“Love is as strong as death” - Leawood - Church of the Resurrection

Daily Scripture

Song of Solomon 1:9 – 2:4, 8:5-7

Song of Solomon 1, 2

9 I picture you, my dearest,
as a mare among Pharaoh’s chariots!
10 Lovely are your cheeks, adorned with ear hoops;
your neck, with beads.
11 Let’s make hoops of gold beaded with silver for you!
[Woman]
12 With my king close by,
my perfume filled the air.
13 A sachet of myrrh is my love to me,
lying all night between my breasts.
14 A cluster of henna flowers is my love to me
in the desert gardens of En-gedi.
[Man]
15 Look at you—so beautiful, my dearest!
Look at you—so beautiful! Your eyes are doves!
[Woman]
16 Look at you—so beautiful, my love!
Yes, delightful! Yes, our bed is lush and green!
17 The ceilings of our chambers are cedars;
our rafters, cypresses.

[Woman]
2:1 I’m a rose of the Sharon plain,
a lily of the valleys.
[Man]
2 Like a lily among thornbushes,
so is my dearest among the young women.
[Woman]
3 Like an apple tree among the wild trees,
so is my lover among the young men.
In his shade I take pleasure in sitting,
and his fruit is sweet to my taste.
4 He has brought me to the house of wine;
his banner raised over me is love.

Song of Solomon 8

[Daughters of Jerusalem]
5 Who is this coming up from the wilderness
leaning against her lover?
[Woman]
Under the apple tree I aroused you—
there, where your mother labored with you,
there where, laboring, she bore you.
6 Set me as a seal over your heart,
as a seal upon your arm,
for love is as strong as death,
passionate love unrelenting as the grave.
Its darts are darts of fire—
divine flame!
7 Rushing waters can’t quench love;
rivers can’t wash it away.
If someone gave
all his estate in exchange for love,
he would be laughed to utter shame.

Reflection Questions

How comfortable or uncomfortable did reading today’s Scripture passage make you? (Other parts of the Song are even more erotic—though some of them in ways that fit that time’s ideas of beauty, but perhaps not ours!) This bold Hebrew love poetry frames the strong pull of sexual attraction in a way that points to God’s intention that the union of bodies will bond souls together. Can we misuse sexuality in hurtful ways? Yes. Is our culture sometimes uneasy and embarrassed, and at other times brazen, about sex? Yes again. But none of those errors should obscure the reality that our sexuality is one of God’s good gifts.

• How did these poetic passages link sexual allure with the even stronger, lasting force of committed love? A popular song some years ago used the seductive line, “We’ve got tonight/Who needs tomorrow?” How did the biblical Song show lovers enjoying “tonight” not as an end in itself, but to fortify a bond that reached way beyond “tomorrow”? “These insights about love, human and divine, explain why ...the great Rabbi Aquiva (1st century CE) said that, while all of scripture is holy, the Song of Songs is the most holy of all.” * How does the inclusion of this book of Hebrew love poetry in the Bible show that God is not ill at ease with sexual attraction, but meant it as a force for good?

Prayer

Lord Jesus, thank you for the gift of being able to love, through physical affection that creates bonds that go way beyond just physical. Guide me in this area of life that’s so often distorted or misused. Amen.

* Brent A. Strawn, introduction to Song of Songs in The CEB Study Bible. Nashville: Abingdon Press, 2013, p. 1075 OT.

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