2. The Writings (Megillot)
Week 7 • Day 2
The 2nd set of writings is called the Megillot (“scrolls” in Hebrew). This collection of seemingly miscellaneous writings were compiled together because they are sung during festivals in the Jewish calendar. While the order of thi collection is debated, each entry carries the kingdom narrative forward in unique ways!
SONG OF SONGS (Sabbath of Passover + Passover Meal)
Whether it’s the harlotry imagery of Ezekiel, the marriage of the prophet Hosea to Gomer the prostitute, or the contrasting nature of Lady Wisdom and the Adulteress women in Proverbs, there is no shortage of language that compares God’s covenant hesed love for His people to a husband-and-wife marriage relationship that was never meant to be torn apart – imagery established all the way back in Genesis 2! Given this context, the passionate language of Song of Songs written in the wisdom tradition of King Solomon - who himself succumbed to lust and was led astray by the gods of his foreign wives - fits into the kingdom narrative as a window into the deep covenantal affection between God and His people! After God’s people have abandoned His rule and are now outside of the Kingdom place, we await to see if the Lord will pursue His covenant partner. We are invited to watch as these lover’s pursue each other through various “phases”
Dating / Engaged Phase
On my bed by night I sought him whom my soul loves; I sought him, but found him not. I will rise now and go about the city, in the streets and in the squares; I will seek him whom my soul loves. I sought him, but found him not. The watchmen found me as they went about in the city. “Have you seen him whom my soul loves?”
Scarcely had I passed them when I found him whom my soul loves. I held him, and would not let him go until I had brought him into my mother’s house, and into the chamber of her who conceived me. I adjure you, O daughters of Jerusalem, by the gazelles or the does of the field, that you not stir up or awaken love until it pleases. - Song of Songs 3:1–5
Marriage / Consummation Phase
You have captivated my heart, my sister, my bride; you have captivated my heart with one glance of your eyes, with one jewel of your necklace. How beautiful is your love, my sister, my bride! How much better is your love than wine, and the fragrance of your oils than any spice! - Song of Songs 4:9–10
Let my beloved come to his garden, and eat its choicest fruits. I came to my garden, my sister, my bride, I gathered my myrrh with my spice, I ate my honeycomb with my honey, I drank my wine with my milk. - Song of Songs 4:16–5:1
“Trouble in Paradise” Phase
I slept, but my heart was awake. A sound! My beloved is knocking. “Open to me, my sister, my love, my dove, my perfect one, for my head is wet with dew, my locks with the drops of the night.” I had put off my garment; how could I put it on? I had bathed my feet; how could I soil them? My beloved put his hand to the latch, and my heart was thrilled within me. I arose to open to my beloved, and my hands dripped with myrrh, my fingers with liquid myrrh, on the handles of the bolt. I opened to my beloved, but my beloved had turned and gone. My soul failed me when he spoke. I sought him, but found him not; I called him, but he gave no answer. The watchmen found me as they went about in the city; they beat me, they bruised me, they took away my veil, those watchmen of the walls. I adjure you, O daughters of Jerusalem, if you find my beloved, that you tell him I am sick with love. - Song of Songs 5:2–6
Set me as a seal upon your heart, as a seal upon your arm, for love is strong as death, jealousy is fierce as the grave. Its flashes are flashes of fire, the very flame of the Lord. Many waters cannot quench love, neither can floods drown it. If a man offered for love all the wealth of his house, he would be utterly despised. - Song of Songs 5:2–6
Mentoring / Learning Afresh Phase
We have a little sister, and she has no breasts. What shall we do for our sister on the day when she is spoken for? If she is a wall, we will build on her a battlement of silver, but if she is a door, we will enclose her with boards of cedar. I was a wall, and my breasts were like towers; then I was in his eyes as one who finds peace. - Song of Songs 8:8–9.
