When to Propose! part 4
When should a suitor propose to a woman? Ever wonder when is the right time. I mean most men if they love the woman would not want her to say no. If he truly loves her he would want his love to her reciprocated with a positive answer to his request for her to marry him. In the most beautiful language of Song and Hebrew poetry the type of Christ irresistibly calls her closer. This section of the love Song answers the question of timing. When should a man of God propose to a godly woman? I suppose if you were to flip the tables and ask it another way. When should she say “Yes”!
A proposal is simply an offer of marriage.
A type of Jesus Christ was gifted with unmeasurable wisdom, fell in love with a born again Gentile slave girl, courted her then proposed. Their love was so strong and utterly unquenchable that the two ended up living in the sweetest most happiest harmony possible.
Solomon’s Song of Songs is a love poem written from the woman’s perspective of what it feels like to fall in love with a wise and loving type of Christ! What does it feel like to fall in love with someone who is like Jesus Christ? In her words it is “more delightful than wine” Song 1:2
The young maiden fell in true love at Solomon’s first anointing. They have the most amazing first date that has the bride passing out in his arms at a banquet hall due to the overwhelming expressions of his love to her. The Song takes a break and then we have the king coming to her house to propose. The man of her dreams is showing up to ask her hand in marriage and she is excited to see him coming.
He asks her hand in marriage in such a sweet skillful way and in the proper time that the proposal ends with her glorying in the fact that they belong to each other for she says,
“My beloved is mine and I am his” 2:16
So she says yes!
Usually we tend to barely think things out before we say them but what you say to the woman you want to marry is thought about quite a bit. What would the wisest man on earth at the time say to the one he wants to marry? Again from her perspective here is how it happens. Here is how they got engaged. She is in her mother’s house when she see’s him coming and says,
8 Listen! My beloved!
Look! Here he comes,
leaping across the mountains,
bounding over the hills.
9 My beloved is like a gazelle or a young stag.
Look! There he stands behind our wall,
gazing through the windows,
peering through the lattice.
10 My beloved spoke and said to me,
“Arise, my love,
my beautiful one, come with me.
11 See! The winter is past;
the rains are over and gone.
12 Flowers appear on the earth;
the season of singing has come,
the cooing of doves
is heard in our land.
13 The fig tree forms its early fruit;
the blossoming vines spread their fragrance.
Arise, come, my darling;
my beautiful one, come with me.” Solomon’s Song of Songs 2:8-13
I have already spoken about Song 2:8,9 and 10 in the “Sweetest proposal” 1,2 and 3. So here is the 4th blog post on his offer of marriage to the born again Gentile slave girl.
This post will focus on the reasons he gives as to why she should arise and go away with him.
First he shows up and she see’s the man of her dreams coming, the king is coming to her house to propose. Imagine how she feels. He looks through the lattice and peers through the window to get a glimpse of the one he loves, then he says to her,
“Arise, my love,
my beautiful one, come with me.”
Then he gives 6 reasons why she should leave her father and mother and come away with him. The 6 reasons can be viewed individually but are also understood meant to be understood taken altogether as well. See if you can recognize them individually and taken altogether.
“Arise, my love,
my beautiful one, come with me.”
11 “See! The winter is past;
the rains are over and gone.
12 Flowers appear on the earth;
the season of singing has come,
the cooing of doves
is heard in our land.
13 The fig tree forms its early fruit;
the blossoming vines spread their fragrance.” Solomon’s Song of Songs 2:11-13
1 “Winter is past”
2 “Rains are over and gone”
3 “Flowers appear on the earth”
4 “Cooing of doves is heard in our land”
5 “Fig tree forms its early fruit”
6 “Blossoming vines spread their fragrance”
Taken altogether. Take all the reason together and we see him masterfully making the point that because they are getting closer and more and more in love that they should get engaged. He is pointing out that they are becoming one so now is the time for his love to be manifested to her at a deeper level by him asking her to marry him. Basically he is saying, “Since love is in the air and we are getting closer and know each other better and things are working out then lets get married.” Yet he does it in sweet poetic language that effectively calls her closer.
