WHAT GOD WANTS LOVE BETWEEN A WOMAN AND A MAN
TO BE LIKE.
"What God Wants Love Between a Woman and a Man
to Be Like" is based on the Song of Songs
written about 1000 B.C. or about 40 lifetimes
ago.
Quotes are from the N.I.V. Bible and our
comments and chapter numbers are in brackets.
She speaks:
Kiss me. "Your love is more delightful than
wine." Your perfume is fragrant. "Your name is
like perfume poured out." No wonder maidens love
you. "Take me away with you - let us hurry."
Bring me to your room.
While you are at your table "my perfume spread
its fragrance. My lover is to me a sachet of
myrrh resting between my breasts." How
beautiful, handsome and charming you are my
darling, my lover. "And our bed is verdant." (We
lie together in the fields, under the trees).
He responds:
My darling, your ears are beautiful with
earrings, "your neck with strings of
jewels."...."How beautiful you are my darling.
Oh how beautiful! Your eyes are like doves."
(Chapter 1)
She speaks:
"I am a rose of Sharon, a lily of the valleys."
My lover is like a fruit tree. "I delight to sit
in his shade, and his fruit is sweet to my
taste. He has taken me to his banqueting hall
and his banner over me is love. Strengthen me
with raisins, refresh me with apples, for I am
faint with love. His left arm is under my head
and his right arm embraces me ... do not arouse
or awaken love until it so desires."
"My lover comes leaping across the mountains."
Like a young stag "there he stands behind our
wall gazing through the windows." My lover said
to me "Arise my darling, my beautiful one and
come with me. The winter is past....flowers
appear on the earth. The season of singing has
come, the cooing of doves is heard in our
land....the blossoming vines spread their
fragrance. Arise come my darling; my beautiful
one, come with me."
"My lover is mine and I am his; he browses among
the lilies until the day breaks and the shadows
flee, turn my lover, and be like .... a young
stag on the rugged hills."
He replies:
"Like a lily among thorns is my darling among
the maidens. My dove,.... show me your face. Let
me hear your voice; for your voice is sweet and
your face lovely." We are young and in full
bloom, let nothing mar the joy we share.
(Chapter 2)
She continues:
"All night long on my bed I looked for the one
my heart loves." I searched and asked after him.
Scarcely had I asked when I found him. "I held
him and would not let him go 'til I brought him
to my mother's house, to the room of the one who
conceived me.... Do not arouse or awaken love
until it so desires."
(Chapter 3)
He replies:
"How beautiful you are, my darling! Oh how
beautiful . Your eyes are doves." Your hair
falls down sleek and black. Your perfect teeth
are pearly white and moist. Your lips are red;
your mouth is lovely, your cheeks are round and
blushed with pink. Your erect elegant neck is
adorned with jewelled necklaces. Your two
breasts are tender, delicate and beautiful.
"Until the day breaks and the shadows flee, I
will go to the mountain of myrrh and to the hill
of incense. All beautiful you are my darling;
there is no flaw in you....you have stolen my
heart,....my bride; with one glance of your
eyes....How delightful is your love,....my
bride; how much more pleasing than wine, and the
fragrance of your perfume than any spice. Your
lips drip sweetness as the honeycomb, my bride;
milk and honey are under your tongue." Your
garments are fragrant like roses in bloom. You
are a garden kept for me only, my bride, a place
of delight and refreshment. You are an orchard,
a paradise filled with choice exotic fruits and
spices. You are a garden well of flowing fresh,
cool, sparkling water.
She responds:
Come winds, blow the fragrance of my garden
abroad and call my lover into his garden to
taste its choice fruits.
(Chapter 4)
He says:
"I have come into my garden,.... my bride;....
gathered my myrrh with my spice,...eaten my
honeycomb and my honey;....drunk my wine and my
milk."
She responds:
"I slept but my heart was awake....my lover is
knocking."
He calls from outside:
"Open to me...my darling...my dove...my flawless
one. My head is drenched with dew...I have taken
off my robe - must I put it on again?"
