Old Testament - Pt2

David Pawson “Unlocking the Bible” –Old Testament FREE Video Streaming below:

Song of Songs / Ecclesiastes / Obadiah & Joel Pt1 / Obadiah & Joel Pt2 / Jonah / Nahum / Amos / Micah / Isaiah Pt1 / Isaiah Pt2 / Hosea / Zephaniah / Habakkuk / Jeremiah Pt1 / Jeremiah Pt2 / Lamentations / Ezekiel Pt1 / Ezekiel Pt2 / Ezekiel Pt3 / Daniel Pt1 / Daniel Pt2 / Esther / Ezra / Nehemiah / 1 & 2 Chronicles / Haggai / Zechariah Pt1 / Zechariah Pt2 / Malachi Pt1 / Malachi Pt2 / OT Overview /

David Pawson Unlocking the Bible” –Old Testament Three FREE Audio MP3 Downloads below:

David Pawson – Unlocking the Old Testament – Abraham Isaac Jacob.mp3
David Pawson – Unlocking the Old Testament – Exodus pt1.mp3
David Pawson – Unlocking the Old Testament – Exodus pt2.mp3

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David Pawson "Unlocking the Bible" - OT Overview - 7th Feb, 2015


Thoughtful Thoughts 7th Feb. 15

Old Testament overview: The Bible is His Story

The Old Testament part of the Bible is a library of 39 books (in the Gentile Bible but the Jewish version of the “Old Testament” does not split books into parts 1 & 2). It is written over a period of about 1,000 years. Genesis shows that God made the world, and how man got into such a mess.
(Hence our verse at the top from Genesis 6: 5-7 “The Lord saw how great the wickedness of the human race had become on the earth, and that every inclination of the thoughts of the human heart was only evil all the time. 6 The Lord regretted that He had made human beings on the earth, and His heart was deeply troubled. 7 So the Lord said, “I will wipe from the face of the earth the human race I have created.”)
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David Pawson "Unlocking the Bible" - Malachi Pt2 - 31st Jan,2015


Thoughtful Thoughts 31st Jan. 15

Malachi Part 2. “God has the last word.”

This is the end of our Old Testament introduction and so it is a bit longer, although next week we do have an “Over-view”. Anyway, we continue David Pawson’s amazing “Unlocking The Bible” series with Malachi.
God stopped talking to His people for 400 years after He spoke through Malachi. 85% of Malachi is God’s own words. So, the book title “Malachi” means “Messenger”.

A) God promises judgement because of the sins of the religious leaders and people.
God is angry with the religious leaders for; 1) Using the altar as if it were a place to dispose of the worst of the offerings; 2) Keeping the best for themselves and, 3) Preaching what people wanted to hear instead of what God had said. Far from serving, they were self-serving.
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David Pawson "Unlocking the Bible" - Malachi Pt1 - 24th Jan,2015


Thoughtful Thoughts 24th Jan. 15

Malachi Part 1 “NOT FIT FOR PURPOSE”

Malachi part 1 almost brings us to the end of the Old Testament part of David Pawson’s amazing “Unlocking The Bible” series.
It’s now been 100 years since the first return from Babylon but Jerusalem is still sparsely populated. A small version of the Temple had been finished in 520 BC and by now the walls were up again. Persia was still ruling, and the people were asking if the effort had been worth it. Idolatry had stopped but their faith had become formal ritual religion and the leaders had no real faith to pass on. God hated that and wanted someone to close it all down, (1:10). Malachi answers their question on how this showed up in their daily life… they had stopped caring. Without God, goodness had run out and divorce had become normal. God said through Malachi, “I hate divorce”.
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David Pawson "Unlocking the Bible" - Zechariah Pt2 - on 17th Jan, 2015


Thoughtful Thoughts 17th Jan. 15

Zechariah part 2… “Behold He comes…”

We continue with David Pawson’s amazing “Unlocking The Bible” series with this second part of the overview of Zechariah. The series is to help us to get interested in reading the Bible by helping us to understand it.
Zechariah made several different teaching points…
He told the people to get on with building the temple; then he prophesied the appointment of priests becoming the new rulers, which happened when Joshua the priest had a coronation, (and two out of every 15 of those returning were in fact from the tribe of priests), and then he prophesied the coming of the Messiah, both for the first time, and for end times, and the language for that compares more to what we see in Revelation.

