Beloved Day 11 Seasons Of Love

November 30, 2020 by Rebecca 1 Comment

Read His Words Before Ours!

Song of Solomon 5:3-8
Song of Solomon 3:1-5
Exodus 17:1-7
Psalm 136

Beloved, Day 11

Song of Solomon opens like a sweet, fragrant flower in the warm sun of spring; frocked on all sides with deeply delicious delight.

Oh, that he would kiss me with the kisses of his mouth!
For your caresses are more delightful than wine.
(Song of Solomon 1:2)

Falling in love is as sweet and poetic as a lover falling into his beloved’s eyes under a moonlit sky. Lover and Beloved gaze with eyes of wonder; bodies coursing with the intensity of longing to touch, and to be touched.

Awkwardly, we may feel God is stodgy regarding romantic love, but delightedly, Song of Solomon’s declarations insist we realign our view of God. Far from looking away, or frowning upon, the ecstasy of male and female bodies enjoying each other, the Lord God delights and enjoys our bodies and sex within marriage. This sweetness satisfies Him because, as thrilling as this union is, it’s only a roughshod reflection of the delight He finds in relishing a relationship with us.

He tenderly summons, “Taste and see that I am good.” (Psalm 34:8)

To answer His call, we must first see our putrid sin as the ugly garment we’ve been wearing, only to find we cannot rend it from our bodies.
It is knit with our very flesh!

We turn pleading eyes to the cross of Christ, knowing we are utterly unworthy.
Knowing our flesh is rotting because of our sin.
Knowing we have no hope of freedom or forgiveness as long as this cloak of disgust is sewn into our existence.

Christ calls with the beckoning of a bridegroom,
“Come, Beloved, Come! (Revelation 22:17)
Let me wash you, My Bride, and make you white as snow
even though your sins are as scarlet.” (Psalm 51:7)

So we come, nay, we run, headlong to this crimson, blood stained cross. As we draw near, we discover, our flesh itself is falling off, yet, lo, we run on. We NEED this Savior. We are trapped in death without Him. Stretching out His righteous hand toward ours, at first touch, our death is gone. In a moment, we have been freed. The stench of death eradicated. The garment of sin forever destroyed, it’s fabric no longer woven into our flesh, for we have been reborn.

Fresh washed skin.
Fragranced hair.
Sun-kissed cheeks and eyes brimming with wonder and awe
of this radical love that both casts out sin and loves the sinner.
Raptured delight erupts!
We shout His praise!
We worship with enthusiasm!
We skip for the joy exploding within us at awakening to life.
We yearn for righteousness and to gaze intently onto His glorious face.
Gleefully, we cannot help but breathlessly proclaim His goodness to all.

Springtime is made for Lover and Beloved.

My wedding band hadn’t long graced my finger when I found myself on our bathroom floor, door locked, face flushed, tears tumbling. “I want to go home”, I whispered between sobs.

What had I done? Until death do us part?
I wanted to back up, re-think, undo.
Marriage wasn’t what I’d expected.
Where were the sweet nothings?
Electricity between us? Oh, there were plenty of sparks…just of a different kind.

As I write this, I’m two weeks shy of 19 years of marriage. Over the course of nearly two decades, I found myself in more seasons of lonely questioning than I could count.

I would become weary of loving him.
He wasn’t loving me as I wanted.
He didn’t listen as I expected.
Why was he so selfish? Why was I?
Would we make it?
Was I still His Beloved?

Winter’s cold winds blow, and burrowed beneath the snow, Love barely breathes.

Barely breathing.
Isn’t that how we feel with our walk with the Lord sometimes? While there may have been spiritual highs at some points, it feels so out of sync with real life.

Perhaps that’s why we have seasons with the Lord,
so we can learn He is present when feelings fade.

When our lips refuse to form words of worship.
When our hearts feel cold to the fire of the Lord.
When we whisper the hard questions, barely audible.
Is He really here? Does God love me now?

In my bed at night
I sought the one I love;
I sought him, but I did not find him.
Song of Solomon 3:1

I opened to my love,
but my love had turned and gone away.
My heart sank because he had left.
I sought him, but did not find him.
I called him, but he did not answer.
Song of Solomon 5:6

The nation of Israel was just weeks out from seeing the Lord rip open the Red Sea as they’d walked across on dry sand, forever free from Pharaoh’s slavery. They had shouted for victory on the other side of the sea, watching as former slave-owners drowned beneath the very waves they’d been rescued through.

Yet, they dared utter these words to their Rescuing God,
“Why did you ever bring us up from Egypt
to kill us and our children and our livestock with thirst?”
(Exodus 17:3)

In fiery desperation, they cried aloud,
“Is the Lord among us or not?”
(Exodus 17:7)

Spoiler alert… I didn’t stay in the bathroom, Israel didn’t die of thirst in the desert, and Solomon’s Bride found her Lover.