She responds:
"My lover thrust his hand through the latch
opening; my heart began to pound for him. I
arose to open for my lover, and my hands dripped
with myrrh, on the handles of the lock. I opened
for my lover...but he was gone. My heart sank at
his departure. I looked...but did not find him."
If you find my lover "tell him I am faint with
love."
Friends say, "How is your beloved better than
others?"
She replies:
He is "radiant and ruddy, outstanding among ten
thousand. His head is purest gold; his hair is
wavy and black as a raven. His eyes are like
doves...His cheeks are like beds of spice
yielding perfume. His lips are like lilies
dripping with myrrh. His arms are like rods of
gold...His body is like polished ivory decorated
with sapphires. His legs are like pillars of
marble set on bases of pure gold...His mouth is
sweetness itself; he is altogether lovely. This
is my lover, this is my friend."
(Chapter 5)
I am my lover's garden. He has come to his
garden, "to the beds of spices, to browse in the
gardens and to gather lilies.I am my lover's and
my lover is mine; he browses among the lilies."
He responds:
You are beautiful my darling. Your eyes hold me
captive. Your hair falls down sleek and black,
your perfect teeth are pearly white and moist.
Your cheeks are round and blushed with pink.
There are many beautiful women in the world but
you "my dove my perfect one" are unique. Even
other women praise your beauty.
(Chapter 6)
"How beautiful are your sandalled feet,...your
graceful legs are like crafted jewels. Your
navel is a rounded goblet. A garland of flowers
encircles your waist. Your breasts are tender,
delicate and beautiful. Your elegant neck is
like ivory. Your eyes are serene and gentle.
Your nose is beautiful, your head is like a
crown and your hair is like royal tapestry. I am
held captive by its tresses. How beautiful you
are and how pleasing, O love with your delights.
Your stature is like that of the palm, and your
breasts like clusters of fruit. I said, I will
climb the palm tree; I will take hold of its
fruit. May your breasts be like the clusters of
the vine, the fragrance of your breath like
apples and your mouth like the best wine."
She responds:
May the wine go straight to my lover, flowing
gently over lips and teeth. I belong to my lover
and his desire is for me. Come, my lover, let us
go to the countryside, let us spend the night in
the villages....There I will give you my love.
Blossoms scent the air, at our door is every
delicacy, both new and old, that I have stored
up for you my lover.
(Chapter 7)
I want to kiss you, lead you to my mother's
house,...give you spiced wine to drink, the
nectar of my pomegranates. His left arm is under
my head and his right arm embraces me ....Do not
arouse or awaken love until it so desires.
Under the apple tree I roused you; there your
mother conceived and gave birth to you. Place me
like a seal over your heart, like a seal on your
arm; for love is as strong as death, its
jealousy unyielding as the grave. It burns like
blazing fire, like a mighty flame. Many waters
cannot quench love; rivers cannot wash it away.
My breasts are fully mature. Thus I have become
in his eyes like one bringing contentment and I
am free to offer myself to you.
Come away my lover and be...like a young stag on
the spice laden mountains (displaying your agile
virility for my delight).
(Chapter 8)
THE MAIN POINTS OF THE SONG OF SONGS:
It describes how God intends sexual love between
a man and his bride to be. No shame, no
embarrassment, just sheer exuberant, absolute
enjoyment of each other. The sun shines
brighter, birds sing louder, flowers smell
sweeter, the sky is bluer. It lifts you above
the cares of earth and sends you soaring like an
eagle across the mountain tops. May it be so for
you.
Virtually all the books, movies, T.V.,
advertising, magazines etc. are about this kind
of love. Your deepest desire is for it, to be
fully understood, loved and appreciated by
another human being. And if, by God's grace, you
experience it, it will still be imperfect and
limited to this life. So who can meet your need
to be so loved perfectly and eternally? Only
God, for He is love itself. Will you find a
human lover who will give up His life so you can
live? Maybe. But there's no maybe about God's
love for you. He already has laid down His life
for you. So on a higher plane the lover in the
Song of Songs is God. Respond to His love
through repentance and faith in Jesus Christ and
"dance through the universe" with Him in perfect
love for eternity.
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