O you who dwell in the gardens, with companions listening for your voice; let me hear it. Make haste, my beloved, and be like a gazelle or a young stag on the mountains of spices. - Song of Songs 8:13–14
RUTH (Feast of Weeks)
Ruth steps onto the scene of the Hebrew Bible as a foreign woman from the country of Moab, Israel’s historic enemy. In the opening scene of the book, Ruth tragically loses her husband but decides to remain faithful to her Jewish mother-in-law along with her God.
Naomi said, “Turn back, my daughters; why will you go with me? Have I yet sons in my womb that they may become your husbands? Turn back, my daughters; go your way, for I am too old to have a husband. If I should say I have hope, even if I should have a husband this night and should bear sons, would you therefore wait till they were grown? Would you therefore refrain from marrying? No, my daughters, for it is exceedingly bitter to me for your sake that the hand of the Lord has gone out against me.” Then they lifted up their voices and wept again. And Orpah kissed her mother-in-law, but Ruth clung to her. - Ruth 1:11-14
Through amazing circumstances, Ruth and Naomi coincidentally stumble upon a family redeemer in Boaz who is able to become their caretaker and marry Ruth. Because of her faithfulness, Ruth, a foreigner and a sufferer, would forever be cemented in the story of God’s kingdom! Look at the lineage of Ruth’s son…
So Boaz took Ruth, and she became his wife. And he went in to her, and the Lord gave her conception, and she bore a son. Then the women said to Naomi, “Blessed be the Lord, who has not left you this day without a redeemer, and may his name be renowned in Israel! He shall be to you a restorer of life and a nourisher of your old age, for your daughter-in-law who loves you, who is more to you than seven sons, has given birth to him.” Then Naomi took the child and laid him on her lap and became his nurse. And the women of the neighborhood gave him a name, saying, “A son has been born to Naomi.” They named him Obed. He was the father of Jesse, the father of David. - Ruth 4:13-17
You may have gotten to the book of Judges and expected Ruth to come next. According to the very first verse, this placement makes complete sense. In the days when the judges ruled… - (Ruth 1:1A) In the midst of Israel’s complete rebellion against God’s rule during the time of the judges, God decides to work through one of his faithful foreign people who experiences a story of restoration and enters into God’s kingdom narrative by becoming the great grandmother of king David! It follows, then, that Ruth traditionally acts as the precursor story to the books of Samuel and Kings which document the life of King David!
However, the ancient Hebrews compilers decided to place the story of Ruth much later in the writings. Why? In the same way the Psalms “call-back” to the great king David, we are called to remember that it was the faith of a foreign Moabite woman that brought about the Davidic line. This would have been an incredible encouragement to the exiles existing in a foreign place; that God can still work through His people no matter where they find themselves. Additionally, with Lady Wisdom and the Wise Godly-Wife of Proverbs fresh in our mind, it makes complete sense to immediately meet Ruth. This Hebrew Bible placement as well as some key words that link together makes Ruth the “worthy” and “excellent” personification of Lady Wisdom and the Proverbs 31 woman!
LAMENTATIONS (Destruction of Temple)
Jeremiah’s lamentations are sung to remember the sack of God’s kingdom place by the Babylonians (and eventually the Romans in the 1st century). Jeremiah continues the hesed love imagery by comparing the fallen city to a widow.
How lonely sits the city that was full of people! How like a widow has she become, she who was great among the nations! Her foes have become the head; her enemies prosper, because the Lord has afflicted her for the multitude of her transgressions; her children have gone away, captives before the foe. - Lamentations 1:1, 5
Her uncleanness was in her skirts; he took no thought of her future; therefore her fall is terrible; she has no comforter. “O Lord, behold my affliction, for the enemy has triumphed!” - Lamentations 1:9
They heard my groaning, yet there is no one to comfort me. All my enemies have heard of my trouble; they are glad that you have done it. You have brought the day you announced; now let them be as I am. “Let all their evildoing come before you, and deal with them as you have dealt with me because of all my transgressions; for my groans are many, and my heart is faint.” - Lamentations 1:21–22
As we reminisce on Israel’s lowest moment, we are called to be confident in the God of the Israelites because YHWH is the God whose “lovingkindness indeed never ceases” and whose “mercy never comes to an end”. Jeremiah reflects on this hope and says that because God has revealed Himself to be slow to anger and abounding in lovingkindness, it is good for man to be patient and faithfully wait upon Him rather than, “offer complaint in view of his sins”.
