Song of Solomon -- A Different Look At God's Best For Us

Max Lucado wrote, “It’s unlike anything in the Bible.  For that reason, it should be read differently than any book in the Bible … Don’t search for hidden codes or submerged messages.  Love letters are to be appreciated, not analyzed … You are opening someone else’s shoebox of letters and reading the correspondence between two people madly in love.  I guess God knew we needed a reminder that romance was His idea.”  I thought about Adam and Eve, discovering all about each other on the first day they were together.  A pure love, undefiled by prior relationships, media, less-than-godly thoughts, etc.  THIS must have been what they felt.    No competition around.  Just them and God.  So I read it that way. 

 

Just as we might think, the words come pouring out:  “Kiss me … the smell of your perfume … your name … where do you ___? (discovering things about each other they don’t know).  Your cheeks … your neck … your eyes … Oh, you are beautiful! … You are so handsome (that’s nice to hear, guys!) … Our bed is the grass … my lover’s left hand is under my head, and his right arm holds me tight (visualize that scene) … My loves is mine, and I am his …. your eyes … your hair …. your teeth … your lips … your mouth … your breasts … my bride … She says:  my lover is healthy and tan … his head … his hair … his eyes … his cheeks … his smell … his lips … his hands … his body … his legs … his mouth is sweet to kiss, and I desire him very much (what guy wouldn’t want to hear all of that!) … I belong to my lover, and he desires only me … I have saved them for you, my lover … love bursts into flames and burns like a hot fire … Hurry, my lover!”

 

God created us male and female, and He created sex and romance and designed it all to fulfill us along with Him and to cement together two people for a lifetime.  He said it was good.  These love letters I think are God’s way of reminding us of this.  All of the “thou shalt not’s” we’ve read elsewhere apply to anything outside of the covenant marriage that He knows is His absolute best for us.  Anything else is only settling for less.

 

Father, thanks for the reminder.  Please keep Satan from whispering that anything else is worth seeking, for it’s not.  It’s only settling.  Help me to want only Your best.

 

Your brother in Christ,

 

Gary Ford