Song of Solomon 2
I am a rose[Probably a bulb, such as a crocus, daffodil] of Sharon,
a lily of the valleys.
2 As a lily among brambles,
so is my love among the young women.
3 As an apple tree among the trees of the forest,
so is my beloved among the young men.
With great delight I sat in his shadow,
and his fruit was sweet to my taste.
4 He brought me to the banqueting house,
and his banner over me was love.
5 Sustain me with raisins;
refresh me with apples,
for I am sick with love.
6 His left hand is under my head,
and his right hand embraces me!
7 I adjure you,[that is, I put you on oath; so throughout the Song]
O daughters of Jerusalem,
by the gazelles or the does of the field,
that you not stir up or awaken love
until it pleases.
8 The voice of my beloved!
Behold, he comes,
leaping over the mountains,
bounding over the hills.
9 My beloved is like a gazelle
or a young stag.
Behold, there he stands
behind our wall,
gazing through the windows,
looking through the lattice.
10 My beloved speaks and says to me:
“Arise, my love, my beautiful one,
and come away,
11 for behold, the winter is past;
the rain is over and gone.
12 The flowers appear on the earth,
the time of singing has come,
and the voice of the turtledove
is heard in our land.
13 The fig tree ripens its figs,
and the vines are in blossom;
they give forth fragrance.
Arise, my love, my beautiful one,
and come away.
14 O my dove, in the clefts of the rock,
in the crannies of the cliff,
let me see your face,
let me hear your voice,
for your voice is sweet,
and your face is lovely.
15 Catch the foxes for us,
the little foxes
that spoil the vineyards,
for our vineyards are in blossom.”
16 My beloved is mine, and I am his;
he grazes[patures his flock] among the lilies.
17 Until the day breathes
and the shadows flee,
turn, my beloved, be like a gazelle
or a young stag on cleft mountains.
Love, we are told, makes the world go around. God, the inventor of Love, says Love flourishes with His Laws of Love.
The Roman Republic began in 500 B.C., and upon becoming an Empire, lasted until 395 A.D.. The History of this vast government has a profound, lasting influence on the development of language, religion, architecture, philosophy, law, and forms of government today. When you look at what brought down this government, I would say conclusively, its marriage laws.
There is a direct correlation in society between up-building and destruction in the way society looks at marriage. When two people are to be one, it is working of the Holy Spirit. It affects the fruit - children - and culture in all aspects.
Gaius Julius Caesar Augustus (23 September 63 BC – 19 August AD 14) is considered the first Emperor of the Roman Empire, which he ruled alone from 27 BC until his death in AD 14. Interesting the world was working on marriage during the birth of Christ, calling for David's house to report to Bethlehem. (They've found the census, by the way.)
Augustus was a tidy man, someone who wanted to be a Caesar beyond reproach and his wife, Caesar's wife (whom he proposed to while she was married and pregnant with her other husband's child), as well. Romans had been allowed to marry in different forms and it was all pretty much live and let live as far as marriage went. Augustus decided it needed to be .... Defined and Legal.
1. Confarreatio (divorce almost unheard of)was a traditional patrician form of marriage. Divorce for confarreatio marriages, diffarreatio, was a difficult process and therefore rare. A special type of sacrifice that caused the dissolution of the relationship between the man and woman. She would then pass back into her father's home or family. Originally, the confarreatio was indissoluble. The wife leaves her family and becomes her husband's family, or property = cum manu. Later, divorce was easier the dowry returned with the wife.
2. Coemptio (slavery/service) was in essence a sale of the woman to the husband. Coemptio occurred at any time throughout marriage. This was a process of mancipation (slavery/service). The transaction occurred with a scales-holder and in the presence of at least five witnesses, adult male Roman citizens. Coemptio could occur not only with a husband but also with an outsider. However, this process is deemed for the “sake of trust” not for the “sake of marriage.” Coemptio was only a convenient legal practice. If a wife became cum manu through the process of coemptio divorced, then she became emancipated. By the 2nd century AD, a wife was able to compel her husband to emancipate her, a right not shared by her children.