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David Pawson "Unlocking the Bible" - Zechariah Pt1 - on 10th Jan, 2015


Thoughtful Thoughts 10th Jan. 15

Zechariah

We continue on with David Pawson’s amazing “Unlocking The Bible” series with Zechariah, so we are approaching the end of the Old Testament series.
God had provided prophets, but at the people’s insistence, God provided kings. Zechariah prophesies that God will be trying out the priests, to lead. They were all supposed to lead Israel, under God. With few exceptions, they failed miserably to focus the people’s attention on God. In fact they mostly led people away from God.
Zechariah prophesied the change from the ruling class being kings to the ruling class becoming the priests.
When Zechariah spoke about the present, he spoke like Haggai and can easily be understood. He overlapped Haggai by one month and continued on for two years. However, when Zechariah spoke about the future, his prophecies are like trying to understand Revelation.
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David Pawson "Unlocking the Bible" - Haggai - on 3rd Jan, 2015


Thoughtful Thoughts 3rd Jan. 15

HAGGAI – “God First”

We continue David Pawson’s amazing “Unlocking The Bible” series with Haggai, and of course there’s a story behind Haggai’s prophecies too.

Cyrus let the Jews go back and even paid for the Temple to be rebuilt – but they had to pray for him in return! But, when Cyrus was replaced the money to pay for the rebuild stopped. So, after two years they stopped building for another 14 years and just focussed on their own homes. They used that lack of income from Cyrus as an excuse to stop all building work. In 520 BC Haggai encouraged the building work to continue for 3 months. Haggai said the reason they were poor was because they had stopped building. When they re-started, the returning exiles were complaining that the new building was pathetic compared to Solomon’s Temple, and so they discouraged the builders. So, 27 days later, God spoke through Haggai again, encouraging them by saying “Work for I am with you”. (2:4).
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David Pawson "Unlocking the Bible" - 1 & 2 Chronicles - on 20th Dec, 2014


Thoughtful Thoughts 20th Dec. 14

Chronicles … Religious leaders OR God – you can’t have both

Ezra worked with Nehemiah in trying to re-establish Jerusalem. Nehemiah covered the people’s physical needs while Ezra covered their spiritual needs.
Ezra used the record in the book of Kings as the basis for his teaching points, so, we have Chronicles. That is why Chronicles is similar to, but not the same as the book of Kings. The book of Kings tells us the bad things about the kings of Israel whereas Chronicles tells us the bad things about the religious leaders. Ezra almost ignores the bad bits about the kings already recorded in the book of Kings so he can highlight the wickedness of religious leaders. (So, Saul is almost ignored and the negatives of David’s life, like Bathsheba, are left out.)

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David Pawson "Unlocking the Bible" - Nehemiah - on 13th Dec, 2014


Thoughtful Thoughts 13th Dec. 14

Nehemiah – Governing Servant Leadership

David Pawson’s ‘Unlocking the Bible’ series continues this week with Nehemiah.
Nehemiah was “cup-bearer” to King Artaxerxes. He had to taste the wine to make sure it wasn’t a ‘poisoned chalice’. (Hence our English phrase).
Esther may have got him the job as Artaxexes was the stepson of Queen Esther.
Anyway, Nehemiah had heard the report that the wall that was being built had been knocked down by the religious half Jew opposition, who had compromised their faith, and who were jealous of the real Jews coming home.

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David Pawson "Unlocking the Bible" - Ezra - on 6th Dec, 2014


Thoughtful Thoughts 6th Dec. 14

Ezra – Godly Spiritual Servant Leadership

We are up to Ezra in David Pawson’s amazing “Unlocking The Bible” series.
Isaiah had prophesied that a man named Cyrus would allow the people in exile to go home, and Jeremiah prophesied that the exile would be for 70 years. Daniel knew his Bible and when the 70 years was up, he started praying for God to open the door to return to Jerusalem. There was a first return mentioned where the Temple started to be re-built, where Haggai and Zechariah led the people.

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David Pawson "Unlocking the Bible" - Esther - on 29th Nov, 2014


Thoughtful Thoughts 29 Nov. 14

Esther – “If I perish I perish”

We are up to the book of ‘Esther’ in our walk through the Bible with David Pawson’s amazing “Unlocking The Bible” series.

There is a hospital called Hadassah outside Jerusalem. It is named in honour of Esther, for Hadassah is the Jewish name of Esther. She was renamed ‘Esther’ by the Babylonians after a Babylonian god, called Ishtar. Esther was secretly Jewish, and brought up by a relative, Mordecai, in Babylon after the people were exiled.

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David Pawson "Unlocking the Bible" - Daniel pt 2 - on 22nd Nov, 2014


Thoughtful Thoughts 22 Nov. 14

Daniel Part 2 -- "Mene, Mene, Tekel, Upharsin"

Our interest getter for David Pawson’s “Unlocking The Bible” continues as we look at Daniel and last time we finished by mentioning the writing on the wall.

