Both the bride and the husband in the Love poem have a love for each other that when experienced is “more delightful than wine“.
Bothe the bride and the husband possess and experience a sweeter love in their marriage. A love that is more delightful than wine. There is a sweeter love to be had in marriages today if husbands loved like Solomon did and if wives learned from the bride in the Song. Both are examples of how to love God and each other in marriage.
This blog is a meditation on Song 5:2-6 where the bride is sleeping and her husband is outside suffering and he calls her to answer the door. He doesn’t experience her love that is more delightful than wine. He answering the door would have been an act of love and knowing how much Solomon praises his wife when she shows love, he would have praised her for denying herself some comfort in bed in order to show some love to her beloved.
She missed the opportunity to express a sweeter love to her husband. She missed the opportunity for him to praise her Godly character. She missed the opportunity to please her husband. So many other times she listened to her husband but here her love fails as she sleeps but her heart was awake. Now I agree that most husbands don’t praise their wives enough for the ways in which they love their husbands, but Solomon is the example for all other husbands. He praised his wife in accordance with Scripture, Proverbs 31:28-30 for “the husband of an excellent wife praises her” inner and outer beauty.
To be truly loved is better and more delightful than any other earthly experience. To have a husband love his wife by being a wise leader is more delightful than wine. To have a husband who shows love by forgiving his wife and not keeping a record of wrongs is an experience that the bride has in her marriage to Israel’s Messiah. She experiences God’s love through her husband. Like wise the husband experiences God’s love through his wife when she loves her husband. To listen to her husband is an act of love to God and husband.
The bride promised to be his. She gave herself to him/Him. She was no longer her own, but owned by the greatest type of Christ who was gifted with unmeasurable wisdom, beloved son of God (Jedidiah), the king of peace, king of kings, Solomon.
She promised the greatest type of Christ alive that she would give herself to him, yet just after the wedding the perfect treacherous water of a trial tests her love. Yet through it all, ultimately her love was unquenchable, couldn’t be bought by the devil, it’ holy jealousy for her beloved/Beloved was more powerful than spiritual death.
Here in Chapter 5 the brides both physically and spiritually sleeps. We see the bride not willing to deny herself. She was selfish rather than selfless in her actions. When she was selfish she sinned. God wanted her to selfless in the marriage for her growth in holiness and happiness.
There is a happiness more delightful in the future for those who deny themselves for their beloved/Beloved.
A sweeter union and communion with your beloved/Beloved is just outside a locked door. What door do you have closed to your beloved/Beloved that if opened a sweeter relationship than before would be enjoyed by the both of you!!
A sweeter love. A more delightful love.
They both had a love for the other. When either one experienced God’s love through their spouse it was “more delightful than wine”. Their is a sweetness to love. A husband’s love could be sweet. A husband’s dying love would be sweeter. The love of the wisest king would even make his love sweeter. The love of her king, who was gifted with unmeasurable wisdom caused him to stand out among ten thousand other husbands that loved their wives. “His love was more delightful than wine.”
Then later in the Song on their wedding night, he saves her life by warning her about the danger of death that may come from staying on top of the mountains to long. If she is on a mountain of myrrh with him there is a time to come down and humble yourself by obeying the voice of your beloved/Beloved. Her called her to “Come down from the sacred mountains” 4:8 before she got prideful or self-righteous.
She obeys his voice. She expressed her love to him. He called and she answered. He experiences God’s sweeter love through his wife. The sweeter love. She loved God and God wanted her to obey her husband so when her love wasn’t sleeping but on fire, he calls and she answers. Or rather he called and she looked her doves eyes into his and hear what he says to his beautiful wife because her love expressed itself in glancing his way,
“You have stolen my heart, my sister, my bride;
you have stolen my heart
with one glance of your eyes,
with one jewel of your necklace.
10 How delightful is your love, my sister, my bride!
How much more pleasing is your love than wine,
and the fragrance of your perfume
more than any spice!” Solomon’s Song of Songs 4:9-10
Her listening to him was a delightful experience for him. Her listening to him pleased him more than wine!! One of the biggest complaints I here from men is that their wives won’t listen to them. And the wife will say my husband doesn’t love me or lead the marriage in a Biblical manner. Perfection is nice but those who love each other will be headed the direction of perfection but will never hit it until dead. When both are dead and in heaven they will be brother and sister and love each other perfectly, but here on earth, we will sin and then the love of forgiveness can be seen and love of patience is seen as well. To have someone forgive you and be patient with you is an act of love that is more delightful than wine!!
