Song of Solomon 5 ~ radiant

Song of Solomon 5

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1 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.

Eat, friends, drink,

and be drunk with love!

2 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.”

3 I had put off my garment;

how could I put it on?

I had bathed my feet;

how could I soil them?

4 My beloved put his hand to the latch,

and my heart was thrilled within me.

5 I arose to open to my beloved,

and my hands dripped with myrrh,

my fingers with liquid myrrh,

on the handles of the bolt.

6 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.

7 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.

8 I adjure you, O daughters of Jerusalem,

if you find my beloved,

that you tell him

I am sick with love.

9 What is your beloved more than another beloved,

O most beautiful among women?

What is your beloved more than another beloved,

that you thus adjure us?

10 My beloved is radiant and ruddy,

distinguished among ten thousand.

11 His head is the finest gold;

his locks are wavy,

black as a raven.

12 His eyes are like doves

beside streams of water,

bathed in milk,

sitting beside a full pool.

13 His cheeks are like beds of spices,

mounds of sweet-smelling herbs.

His lips are lilies,

dripping liquid myrrh.

14 His arms are rods of gold,

set with jewels.

His body is polished ivory,

bedecked with sapphires.

15 His legs are alabaster columns,

set on bases of gold.

His appearance is like Lebanon,

choice as the cedars.

16 His mouth is most sweet,

and he is altogether desirable.

This is my beloved and this is my friend,

O daughters of Jerusalem.

John 2:5-11

His mother said to the servants, "Do whatever he tells you."

6Now there were six stone water jars there for the Jewish rites of purification, each holding twenty or thirty gallons. 7Jesus said to the servants, "Fill the jars with water." And they filled them up to the brim. 8And he said to them, "Now draw some out and take it to the master of the feast." So they took it. 9When the master of the feast tasted the water now become wine, and did not know where it came from (though the servants who had drawn the water knew), the master of the feast called the bridegroom 10and said to him, "Everyone serves the good wine first, and when people have drunk freely, then the poor wine. But you have kept the good wine until now." 11This, the first of his signs, Jesus did at Cana in Galilee, and manifested his glory. His disciples believed in him.

A wedding Jesus attended and a celebration of marriage. What would they have in common?

Purification becoming wine. To be drunk with love. A heart that is awake. Radiance. Eyes of a dove. A beloved, a friend. A manifestation of God's glory. A belief in enduring love. 

Okay. How do you feel reading the Song of Solomon?  Pleasure, discomfort, guilt. The usual emotions to read this. Life and sexuality are like a high wind storm at sea.  Solomon wrote this and later said in Ecclesiastes 7 that he hadn't found a good, worthwhile woman. During his 700 marriages. No one can stand firm to say they can write the Bible for our guidelines. Yet, you could safely say Solomon fell into the trap written by the Eagles song: "you can spend your life making money, you can spend your love making time." Solomon was making too much time with too many women. Solomon never spent time "being" the right person. He seems stuck in the physical perfections.  A whole lot of love is about loving what isn't so perfect in the people you love.  When we read Song of Solomon we are reading not just about young love, but the ideals we see in the people we love.


It's almost (tragically) funny how the disciples react when Jesus says God doesn't really want or really approve of divorce:


Matthew 19:10
The disciples said to him, “If such is the case of a man with his wife, it is better not to marry.”

And how to react when you are the parent? My good friend from college went home in elementary school to ask her mom about the facts of life - her friends were kidding her on her lack of knowledge. She knew her older sister was illegitimate.  So, her mom, a good Christian who had later married and had huge life in her Church told her this:


"I've thought about what I would say to you about this a long time, I haven't always lived perfectly. Sexuality is an enticing thing, but I can tell you this... it is wonderful with the one you love. Love is a wonderful thing." She went on to tell my friend commitment, marriage and honor is part of real love.

Why did God direct it to be so?

Genesis 1:27

So God created man in his own image,

in the image of God he created him;

male and female he created them.

7then the LORD God formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature.

When Adam was made both male and female, he was the image of God. Eve is part of God, created from Adam. Adam & Eve together are the image of God. Marriage is about two souls seeking to live life as one soul. To grow up, to care for someone as deeply as ourselves, to lift our concerns up.

Genesis 2:21-25

21So the LORD God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and while he slept took one of his ribs and closed up its place with flesh. 22And the rib that the LORD God had taken from the man he made into a woman and brought her to the man. 23Then the man said,

"This at last is bone of my bones

and flesh of my flesh;

she shall be called Woman,

because she was taken out of Man."

24 Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh. 25And the man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed.

Proverbs 5:15-19

15 Drink water from your own cistern,

flowing water from your own well.

16 Should your springs be scattered abroad,

streams of water in the streets?

17 Let them be for yourself alone,

and not for strangers with you.

18 Let your fountain be blessed,

and rejoice in the wife of your youth,

19 a lovely deer, a graceful doe.

Let her breasts fill you at all times with delight;

be intoxicated always in her love.

We have heard for the last 3 decades 1/2 of all marriages end in divorce. More reliable statistics would say 2 in 3 marriages last. Isn't it great news to hear with the economic downturn more marriages are staying together. Statistics say when two people determine to stay married within a rocky relationship, within 5 years, that commitment brings both people to saying the marriage is actually good again. 

1 Timothy 6:10-12

For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evils. It is through this craving that some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pangs.

11But as for you, O man of God, flee these things. Pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, steadfastness, gentleness. 12 Fight the good fight of the faith. Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called and about which you made the good confession in the presence of many witnesses.

2 Thessalonians 3:5

May the Lord direct your hearts to the love of God and to the steadfastness of Christ.

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