Song of Solomon 5 - Isaiah 12: Romance & a secret garden

- This is romantic:  The Shulammite woman talking about her lover: "His words are kisses, his kisses words" (Song of Solomon 5:16).
- On to the prophets. Eugene Peterson notes that there were 16 writing prophets, and they have two main messages for Israel (and for us):

1. Accept judgment (it's from God, and it's for the best)
2. Open up to hope (a better Day is coming)

- Warning:  Peterson also warns us against accepting the ways of the world, because "it's assumptions, its values, its methods of going about its work--are never on the side of God. Never." The prophets are there to keep us straight.
- Outcasts:  The prophets were not popular, easygoing, or reasonable. They were not celebrities, they didn't fit into the dominant way of life, and they were not always easy to understand.
- A promise:  Someday God will assume "his full stature on the earth" (Isaiah 2).
- The secret garden:  Isaiah 5 describes Israel as God's private garden or vineyard that he tends carefully.
- A peek....inside God's throne room in Isaiah 6. This chapter always blows me away and fills me with awe, and some fear.
- Messianic prophecies:  In Isaiah 7, 9, and 11.
- Isaiah's wife...was a prophetess (chap 8). You go, Girl!
- Out of control fire:  The wicked were leading lives that raged like an out-of-control fire, turning "the people into consuming fires, consuming one another in their lusts" (Isaiah 9:18-21). What a horrendous image.
- I want that water!  On the Day of the Lord, "joyfully you'll pull up buckets of water from the wells of salvation" (Is 12:3-4). Love it!

Elena's verse of the day: "Love cannot be drowned by oceans or floods, it cannot be bought, no matter what is offered" (Song of Solomon 8:7)