We know he is giving reasons why she should go with him because he says, “See”
Notice the first reason he gives as to why she should go with him.
“Arise, my love,
my beautiful one, come with me.
See! The winter is past;
the rains are over and gone.”
The first reason she should go with him is that “the winter is past” and the second reason is that the “rains are over and gone.”
Basically, the some of the most poetic language he saying that the reason she should go with him and give herself to him is because it is the proper time. The timing is right. The winter is past, the rains are over and gone.
To get the full idea of it being the proper time you would have to read the whole thing and include the warning in 2:7 about the timing of arousing love. The bride charges the daughters of Jerusalem…
“Do not arouse or awaken love until it so desires.”
Notice the “until it so desires”
Some things clearly give him the indication that the time is right for him to arouse her love by proposing and thus woo her closer with his sweet words. If she says yes, then he has aroused her affection toward himself. He most lovingly and wisely arouses her love with the sweetest words at the proper time.
1 During winter is not a good time to propose.
During the winter of a relationship is not a good time. During the cold times of a relationship is not a good time to ask a woman to marry you. While having legitimate fears is not a good time to propose or say yes if your the woman. And if you notice she still had some fears even after he proposed because she doesn’t immediately say yes. There are some foxes that she fears will destroy the growing intimacy between the two that need being caught.
2 This implies that a couple in courtship will have bad cold winters. Cold times are necessary but not fun. But the result if they love is other is a better understanding of each other. These times must occur and then be gone for it to be a good time to propose. Not that their relationship is perfect but they have learned how to go through difficult times that could have possibly lead to separation but have lead to a sweeter union and better understanding and more love. In simple language the couple should of had a good verbal fight or argument and have it past and gone in a way that the two are closer due to the superlative sweet flame of love in both their hearts. Winter is a harsh difficult time to get through. So the idea is that both of you have gone through some difficult times and the relationship is stronger because of it. Then this is a good indication that the time of proposing is more then likely soon.
This line of thinking is strengthened further by reading the whole proposal again.
My beloved spoke and said to me,
“Arise, my love,
my beautiful one, come with me.
11 See! The winter is past;
the rains are over and gone.
12 Flowers appear on the earth;
the season of singing has come,
the cooing of doves
is heard in our land.
13 The fig tree forms its early fruit;
the blossoming vines spread their fragrance.
Arise, come, my darling;
my beautiful one, come with me.” Solomon’s Song of Songs
3 I just noticed something else about the timing as it relates to Song 2:8-9. He is clearly wanting to be with her and she is clearly happy when he arrived. He wants to be with her and she wants to be with him, this makes the timing of the proposal good. She seems quite excited to explain to us what it was like for her when he arrived. It’s not like she is pushing him away, and its not like he is pushing her away. Love desires closer intimacy and not further distance.
4 Even though they were apart their feelings for each other still grew strong. Notice he is coming to her house. This implies that they were physically separated. And now the king is coming to be in her presence and she was eagerly awaiting his arrival.
If your man was gone for quite a while and you didn’t miss him then this is a good indication that it’s not the time for engagement. Love is not desirous in this situation. “Do not arouse or awaken love until it desires.”
Notice the beautiful progression. Winter, rain, fruit then fragrance. Argument, talking it out, fruits of a closer union and delightful smells thereof. Im not saying that Solomon meant winter to be a metaphor for an argument. Im just using bad communication as an example just because it is so common an issue next to finances. So you have the progression of a closer relationship. Bad communication turns to talking it out, reconciliation or defining of words. With leads to both have a better understanding of love and each other which is the beauty that results and the fragrance of the vine is the blessing enjoyed by both of them due to the better understanding of each other.
“Winter is gone.” Winter could be any bad or difficult situation that is overcome by their love for each other. The idea is that any legitimate reason to not get married is gone. The metaphor of “winter” could be understood as a verbal fight or disagreement.
