This is our final week in Song of Songs. I went back and read the first post, just as a potent remind of how far the Lord has traveled with us. This sentence stuck out to me, and I can type this today knowing He's faithful and continues to do His perfect work in my imperfect life: God is detoxing me from my self-confidence and continues to snip my strings of pride graciously. Snip, clip, snip. Often, it's painful. Forever, it's worth it.
The Song of Songs is a melody of wholeness. It paints a glorious picture of a deep, covenant relationship between a man and a woman. A connection so rich and deep it seems foreign. And that's why this book intimidated me, even as I wrote it. If it were a book found outside of the Bible, we'd think it to be secular. However, when kept in its proper context and Biblical boundaries, it is wedded bliss that points to Christ Jesus and His Bride. This week, we get to take one step closer to that wedded bliss in Christ as we study the final chapter: Song of Songs Chapter 8.
She
If only you were to me like a brother,
who was nursed at my mother's breasts!
Then, if I found you outside,
I would kiss you,
and no one would despise me.
2 I would lead you
and bring you to my mother's house—
she who has taught me.
I would give you spiced wine to drink,
the nectar of my pomegranates.
3 His left arm is under my head
and his right arm embraces me.
4 Daughters of Jerusalem, I charge you:
Do not arouse or awaken love
until it so desires.
Friends
5 Who is this coming up from the wilderness
leaning on her beloved?
She
Under the apple tree I roused you;
there your mother conceived you,
there she who was in labor gave you birth.
6 Place me like a seal over your heart,
like a seal on your arm;
for love is as strong as death,
its jealousy unyielding as the grave.
It burns like blazing fire,
like a mighty flame.
7 Many waters cannot quench love;
rivers cannot sweep it away.
If one were to give
all the wealth of one's house for love,
it would be utterly scorned.
Friends
8 We have a little sister,
and her breasts are not yet grown.
What shall we do for our sister
on the day she is spoken for?
9 If she is a wall,
we will build towers of silver on her.
If she is a door,
we will enclose her with panels of cedar.
She
10 I am a wall,
and my breasts are like towers.
Thus I have become in his eyes
like one bringing contentment.
11 Solomon had a vineyard in Baal Hamon;
he let out his vineyard to tenants.
Each was to bring for its fruit
a thousand shekels of silver.
12 But my own vineyard is mine to give;
the thousand shekels are for you, Solomon,
and two hundred are for those who tend its fruit.
He
13 You who dwell in the gardens
with friends in attendance,
let me hear your voice!
She
14 Come away, my beloved,
and be like a gazelle
or like a young stag
on the spice-laden mountains.
As we finalize this compilation of love songs, signifying this man and woman's love journey, we celebrate it as a gift from God that we will sing forever.
When we first met this couple, they were single. A country girl started this song by telling us about the man she hoped would kiss her "with the kisses of his mouth" (Song of Solomon 1:2).
Now, they've wed, and Song of Songs 8:5 says, "Who is that coming up from the wilderness," they ask, "leaning on her beloved?"
I love that idea of "leaning on her beloved." It's a visual construct of dependency and intimacy. It's more than just a physical connection but relational. Now and then, I see an elderly couple hand-in-hand as they walk. While part of me smiles in that I'm sure they help each other physically balance, I can't help but know the balance and stability goes much deeper than that. It is a wrinkled grip of love, understanding, and blessedness.
It may seem odd that the talk of an apple tree is both a location of their love arousal and the place where the man's mother gave birth to him. However, it calls to mind the idea of a family tree—a robust root system filled with historical fruit. Now that the couple is married, their thoughts drift to having a family.
The woman goes on to speak a beautiful love song over their life:
Place me like a seal over your heart,
like a seal on your arm;
for love is as strong as death,
its jealousy unyielding as the grave.
It burns like blazing fire,
like a mighty flame.
Many waters cannot quench love;
rivers cannot sweep it away.
If one were to give
all the wealth of one's house for love,
it would be utterly scorned.
There are so many beautiful parallels between these verses and our love story with Christ:
Seal ->"And you also were included in Christ when you heard the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation. When you believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit (Ephesians 1:3)
"For love is strong as death" -> In our case of grace, Christ's love is stronger than death. Isaiah 25:8 says, "He will swallow up death for all time, And the Lord God will wipe tears away from all faces, And He will remove the reproach of His people from all the earth; For the Lord has spoken."
Jealousy -> "For the Lord, whose name is jealous, is a jealous God" (Exodus 34:14). This verse can be misunderstood. God is jealous for us (not of us), just as a beloved spouse desires their love to only have eyes for them. God is no different. He will never force Himself upon us, and He provided a way for us to live eternally. He longs for us to turn to Him, and He burns with a desire that we would say, "Yes."
As these verses in Song of Songs talk about fire and water and wealth, it reminds me of what Paul spoke in Romans 8:38-29:
And I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from God's love. Neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither our fears for today nor our worries about tomorrow—not even the powers of hell can separate us from God's love. No power in the sky above or in the earth below—indeed, nothing in all creation will ever be able to separate us from the love of God that is revealed in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Hand-in-hand, God will never let go of us as His beloved Bride.
Remember that Solomon's book is like an album of love songs. Verse 8 starts a new track where it's believed to be the brothers singing—the ones that made the shepherd girl work in the fields.
"We have a little sister, and she has no breasts." I know, it sounds weird, right? If we think about the culture in which this was written, most marriages were arranged, and while someone could be old enough to be promised in marriage, but may not yet be sexually mature. These verses speak of the young woman's virginity and the community surrounding her, whose purpose is to protect her from sex separate from holiness.
That's why the woman says in verse 10, "I am a wall, and my breasts are like towers." She declared later that she had reached physical maturity and her "vineyard" (a metaphor for her body) was ready for her lover.
She contrasts their love relationship to that of Solomon's, who had a thousand "vineyards." He had seven hundred wives and three hundred concubines—so many that he had to hire people to take care of them all. How easily Satan desires to steal the sacred oneness of love and distribute it among many.
This talk of multiple vineyards reminds me of one of my favorite verses and prayers over my own heart. It is a promise that God provides over those who seek Him:
"I will give them singleness of heart and action, so that they will always fear me and that all will then go well for them and for their children after them." Jeremiah 32:39
Father, give me singleness of heart and action. One that serves and seeks You only.
And, so, we come to an end of this series of wedding songs. As the couple walks off into the sunset -- hand-in-hand—we are left longing to know that kind of Love. We're left knowing that these allegories and applicable teaching moments point us solely to one thing: Jesus Christ.
Our time to wed the King has not come yet. But isn't it reassuring to know the ending? When we see the conclusion, it helps us live in the middle. As we're in "middle earth" (thanks, Tolkien), the place that is neither hell nor heaven, we live a vapor of events called life. We grow our spiritual bodies in hopes of being a mature Bride, ready to wed, just as the country girl declared.
There will come a day when we will declare, "We are a strong tower," and we are ready to be presented to our Lord and Savior. He will come for us, just as the shepherd boy sought out the country girl to wed her. She was more beautiful than Solomon in all His glory.
And, we will live happily ever after, with His banner of love over us. Hand-in-hand. Amen and Amen.