The Dance of the Two Armies Text: Song of Solomon 6:13
Introduction: Love is a Battlefield
The world talks a great deal about love, but it knows precious little of what it is. For the world, love is a sentiment, a feeling, a vague and gauzy warmth that descends and departs like a fog. It is a pop song, three minutes of emotional fluff that signifies nothing. It is a flimsy foundation upon which to build a life, let alone a civilization, which is why our civilization is currently crumbling into a pile of sentimental dust.
The Bible, as is its custom, crashes into this sentimentalist boutique with muddy boots and a loud voice. The Bible tells us that love is not a feeling; it is a covenant. It is a promise, a binding oath. And because it is a covenant, it is a glorious war. The love between a man and a woman in marriage is not a truce; it is a military alliance. It is a beautiful, intricate, and deadly serious affair. It is not two people gazing dreamily into one another's eyes; it is two people standing shoulder to shoulder, facing outward against a hostile world, with swords drawn. This is why the bride in this very book is described as "terrible as an army with banners."
Our text today brings this reality to a sharp and glorious point. After a period of painful separation and searching, the bride and groom are reconciled. The daughters of Jerusalem, the chorus, want to gaze upon the bride's beauty. They call for her to return, to put herself on display. Her response is curious, and it is the key to our text. She asks why they would want to behold her, as they would "the dance of the two companies."
This phrase, "the dance of the two companies," or "the dance of Mahanaim," is not some throwaway poetic flourish. It is a direct reference to a place and a concept that is soaked in the history of God's dealings with His people. It is a reference to conflict, to fear, to divine intervention, and to glorious, reconciled joy. To understand this dance is to understand the nature of covenant love, both in marriage and, typologically, between Christ and His Church. It is to understand that true love is not a stroll in the park; it is a victory dance on a battlefield.
The Text
"Come back, come back, O Shulammite; Come back, come back, that we may behold you!" "Why should you behold the Shulammite, As at the dance of the two companies?"
(Song of Solomon 6:13 LSB)
The Public Summons (v. 13a)
The first part of the verse is a call from the daughters of Jerusalem.
"Come back, come back, O Shulammite; Come back, come back, that we may behold you!" (Song of Solomon 6:13a)
The chorus, representing the community, calls for the bride to return. The call is repeated four times, indicating their urgency and eagerness. They want to gaze upon her, to admire her beauty. And who is she? She is the Shulammite. This is likely the feminine form of the name Solomon. Just as a Christian is named after Christ, she is named after her husband. She is Mrs. Solomon. Her identity is now inextricably bound up with his. This is the biblical pattern. The man gives his name, and the woman takes it, and in this, the glory of the gospel is displayed. The Church is the bride of Christ, and we have taken His name. We are Christians.
But there is a subtle temptation in this public summons. They want to "behold" her, to make a spectacle of her. It is the desire to turn the intimate beauty of the marriage relationship into a public performance. The world is always trying to do this. It wants to put marriage on a stage, to judge it by outward appearances, to reduce its mysterious glory to something that can be consumed as entertainment. The world wants to stare, but it does not want to understand.
The Covenantal Dance (v. 13b)
The Shulammite's response is a question that deflects their gaze and redirects their understanding.
"Why should you behold the Shulammite, As at the dance of the two companies?" (Song of Solomon 6:13b)
She asks why they would want to gaze at her as though she were a public spectacle, like the "dance of the two companies." The phrase in Hebrew is the dance of Mahanaim. To understand what she is saying, we must go back to the Old Testament and see what happened at Mahanaim. The name itself means "two camps" or "two hosts."
The first time we encounter Mahanaim is in Genesis 32. Jacob is on his way back to the promised land after twenty years of exile. He is about to face his estranged brother Esau, the brother he swindled, who is coming to meet him with four hundred men. Jacob is, to put it mildly, terrified. He is caught between his crooked father-in-law Laban behind him and a potentially murderous brother before him. And at this moment of extreme vulnerability, the angels of God meet him. Jacob looks at his own weak, frightened, baggage-laden camp, and then he sees the heavenly host, God's army. And he names the place Mahanaim, "two camps," his camp and God's camp.
Mahanaim is therefore a place where the earthly and the heavenly meet. It is a place of fear and reassurance. It is where our profound weakness is met by God's overwhelming strength. It is a place of conflict that is resolved by divine grace. Later in Israel's history, Mahanaim becomes a place of refuge for King David when he flees from his treacherous son Absalom. It is once again a place of conflict, of two opposing camps, where the rightful king is protected and ultimately restored.
So what is the "dance of Mahanaim"? It is not a performance for spectators. It is the dynamic, beautiful, and warlike interaction between two camps. In the context of this love poem, it refers to the love between the husband and the wife. They are the two companies. Their relationship is a dance. It has rhythm, it has movement, it has beauty, it has order. But it is also the dance of two armies. It is a relationship forged in the reality of a fallen world. It is a partnership that requires coordination, mutual support, and a shared battle plan. It is a dance of reconciliation after conflict, just as Jacob was reconciled to Esau after his terror at Mahanaim.
The Shulammite is saying, "Why do you want to just stare at me? The beauty you see is not a static portrait. It is the result of a dynamic, covenantal dance. It is the beauty of two becoming one, of two armies moving in perfect, formidable unison. This is not something you can understand by just gawking from the cheap seats. This is the mystery of the covenant."
The Gospel in the Dance
As with the entire book, this points us to a greater reality. The dance of Mahanaim is the story of Christ and His Church. Christ is the heavenly camp. He is the captain of the Lord's hosts who comes to us in our weakness and fear. We are the earthly camp, the Shulammite, the bride. We are weak, vulnerable, and often wandering.
The history of redemption is this great dance. Christ the bridegroom comes to a world in rebellion. He comes to the camp of His enemies to win His bride. He fights for her. He dies for her. And in the resurrection, He raises her up with Him. The Christian life is learning the steps to this dance. It is the dance of justification, where His righteousness is imputed to our unrighteousness. It is the dance of sanctification, where we learn to move in rhythm with His Spirit, where our will learns to follow His lead.
The Church, when it is functioning properly, is a public performance of this dance of the two companies. It is the place where the heavenly camp and the earthly camp meet in worship. When we gather for worship, we are joining the heavenly host, the angels and archangels and all the company of heaven. Our worship is spiritual warfare. Our songs are battle cries. Our celebration of the Lord's Supper is a victory feast in the middle of the battlefield. The world looks on and sees a strange dance, a peculiar people. They don't understand it, because it is a covenantal mystery.
This is also the pattern for a godly marriage. A husband and wife are two camps, two armies, who have been brought together by God into one flesh. Their life together is a dance. There will be moments of conflict and misunderstanding, moments of fear and weakness. But in Christ, there is always the promise of reconciliation. The husband leads, protects, and lays down his life. The wife responds, respects, and strengthens. Together, they are a formidable force against the world, the flesh, and the devil. Their home becomes an outpost of the heavenly camp, a colony of heaven. Their love is not a sentimental show for public consumption. It is a dance of two armies, beautiful and terrible, a testament to the God who met Jacob at Mahanaim and who meets us in the face of Jesus Christ.
So do not be content to be a mere spectator of this dance. God calls you to participate. If you are not a Christian, He calls you to join the bride, to be united to Christ by faith. If you are married, He calls you to learn the steps of this warlike dance of love and loyalty. And as a church, He calls us to be the visible manifestation of the dance of Mahanaim, a beautiful and terrible army with banners, joyfully and fearlessly advancing the kingdom of our God.