My wise friend, who I will call Helen (not her real name), told me she sensed God encouraging her to allow him to have a love so passionate for her, it would be intense like passion the lovers declare in the Song of Solomon. We are prayer partners and call each other weekly, so she could explain this idea in greater detail. She had been reading the Song of Solomon and using her study skills, analyzing what she read to first see what the Bible said to the people of its day. She looks at the historical and cultural aspects of the Bible verse. Then she looked at what God might be telling her today. Song of Solomon is a very romantic book that shows the relationship King Solomon had with one of his wives. Some debate whether King Solomon wrote this book, but for brevity, I will assume he is the author, because I want to concentrate on what Helen told me.
Helen and I both understand the historical setting of this book. We understand the physical reality of this couple’s relationship. We also understand the emotional side of this book. These are two people who married, loved each other and sometimes argued. They enjoyed physical affection and romance. The book is not graphic about sex and graciously allows us to understand that the couple did consummate their marriage, but the book is not pornographic. We both believe this book is historically correct and this relationship really happened, and this couple really did have this romantic and physical relationship. We also know that some theologians believe this book may also symbolize God’s love for the church (and specifically for individuals who love God.) It is in this context that Helen sensed God revealing his heart for her.
The books of the Bible are historically correct, reporting real and physical occurrences, although at times speaking poetically and symbolically. Yet these real happenings sometimes foreshadow future occurrences. For example, the Old Testament hero, Joseph, has many parallels to Jesus. The Passover, celebrated just before the Israelites’ exodus and then celebrated each year after that, is also a symbol of Jesus’ last supper and his deliverance of us. So Solomon and his Shulamite bride really married and expressed physical love and emotional vulnerability. Yet Helen was personally sensing that God wanted this kind of emotional vulnerability with her, and he loved her as passionately as we read that Solomon loved his bride, although this passion of God is in a spiritual form (not the physical passion Solomon had.) But she had a strong sense that this spiritual passion was even stronger than Solomon’s physical passion.
The passion God wanted to express to Helen also required just as much emotional vulnerability as Solomon’s and the Shulamite’s. She asked me about this, and I immediately knew she was right. I got excited about her revelation from God. How he must love my friend to tell her this great news. God would not have told Helen this news if he thought she would spurn it or mindlessly claim she agreed but not actually reflect on what God offered. I also know, and Helen corroborated, God was not forcing this relationship on her. He was offering it and inviting her to enter into it. As an accountant, Helen has a strong sense of reality and is practical. She is not given to flights of unreasonable fantasy but is well grounded in truth. She has wonderful common sense. Yet here was God offering her something some would say is too poetic and romantic to accept. In fact, many people would assume Helen is not the kind of person God would challenge in this way, because she does not consider herself a romantic, artist-type.
But God knows better than the skeptics. Helen, like many other wise and practical people, does have a heart for God’s poetry, symbolism and mysteries. We have known each other for many years, and I’ve seen Helen’s ability to accept the many challenges yet also the joys God has given her.
God never pegs people into one category. Practical people can dream and imagine. And God can take a “silly, romantic-dreamer artist” type like me and challenge me with life that requires a practical and structured side. In Helen’s case, she listened to God and then shared this revelation with me, and even with her husband. I say “even with her husband,” because some husbands might feel threatened by learning about any sense of romance, even if it is a spiritual one with God.
Helen used caution in who she shared this with and even how she shared. This is wise, because the Scripture warns us to treat spiritual matters with discernment. We are not to throw pearls before swine, (Matt.7:6.) Some people are nonbelievers, or they are not strong in the Christian faith, so they will mock us when we share deeper spiritual matters. Helen knew my heart and my hunger for more of God’s word and revelation of what he wanted to tell me personally, so she knew I would care about her words.
I was blessed not just that my friend was vulnerable enough to share her truth form God, but also really glad about what that truth said. I had never considered that God would have a passion like this for me. Yet, as soon as my friend said this, I knew it was true. The Bible says we are the bride of Christ (Isaiah.54:5, 2Cor.11:2, Rev.21:9.) God constantly speaks of his love for us: Jer.31:3, “Long ago the Lord said to Israel, ‘I have loved you with an everlasting love. With an unfailing love I have drawn you to myself.” Jesus actually cried out, “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink,” (this and the other verses are spoken in John7:37-39.) He cried out loudly when he said this. He was not embarrassed to cry out to draw people to him. In the parable of the prodigal son (Luke15:11-32.) the father defies all cultural morays and runs to his rebellious, but now repentant son. God is that father, and he is not ashamed to look foolish in society’s eyes to run to us, even after we have rebelled against him.
The entire 16th chapter of Ezekiel shows God wooing Israel as a nation. But as symbolism, the images are of an abandoned baby who grows up to become a woman whom God “marries.” God expresses his love for Israel as if she were his wife. God was so hurt when Israel began to worship idols instead of him. In this symbolic story, his “wife” (a woman is the image but she is a symbol of Israel the nation), commits adultery, and God expresses his intense sorrow. Some readers are embarrassed by how vulnerable God is in presenting himself as a groom of a wife, one he loves so deeply and then is so hurt by her adultery. But God wants us to know he is not ashamed to love and pursue us, and he is not ashamed to tell us how hurt he is when we reject him, comparing himself to the jilted lover in Ezekiel chapter 16.
Jesus said in Matt.11:28-30, to come to him if we are weary and he will give us rest. He even said he is humble and lowly of spirit. Only a fool would try to have a romantic relationship with a woman in a spirit of arrogance and dominion. No true romantic or vulnerable relationship could last with a man like that. It takes humility for a man to maintain a long term, romantic relationship. Too many married men are not vulnerable and thus not deeply loving to their wives, years into the marriage.
Yet God is saying he wants a forever, vulnerable relationship with us. He clearly showed his vulnerability with Helen by revealing this truth to her. And she accepted it. We still talk about this revelation and consider how God does this. He shares truths with us, via the Holy Spirit. Helen and I don’t tell each other every single thing God tells us, because there are so many loving and intimate things God reveals to us through his word. There would not be time in our weekly calls to explain everything, so we share the highlights of our weeks (including the difficult things, but this post is about one of the happy highlights.)
In Song of Solomon, the lovers quarreled too. God does not quarrel with us, but we definitely quarrel with him. Yet like the male lover in Song of Solomon, God always forgives us and takes us back. I talked and prayed with Helen after I had begun writing this post. I wanted to confirm what she had said about God’s message to her, because it has been over a month since she first shared that insight. She confirmed that what had really impressed her was the way God was showing her that he loves her with the intensity she saw in the lovers of Song of Solomon. So I close this post with the simple revelation that God speaks to us, often via the Scripture and via the Holy Spirit. But we have to slow down and read carefully, thoughtfully. Then we have to be vulnerable enough to listen to God and accept some of the amazing things he tells us. Others may think we are crazy. We might have to avoid telling some people what God tells us, unless those we share with have spiritual discernment. But when we find safe people to share with, our joy doubles. So dig into your Bible this week and savor all the wonderful words God wants to share with you personally.
I pray I have encouraged you this week. Please let me know if there is anything you would like me to write about in the future, or you can share any amazing insights God has shown you this week too. May the Lord bless you.