But this I call to mind, and therefore I have hope: The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. “The Lord is my portion,” says my soul, “therefore I will hope in him.” - Lamentations 3:21-24
The Lord is good to those who wait for him, to the soul who seeks him. It is good that one should wait quietly for the salvation of the Lord. It is good for a man that he bear the yoke in his youth. - Lamentations 3:25–27
Instead, Jeremiah advises that any horrific loss ought to cause God’s people to patiently reexamine themselves and look for God’s powerful rule over the situation.
Let us test and examine our ways, and return to the Lord! Let us lift up our hearts and hands to God in heaven: “We have transgressed and rebelled, and you have not forgiven. - Lamentations 3:40–42
The hands of compassionate women have boiled their own children; they became their food during the destruction of the daughter of my people. - Lamentations 4:10
This was for the sins of her prophets and the iniquities of her priests, who shed in the midst of her the blood of the righteous. - Lamentations 4:13
Jeremiah concludes his lamentations by offering his broken and contrite heart to the Lord, not necessarily having all the answers to his questions, but coming out of his lamentations hopeful of God’s hesed lovingkindness. That is why Jeremiah pronounces a prophecy in favor of YHWH’s kingdom place in Zion and against the serpent’s kingdom place in Edom. Even though the events of Israel’s exile are tragic, the events of tomorrow are favorable.
The punishment of your iniquity, O daughter of Zion, is accomplished; he will keep you in exile no longer; but your iniquity, O daughter of Edom, he will punish; he will uncover your sins. - Lamentations 4:22
But you, O Lord, reign forever; your throne endures to all generations. Why do you forget us forever, why do you forsake us for so many days? Restore us to yourself, O Lord, that we may be restored! Renew our days as of old— unless you have utterly rejected us, and you remain exceedingly angry with us. - Lamentations 5:19–22
ECCLESIASTES (Feast of Booths)
The words of the Preacher, the son of David, king in Jerusalem. Vanity of vanities, says the Preacher, vanity of vanities! All is vanity.
I, the Preacher, have been king over Israel in Jerusalem. And I applied my heart to seek and to search out by wisdom all that is done under heaven. It is an unhappy business that God has given to the children of man to be busy with. I have seen everything that is done under the sun, and behold, all is vanity and a striving after wind. - Ecclesiastes 1:1–2, 12-14
The writings place Ecclesiastes within arms reach of Job and Proverbs as a skeptical book about the “meaninglessness” of all things under the sun - a sentiment that must have been strong amidst the Israelites in exile. In the book of Solomon’s Proverbs, we are presented with nuggets of wisdom that lean toward a “cause-and-effect” relationship in the world. If you sow good actions, you will reap good results. The skeptic of Ecclesiastes, however, begs to differ. Ecclesiastes resents a skeptical teacher who observes the randomness of the world and wonders if the Proverbial cause-and-effect conclusion is actually true or if everything is simply meaningless?
I said in my heart, “I have acquired great wisdom…I said in my heart, “Come now, I will test you with pleasure; enjoy yourself… I searched with my heart how to cheer my body with wine…I made great works. I built houses and planted vineyards for myself. I made myself gardens and parks, and planted in them all kinds of fruit trees. I made myself pools from which to water the forest of growing trees. I bought male and female slaves, and had slaves who were born in my house. I had also great possessions of herds and flocks, more than any who had been before me in Jerusalem. I also gathered for myself silver and gold and the treasure of kings and provinces. I got singers, both men and women, and many concubines, the delight of the sons of man.
