poem is calling on her groom to shower her with hospitality and protect her with the greatest of all shields, love. It shares this:
Let him lead me to the banquet hall,
Song of Songs 2:4 (NIV) https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Song%20of%20Songs%202%3A4&version=NIV
and let his banner over me be love.
In a marriage, to serve and submit are synonymous with love, especially the love God has designed for us. The world has told us how awful it is for a woman to be submissive to her husband, but I say the world is wrong in this context. The world does not understand love or Greek for that matter. The Greek word for submit means “to give Your all with love.” In Ephesians, it starts off with highlighting what a Christ-centered household should look like::
Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ
Ephesians 5:21 (NIV)
Paul continues to share the idea of submission in a marriage and that it is mutual. Sadly, the world “cherry-picks” wives submit to husbands to support how easily offended they can be. If they would have read before it and continued reading, they would see that there is truly more to it. Paul is saying to women, GIVE YOUR ALL. He says this in just a few short lines for wives need no further explanation.
What the world forgets is that Paul said the same thing to the husband. He goes on to write a much longer honey-do list for man. In summary, he wrote that men must love their wives more than themselves. In this context, Paul is also saying to husbands, give Your all just like Your wife gives her all to You.
Song of Songs 2:4 is to be taken in its literal sense in which men and women join together and live in submission to each other through love. It can also be a symbolic representation of how we the church submit to Jesus. The Hebrew meaning of banquet hall relates to a vineyard; of banner to cover or under one’s command.
Put both ideas together we get a the perfect marriage of how Jesus is our savior. In the Book of John, Jesus is delivering a clear message of who he is:
“I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing…”
John 15:5 https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=John%2015%3A3%2D5&version=NIV
We cannot do anything without the love of and for Jesus. We are fruitless in our efforts if we don’t live everyday with the mindset that He is the vine in the vineyard and we are to be part of his party.
This verse is also an invitation to live under His command. The idea of banner is actually a military concept. A flag in the days of this poem would have the name of the commander on it. We are in Jesus’s unit, under His authority! He covers us with His love in all circumstances because He is the greatest representation of what love is. As we know in John 3:16 that God so loved the world…right, well, 1 John 3:16 is also about love:
This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters.
1 John 3:16
Jesus took away the burden of our sins and continues to carry them to this day. He loved us so much that He laid his life down. That is truly a banner worth fighting under.
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The subsequent series of posts, 66 in all, can be used as a devotional. Each book of the Bible is unpacked by me each morning by examining: • context (historical and biblical) • connotations and denotations • connections (verses around it and cross-references) • character (God’s and mine) • commission (how can I go out and do it) I do hope you enjoy and…
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“Read another pastor’s post…it’s better,”
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“If Shel Silverstein wrote Lamentations,”
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“Great is Your Faithfulness to Me”
66 Verses: Devotional 
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