Everybody, what is going on? You know what time it is. You're listening to join the Journey podcast with your host, Emma, daughter. Thanks for joining. Today, we are kicking off a new book. It's everybody's favorite Song of Solomon. We're reading chapters one through three, and I am back in the podcast studio with Garrett Weichel.

Hey, Emma. Garrett, I know you are so excited to come on for Song of Solomon.

You got that email and you were like, this is my favorite book to talk about.

I got that email and had to make sure to read my notes to figure out what we think about

Song of Solomon because it is one of those books that, man, very few people really know how to deal with it.

And it was one of those like, you know, in all transparency, when I get that email, I have to think to

myself, how am I going to deal with that book?

Yeah, yeah.

It is hard.

So today's episode listeners, it's going to feel a little bit different.

Garrett is going to specifically talk about reading Song of Solomon as a whole and seeing Christ as we read it.

In the following episodes, we're going to talk more about marriage and what we can learn about marriage.

Specifically, we're going to be bringing on some leaders from Reengage.

And those episodes will feel much more practical, perhaps, than today's does. So, Garrett, I'm going to be bringing on some leaders from reengage. And those episodes will feel much more

practical, perhaps, than today's does. So, Garrett, I'm going to kick it to you. Sure. What do we need

to know? Yeah, Song of Solomon, also known as the song of songs coming from the first intro lines of the text.

We have a very good reason to believe it's written by Solomon. So we say it was written by Solomon.

It has a couple purposes. Clearly, there's a purpose in this text, if you dove into it for any amount of time, that it is a romantic poem, a romantic love story between man and wife, between presumably Solomon and his wife. So there's this historical purpose where Solomon is recounting how he loves his wife.

And there's also, and this is where some of the overarching things come from, there is a greater,

what we can call canonical. And we use that word to refer to the whole canon or whole scope of

scripture, all 66 books, or theological purpose in this book. It's that Christ's love for his church has made

displayed, made manifest in this text. And so as we get to dive in, yes, it is romantic love poetry

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