The metaphor of rain being over and gone is the talking it out is over. Such sweet communion and not fighting, is a precursor to the blessing that follows. The rain is what comes in bet
The metaphor of “flowers appearing” is the beauty of a stricter union of hearts that comes about by sweet communion with the one you love.
The “cooing of doves” is the desire to be closer to the one you love. The cooing of doves is one lover sweetly calling out to the other. Hear the coming king cooing, “Arise my love, my beautiful one, come away with me.”
“Flowers appear on the earth.” The result of the rain is that beauty appears on the earth. Life. Is the result of rain. Spring is my favorite time of year because my front yard is beautified. Flowers appear. The yard gets more beautiful. The idea is that beautiful things in the relationship are happening, therefore it is a good time to propose.
Another result of the rain is that “The fig tree forms it’s early fruit.”
Due to the changing seasons there is a time when “blossoming vines spread their fragrance.”
We have had some issues, we talked them out, it brought us closer together and now we can enjoy the early fruits of our union before marriage. Sweeter conversations. More knowledge of each other etc.
Application
Here we have good advice for a Father to a son or a mother to a daughter as to when they should get engaged.
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Saved in 2000 at age 27. Nearly immediately I fell in love with the Song and grew very fast the first two years memorizing large portions of scripture purifying my mind the started chewing on meat to soon and struggled for 12 years and Christ has me on track like always but I just took the long way around and now I love leading others closer to Christ by seeing His love reflected in Solomons love for an enemy slave girl.
I have experienced God's love to me in the Song in ways that words can't express. There are many portion of the Word where she experiences extra ordinary outpouring of the Holy Spirit of God. If you have a burning desire for a close intimate relationship with God by experiencing His Love to you over and over again at greater and greater heights, depths, lengths and breaths then The Song of Songs is where you need to be.
I can help you with this process of Growing in the experience of God's love. As of 7-23-16 I have experienced everything prior to chapter 8. The Song of Song is progressive in experience. Meaning that if you are mature then you can experience the joys and extraordinary outpourings of God's Love shed abroad in your heart.
If you are not so mature then the delights in the first chapter of the Song will satisfy your thirst for experiencing the Love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Many Christian are living in sin because they do not know how to experience God's love and get hooked on Loving Him. It feels good to be loved and to love Him. His burden is not heavy and His yoke is light, Jesus said in Matt. 10:28
I believe God wants to use me to help beautify His Bride through the Song of Solomon.
If you see the book literally you will not understand nor grasp the Love God has for you. If you see the book and the verses in it relating to Christ's love to you then I would love to show you how to experience this Love to the fullest. I will pray for you daily and guide you every step of the way.
16 I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, 17 so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, 18 may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, 19 and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.
20 Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, 21 to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.
I grew up going to church but was a hypocrite. I lived my life how I chose but went to church on Sunday because my family went.
Mom and Dad divorced when I was about 5.
About this time I was sexually abused by "Bob" a made up name. This incident changed my life for the worst. I had no clue how to deal with it.
As I got older I grew in my hatred for Bob. I didn't blame anyone of my family because I was to young to know any better. Some of what happened during the abuse was in a bathroom. So overtime I would use the bathroom and look at my private parts that night would replay in my mind. My hatred for Bob would continue to grow each time.
Now I know this only happened to me one night. I can't image the pain other's go through who have had this happen to them over and over. Even as I write this now I cry with many tears for those hurting. God love you even though you may not know it or feel it. Go to Him in your time of need.
I was a really bad teenager. I only cared about myself and not even my family. I always came first in my mind. Even at the expense of hurting others. I was growing in my hatred for God by now.
