September 17 Daily Devotional

Bible Reading:

Song of Solomon 8:

¹O that thou wert as my brother, that sucked the breasts of my mother! when I should find thee without, I would kiss thee; yea, I should not be despised.
²I would lead thee, and bring thee into my mother's house, who would instruct me: I would cause thee to drink of spiced wine of the juice of my pomegranate.
³His left hand should be under my head, and his right hand should embrace me.
⁴I charge you, O daughters of Jerusalem, that ye stir not up, nor awake my love, until he please.
⁵Who is this that cometh up from the wilderness, leaning upon her beloved? I raised thee up under the apple tree: there thy mother brought thee forth: there she brought thee forth that bare thee.
⁶Set me as a seal upon thine heart, as a seal upon thine arm: for love is strong as death; jealousy is cruel as the grave: the coals thereof are coals of fire, which hath a most vehement flame.
⁷Many waters cannot quench love, neither can the floods drown it: if a man would give all the substance of his house for love, it would utterly be contemned.
⁸We have a little sister, and she hath no breasts: what shall we do for our sister in the day when she shall be spoken for?
⁹If she be a wall, we will build upon her a palace of silver: and if she be a door, we will inclose her with boards of cedar.
¹⁰I am a wall, and my breasts like towers: then was I in his eyes as one that found favour.
¹¹Solomon had a vineyard at Baalhamon; he let out the vineyard unto keepers; every one for the fruit thereof was to bring a thousand pieces of silver.
¹²My vineyard, which is mine, is before me: thou, O Solomon, must have a thousand, and those that keep the fruit thereof two hundred.
¹³Thou that dwellest in the gardens, the companions hearken to thy voice: cause me to hear it.
¹⁴Make haste, my beloved, and be thou like to a roe or to a young hart upon the mountains of spices.

Devotional:

Today the word love is frequently a synonym for infatuation. It can call to mind illicit relationships outside marriage as well as selfishness, jealousy, and cruelty within marriage. Living in the midst of a fallen people we find it difficult to conceive of love as being a 'flame of Jehovah' (8:6, NASB).

The figure of fire in this passage pictures an open hearth where a controlled flame with fascinating colors and ever-changing form climbs and reaches out, enveloping the whole log. This is love in the high sense experienced by the husband and wife under God. This is God's gift to the husband and wife: 'the flame of Jehovah.'

The apostle Paul uses this same figure of fire for lust. 'It is better,' he says, 'to marry than to burn' (1 Corinthians 7:9b). Here our minds conjure up a fire out of control which destroys and consumes, leaving ugly ashes in its trail.

The Song of Solomon may remind us of the time before the fall, when love was altogether pure and holy, not lustful. Adam and Eve were naked and they were not ashamed. There was no sin.

The Song of Solomon shows us the relationship which can and should be obtained in the redeemed marriage. The new creature in Christ is renewed in his love life as well as in other aspects of his life. He is enabled more and more to experience the beauty and purity of love and to express it tenderly and selflessly.

Thank You, God, for the gift of romantic love. Thank You that it is a flame You have sent, a flame that cannot be quenched by many waters or drowned by floods. And thank You more than that for Your own love to us which makes the strongest of human loves appear a mere shadowy flicker!