SCRIPTURE: Song of Solomon 8
OBSERVATION/APPLICATION:
Place me like a seal over your heart, like a seal on your arm; for love is as strong as death, its jealousy unyielding as the grave. It burns like blazing fire, like a mighty flame. Many waters cannot quench love; rivers cannot wash it away. [Song of Solomon 8:6-7]
Superglue claims to make a bond that cannot be broken; whether that claim is true or not, this is the kind of bond that is described here.
A seal as strong as death, unyielding, burning like a mighty flame that cannot be quenched by rivers of water.
This is what is behind the vows of marriage, ‘till death do us part’
Or ‘as long as our lives shall last’ – compare that to the weak ‘as long as our love shall last’.
Who would you trust more – the one who will be there for the duration of life, or the one who will be there for the duration of love.
So they are no longer two, but one. Therefore what God has joined together, let man not separate. [Matthew 19:6]
God’s original design, what Jesus points to here, is a seal as strong as death, unyielding, burning like a mighty flame that cannot be quenched by rivers of water.
This is essential for a stable marriage; it is not based on feelings (which come and go, rise and fall with circumstances) but on commitment.
I think of a story of a young couple that pledged themselves in marriage for life, then she was confined to a wheelchair due to a disease, fully dependent on her partner for survival.
The husband was shocked how many people thought he would leave, even suggested it, whereas he said ‘when I said for life, I meant it!’
Would you be willing to add to your wedding vows – as long as you remain healthy, as long as I remain happy, as long as you remain beautiful, as long as we have enough money, as long as no one better comes along?
Covenant love is not fickle love, it is committed love.
It is how God loves us, and how we are to love one another.
It is the only way marriage can endure and be the blessing it was meant to be.
As long as couples enter marriage with ‘qualifiers’, they will not experience the blessedness of marital union.
PRAYER:
Lord, I know I depend on faithful, committed love from You; and I know that we need it in our marriage. Make our love a seal as strong as death, unyielding, burning like a mighty flame that cannot be quenched by rivers of water.
Once again we are in the garden, with others. That garden was His to give. And those in the garden need to voice praises. Happy are they there because they are content in His presence. They are in His care forever. Serve Him with gladness, always.
I come to the garden alone
While the dew is still on the roses
And the voice I hear falling on my ear
The Son of God discloses.
Refrain
And He walks with me, and He talks with me,
And He tells me I am His own;
And the joy we share as we tarry there,
None other has ever known.
He speaks, and the sound of His voice,
Is so sweet the birds hush their singing,
And the melody that He gave to me
Within my heart is ringing.
Refrain
I’d stay in the garden with Him
Though the night around me be falling,
But He bids me go; through the voice of woe
His voice to me is calling.