So I became great and surpassed all who were before me in Jerusalem…Then I considered all that my hands had done and the toil I had expended in doing it, and behold, all was vanity and a striving after wind, and there was nothing to be gained under the sun. - Ecclesiastes 1:16 - 2:11
There is a vanity that takes place on earth, that there are righteous people to whom it happens according to the deeds of the wicked, and there are wicked people to whom it happens according to the deeds of the righteous. I said that this also is vanity. - Ecclesiastes 8:14-17
How cynical must God’s people have been to see YHWH hand them over to exile! The teacher uses this same cynical lens to make his own observations about the world. For example, since the teacher believes that God appointed timing cannot be thwarted (Eccl. 3:1-11), he exposes the need to concern over toilsome labor.
What gain has the worker from his toil? I have seen the business that God has given to the children of man to be busy with. He has made everything beautiful in its time. Also, he has put eternity into man’s heart, yet so that he cannot find out what God has done from the beginning to the end. I perceived that there is nothing better for them than to be joyful and to do good as long as they live; also that everyone should eat and drink and take pleasure in all his toil—this is God’s gift to man. - Ecclesiastes 3:9–13
In the same way, the teacher exposes evildoers in political positions who are supposed to bring about justice, acts of oppression from authorities, rivalries and endless work created by those who labor, loneliness in day-to-day life, and poor wise men replacing old foolish kings in positions of leadership. At this point, one might expect the teacher to abandon any notion of God. However, in a weird way the skeptical teacher concludes that the randomness and meaninglessness of life actually should motivate us to fear the God who rules over everything.
Guard your steps when you go to the house of God. To draw near to listen is better than to offer the sacrifice of fools, for they do not know that they are doing evil. Be not rash with your mouth, nor let your heart be hasty to utter a word before God, for God is in heaven and you are on earth. Therefore let your words be few. - Ecclesiastes 5:1–2
Considering the meaninglessness of everything under the sun, the teacher confirms a particular finding that is scattered throughout his work: that man should gladly eat, drink, and rejoice in one’s activities as a gift from God.
There is nothing better for a person than that he should eat and drink and find enjoyment in his toil. This also, I saw, is from the hand of God, for apart from him who can eat or who can have enjoyment? - Ecclesiastes 5:1–2
I perceived that there is nothing better for them than to be joyful and to do good as long as they live; also that everyone should eat and drink and take pleasure in all his toil—this is God’s gift to man….So I saw that there is nothing better than that a man should rejoice in his work, for that is his lot. Who can bring him to see what will be after him? - Ecclesiastes 3:12–13, 22
Behold, what I have seen to be good and fitting is to eat and drink and find enjoyment in all the toil with which one toils under the sun the few days of his life that God has given him, for this is his lot. Everyone also to whom God has given wealth and possessions and power to enjoy them, and to accept his lot and rejoice in his toil—this is the gift of God. For he will not much remember the days of his life because God keeps him occupied with joy in his heart. - Ecclesiastes 5:18–20
Go, eat your bread with joy, and drink your wine with a merry heart, for God has already approved what you do. Let your garments be always white. Let not oil be lacking on your head. Enjoy life with the wife whom you love, all the days of your vain life that he has given you under the sun, because that is your portion in life and in your toil at which you toil under the sun. Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with your might, for there is no work or thought or knowledge or wisdom in Sheol, to which you are going. - Ecclesiastes 9:7–10
It may have been impossible to figure out God’s reasoning behind the exile. In a similar stream of thought, the narrator of the book steps in and offer this warning about pursuing a life of all-knowing - a life in which we take the throne of our own kingdom. Instead, he encourages us to fear God on his throne and follow his rule that tells us what is “good” and what is “evil”.
Besides being wise, the Preacher also taught the people knowledge, weighing and studying and arranging many proverbs with great care. The Preacher sought to find words of delight, and uprightly he wrote words of truth. The words of the wise are like goads, and like nails firmly fixed are the collected sayings; they are given by one Shepherd. My son, beware of anything beyond these. Of making many books there is no end, and much study is a weariness of the flesh.
