September 25
Today's Reading: Song of Solomon 6:1-17; Galatians 4
Today's Thoughts: Song of Love
Where has your lover gone, most beautiful of women? Which way did your lover turn, that we may look for him with you? - Song of Solomon 6:1
While reading the Song of Solomon, I can almost blush. The book is so intense regarding the extent of a love between a man and woman. There are times that the dialogue between the man and woman shift to the woman and her friends. Both sets of conversations focus on love, not the kind of love we associate with Jesus, but sexual love. The Song of Solomon talks about breasts and passion. I read the verses almost forgetting that I was reading the Bible.
I have heard scholars say that the Song of Solomon should not be in the Bible because Solomon's counsel about women is wrong. After all, he had 700 wives and 300 concubines and his behavior was certainly not biblical. They continue to say that Solomon's attitude toward women turned him away from the pure worship of God, so his counsel is as a heathen not as a believer. I have a difficult time with this thought because God would not have allowed it to make the cut into His Holy Word if He did not value the book. I have heard others say that the Song of Solomon represents the love that Jesus has for the church. He loves us as His bride and this love is a passionate and a self-sacrificial love. Personally, this is difficult to accept because the book is about sex. Can we equate Jesus' love for the church as sexual?
I believe that the Song of Solomon is as inspired by the Holy Spirit as every other book in the Bible. I also believe that Jesus loves us more than anyone else can, and we can draw similarities between His love for the church as His bride. But I also believe that the sexual love between a man and woman in marriage is godly. Sex was in the Garden before sin. God made a woman's body in such a way that Adam wanted her sexually. We sometimes spiritualize our desires too much and presume that sex, passion or the instincts of the body are sinful. Not true. Sex between a man and woman is normal and spiritual. It is that union that keeps them one and brings them together in intimacy.
God is not afraid of our sexuality. He wrote a book about it—the Song of Solomon. If you have not read it, try to read it without blushing. But while you are reading it, allow the Lord to minister to you in the areas that you need Him to intervene in your opinion and views about your sexuality. Do not hide these thoughts from Him; He already knows them. Include Him and He will do amazing things because He loves you.
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