The new king of Babylon thought so highly of himself than he used the holy vessels from the Temple of Jerusalem for his palace at his drunk-fest. So, the writing appeared on the wall, warning him of his imminent death, which occurred all too soon, just as prophesied. He had taken what was holy and used it for unholy purposes. Of course the Temple vessels were there in the first place because the religious leaders had caused God to bring in outsiders to come and destroy the very symbol of His presence – the Temple, (even though He had already left).

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David Pawson "Unlocking the Bible" - Daniel pt 1 - on 15th Nov, 2014


Thoughtful Thoughts 15 Nov. 14

Daniel Part 1 — I’ll trust the God of miracles

We continue David Pawson’s amazing “Unlocking The Bible” series by taking a look at Daniel, who is by now in exile in Babylon. He was so highly regarded, that all the rulers kept on keeping him on, one after the other.

Sunday schools teach about Daniel’s principled stand on his diet, and later being thrown into the furnace and later still being thrown into the lion’s den. However, for many churches, they have stopped at the miracles, avoiding the prophecies altogether.

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David Pawson "Unlocking the Bible" - Ezekiel Part 3 - on 8th Nov, 2014


Thoughtful Thoughts 8 Nov. 14

Ezekiel – Part 3 “History repeats itself…it has to, as no-one listens”

We continue with David Pawson’s amazing “Unlocking The Bible”, with Ezekiel Part 3.

Ezekiel was called at the age of 30 to prophecy but by then he had already been taken into Babylon, in the first exile.

Back in Jerusalem, those left behind were already saying, “It wasn’t as bad as we were told…the city is still here with a remnant”.

So, God used Ezekiel to say, “It’s not over yet…There’s worse still to come”. When the second fall of Jerusalem did happen, it was just as bad as prophesied.

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David Pawson "Unlocking the Bible" - Ezekiel Part 2 - on 1st Nov, 2014


Thoughtful Thoughts 1 Nov. 14

Ezekiel part 2… God leaves via the Mount of Olives

Ezekiel’s obedience leads to closeness to God.

The picture of Ezekiel’s tomb is in order to show how real this prophet was! The Bible is a history book of God’s story. So, we continue on with our look at Ezekiel, using David Pawson’s amazing “Unlocking The Bible” series.

Ezekiel had been so obedient to God, that God chose him to speak for Him. He was called at the age of 30 years and preached for 3 more years about the fall of Jerusalem until it fell, and later spoke about the judgment on the nations and then much later about the return of Israel to the Promised Land.

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David Pawson "Unlocking the Bible" - Ezekiel Part 1 - on 25th Oct, 2014


Thoughtful Thoughts 25.10.14

Ezekiel part 1 - God gives fair warning…

During the last couple of weeks we looked at the prophet Jeremiah, courtesy of David Pawson’s “Unlocking The Bible” series. Well, a contemporary of Jeremiah’s was Ezekiel. Whereas God gave Jeremiah a begging appeal to the people to repent before it was too late, God used Ezekiel to speak of His severity, (just as Paul warns us to “behold the goodness and severity of God” Romans 11).

Ezekiel gets an even more unpopular job than Jeremiah. God uses Ezekiel to warn His people of His severity and for part of that he had to lie on his left side for 390 days and then on his right side for 40 days, (Ch. 4), so you have to feel for these guys. (But then, Ezekiel means “God strengthens”)
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David Pawson "Unlocking the Bible" - Lamentations - on 18th Oct, 2014


TT 18.10.14

Lamentations — Great is thy faithfulness

Lamentations (meaning “Tears” or “Howl”).

When you are in the depths of despair, you become paralysed, like a rabbit caught in car headlights. Lamentations is all about feelings, and Jeremiah needed help to convey them, so he used the Hebrew alphabet to get him started.

I just watched a documentary which showed how life experiences help create empathy with others who go through the same thing. The results of the research done, showed that others who had not felt pain in that area, did not appreciate nearly so much, the pain being felt by others who go through that experience.
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David Pawson "Unlocking the Bible" - Jeremiah Part2 - on 11th Oct, 2014


TT 11.10.14

Jeremiah Part 2 — “You shall be rebuilt” (Jer.31:4)

The religious leaders ‘shoot’ the messenger…

We continue with David Pawson’s amazing “Unlocking The Bible” series, by following on from last week’s message with part 2 of Jeremiah.

