Genesis 1:28
God blessed them and said to them, “Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it.
Song of Solomon 1:15
How beautiful you are, my darling! Oh, how beautiful! Your eyes are doves.
Song of Solomon 1:16
How handsome you are, my beloved! Oh, how charming!
Jeremiah 2:32
Can a maid forget her ornaments, or a bride her attire? yet my people have forgotten me days without number.
This week’s lesson speaks of the most passionate kind of… intimacy Real intimacy fueled by a love so intense, so passionate that it causes one to blush in the reading of these Scriptures. Scripture? Yes, Holy Scripture. Scripture ordained by God, breathed upon by the Holy Spirit. Pay attention. There are a couple of things that you need to know about the lesson and about this Song of Solomon. Number one: God is not mentioned in this book… at all. Remarkable. One of two books in Scripture where God is not mentioned by name. How could God allow this? Why would he allow this? I surmise that God didn’t want us to be distracted. What? Distracted!? How? This leads to my second point: God gave Man and Woman love, really passionate love and.. sex. “Be fruitful and multiply”, He commanded them. The Song demonstrates the model that God had in mind when He spoke this Word. This man and his bride portray a singular focus and passionate desire for one another. Only one another. This Song of Solomon displays a depth of intimacy so deep that it’s foundations transcend the temporal and drift into the realm of the spiritual. Really? Really! This is the kind of love that lasts. You, the reader, understand innately, that the kind of love being written about her lasts a lifetime. Pay attention. Look around you. Do you know any elderly married couples? If you do, what you normally see in their relationship is commitment, long lasting commitment that started right here, in the garden that Solomon writes of. “For richer or poorer, in sickness and in health…. Till…” You know the rest. This kind of love is where life begins. This kind of love is celebrated in every culture, in every language. This kind of love is the very spark of life personified. Love like this is envied, wished for, spoken of in quiet whispers and sung about in ballads and tomes throughout all of history.
No, God doesn’t want to distract you. Scripture is to be read and meditated upon. That means this Song of Solomon too. That’s right. This Book called ‘The Song of Solomon’ or in some cases, ‘The Song of Songs”, this great tome about passionate love and desire is to be read slowly and thoughtfully in quiet contemplation and meditation. Really?! Why? Because God wants to exemplify true intimacy experienced temporally so that you can grow comfortable pursuing real, deep, revealing, lasting intimacy and … desire for Him. Theologians will quickly point out the error in my thinking. They’ll retort that there are three kinds of love spoken of in Scripture, Eros, Phileo and Agape. They’ll tell you that the Eros kind of love, sensual, physical, temporal is to be regarded as the lower form of the three. I’d reply that God fully intended that not one life would be created outside of the Eros kind of love since He placed Adam and Eve in the Garden. Not one! I’d also offer that, when we humans try to subjugate the Eros kind of love for the Phileo kind of love in a relationship we end up with… Hold on. Let me talk about Phileo for a moment. Phileo is defined as the ‘friend’ kind of love. Deep and personal, exemplified by a commonality of purpose. There’s nothing like a best friend. Yet, the Phileo kind of love does not exemplify a lifetime commitment to one another. Not really. Disagree? Friends, good friends don’t leave a job and move across the country because a friend of theirs was relocated. Not normally. But ‘married people’ pack up and go, in most cases, with their spouse, when life’s circumstances demand it. That kind of commitment is fueled by Eros. Phileo in the place of Eros in a relationship (remember: Eros is an expression of love, not lust (a different Greek word) in our culture is akin to ‘Friends with benefits”. No lifetime commitment. No lasting passion.
How then is God’s purpose accomplished in all of this? Beloved, God is Invisible to you and I. We feel something, we experience something, but what about when trouble comes? What about when challenges arise? When those times befall us, and they eventually will, there has to be something that causes you to bend your will, your very instinct for survival toward your Father, God. Time spent passionately pursuing your relationship with Him right now will take you to a place where no matter the circumstance, you stand in confidence that what He has allowed, He’ll deliver you through. Sounds like Faith doesn’t’ it? The very substance of things hoped for. Eros demonstrates that. In their secret garden, this bride and groom build through their desire for one another a hope for one another. A hope that will take them from this moment of paradise to a life that is mutually rewarding, richly fulfilling, long and satisfying, ‘Til death do us part’, a picture of the ‘Eternity’ that our Father has prepared for us. As it turns out, real Eros (sensual love) has some very spiritual overtones, doesn’t it.
Listen, when Jesus said to His disciples, “ Greater love has no man than this, than to lay down his life for his friends” (You know. That song you hear at weddings), He was speaking of Agape love. The God kind of love. Love so foreign and alien to us that we really only barely understand it. He was speaking of His eventual crucifixion. The laying down of His life for all of mankind. From the Phileo side of things, we see demonstrations of this when soldiers, serving a common purpose, sacrifice themselves so that their fellow soldiers can be safe. I’m sure that was mental picture formed in the minds of the disciples as they digested His words. Friends. Remember how uncomfortable they were at ‘The Last Supper’ where these words were spoken? But, I would submit to you, that any married man or married woman truly committed to one another and their children would gladly and willingly accept the challenge that Jesus’ words convey when applied within the context of …family. Family starts with marriage, and marriage starts in the Garden. A garden like the one that Solomon spoke of and… by God, revealed much about God and His Eternal, Everlasting passion and desire for you and I, His Beloved. Enjoy the lesson! When you have time, read the entire Song. It will Bless!
Blessings,
.wb
(did I talk about Him too much? can’t hardly help myself :) )
John 3:29
The bride belongs to the bridegroom.
John 15:13
Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.
Hebrews 11:1
Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.
Revelation 21:9
And there came unto me one of the seven angels …., and talked with me, saying, Come hither, I will shew thee the bride, the Lamb's wife.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment