Song of Songs 2:1-17 (CLICK HERE FOR BIBLE VERSES)
Hi GAMErs,
Today’s passage is Song of Songs 2:1-17. I encourage you to read the passage yourself first and see what you can glean with the Holy Spirit’s help, then read the GAME sharing below. Let’s go!
Song of Songs 2:1-2 (NIV)
1 I am a rose of Sharon, a lily of the valleys.
2 Like a lily among thorns is my darling among the maidens.
On verse 1: Affirmed by her lover’s words, the girl who once said, “Don’t look at me” (1:6) now calls herself a rose of Sharon, which is a beautiful, though common, lily of the valleys. In response, her lover says, “Like a lily among thorns is my darling among the maidens” (v2). In other words, “You, common? Nah girl. You’re beautiful and exceptional. There’s no one like you.”
What can we learn from this? One of the best things you can do to love someone is to help them see that they are uniquely beautiful.
Song of Songs 2:3a (NIV)
3 Like an apple tree among the trees of the forest is my lover among the young men…
On verse 3a: Just as the guy called the girl a lily among thorns, the girl calls the guy “an apple tree among the trees of the forest” (i.e. special, sweet, exceptional). What can we learn from this? If you want your relationship with your partner to be sweet, speak sweetly and affirmingly to one another.
Song of Songs 2:3-6 (NIV)
3 …I delight to sit in his shade, and his fruit is sweet to my taste.
4 He has taken me to the banquet hall, and his banner over me is love.
5 Strengthen me with raisins, refresh me with apples, for I am faint with love.
6 His left arm is under my head, and his right arm embraces me.
On verses 3b-6: Here we learn three things the guy does to make the girl feel special.
He protects her. As verse 3 says, “I delight to sit in his shade”.
He’s sweet to her. As verse 3 says, “his fruit is sweet to my taste”.
He’s proud of her. As verse 4 says, “He has taken me to the banquet hall and his banner over me is love.” In other words, he likes to take her out in front of others. His love is like a banner flying high over her that others can see.
Because he protects her, is sweet to her and is proud of her, she’s “faint with love” for him (v5) and desires to be close to him (v6).
Guy, do the same for your girl. If you want her to want you, protect her. Be sweet to her. Show that you’re proud of her.
Song of Songs 2:7 (NIV)
7 Daughters of Jerusalem, I charge you by the gazelles and by the does of the field: Do not arouse or awaken love until it so desires.
On verse 7: “Do not arouse or awaken love until it so desires.” This phase appears three times in Song of Songs and its placement is strategic. It appears here and in Song of Songs 3:5 before the guy and the girl are married. What does the girl mean by “Do not arouse or awaken love until it so desires” (v7). In other words, she’s saying (not just to her friends “the daughters of Jerusalem” but even more to herself), “save sex for the wedding night and beyond”. Recognizing how intoxicating sex can be and how it is meant for marriage, she’s basically saying to herself, save sex for marriage. After the guy and girl get married around the end of chapter 3, this phrase no longer appears until near the very end of the book and only as, I believe, a reminder of this very important lesson.
What can we learn from this? There is a proper time and place for unbridled sexual intimacy and that is in the context of marriage. Despite all that Hollywood preaches about how premarital sex feels so right it can’t be wrong, I have heard story after story from those who regretted losing their virginity before marriage. Their real life experience was that their wedding night no longer felt as special. In addition, the couple would need to go through the process of having to repent and forgive before their intimacy as husband and wife could be restored to what God intended it to be. So it’s with our joy and protection in mind that God’s Word tells us to save sex for marriage.
Song of Songs 2:8-14 (NIV)
8 Listen! My lover! Look! Here he comes, leaping across the mountains, bounding over the hills.
9 My lover 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 lover spoke and said to me, “Arise, my darling, my beautiful one, and 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.”
14 My dove in the clefts of the rock, in the hiding places on the mountainside, show me your face, let me hear your voice; for your voice is sweet, and your face is lovely.
On verses 8-14: Here the guy approaches the girl’s home, wanting to take the girl for a walk. The excitement that the girl feels when the guy arrives, and the way the guy talks about their surroundings (v11-13) and about the girl (v14), it is clear these two are in love.
What can we learn from this? When you’re in love, you’re never more excited than when you see the one you love. Life around you also somehow feels sweeter. It’s the age old idea that people in love tend to notice the sun shining and birds singing more quickly than those who are not in love.
Song of Songs 2:15 (NIV)
15 Catch for us the foxes, the little foxes that ruin the vineyards, our vineyards that are in bloom.
On verse 15: Some scholars see “the foxes” as a symbol for problems that have entered “the vineyard” of the couple’s relationship. In that case, verse 15 is a call to address the problems that are threatening to ruin their romance. Other scholars see “the foxes” as literally foxes and that the guy is playfully inviting the girl to play a game of “catch the fox”. Which one is it? It’s tough to know for sure. It’s part of the mystery of Song of Songs.
Song of Songs 2:16-17 (NIV)
16 My lover is mine and I am his; he browses among the lilies.
17 Until the day breaks and the shadows flee, turn, my lover, and be like a gazelle or like a young stag on the rugged hills.
On verses 16-17: What does “he browses among the lilies” mean? Most likely it means that this guy and this girl are being physically intimate with one another during their walk outside. How physically intimate exactly? Considering that the girl is committed to not arousing or awakening love until it so desires (i.e. she’s saving sex for marriage – 2:7), it’s unlikely that this guy and girl are having sex in this scene. That then leads to the question: “If sex is to be saved for marriage, how intimate can a couple be with one another before getting married?” This is where I believe an unmarried couple should be wise, God-honouring and prayerful about the boundaries they will set while they are together but not yet married. For a guy and a girl who are dating and who want to avoid unnecessary hurt later on, an important guiding principle is that your level of physical intimacy with one another should not exceed your level of commitment to one another.
Father, thank You that it is because You want to maximize our joy and minimize our hurt that You tell us to save sex for marriage. You are not a God who is out to kill our joy but to multiply it. When it comes to sex, help all of us to trust that we are so much happier and better off when we follow You and not Hollywood. In Jesus’ name, AMEN!
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