The Song of Solomon 8

The process of a young man and a young woman growing up, finding each other, falling in love, and ultimately having one another, is a very mysterious, troubling, and wonderful thing. We wish it were not so difficult. There is no changing that. There is no making it all manageable. It is life and death and life again. It is weighty and elusive, earthly and heavenly. Who can understand it?

The woman begins chapter eight by expressing her desire to simply be close to her man without being seen as inappropriate by those who would observe them. "Can't we just pretend that he is my brother? Then I could meet him and greet him with my lips and lead him to our home and shut the door behind us. And no one else would need to know what happened next. We could drink wine together. His left hand would be under my head and his right hand would embrace me."

But this will not be. For the third and final time she urges the "daughters of Jerusalem" to not "awaken love" before its time. She does this knowing what it is to want a man but to have to wait for the right time and place to have him. This love-sickness is hard to bear. The time for such a relationship naturally comes about as the years move forward in our lives and there is no wisdom in encouraging these feelings to arrive too early.

Beginning all at once in verse five, the desired time that was once only a dream appears now to have become real at last. Perhaps the parents of the bride see their daughter leaning on her beloved coming up from the wilderness. They remember her birth and hear her husband's promise of abiding love as strong as the ever-present fire of the Lord, a fire that cannot be extinguished by floods of water. Something of her life as one alone is over now and something new is born in their covenantal union. Her lover speaks.

Set me as a seal upon your heart,
as a seal upon your arm,
for love is as strong as death,
jealousy as fierce as the grave.
Its flashes are flashes of fire,
the very flame of the Lord.
Many waters cannot quench love,
neither can floods drown it.
If a man offered for love
all the wealth of his house,
he would be utterly despised.

The promise here is forever. Something as strong as death is here, something that can swallow up death in its power. That something is the divine gift of physical and spiritual love. There was a day when a little girl was not ready for such strong love. If someone had wanted her intimacy her brothers would have protected her from advances that were not yet right. Back then it was not yet the time for love to be awakened. But now she is a woman, and her great husband will find peace in her willing love.

This peace is worth thousands upon thousands of pieces of silver to Solomon, but his bride does not want his money. The beloved couple have their own reward in one another. He will hear her voice, as a sound that will be for him alone. She urges him on to the "mountains of spices" as the fulfillment of her earlier dreams.

What a wonderful love! What a beautiful joy when all the uncertainty and trouble of finding your one-and-only is now behind you and you are together at last. From this point forward, as long as your life will last, no one can charge you with anything wrong in your full enjoyment of each other.

Nonetheless, from the message of Ecclesiastes we remember that this world is fleeting. How long will our lives last?

But there is an embrace that goes beyond the grave. There is a forever love that is stronger than death. How ironic that one great death was the pathway to the secure provision of undying love for so many. The death of the eternal Son of God was the secure embrace of a husband for His bride. How challenging it can be to find and embrace this greatest of all loves! We hear His call and feel divine love stirring in our hearts. Could it be that there really is a hero? Could it be that there really is a Jesus; a real person who loves you?

Rest in His secure embrace. Prepare your heart for His eternal love. The love of Christ has been awakened within your soul. You must have Him forever.