The key to moving forward in the dark chill of winter is refusing to loosen our grip on truth.

The Lord is always present.
Always loving.
Never forsaking.

While marriages tragically end, and ecstasy wanes like tide from the shore, regardless of the season, true love never fails. Never.

The Love of God will endure forever.
Because He IS love.
(1 John 4:8)

Whether you’re frolicking on the hills of newfound love, or trudging through winter’s icy blast, be warmed by the fires of truth from the God who never fails in any season!

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Beloved Day 2 Unveiled Faces: Digging Deeper

November 17, 2020 by Lois Robbins Leave a Comment

Digging Deeper Days

Finding the original intent of Scripture and making good application to our everyday lives as we become equipped to correctly handle the Word of Truth!

Yesterday’s Journey Study connects with today’s!
Check out Unveiled Faces!

The Questions

1) What is the meaning of using fruits, flowers, and animals to describe this man and wife love relationship?

2) What is the purpose of the warning to the young women of Jerusalem? (verse 7)

3) How does Scripture connect a human marriage to a relationship between God and us?

Song of Solomon 2:1-17

Woman
I am a wildflower of Sharon,
a lily of the valleys.

Man
2 Like a lily among thorns,
so is my darling among the young women.

Woman
3 Like an apricot tree among the trees of the forest,
so is my love among the young men.
I delight to sit in his shade,
and his fruit is sweet to my taste.
4 He brought me to the banquet hall,
and he looked on me with love.
5 Sustain me with raisins;
refresh me with apricots,
for I am lovesick.
6 May his left hand be under my head,
and his right arm embrace me.
7 Young women of Jerusalem, I charge you
by the gazelles and the wild does of the field,
do not stir up or awaken love
until the appropriate time.
8 Listen! My love is approaching.
Look! Here he comes,
leaping over the mountains,
bounding over the hills.
9 My love is like a gazelle
or a young stag.
See, he is standing behind our wall,
gazing through the windows,
peering through the lattice.
10 My love calls to me:

Man
Arise, my darling.
Come away, my beautiful one.
11 For now the winter is past;
the rain has ended and gone away.
12 The blossoms appear in the countryside.
The time of singing has come,
and the turtledove’s cooing is heard in our land.
13 The fig tree ripens its figs;
the blossoming vines give off their fragrance.
Arise, my darling.
Come away, my beautiful one.
14 My dove, in the clefts of the rock,
in the crevices of the cliff,
let me see your face,
let me hear your voice;
for your voice is sweet,
and your face is lovely.

Woman
15 Catch the foxes for us—
the little foxes that ruin the vineyards—
for our vineyards are in bloom.
16 My love is mine and I am his;
he feeds among the lilies.
17 Until the day breaks
and the shadows flee,
turn around, my love, and be like a gazelle
or a young stag on the divided mountains.

Original Intent

1) What is the meaning of using fruits, flowers, and animals to describe this man and wife love relationship?
Song of Songs suggests it is the greatest of all songs and found within its pages are lyrical poetry arranged as dialogue between a woman and her lover. While scholars maintain that the love story makes allegorical connections between God and His love for mankind, Song of Solomon is also, undeniably, a sensuous book reveling in God’s good gifts of intimacy within marriage. To properly understand this poetic song, we must remember to set our minds on the then-current time and culture. The Shulamite Bride compares herself to a wildflower of Sharon and a lily of the valley, both of which were common. The “Sharon” was a fertile plain between Mount Carmel and Joppa along the coast of the Mediterranean Sea producing beautiful wildflowers in abundance. Likewise, the lily was plentiful in Palestine. By saying of herself, “I am a wildflower of Sharon, a lily of the valleys”, she is not speaking in arrogance, but rather that, while she is beautiful, she is also common. (verse 1) Solomon picks up on her imagery of flowers, but responds by pronouncing, “Like a lily among thorns, so is my darling among the young women.” (verse 2) He sets her apart from all other young women, describing everyone else as “thorns” in comparison. The Lover extols her beauty for she was not at all common in his eyes. In similar fashion, the woman uses the imagery of an apricot tree to depict her lover. “Like an apricot tree among the trees of the forest, so is my love among the young men.” Where every other man is simply a tree in the forest, her man is completely unique to her. Apricot trees are generally 30-45 feet tall, quite strong, and bear sweet fruit. Thus, the Shulamite woman describes her man as tall and strong while bearing a sweetness about him. He provides shade (protection) and his love is described as a banner (generally signifying complete peace and victory) over his lovely young woman. (verses 3-4) The comparison of lovers to gazelles, does, or stags throughout the song are symbolic of grace, beauty, strength, and speed. (verses 7-9) The man refers to the young woman as his dove inferring her to be beautiful and soft, waiting to be called out of singleness and virginity by her husband lover and into marriage.

2) What is the purpose of the warning to the young women of Jerusalem? (verse 7)
Within historical context, we don’t know exactly who the “young women of Jerusalem” were first intended to be viewed as. Maybe they were equivalent to our modern day “Bridesmaids” who helped the bride prepare for her wedding day. Maybe, because Song of Solomon is a song, they are representative of a chorus, and the entire song was meant to be sung over the course of several days leading up to a wedding. What most scholars agree on is they were a group of some kind, probably unmarried, intending to represent a community around the couple, either singularly to the Beloved Bride or to both husband and wife. In verse 7, the Beloved Bride gives a warning to these “young women of Jerusalem”, “Do not stir up or awaken love until the appropriate time.” The description of the woman’s intimacy with the man in previous verses is so enticing the Bride feels she must charge the young women of Jerusalem to not jump into a passionate relationship prematurely. Intimacy is definitely wonderful and definitely worth the wait, but foregoing the commitment of a marriage relationship just to experience physical intimacy, misses the real depth of love and sex entirely. The woman’s senses are heightened and stirred by the man’s presence and affirmation of love for her. She finds herself feasting on it all, and feeling “lovesick”. (verses 5-6) She hungers for more of his nearness, and his offering of love only intensifies her desires. She began with a desire for his kisses and then longed for his embrace. (verses 4-6) Her passionate experience with her Lover urges her to give this charge to wait for “the appropriate time” to the unmarried women around her. She knows that intimate love, both physical and emotional, should have its own rhythm and proper progression. TOO Fast TOO soon spoils it all. Theologian, D Garret, adds his insights by saying, “For a woman to awaken love before it pleases is to deprive herself of the full experience of romance and sexuality…”.

3) How does Scripture connect a human marriage to a relationship between God and us?
In Exodus 34:15 (KJV), Israel is being warned not to “whore after their gods.” By describing idolatry with the language of prostitution and sexual immorality, Moses uses the sacredness of marriage as a metaphor to mirror the holiness of God’s covenant relationship with His people, Israel. Again, in the biography of the Old Testament prophet, Hosea, God commands Hosea to marry a prostitute, Gomer, who continually leaves him to return to prostitution. In Hosea’s life, God was giving Israel a visual, real-life picture of what it is to abandon Him as their God. (read more about this story in our Journey Theme, Bride!) In the New Testament, Paul applies the metaphor of marriage to the relationship between Christ and the Church of believers. “This mystery (of marriage) is profound, and I am saying it refers to Christ and the church.” (Ephesians 5:32) In Matthew 9:15, Jesus describes Himself as a Bridegroom and was recognized as such by John the Baptist. (John 3:29-30) After we understand the original context of the Song of Solomon, we can, by looking at the whole of Scripture, see how some of Solomon’s descriptions could describe the relationship between Christ and the Church. Where the apricot tree was the Beloved’s description of her Lover (verses 3-4), Christ is our ultimate strength and protection, totally unique and unlike any other for no one else can rescue us from our sin. “There is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to people by which we must be saved.” (Acts 4:12) As the Lover and Beloved care for each other, finding delight in each other in all things, so does God care and tenderly love each of us who call upon His Name for rescue from sin’s consequence. “Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God, so that he may exalt you at the proper time, casting all your cares on him, because he cares about you. (1 Peter 5:6-7) The Beloved and Lover celebrate their physical oneness. This picture mirrors how Christ-followers are to find spiritual oneness with God as His people. “They will be my people, and I will be their God.” (Jeremiah 32:38)

Everyday Application

1) What is the meaning of using fruits, flowers, and animals to describe this man and wife love relationship?
Celebrating our spouse as unique and special runs hard against our culture’s screaming voice. Pornography runs rampant, sex slaves are common in many cities, and the cut throat game of comparison is widespread across marketing, media, and even within our own hearts. How shockingly refreshing it is when one spouse brags on their marriage partner as being one-of-a-kind-wonderful?! In fact, when a husband or wife chooses to intentionally celebrate their spouse, they are fostering this kind of celebratory language to be shared between them. When they take it a step further, and celebrate their spouse to someone else, this encourages other marriage partners to step up their game when it comes to praising the attributes of their beloved one. While celebrating your spouse sounds simple, it can be difficult, especially if you’re walking through a difficult season in your marriage (as all of us have/are/will!). This challenge isn’t meant for us to close a blind eye to abusers within marriage, while amplifying “good things” to excuse abuse. Rather, this model from Song of Solomon is intended to give us a tool to speak life and unconditional love over our husbands. Where will you begin?! If you aren’t married, this challenge extends to you too! Consider this celebration as a tool to initiate flourishing in each of your relationships. Take the challenge to celebrate and begin to think highly, and uniquely, of others, speaking out loud these things to them and about them! Maybe you won’t use fruits, flowers, and animals in your descriptions, but, who knows, maybe you will! Leading like a lion or having hair that feels like silk are both encouraging and celebratory in our culture.

2) What is the purpose of the warning to the young women of Jerusalem? (verse 7)
True Love is worth waiting for! Oftentimes, in our culture, waiting to fulfill one’s sexual desires until marriage is an antiquated notion. Mainstream media encourages us to indulge in our sexual desires anytime we please. What the world doesn’t tell us, but God’s Word makes clear, is that “following our hearts” instead of God’s perfect plan only leads to pain and heartache. (Jeremiah 17:9, Proverbs 3:5-6) During my “young woman years”, I carried a strong conviction to never give myself (body or heart) away to any man until marriage. God gave me strength to hold fast to this conviction. When I met the man I would marry, and we began sharing emotionally, it became very difficult to keep myself pure. My mom warned, “It only takes one a passionate kiss to let go of your senses and go too far.” There were moments in our pre-marriage we came very close to not waiting as we shared passionate kisses, but we made it by HIS grace and strength and our marriage consummated in HIS time. Now, forty years of marriage have passed, and we rejoice in God’s love which has held us fast to Him despite struggles along the way. Everyone’s sexual history is different, but God’s grace is the same for each of us! Human love will always fail us, but redemptively, God allows even our broken relationships to continually point us to the ONE whose love will never falter and whose love will never let us down. There is no fear in the perfect love of God! (1 John 4:18) Whatever your sexual past, or present, looks like, confidently know that the Lord of all Love is waiting, not with condemnation, but with a wide welcoming embrace of love and forgiveness. I count my marriage struggles as JOY in spite of the scars of fallen human love because, through these, the Lord has brought us closer to the cross, both individually and as husband and wife. True Love is worth waiting for! Never give in, never give up, be patient in fervent prayer, and F. R. O. G. (Fully Relying On God)!

3) How does Scripture connect a human marriage to a relationship between God and us?
The Shulamite woman likens her Lover to an apple tree among the trees of the forest. He is strong and sturdy, and his shade covers and protects her from the scorching rays of the sun. In the same way, Jesus, our perfect bridegroom, shelters us with the power of His unfailing love. We are wrecked with our own sin, condemned to die and be eternally separated from the beauty and love of God. Christ, the perfect Love, took our place by suffering our due consequence for our sin when He died on the cross. He became separated from the glory of God the Father as He took on our consequence, though He was sinless. (Matthew 27:46) Three days later, He proved His victory over sin and death by coming back to life and later ascending through the clouds to sit at the right hand of God the Father. (Ephesians 1:20-21) Once we choose to fully trust Christ’s work on the cross for us, we become His and He becomes ours. He guards and protects our souls for eternity because He, the all-powerful God, loves us perfectly. (John 10:28) As women, most of us spend our lives searching for our “perfect Lover” from teenage years until we find Mr. Right, our knight in shining armor. Ultimately, our hearts are designed to discover that only the Lord God can satisfy us completely. Whether we end up married or single, Christ must remain the fullness of our delight. When we shift our eyes to any lesser love, elevating him over God, we will find heartache, disappointment, and dissatisfaction. If we marry, husband and wife are designed to move forward together with many goals, but the highest being Christ. If we are single, the same is true as we move through life with many hopes and dreams, but our highest being Christ. He alone is to hold the position of pre-eminence. (Colossians 1:15-20) There will be rough roads all along the way for both single and married women, but the love of our great God never falters or abandons!

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Digging Deeper is for Everyone!

1) Take this passage (or any other passage).
2) Read it, and the verses around it,
several times
3) Write down your questions
as you think of them.
4) Ask specific culture related questions and be ready to dig around for your answers. Google them, use www.studylight.org, or look them up in a study Bible and read the footnotes (click on the little letters next to a word and it will show you
other related verses!). (www.esvbible.org)
5) Check your applications with other trusted Christians that you are in community with and embrace the fullness of God
in your everyday!

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Why Dig Deeper?

Finding the original meaning is a huge deal when we study Scripture and can make all the difference in our understanding as we apply God’s truths to our everyday lives.

In our modern-day relationships, we want people to understand our original intention as we communicate; how much more so between God and humanity?!

Here’s a little bit more on why we take Digging Deeper so seriously.

Study Tools

We love getting help while we study and www.studylight.org is one of many excellent resources, providing the original Hebrew (Old Testament) or Greek (New Testament) with an English translation.

Want to know more about a specific word in a verse? Click on “Strong’s Interlinear Bible” then click the word you’d like to study. Discover “origin”, “definition” and hear the original pronunciation – That Is Awesome!

Want more background? Click “Study Tools”, then pick a few commentaries to read their scholarly approach, keeping in mind that just because a commentary says it, doesn’t mean it’s true. (just like the internet :-))

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