I was going to church and was learned that God was in control. I thought well, if God was in control then He must have let me be sexually abused. I didn't understand this, How could a good and loving God allow this. I hated Him for it. My hatred for Bob grew as well. I was still using the bathroom and memories kept coming back. My heart grew even harder for Bob and God. As far as I was concerned God would have nothing to do with my life so I lived even worse. I thought I would be in jail or dead and I really didn't care, I thought it could be much worse than reliving your painful past over and over again. Little did I know that God's plan later would be to use these events to give me a burning passion for the closest most intimate love relationship with Himself through Christ mainly through the love poem in the Song of Songs in the Bible.
I remember hating Bob so much that the only thing that would relieve my pain was actually thinking he would suffer forever for what he did. I grew so much in my hatred for him that I had to continue to think that he would get even worse than what I imaged before. After some time I would only be relieved of hatred for him unless I thought he would burn in a hotter and hotter hell for all the suffering he put me through.
I never told my mom or family what happened, although I think some of them knew something had happened.
I grew up quite rebellious and even went to jail at the age of 20. I was living the fast life pursuing all my sinful desires and wanting more. It never seemed to be enough. I was quite happy in my sin but I just wanted more of it.
I lived life thinking I would die at a young age, riding motorcycle and living on the edge put me in the hospital many times and I should have been dead.
California at age 26.
I moved to California for a job opportunity at the age of 27. While trying to figure out what radio stations to program in my car, I ran across a RC Sproul talking about "people who have the faith that saves and people who only say that have faith" only the people who have the faith that saves will go to heaven. I thought "I don't think I have the faith that saves because my life was so bad." I searched the scriptures to try to get this faith. I found a church and thought people there could help me get this faith that saves. All along God kept showing me how sinful I was and that I deserved punishment from Him for living my life hating Him.
One weekend I read Matthew, Mark, Luke and John desperately trying to find out how to get this faith that saves. By now I knew that if you had the faith that saves that Jesus would be saving you from a life of sin. I still liked my sin and Jesus sure wasn't saving me from a life of sin, so I rightly concluded that I didn't have the faith that saves.
By the time I got to John, I saw "believe" everywhere. John 3:16 and other verses and wow the whole book was written so that you may believe. John 20:31 "these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name." So at night I would pray "I believe Jesus died for me, I believe, I believe. This was just an intellectual belief. I knew that in history and the Bible that Jesus died for everyone, so I believed it. But this belief did not change my life.
I would go on night after night saying the same prayer only to wake up the next day wanting to fulfill my sinful desires. The prayer wasn't working so I started to word it different each time hoping some prayer would work. After about 2 weeks of this I was fed up with it all, nothing was happening. I still was living in my sin and wanted more of it. A Christian hates their sin and does something about it, and certainly they don't continue to make plans to sin. The prayers weren't working so I gave up. I thought to myself "God, I tried with all my might, I searched the Scriptures, went to church, read the Bible and prayed all to no avail. If Im going to be saved your going to have to do it because I tried."
So I quit praying but still the Bible kept calling me so I read more. 3 Days later I was laying in a tanning bed and God convicted me really hard that I had offended Him by the life I was living. I was so scared of God, where could I run. You can't hide from God. It seemed like forever that I was under these terrors of being punished by a Holy Angry God. This lasted about 10 minutes then this is how I understood it. God let me understand that all that anger that He had for me for all my sin should come my way but He had poured that anger out on Jesus 2,000 years ago. I immediately started weeping an couldn't stop for about 20 minutes. All the sins that I could think of I confessed for that 20 minutes one after another after another, I was so sorrowful and grieved it physically hurt inside.
After I stopped crying I thought that was the weirdest thing that ever happened. I walked out of the tanning salon and stood outside and everything seemed so beautiful, the tree's, the birds, even the air seemed pleasant. Now I was really wondering what was going on.
I pondered all of this as I drove to work that day. I brought my Bible to work and was thinking what am I doing, I want to take my Bible to work so I can read it. As soon as I got to work I started reading my Bible. I couldn't believe what I was reading!! It all was so wonderful. It felt so good to just read my Bible. My client showed up and as I was training them the only thing I could think about was getting back to my Bible. I read all night and slept about 2 hours and was reading again.