The wife in a Biblical marriage has a role. Her role is to love her husband. Tis a sweet love. Sacrificial, sincere, free and without fear.
The manner in which the wisest husband alive asked his sleeping wife to do something she would think unreasonable to do is because she was his.
The fact that she is his is the reason she should do what she thinks is unreasonable but what the one she wants to please wants.
She wants to please him. If her love was on fire or if she was acting like she wanted to please him over herself then she would have expressed that love by opening the door for her suffering husband.
Both opening the door to please God and being able to be closer to your beloved ought to be things the bride should be pleased to do.
She said she would deny herself by putting back on her clothes and getting her clean feet dirty again in order to please him or prefer him/Him over her.
Her love to him was more delightful than wine. God loves the husband. The husband experiences God’s love through his wife. When the wife obey’s God by loving her husband the husband is loved. He experiences God’s love through her. The means by which a husband experiences the love of God is an obedient wife.
Her husband missed an opportunity to experience her more delightful wine. Opening the door was his request. He wasn’t even asking her to sleep with him, all she had to do was get out of bed, get her feet dirty, and her clothes on only to clean them both again before she goes back to bed.
She had done everything she was supposed to for her feet were clean. She had done everything she was supposed to do and now she was being asked to do them all over again by the suffering one she loves.
Reflections upon her beloved suffering outside ought to have fired her up but instead her flame of love slept.
Husbands
You better notice and praise your wife for her acts of love!! You can’t complain about her not listening if your not praising her for the times she does listen. Get it. Let me say that again. YOU CANT COMPLAIN ABOUT THE TIMES SHE DOESN’T LISTEN IF YOUR NOT PRAISING HER FOR THE TIMES SHE DOES!!
Yes, she should obey anyway but you are the leader. Your not born a good leader but you can grow into one. A good leader in the marriage praises his wife. Proverbs 31:28-30. Most wives really want to please their husbands. They really do. Your praise of her actions lets her know she is pleasing you. I have to say that again because us guys are so stupid. Your praise of her loving actions lets her know what she did pleased you. You have to verbalize it specifically. What did she do that is an act of love. Did she do your laundry? Did she cook a meal? Did she take the kids to school? Did she clean the house? Did she pick up your dirty socks for the umpteenth time?
You as the leader must be doing your part. Your part is to praise her where she deserves it. Even the worst wife is doing some loving things, find them and praise her for it. Imagine if she stopped doing even the little things. Things could be worse.
Stop focusing on all the things she is not doing and be a wise leader and praise her for the acts of love she is doing!! She may not be listening in every area but how many things have you asked of your wife in the past day or week that she did do?
Praise her willingness to listen!! The bride was on top of the mountains and Solomon asked her to come down, she glances his way and just the glance ravished his heart. She didn’t even do anything yet but look his way when he called. Her love to God and her husband was expressed in her willingness to listen. She didn’t even do anything yet. Her love was more delightful than wine. Does your wife’s doves eyes turn your way when you speak, that should ravish your heart!
Believer
The experience of love from God through their spouse was more delightful than wine. How much more delightful is it to experience love from Jesus Christ. His love is infinitely sweeter. We are sinner’s and God is angry with sinners. Do you know what it would feel like to feel the full anger and wrath of God for sinning. When you ask God to forgive you for your sins it is the same thing as asking God to not be angry with you anymore.
“God, I know I have angered you because of the sinful life I have lived, Im sorry and would you please no longer be angry with me because You poured out your anger on Jesus when my sins were bore in His body on the cross.” God can forgive you and not be angry because He poured out His Full Anger on Jesus for 3 hours on the cross. When Gods anger was fully felt Jesus said “It is finished“. Love to God and His bride held him there. To go from knowing you deserve God’s wrath and anger to knowing you are forgiven is an act of love on God’s part. To experience forgiveness in Christ is more delightful than any other experience!!
Categories
Uncategorized