Reading… and Thinking

You are altogether beautiful, my darling,
And there is no blemish in you….
You have made my heart beat faster, my sister, my bride;
You have made my heart beat faster with a single glance of your eyes,
With a single strand of your necklace.
How beautiful is your love, my sister, my bride!
How much better is your love than wine,
And the fragrance of your oils
Than all kinds of spices!

– Song of Solomon 4:7-10 (NASB)

Pagan religions through the ages have created all sorts of abominations, twisting the right worship of the Living God into something distorted and ugly. One of the most popular corruptions has been to make the intimate relationship between man and woman into a form of worship. Fertility rites do not honor the one true God. And yet, like most errors (even the most abominable), there is kernel of truth, but it has been twisted.

The truth, as Paul expresses it in Ephesians chapter 5, is that the desire of man and woman for each other is a profound parable, representing Christ and his Bride, the church. The Lord is to be joined to only one bride. We serve only one Lord. The bond between him and us is permanent. The marriage relationship was created by God specifically to represent this – and so marriage, by God’s own statement, is exclusive, and it is permanent.

Pagan fertility rituals make a mockery of both the exclusiveness and the permanence. They are, in fact, just an excuse for self-indulgence. We need to put that kind of corruption out of our minds, in order to see what the Lord is trying to teach us through the relationship He intended between man and woman. Today we may not have a pseudo-religious fertility culture to tempt us. But how great is the difference, really? Our culture is very supportive of sexual activity outside of marriage, and treats marriage as something to be disposed of when no longer convenient.

Take a look at the verses quoted above. The words are spoken by the bridegroom – that is, by the Lord Jesus. Who is he talking to? The one he loves, the one he considers perfect, the one who has stolen his heart – is us!

Us? Perfect? Without blemish? In the New Testament, Jude writes about the One who is able “to make you stand in the presence of His glory blameless with great joy.” (Jude 24-45) God can do that, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Although our sin is ugly beyond words, he is able to wash that away, to clothe us in his own righteousness, and indeed to make us perfect. Blameless. Without blemish.

How shall we respond to such a one as our Beloved, who loves us so completely? This love story called the Song of Solomon shows us how the Bride responds. She longs for him, thinks of nothing else, is lovesick with waiting for him, keeps herself entirely for him.

Our Beloved loves us to love him, and love him we do!