Jeremiah had a hard time of it…The religious leaders hated him even more than the King. Whereas King Jehoiakim burned his writings, the religious leaders instigated direct physical persecution of him. Jeremiah was put in “stocks”; he was thrown into a muddy cistern (or well), (which an Ethiopian rescued him from, by persuading the King to do the decent thing); and Jeremiah was also put in prison. They even wanted to murder him. When we turn away from God, the worst side of us comes to the surface.

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David Pawson "Unlocking the Bible" - Jeremiah Part1 - on 4th Oct, 2014


TT 04.10.14

Jeremiah - “The Weeping Prophet”

Jeremiah was born in the reign of King Manasseh, who conducted child sacrifices and who sawed Isaiah in half in a hollowed out tree trunk, because he didn’t like God’s message.

Jeremiah comes along with the same message but by now, the invasion God was bringing, was getting too close for comfort. By now it was the end of the 7thC BC, when Jerusalem was full of idolatry, immorality and injustice.

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David Pawson "Unlocking the Bible" - Habakkuk - on 27th Sep, 2014


TT 27.9.14

Habakkuk - The just will survive by being faithful

The judgment

God called Habakkuk to prophecy from roughly 626 BC to 605 BC, about 20 years after Zephaniah…because Jerusalem was just going from bad to worse.

Habakkuk complained to God that He was doing nothing about the sin in Jerusalem, to which God replied that if he watched, he would be surprised. A plan was coming together which he would struggle to believe, and which in fact he hadn’t noticed had already begun.

The Assyrians had already taken away the northern ten tribes of Israel, but they had already started to wane as a power and the Babylonians were by now on the rise.

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David Pawson "Unlocking the Bible" - Zephaniah - on 20th Sep, 2014


TT 20.9.14

Zephaniah - Dark clouds with a silver lining…

There used to be a man in central London carrying a sign: "Repent the end is near". He wasn't very popular.
Well, Zephaniah was a bit like that. He was desperately trying to warn the people of an imminent judgement by God on their sin, which he called the "Day of the Lord", which was fast coming upon them. God was about to judge them by using the Babylonians, who had a "scorched earth" policy, like some kind of terror group.
Previously Hezekiah had shown a Babylonian envoy the gold in his palace and in the Temple. Isaiah said that they'd be coming back for it. Well, Zephaniah warned that that time was now almost upon them.

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David Pawson "Unlocking the Bible" - Hosea - on 13th Sep, 2014


O Love that will not let me go…

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nt69WDtYNLo

More bad news…

David Pawson’s series, opening up the Bible, book by book continues as we look at Hosea.

The people of Israel had returned to the pagan practice of temple prostitutes and worshipping a golden calf from the worship of Baal.

The blame for the spiritual state of the nation is put squarely on the religious leaders. The situation is taken advantage of by profiteers, who use the situation to make money from the increasing poverty.

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David Pawson "Unlocking the Bible" - Isaiah Pt2 - on 6th Sep, 2014


Isaiah Part 2… The Justice and Mercy of God…

God’s amazing martyred prophet …

Last week we saw how King Manasseh tortured Isaiah to death.
We continue David Pawson’s amazing series “Unlocking The Bible”, with Isaiah, part 2.

The Bible is a history book…even archaeologists use it to find things and places…For example, ten tribes of Israel made an alliance with Assyria against Judah. God had an angel destroy them overnight…

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David Pawson "Unlocking the Bible" - Isaiah Pt1 - on 30 August, 2014



Isaiah - The man…

Isaiah’s name means “The Lord saves.” Isaiah was from the ruling class. He had wealth, connections, and counseled kings. He moved in government circles and his wife was a prophetess.

Isaiah was faithful in delivering God’s message. King Manasseh hated the message so much that he murdered Isaiah by cutting him in half inside a hollowed out tree trunk. Manasseh was a satan worshipper who had even sacrificed his own child to a religious belief in an idol called “molech”.

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David Pawson "Unlocking the Bible" - Micah - on 23rd August, 2014


As Micah was a contemporary of Amos, Isaiah and Hosea, we are going to mix and match the books we review.

Micah’s vision resulted in addressing mainly the two tribes of Judah in the south but also included the ten tribes of Israel in the north.

We have a problem…

As Micah was conscious of social injustice, God used him to list the social sins…bribery among priests, judiciary and leaders; covetousness; greed; cheating; violence; cruelty; crime; landlords evicting widows and orphans; exploitation of the powerless; inaccurate weights; and using their power to abuse the poor.

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David Pawson "Unlocking the Bible" - Amos - on 16th August, 2014


AMOS – “THE LION ROARS”

First the bad news
The ten northern tribes of Israel had developed their own man-made religions of so-called “mother nature’s fertility goddesses”, to which they sacrificed at the forbidden altars.

