Growing Intimacy with Your Beloved

Solomon’s Song of Song illustrates love in marriage better than 1,004 other love songs that Solomon wrote.  Love is intimate and Solomon knew how to increase intimacy in marriage.

The intimacy of the marriage union between Israel’s Messiah, God’s beloved son, the king of peace and his born again Gentile enemy bride grows.

Intimacy, holy intimacy, pure jealous love, unquenchable love is learned.  Most of us know something of intimacy in marriage or with God but generally it would be nice to have a guide, a teacher, or someone to lead us like a good shepherd towards closer intimacy in all our relations.

Solomon wisely and tenderly draws his bride closer to himself by his love.  Knowing who he is and trusting his love to her will draw them closer, whereas doubt, unbelief, pride and selfishness will cause separation for sin separates.  All sins are like foxes that ruin a blossoming vineyard.

The purpose of this post is to give proof that the intimacy level between Israels Messiah and his bride increases.  I will list 7 reasons from the Song that clearly indicate the bridegroom and bride increasing in intimacy.

1.  The increasing quality of Solomon’s praises prove that she has grown in her love and intimacy.  Her praiseworthiness increases when she learns to be more intimate or closer to the one she loves.
   1. 1:9-10  A general praise of her inner and outer beauty making her the most physically and morally beautiful woman and earnest desire to learn how to be near him.
   2. 1:15  He adores her eyes when together for the first time
   3. 2:2  He adores her beauty under persecution for his names sake.
   4. 4:1-5:1 is a wedding night, the bridegroom rejoicing over the bride and enjoying her love and the fruits of it.
   5. 6:4-6-9  By now she stands out as more holy and unique than all the other queens and concubines.
   6. 7:1-7:6  He praises her from foot to head or hair.  All her delights were pleasing to him.
   7. After 8:14 the most glorious praise from Israel’s Messiah to his bride is yet to come.
2. Her trust in his love to her increases.  2:16, 6:3 and 7:10
3. Her fruitfulness increases due to love drawing them together. From no fruit in 1:6, to something blossoming in 2:15, to a full locked up garden in 5:15, to producing fruit fully mature in high places 7:7-8, to producing multiple spices on top of different mountain tops 8:14
4. The Song progresses showing an increase in intimacy by using a complete separation at the start then courtship, wedding and marriage context to illustrate growing intimacy.
5. The Song can easily be divide up into 4 parts separated by the same phrase in 2:7, 3:5 and 8:4.  1.  Thus they go from the furthest point away, separated as enemies to the closest union as friends and lovers.  2.  Being taught and 1st intimate communion.   3.   Correction when failing by her hating feelings of separation due to her sin.   4.  Then she is effectively rebuked when knowing what you ought to do and willfully being selfish and learns to hold communion with him in love.  5.  Fruits of full practical union.  1.  1:2-6 with 5:16 , 2.  1:7-2:7,  3.  2:7-3:5  4.  5:2-8:3  5. 8:5-8:14.     Thus you have Solomon’s Song of Songs teaching intimacy in marriage, correcting, rebuking and training those in marriage to love one another.  The separation of the book into an intro, 4 parts of growing intimacy separated by the same phrase, and a conclusion clearly prove this Song illustrates a growing intimacy or stricter union being achieved due to their love to one another.  A footnote to these phases is that they also correspond to the 4 phases of Christian growth which consist in the Babe phase, Child, Strong Young Man and Father. 1 John 2:12-14

6. 

   The Bible uses many other illustration to help us understand our union with the Son of God to illustrate different points or key truths about that union, like a tree to a branch to illustrate fruitfulness as the effect of that union,  Bread to eater, Father’s familial union with a son, head and body and other unions but the union of a husband and wife is to illustrate love and intimacy like no other illustration or institution of God.  The purpose of marriage is to illustrate Israel’s Messiahs love to his/His Bride.

7. The roles of marriage illustrate growing intimacy in the Song.  Their first role when separated is that of King to a Gentile enemy slave.  Then she desires to have Israel’s Messiah as her king.  Then she desires and has him shepherd her heart.  They hold sweet communion for the first time.  He courts her in the banquet hall.  Then he proposes.  They have even sweeter communion due to her sincerity in communication.  They work together to destroy anything that slows the growth of intimacy 2:14.  He does his part she learns to get better at doing hers.  She learns him to be a true friend 5:16.  She experiences his love in every aspect of the marriage and doesn’t doubt his love, for she says “I am my beloved’s and his desire is for me.” in 7:10.  Either way you say it it is pretty much the same thing.
   Growing oneness in marriage.  Love growing.  Intimacy growing.  A stricter happier union is being achieved.  Closer to God and one another.  Practical oneness growing stricter due to being positionally one in love.  They go from separation as enemies to being closest friends.   Song 1:6 with 1 Kings 9:20-23 and Song 5:16.   She first accepts him as her king 1:2-4, then good shepherd of her heart 1:7-8 then they work together on every issue 2:14, then she is called sister in chapter 4 for familial intimacy then she experiences his fullest friendship 5:1 and then she experiences his love as a husband lover to the greatest degree 5:16.  Then their love only grows 8:14.  I would say a husbands love is the most intimate.  Surely their is a relation between king and subject or shepherd and follower, or brother and sister or friends but husband and wife take the cake in intimacy.  She doesn’t call him husband and he doesn’t call her bride until chapter 4 and 5.  So it goes from king to good shepherd of her heart, to friend, to brother, to husband.  I would say at each level their is growing intimacy.   Their may be more roles illustrated like Prophet and Priest because of who Solomon was but I don’t see them directly in the text.