Intimacy – Song of Songs 7:10-13
I am my beloved’s and his desire is for me. Song of Songs 7:10-13
The Song of Solomon is about the intimacy between a king and a common girl who has become the singular object of his affection. He showers her with thoughtful gifts and tender words. While these initiatives are worth emulating this book is not just a manuel for marital intimacy.
There are many different types of love, each of them legitimate, having originated with God, who is love. There is familial love, fraternal love, and there is the intimate love between a man and his mate. The Spirit has chosen marital intimacy to say something about God’s love but I don’t believe it is sensuality; rather it is its integral passion and intensity which is the point. Even though it is imperfect, marital intimacy is the closest thing, though still comparatively weak, to convey the nature of God’s love for us.
God doesn’t just tolerate us and endure us. He is taken with us. It does not go unnoticed that the Shunammite women is far beneath the KIng’s social status. Likewise, our fallen status is no deterrent to God’s affection. In Christ he has buried this and raised us up with new natures. Those who are in Christ are no longer bond slaves to sin; we are no longer rejected and condemned by God. When God looks upon us he no longer sees sinners; he sees Christ. We still sin but that does not validate depravity’s reign. It is simply proof that we are working out our new natures with our choices which are essential to a love relationship.
So many believe the most important response to God’s love is obedience with holiness as its byproduct. Obedience and holiness are essential part of the normal Christian life but in no way does obedience produce holiness. In fact obedience as the mere setting of the will to comply is counterproductive. Obedience does not lead to intimacy. Obedience, in the sense of flexing our volitional muscles, may produce the appearance of holiness but it will be a man-centered, performance oriented affair which will fail to realize intimacy. Intimacy can only be received as a gift which will lead to holiness.
How do we partake of this gift? How do we shake this sense of being nothing more than a tolerated step-child, never quite measuring up? What is our part in this relationship that will contribute to shared intimacy with God? We simply live by faith, daily practicing our response to the unseen reality of God’s intimate love for us. We cultivate gratitude regarding His celebration over us. We stay at it, day-in and day-out, always deferring to ourselves in our thinking as “His beloved“. Life will become abundant for us when we grasp that the deepest and truest thing about us is that we are His. Gratitude is natural for the common one who has been chosen and embraced by royalty. By faith, we simply live presumptuously in regard to His affections and favor. This is the root of all true abundance and the cause of authentic obedience.
Father, may You bring into full view of all creation, the redemption of the sons of God – those whose identities, as Your children, have been and are being restored in the context of their intimate union with You. May You awaken us to Your invitations to come away with You and personally hear Your kind words, receive Your special gifts and enjoy Your undivided attention. Amen.