3. Usus (living together, owned by husband) Cum Manu acquired by usus was simply the cohabitation of the husband and wife for the duration of a year. After a year passed the wife was transferred into the ownership of her partner, she was considered taken by the decree of yearly possession. This process required no ceremonial practices. If the woman was not willing to come into ownership of her husband, manus by usus was easily preventable. As conditioned in the Twelve Tables if the wife absented herself for the total of three days and three nights before the end of the year, each year, the marriage was not cum manu, and she was not under the ownership of her husband. If a woman married cum manu through the process of usus divorced then, she became Emancipated. Subsequently, the law of usus was dissolved by legal enactments presumably because it fell out of use..... so Do Not Spend Your Anniversary Together at all costs....
4. Sine Manu (living together, owned by father instead of husband) the wife legally and ritually remained a member of her father's family, standing under the control of her father's potestas. The bride is not under control of the husband. This form of marriage held no ceremonial formalities led by a public official. Ultimately it involved a husband and wife living together under the intention of a marriage, in conjunction with the legal capacity of marriage under the Roman law. Although no official ceremony was held, it was customary for the bride to be escorted to her bridegrooms house. The children of this union were legally members of the husband’s agnatic kin.
Women faced with the loss of property when entering a cum manu marriage began to only consent to sine manu (father's family property) unions (similar to living together, today, to avoid prenuptial agreements and financial wedding issues.)
So, Augustus was trying to put marriage together better for inheritance when he created these types of marriages, legally. They had been used for centuries. When we read the last paragraph in brown, Augustus' goal was promoting self and not promoting a couple living as one person.
Does it sound like these forms of marriages would help sort out society better and then the playing field is easily understood? It had an effect. A definite effect. The love of many grew colder.
Marriage is a work in progress. Dating or living together leads to a non-committed society - free to abandon hearts and children. Those abandoned hearts hurt others, the cycle goes on and on to the detriment of society.
True, we don't consider women property in most of the world today. But we do consider property, income, commitment instead of Christian marriage for love, honor, obey, cherish in sickness and all circumstances. Confarreatio (devoted love forsaking all other things) began to be a thing of the past.
The End of the Empire? Selfishness. Christianity is said to have split the Roman Empire, but really selfishness. Lack of family, a place to go, fairness - is the downfall. Marriage laws made family and oath and position always an uncertainty. Claw your way along.
Weakness created invasion, civil war, plague, economic depression, hyperinflation caused by years of coinage devaluation. A denarius coin, a day's pay, quit using silver and was devalued. Trade increased during the good years of the Empire, but war created large landowners unable to send their goods abroad. Local city dwellers were trapped and unable to buy what they needed by war and unsafe trade on the highways, pledged themselves to local land barons. The Empire broke up into 3 parts in 258 AD. Large, open cities of Classical antiquity slowly gave way to the smaller, walled cities that were common in the Middle Ages.
Solomon's Porch, the portion of the first Temple still incorporated into the Second Temple, during the days Jesus chose to teach in the Temple.
Solomon was visited by the LORD and given the commission to ask for a blessing. He asked for wisdom. Solomon would spend his reign visiting, creating, being absorbed in selfish pursuits of getting the LORD to speak to him in the altars of high places, historically in pagan worship. What would take Solomon away from his Temple built to the Lord? Solomon forgot the Word of God - to be in union with faithful followers of God. Using wisdom to be a worldly wisdom. The effects of Solomon's self-centered absorption would be Solomon's son Rehoboam was not well versed in wisdom, loosing David's Empire for God in the third generation. Wisdom was forgotten in the building of Solomon's House. We see examples of monogamy and polygamy in Scriptures. In polygamy, we see the same examples in the fall of the Roman Empire.
The fig tree ripens its figs,
and the vines are in blossom;
they give forth fragrance.
Matthew 13:32
It is the smallest of all seeds, but when it has grown it is larger than all the garden plants and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and make nests in its branches.
We live in a world were marriage is now considered to be very expensive. Many couples don't get married because they cannot afford a very large wedding. The Justice of the Peace costs about $140 and is considered a poor substitute for a Church wedding. So, if the whole cake doesn't look pretty, they forgo the wedding, probably to look progressive or worldly instead of poor.
However, we still see jubilant expectant mothers, and mostly because their future with their spouse is secure.
Why would God want us to know of this Glory in His Word. He delights in two very different types of creation, reaffirming their love and commitment in the merging of self into union. God sees this as a celebration of love.
the voice of the turtledove
is heard in our land.
Until the day breathes
and the shadows flee,
turn, my beloved, be like a gazelle
What Beauty He Bestows Upon Us.
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