I had sinful things in my apartment and I rounded everything evil up and threw it in the garbage. It was weird I was thinking but it felt good so I left it all in the garbage. I called my girlfriend to break it up and she thought I had another girl, I said no, I just think this is wrong we shouldn't be sleeping together. She didn't understand so I told her I was a Christian now and she still thought I had another girlfriend. She said "Im glad your a Christian, so am I" I thought to myself, "I have a strong conviction that sleeping together is wrong and she thought it was okay" I wondered how she could think that. Anyway we broke up.
I kept reading my bible and repenting, there was so much to repent of and I had lived a very sinful life. I was a thief for some part of my life and all the people I stole from kept coming to mind. I owed so much money. I was instantly in debt about $80,000. As I could I paid them back. As of 7-18-2016 I still owe about $25,000 but it sure is a joy to be paying them back.
The first week of being saved a car just about ran me over, they hit me but I wasn't hurt at all. The guy in the car felt so bad. I just looked at him and said "God bless you and have a great day, I am okay" smiled at him and moved on. Now I was really wondering what was going on because I normally would have cussed him out left and right and instead of cussing I blessed him. That was so weird. But again it felt good. I learned to do good by what my conscience told me was good and that it felt good. I got hooked on this feeling good by doing good and did it more often.
About two weeks after being saved I thought of Bob. I immediately prayed for him, something like "Lord help him.." then I stopped praying and said out loud "What am I doing?" I'm praying for a man that I hated my whole life, but it feels good and right, so I did it again. I stopped again midway in the prayer and started pacing around. I was trying to make sense of what was going on and couldn't figure it out. But again it made me happy to pray for him so I did. Bob would often come to mind when I went to the bathroom and each time I would pray for Him. The more I did this the less weird it got. And the greater my love grew for him.
I started memorizing large portions of scripture and this was wonderful because it felt like the words were cleaning my mind and as Proverbs 2:10 "For wisdom will enter your heart, and knowledge will be pleasant to your soul." I wanted more and more of this pleasantness. So I memorized even more and the joy got more and more.
Then this life changing advice came:
A friend from church told me to find a book of the Bible and really understand it. Read through the Bible and pick one and read it over and over and study it and really get it. So I started in Genesis and read through. When I got to Proverbs I really liked it so I thought that would be the book. I started by memorizing all of Proverbs chapter 3. After that I thought maybe there is a better book than Proverbs. So I read on. Then I came to Song of Solomon. I read it with quite some confusion. It wasn't as good as the other books, I didn't know why. So I bought a commentary on it. George Burrowes commentary on the Song of Solomon.
In the commentary I found that George and other saw the book as illustrating God's love to the Church. And not only illustrating it but displaying the Love of Christ better than any other book. This caught my attention big time, because I was having a burning desire for a closer relationship with God and desperately learning about His Love so that I could Love God. You see I had hated Him for so long that God used that old hard heart to spur me on in loving Him. I so much did not want to hate God anymore that I was on fire to learn to Love Him as much and as fast as possible. So here was a book that would help me do that. So I landed on the Song of Solomon. I committed to learning as much of this book as possible.
I memorized the first chapter and would repeat it often throughout the day. I didn't know much of what I was repeating but it sure made me happier and on fire for God. I grew so fast repeating the first chapter over and over again all day, like a dozen times a day at least. It felt so good and I never found any other book that caused me to weep so much. I would often weep everyday just reading it. I was to immature to know what was going on. Even though it hurt to weep so much, I felt like my heart was being cleansed from the filth that was in it by repeating it over and over again so I did. As I read the commentary I understood more and more. What God was doing in me through the Song was greater and faster than any other portion of Scripture so I tended to stay there often. I was so excited about God that I thought it funny that other's in church weren't the same way. Some where happy but it seemed most of them didn't seem to care much about God. They would talk about work, football the weather. The only thing I wanted to talk about was Jesus and God and how can I grow closer to Him.