The end of the matter; all has been heard. Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man. For God will bring every deed into judgment, with every secret thing, whether good or evil. - Ecclesiastes 12:9–14
ESTHER (Purim)
Esther, which is a book that is notoriously written 100 years after the Babylonian exile and famously never mentions the name of God, is full of so-called coincidences! Even though the family of God may have forgotten how to acknowledge Him, He continues to orchestrate all things for His people!
In the kingdom of Persia around 480 B.C., a young Jewish woman named Esther wins the affection of King Ahasuerus and becomes queen in a foreign land. It just so happens that her cousin Mordecai, son of Kish from the tribe of Benajamin (the exact same lineage as king Saul) uncovers a plot to assassinate the king putting him in good favor with the king. This is important because later, Mordecai is persecuted by the king’s assistant named Haman who rolls a dice (pur in Hebrew) to decide the day of destruction for Mordecai and his Jewish people.
It just so happens that the King has a dream and remembers Mordecai’s kind act and intends to honor him instead of Haman. It just so happens that Esther exposes Haman’s plot to the king leading to Haman’s destruction. And it just so happens that the day of the purim becomes the day where the Jews are saved and restored!
Then Mordecai told them to reply to Esther, “Do not think to yourself that in the king’s palace you will escape any more than all the other Jews. For if you keep silent at this time, relief and deliverance will rise for the Jews from another place, but you and your father’s house will perish. And who knows whether you have not come to the kingdom for such a time as this?” Then Esther told them to reply to Mordecai, “Go, gather all the Jews to be found in Susa, and hold a fast on my behalf, and do not eat or drink for three days, night or day. I and my young women will also fast as you do. Then I will go to the king, though it is against the law, and if I perish, I perish.” - Esther 4:13-16
Why does God allow His people to suffer? Is there still hope for God’s people in exile? Or is it all just meaningless? The Hebrew collection of writings in the emet and the megillot suggest that no matter where God’s faithful people find themselves, they can rest in the fact that God sovereignly rules over all things. YHWH will lovingly pursue His lost people like a husband pursues his wife, even if it does look like terror is falling upon the righteous and the wicked alike. The writings challenged the Jews to remember what it was like in God’s kingdom place so that they could fear Yahweh as king instead of the chaotic circumstances of foreign kingdoms! The path forward is to align our delegated rule with God’s kingdom with the utmost reverence, respect, and fear for His supreme authority as the God above the entire universe! And if that means we perish, then we perish.
Behold, the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom, and to turn away from evil is understanding. - Job 28:28
The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge; fools despise wisdom and instruction. - Proverbs 1:7
The end of the matter; all has been heard. Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man. For God will bring every deed into judgment, with every secret thing, whether good or evil. - Ecclesiastes 12:13-14
God continues to mercifully orchestrate things for His good and glorious will! The writings gave Israel, and continues to give us today, hope of a rescue from exile, where God’s rule will be reestablished over His restored people once more, and where God will return us to His kingdom place!
The Lord reigns; let the peoples tremble! He sits enthroned upon the cherubim; let the earth quake! The Lord is great in Zion; he is exalted over all the peoples. Let them praise your great and awesome name! Holy is he! The King in his might loves justice. You have established equity; you have executed justice and righteousness in Jacob. Exalt the Lord our God; worship at his footstool! Holy is he! - Psalms 99:1-5
Share the Gospel: The Hebrew collection of writings in the emet and the megillot suggest that no matter where God’s faithful people find themselves, they can rest in the fact that God sovereignly rules over all things. YHWH is lovingly pursuing His lost people like a husband pursues his wife, even if it does look like terror is falling upon the righteous and the wicked alike. The writings challenged the Jews to remember what it was like in God’s kingdom place so that they could fear Yahweh as king instead of the chaotic circumstances of foreign kingdoms!