They worshiped “mother nature”, as it was supposed bring the next harvest, so God brought food shortages – through harvest failures. One way harvests were being made to fail was through water shortages. Another was through diseased crops. Then there were plagues being brought onto the animals and people, and raids from enemies, and fires brought on by lightning.

Through Amos, God even threatens them with an earthquake to make them repent, (which happened two years later, which was so big Zechariah even refers to it.) God was bringing it on.
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David Pawson "Unlocking the Bible" - Nahum - on 9th August, 2014


Read all about it. Nineveh is being destroyed. Read all about it.

We continue David Pawson’s amazing series explaining each book of the Bible and this week we catch up with Nahum.

Zephaniah had been warning Nineveh from a safe distance! However, Nahum went to the city of Nineveh, like Jonah, risking his life to deliver his message. This time it is like a judge putting on his black cap for sentencing Nineveh to death.
Nahum’s vision was so vivid that he even saw that the colour of the uniforms would be scarlet, of the army that would be attacking and destroying Nineveh– and all this at a time before any armies had scarlet uniforms.

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David Pawson "Unlocking the Bible" - Jonah - on 2nd August, 2014


Jonah – the reluctant prophet / evangelist

Jesus spoke of Jonah as a historical figure. Jonah had prophesied to the Jews in Jerusalem before going to Nineveh, (2 Kings 14:25; Jonah 4:2).

Jonah warned Nineveh that they were going to be destroyed by God for their sheer inhumanity… (they would put enemies on wooden spikes, to torture them to death.)

Jonah then sits and waits in the desert to see what will happen… and so God grows a tree overnight to protect him from the sun.

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David Pawson "Unlocking the Bible" - Obadiah & Joel Pt2 - on 26th July, 2014


Obadiah and Joel part 2… God has no favourites.

Obadiah and Joel prophesied before the exile. Obadiah spoke to the Edomites in 845BC. Joel spoke in 835BC and quoted Obadiah.

As Joel preached just 10 years after Obadiah, he reinforced Obadiah’s message but moved on to point the finger at his own Jewish people too. God has no favourites – sin in God’s people is just as serious as sin outside God’s people. Prophets had to correct the kind of wrong thinking in Israel that said, ‘we are alright because we are God’s people’. Joel and Amos both said the Day of the Lord could be bad and not good. Joel went on to say a plague of locusts was from God. He said that it was the first of His warnings. After the plagues, they didn’t even have enough grain for an offering in the temple. They had had drought, fires and famine. Joel says, these warnings are because God is giving a chance to repent.

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David Pawson "Unlocking the Bible" - Obadiah & Joel Pt1 - on 19th July, 2014


Obadiah – “Our God is going to judge you too”.

Obadiah, meaning “the worshipper (or servant) of Yahweh”, spoke to Edom, (at what is now “Petra”). Obadiah spoke in 845 BC about punishment and exile for Edom. They were technically brothers with Israel, through Esau, and Edom always took the side of those attacking Israel.

A prophet speaks for God so he has therefore heard from God. A prophet has been shown the future by God, and so was often called “a seer”. They might see a vision whilst awake, or have a dream if asleep. So, a prophet speaks as if he has seen the thing happening that he is warning about;- as if it has already occurred. They come like a reporter’s description, so that on one occasion even the colour of the invader’s army uniform was described.

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David Pawson "Unlocking the Bible" - Ecclesiastes - on 12th July, 2014


Ecclesiastes – A Dead Life

What a different perspective Ecclesiastes has from last week’s ‘Song of Songs’, both written by the same author!

As David Pawson looks at Solomon’s ‘Ecclesiastes’, he reveals that he had had more people converted when preaching on this book than any other book of the Bible. The same thing happened to me when I preached on it. That in itself reveals why this book is in the Bible. This book looks at life from the point of view of a man who wasted it…not from God’s perspective, but from a man who frittered it away, but he had enough wisdom to realise it. (Solomon starts by saying, “Vanity of vanity all is vanity”, which in the old English translation means “pointless”, or “useless”.)

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David Pawson "Unlocking the Bible" - Song of Songs - on 5th July, 2014


The title, “The Song of Songs” means, ‘the ultimate song of all songs’, in Hebrew.

David Pawson puts this book together for us like piecing together a jig saw puzzle.

The story line behind the Song of Songs is about the love between a woman and a shepherd. Like a fairy tale, the woman doesn’t know that the shepherd is Solomon, the King of Israel. He had hidden his identity.

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