Love on the Honeymoon
Solomon’s song of songs is a love poem in the Bible, written by Israel’s third Messianic king, Solomon. He wrote it so that we could get a right idea of love. Chapter 4 is the Honeymoon of Solomon and Naamah (his first wife). The first chapter is learning what love is and how it operates in their first meeting and falling in love. The second chapter is learning what love is around the time of engagement. The third chapter is learning what love is and its manifestations during engagement.
My goal in this blog is to outline or see the flow of Chapter 4 on their honeymoon. It is honeymoon night and the virgins are about to make love in the most intimate way thus far. The degree of mental, emotional, Spiritual and physical intimacy has increased throughout their dating and engagement.
Now it reaches an even more intimate level. It is the night of their honeymoon. She is naked on the top half. See her beautiful physical body causes him to adore her to love her and express those feelings by saying,
“[a]Behold, you are beautiful, my darling,
Behold, you are beautiful!
Your eyes are like doves behind your veil;
Your hair is like a flock of goats
That have leapt down from Mount Gilead.
2 Your teeth are like a flock of newly shorn ewes
Which have come up from their washing,
All of which bear twins,
And not one among them has [b]lost her young.
3 Your lips are like a scarlet thread,
And your mouth is lovely.
Your temples are like a slice of a pomegranate
Behind your veil.
4 Your neck is like the tower of David,
Built with rows of stones
On which are hung one thousand shields,
All the small shields of the mighty men.
5 Your two breasts are like two fawns,
Twins of a gazelle
Which feed among the lilies.”
After complimenting her beautiful physical body and it’s individual beauties he gets the impression that it is going to be a long delightful and precious night! So he gives her a preview of where he is headed to emotionally until the day breaks and the shadow flee,
6 “Until the day breathes
And the shadows flee,
I will go my way to the mountain of myrrh
And to the hill of frankincense.”
Then with his mind back on her physical beauties he is also reminded of her inner beauty which makes her altogether lovely and having no flaw. So he lets her know his feelings about all of her.
7 “You are altogether beautiful, my darling,
And there is no blemish in you.”
He already knows its going to be a delightful and precious night just by the looks of her. Yet, love is not selfish (1 Cor. 13:4-7), they are one. Him the head and she is the body. Her wants her to come along with him in this journey of the experience of the love in Marriage in the most intimate of ways. Therefore,in a lovely poetic way he invites her to come with him to various great heights of emotional experience on their honeymoon night all the while being aware of some deadly dangers that may be there. With an intense desire for her happiness, a stronger bond and stricter union of hearts, he wants her to be on the same page and want the same thing.
8 “Come with me from Lebanon, my bride,
May you come with me from Lebanon.
Journey down from the top of Amana,
From the top of Senir and Hermon,
From the dens of lions,
From the mountains of leopards.”
Her answer to going together with him on various mountaintop experiences is loves beautiful and precious glance his way. Doves eye to doves eye they have agreement on the goal of the night,”to drink their fill of love together” Song 5:1 And what does this look of love by Naamah do to Solomon. How does it affect him? He can’t hold back their is a raging fire of love flaming in his immaterial heart that affects his material physical heart by making it beat faster. Affectionate love at it greatest thus far in the relationship and it only gets hotter. They are in agreement, a stronger bond has formed, two hearts that are one have become more one and he lets her know how her perfume and that look of love affected him,
9 “You have made my heart beat faster, my sister, my bride;
You have made my heart beat faster with a single glance of your eyes,
With a single strand of your necklace.
10 How beautiful is your love, my sister, my bride!
How much better is your love than wine,
And the fragrance of your oils
Than all kinds of spices!”
The experience of one love glance was better than wine and oh he also loved the fragrance she was wearing. Now he goes on to let he know what he felt about the things she said, the fragrance again, her virginity and all the delightful and precious things she has for him to bring him satisfaction.
11 Your lips, my bride, drip honey from the comb;
Honey and milk are under your tongue,
And the fragrance of your garments is like the fragrance of Lebanon.
12 A garden locked is my sister, my bride,
A [g]rock garden locked, a spring sealed up.
13 Your shoots are [h]an orchard of pomegranates
With choice fruits, henna with nard plants,
14 Nard and saffron, calamus and cinnamon,
With all the trees of frankincense,
Myrrh and aloes, along with all the finest [i]spices.
15 You are a garden spring,
A well of [j]fresh water,
And streams flowing from Lebanon.”
16 “Awake, O north wind,
And come, wind of the south;
Make my garden breathe out fragrance,
Let its spices flow forth.
May my beloved come into his garden
And eat its choice fruits!”
After wanting God to help her please her husband everywhere they go together God give the command for them to experience both giving and receiving love to their fullest.
“drink;
drink your fill of love” Song 5:1
Don’t forget that love to its fullest doesn’t always mean intercourse or orgasm. We learned in this section that the experience of love from her that ravished his heart was a glance of her eyes his way! Her words, her love and her body.
Love is… strong, intense, likened to a flame, comes from God, is unquenchable and priceless. Song 8:6
“Love is strong” to unite as death has power to separate.
Love enabled her to glance his way. Love cause his heart to beat faster.
We see love uniting hearts. 8:6 by aligning the intentions of their hearts for the honeymoon night.
Love brought to two to agreement on the experience of love to various mountaintop highs. Love united their hearts on their wedding night. Particularly in the area of having the same goal and intent.
Be and go together in the experience of the love to their fullest as God commands in song 5:1 “Drink your fill of love.” and imbibe deeply.
(affectionate and felt) Love is intense… 8:6
His desire to have this experience that is better than wine with her and her alone is intense and severe for loves jealousy for the good of the beloved feels this way. Song 8:6
Know love by it’s best analogy, fire.
As you read through the whole poem it is easy to see how one of the best analogies to love is that it is like a flame. Rises and falls. Warms and comforts. Enlightens the eyes (in this case both end up agreeing on God’s command) Love sets the motives of believers straight. Love is not love without obedience to God’s commands.
Know love by it’s source. God.
“love is of Jah” Jehovah God. Which means He gets the Glory. Which means we thank him for it. Which means we depend upon Him for it. Which means the feelings are holy and not sinful or selfish.
Love is unquenchable.
In order to experience the love of God to the fullest. It must not be temporarily quenched on it’s way up as the flames get higher, hotter, more extensive in scope and for longer periods of time. Affectionate or felt love can rise and fall but love flame once in the heart will never leave. The beloved will always have the heart of the lover and vice versa.
Love is priceless.
Love is priceless, can’t be bought and cant be traded for or earned for it is unconditional. This is the last of the six things about love. He looked at her, spoke, touched and guided in ways that were priceless on their honeymoon. They did them with condition in their heart but love comes with a feeling of giving yourself to the beloved freely and as best as you can for the glory of God and happiness of your beloved.
“Do not arouse or awaken love until…” the proper time. Song 3:5, 2:7, 8:3
Her being half naked in front of him roused his love to her (it did not rouse lust for her but rather selfless love) This arousal of love was in the context of marriage, which is it’s proper time for rousing. He is seeing a sister in Christ, beautiful both inside and out, made in God’s image and feels love not someone to use for selfish purposes but someone to love to her fullest on their honeymoon.
Hopefully a born again couple should get to the point where both are naked and unashamed. And where when he looks at her love is roused and not sinful lust. Her external beauty is a reflection of the inner moral beauty of God. His holiness. See God’s moral perfection reflected in her physical body and soul and let love be roused thus mortifying sinful lust.
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