Read the Song of Solomon lately? It can make you blush! One of the more 'tame' passages reads like this- "You have captured my heart, my treasure, my bride. You hold it hostage with one glance of your eyes, with a single jewel of your necklace. Your love delights me, my treasure, my bride. Your love is better than wine, your perfume more fragrant than spices. Your lips are as sweet as nectar, my bride. Honey and milk are under your tongue. Your clothes are scented like the cedars of Lebanon." (Song of Solomon 4:9-11, NLT) Yes, that's right. The Bible has a whole book that celebrates the intense physical passion that draws Solomon and a young woman together. Some of it is hard for us to understand, for it is written in metaphor and allusions that are from another era and culture, but even then, we get it. This couple really, really were into each other!
So is that book in the Bible included just to tell us about a couple's attraction to each other, which, by the way, is God's design? I think not. There's another application that goes beyond that first and obvious one.
In the Old Testament Israel is called God's wife! "For your Creator will be your husband; the Lord of Heaven’s Armies is his name! He is your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel, the God of all the earth." (Isaiah 54:5, NLT) Nuptial imagery is often used to describe His love for his people. When they follow other gods, He calls them adulteresses, and He speaks to them in the voice of a broken-hearted husband of an unfaithful wife; at once both angry and longing. "The Lord said also to me in the days of Josiah the king: "Have you seen what backsliding Israel has done? She has gone up on every high mountain and under every green tree, and there played the harlot. And I said, after she had done all these things, ‘Return to Me.’ But she did not return. And her treacherous sister Judah saw it. Then I saw that for all the causes for which backsliding Israel had committed adultery, I had put her away and given her a certificate of divorce; yet her treacherous sister Judah did not fear, but went and played the harlot also." (Jeremiah 3:6-8, NKJV)
In the New Testament, the Church is called the Bride of Christ. Christ's love for His people is a model for spousal love. "Husbands, go all out in your love for your wives, exactly as Christ did for the church—a love marked by giving, not getting. Christ’s love makes the church whole. His words evoke her beauty. Everything he does and says is designed to bring the best out of her." (Ephesians 5:25-26, The Message)
So, since this is the way God sees us - as His love, His wife - I think we can read the passionate poetry of Solomon's Song with a secondary understanding about loving our God and Christ; with real passion, intense longing for Him, emotional and tender. {Yes, guys that can be stretch for us, at first, but you can come 'round to it.} For many 21st Christians the core of their religion is an intellectual exercise. Knowing God is about learning doctrines, working out a creed, and knowing the history of the Bible. They can argue about interpretive models for Genesis, and how Scriptural principles shape a humanitarian philosophy of life. And, all that is good, but that is not all that there is! We can love God with our hearts, too. Jesus, quoting Deuteronomy, says, "you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength." (Mark 12:30, NKJV) In addition to our intellect, we be passionate in our love and worship of the Lord, our God.
How does that look?
We ought to let the things that break His heart break ours, too.
We need to feel His grief when we spurn His love for other lovers of this present world.
We should expect that He will come near to us, wait for Him to comfort us, earnestly desire that He should guide us as our loving Husband!
And, we should pray that His Presence will satisfy us even more deeply than any earthly lover could!
Consider these words of the Psalms. They are full of emotion for God. Ponder them today, and pray that God will teach you to love Him - with your heart as well as your mind.
"How lovely is your dwelling place, O Lord of Heaven’s Armies. I long, yes, I faint with longing to enter the courts of the Lord. With my whole being, body and soul, I will shout joyfully to the living God. Even the sparrow finds a home, and the swallow builds her nest and raises her young at a place near your altar, O Lord of Heaven’s Armies, my King and my God! What joy for those who can live in your house, always singing your praises."
"A single day in your courts is better than a thousand anywhere else! I would rather be a gatekeeper in the house of my God than live the good life in the homes of the wicked. For the Lord God is our sun and our shield. He gives us grace and glory. The Lord will withhold no good thing from those who do what is right." (Psalm 84:1-4, 10-11, NLT)
_________________________
No comments:
Post a Comment