About this time there was a mission trip to Ireland.
I started to have convictions that I should try to find Bob and witness to him. I kept praying for him but how could he be saved if he hadn't heard the Gospel that has power unto salvation. So I asked family if they had any information. Like me before, my family hated him and thought he deserved hell. After some time I got his name but no location or phone number. Either they didn't know where he was or didn't want to tell me. I prayed some more and then started to get stronger convictions to do something about finding Bob.
So I went on the internet and typed in "his name and child molestation sex offender court" thinking that some court record would have some info leading to where I may find him" I even talked to a private eye and he couldn't help. So I googled some key words and spent hours each day looking through each page. I believed it was God's will for me to witness to Bob. I wanted him to be saved. Really bad. So much so that I thought God would save Bob if I were to witness to him. So I didn't stop searching for him. I kept my computer on each day and went page by page. It took two years to go through about 15,000 pages but I found someone who matched his name in a prison for molesting his grandchildren. I wrote the prison and he wrote back. All kinds of emotions went through my body when I saw his letter from the jail. I didn't open it right away but two hours later God gave me enough courage to face my fears again and I opened the letter. He admitted to being the one who molested me. We wrote back and forth I told him I was angry before but now I was saved and that I loved him and believed God wanted me to talk to him. He read my letters over and over again. I shared the gospel in each one.
I got mad at Bob 2x. Once he said that he love me. I got really angry with him. He didn't love me. That night it was hard to love Bob, I had to call a friend to pray for me to repent, after he prayed I felt greater love for Bob. Then I wrote him back saying "I'm sorry but you can't say that you loved me. You did not love me you lusted after me." He admitted he didn't love as he should have and admitted that it was lust and sinful. Finally some conviction. Yet I only thought he was saying that because I was being nice to him. All his family had left him and he said I was the only "friend" he had.
Wether or not it was true Bob said that he had cancer in his arm and that the help the prison gives was not enough and if he had money he could see a different doctor and get help. I sent him some money and since I was in jail before I knew what it was like to be in there without money, so I sent him money.
About 4-5 months in the economy went down, it was 2008. Work was hard. I still sent him money and I had to work harder. This was a really good lesson for me because I had to "work hard for the benefit of someone who did not deserve it." This was one of the greatest blessing ever because I realized with great certainty that Jesus was in me. This is what Jesus did. Jesus worked his whole life for me and I didn't deserve it!! Christ was in me! This was one of the best feelings ever and it put me in worship for months.
Then a mission trip to Croatia.
Each time I had to leave my business and amazing as it is I was completely okay each time. I am a self employed personal trainer and it is normally absurd to just leave and start over, but each time I had enough work within 2 weeks of coming back. This is a flat out miracle. I trusted God to provide and he did. How many people can start up a business in 2 weeks. Only with the help of God. God was teaching me early on in my walk that as long as I did what He wanted me to do then I had nothing to worry about.
About 3 years saved now.
I Taught the 4 year old's at church Sunday morning for 10 years.
Left my business 2x for mission trips and God miraculously provided when I came back.
I taught 5 x a week plus held a job.
Sunday morning to the kids.
Sunday night with the 5th graders
Friday afternoons at Good News Clubs. Sponsored by Child Evangelism Fellowship.
Friday Nights with the Kids teaching through Pilgrims Progress, I did this 2x
Teaching Monday afternoons at a nursing home. I taught through the Song of Songs once then John, then Romans then back to the Song again! I love the Song of Songs.
I grew up hating God for what happened to me, and now I love Him because He first loved me. My passion is for children to grow up loving God and not hating Him.
My other passion which has become ever greater is to help others see the Love of Christ to His Church in the Song of Songs!!
I would love to help you, just let me know and I will lead you and pray for you.
God demonstrates His love to us in sending His one and only Son to suffer in our place, taking our sins upon Himself so that whoever believes they get to heaven because of what He did for us will not perish but have everlasting life.
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