Song
of Solomon 6 reminds me of Summer Lovin’. School is out, days
are long, nights are warm and there is freedom from any deadlines.
The season is made for sweet carefree romance. But once the
summer ends, everything changes. No more late nights, no more
walks on the beach. Back to school and back to the routine.
The chapter shows the aftermath of indifference. Previously,
she stopped treating him as her only priority, and now something is
missing. There is a noticeable chill in the air. Her
friends ask, “Where has your
beloved gone, most beautiful of women?“.
Holding back a tear, she replies, “down
to his garden… to browse in the gardens and to gather lilies“.
She tells herself, “I am my
beloved’s and my beloved is mine“,
but she knows he now “browses
among the lilies“. She
is still a young beauty, but he is now pollinating other flowers.
He is king and has obligations and decisions for the welfare of
millions from morning until night, yet it is clear that she is not
just one of his conquests. He can spot her in a crowd and he
immediately smells the ocean in his mind, “You
are… beautiful… Turn your eyes from me; they overwhelm me“.
Are you now feeling the autumn breeze?
He
can close his eyes and describe her, and interestingly, he uses the
same words as in the first chapter, “Your
hair is like… Your teeth are like“.
But she is no longer his single focus, “Sixty
queens there may be, and eighty concubines, and virgins beyond
number; but my dove, my perfect one, is unique“.
They say politics makes for strange bedfellows and that was literally
true of Solomon. He married for strategic military alliances,
contrary to God’s warning; ultimately this lead to the division of
his heart and of the nation. Deuteronomy 17:17 warned the king,
“He must not take many wives,
or his heart will be led astray“.
Friend, is your kingdom and heart divided?
As
the chapter closes, the seasons continue to change. The
star-crossed lovers do not ride off into the sunset together.
He seemingly continues hunting and gathering, “I
went down to the grove… to look at the new growth… Before I
realized it, my desire set me among the royal chariots“.
Friends gather and long for what might have been, “Come
back, come back, O Shulammite; come back, come back“.
They want the happy sappy ending. They want the credits to roll
over the smiling and waving couple arm in arm. Solomon responds, “Why
would you gaze on the Shulammite as on the dance of Mahanaim?“.
I believe this is the dance of seduction, the dance before the
betrothal. His friends want to rewind and re-edit the picture.
The Bible teaches us that we can go back to the beginning and have a
fresh start. 1 Peter 1:23 calls this experience being “born
again“. The apostle
explains that those who believe in the salvation given through the
cross of Christ are spiritually renewed. God treats us as if we
had never sinned. Peter continues, “Praise
be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In His great mercy
He has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection
of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that can never
perish, spoil or fade…
In all this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you
may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials…
you believe in Him and are filled
with an inexpressible and glorious joy, for you are receiving the end
result of your faith, the salvation of your souls“.
He can renew lives and marriages. Are you ready for a new
season?