Springtime Rendezvous

Song of Songs 2:8-17

The Young Woman

Adores Her Lover

In verses 8-9, “Listen, I hear my lover coming! He is leaping over the mountains, bounding over the hills. My lover is like a swift gazelle or a young stag. Look, there he is behind the wall, looking through the window, peering into the room.”

“Listen and Look!” is to prompt the readers to see things from the perspective of the young woman. She is surprised to see her lover because he has to journey, or trek, from afar and overcome many obstacles in order to come to be with her.

She compares her lover to a gazelle, a fast, sleek animal that easily overcomes obstacles to reach its destination. He is running towards her with a spring in his step. She is very excited to hear of her lover’s coming. He is also very excited as he runs towards her.

But when the young man reaches her house, he does not enter into it. Instead, he stands behind the wall of her house. He peers through the windows to gaze at her. The woman pays attention to his every move.

The “outdoors” represents freedom, adventure, and new experiences. Conversely, the “indoors” represent safety and life within the confinement of social expectations. The wall and the windows separate the “indoors” from the “outdoors.”

Clearly, the woman is experiencing some obstacles or difficulties. Will she breakthrough from her obstacles in order to be with him?

In verses 10-14, the young woman retells what the man has told her:

My lover said to me, “Rise up, my darling! Come away with me, me fair one! Look, the winter is past, and the rains are over and gone. The flowers are springing up, the season of singing birds has come and the cooing of turtledoves fills the air. The fig trees are forming young fruit, and the fragrant grapevines are blossoming. Rise up, my darling! Come away with me, my fair one! My dove is hiding behind the rocks, behind an outcrop on the cliff. Let me see your face; let me hear your voice. For your voice is pleasant, and your face is lovely.”

In Palestine, winter is the rainy season of clouds, gloom and cold. When winter is past, and the rains are over and gone, the young man wants to take his lover into the romantic countryside during the new, budding spring.  

The stimulating and invigorating sights, sounds, and smells of spring energize romantic feelings, saturated with love and life. The whole scene depicts the harmony between humanity and nature.

Over and over again, the young man invites her to come out from the “indoors” to be with him in the “outdoors” of nature. “Come away”, means to leave one’s personal space to explore the world that God has created.

The love relationship between a man and a woman is not one of seclusion but one that is open to the outside world and thereby finds its place in the world that God has created.

The call for her to “come away” requires her to desire to be with her lover in a wholehearted and unreserved manner. Couples, who are in love or married, ought to find opportunities to be in touch with the God-created nature and to enjoy intimacy between the two and, together, enjoy intimacy with God, the creator of the world.

The young man addresses his lover with the metaphor, “my dove!” In Ancient Near-East culture, a dove symbolizes the “goddess of love.”

It is not easy for the young man to find his “goddess” because she is hiding in the clefts of the rock and in outcrop on the cliff. The couple is playing a game of hid-and-seek in which she is teasing him. He resorts to simply pleading with her, “let me see your face, let me hear your voice, for your voice is pleasant, and your face is lovely”.

The young man is eager to see her face, for even playful separation from her is too frustrating for him.

In verse 15, the Young Women of Jerusalem, as third party in the drama say, “Catch all the foxes, those little foxes, before they ruin the vineyard of love, for the grapevines are blossoming!”

Just as the love between the couple is about to blossom, love-destroying little foxes suddenly appear. Maybe these refer to gossipers or third parties who hinder the two from meeting and falling in love. The Young Women of Jerusalem exclaim, “Catch the foxes and protect the love!”

All of us seated here today have the responsibility to catch the love-destroying and home-wrecking little foxes!

In verses 16-17, the young woman declares, “My lover is mine, and I am his. He browses among the lilies. Before the dawn breezes blow and the night shadows flee, return to me, my love, like a gazelle or a young stage on the rugged mountains.”

“My lover is mine, and I am his” declares her commitment to her lover. “He browses among the lilies” expresses the intimate association of the couple, for the woman is often likened to a garden.

This short declaration is deeply rooted in the commitment of reciprocal love between the woman and the man, and in the intimacy that the two enjoy.

In OT, Genesis Chapter 2 tells us that when God created Adam, He declared that it was not good for the man to be alone. God wanted to find a helpmate for Adam. As Adam was naming the animals, he did not encounter a suitable helpmate.

So God caused Adam to fall into a deep sleep and took a rib from the side of the man and closed up its place with flesh. God created Eve from the rib and brought her to him.

When Adam saw the woman, he exclaimed, “I found her at last! This is bone of bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called Woman.”

Adam’s admiration of Eve above, corresponds with the woman in the Song of Songs who says, “My beloved is mine, and I am his.” The relationship between a man and a woman in both the Song of Songs and the Garden of Eden emphasize mutual commitment of love, spiritual compatibility, and lives that are wholesome and abundant.

Application

Song of Songs 2:8-17 is a depiction of the mutual seeking for each by both the man and the woman. There is a yearning to find each other and once they find each other, they find the wholesomeness and the pleasure of belonging to each other.

First, we see that our song is set in the pleasantness of springtime. Springtime plus the love and intimacy between the man and the woman brings us back to the Garden of Eden.

In the Garden of Eden, God brought Adam and Eve together and established the institution of marriage. God declares, “Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh” (2:24).

At that time, the husband and wife were naked but they did not feel ashamed (v. 25).

The physical and emotional connection between a husband and his wife is the most intimate relationship created by God. Such a relationship is open to each other and trusts in each other. There is no obstacle and guardedness between the two.

May God bless our marriages and help the married couples. May God forever sustain our marriages with the mutual love and the unbroken intimate relationship between husbands and wives. A marriage like this is wholesome and abundant.

Second, this song depicts the man inviting the woman to go “outdoors.” If the “indoors” symbolizes the world of self, then the “outdoors” symbolizes a world beyond the self. The woman needed to walk out from her self-centeredness in order to experience a world beyond her own self-interest.

Love requires each of us to leave our self-centeredness, to be adventurous, to have the courage to face an uncertain future, and to lose our self-interests. When we fall in love, we must walk out of our self-oriented world in order to understand our partner’s world and to learn to see the world through his or her perspective.

Today, regardless of whether we are in courtship or in marriage, we must always walk out of our self-world in order to explore and experience the mysteries of life with our lovers or spouses.

The Bible in Gospel of John 3:16 says, “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.”

God loves the people of the world. He sent his only Son to save this fallen world. The Son obeyed this call of love and stepped out of his self-world. He became a human being and was born into our world. His name is Jesus. Jesus identified with the people of the world. He lived for thirty three years on the earth to proclaim the grace and truth of God.

In order to save humanity and the whole world, he was ultimately crucified on the cross, bled, and died. His blood cleanses the sins of humanity. His sacrifice exchanged forgiveness for the sins of humanity. Jesus died. Three days later, he rose from the dead. He promises eternal life to everyone who believes him.

Jesus traverses through “mountains” to seek for us and invites us to step out of our own self-worlds to experience the abundant life with him. He said, “I came that you may have life and may have it to the full” (John 10:10).

Are we willing to accept Jesus’ invitation to come out of our own self-orientation?

I hope that our dear friends and relatives who are seated here today will join with so many Christians in this hall today, that we would open up our hearts to accept Jesus as our Lord. Jesus will surely forgive our sins and lead our lives through an abundant and meaningful journey!

Finally, we want to give our blessing to this newlywed couple. Today they desire to establish their marriage covenant before God. Theirs will be an adventure of leaving the comfort zones of their own self-worlds. Theirs is also a blessed journey of faith.

May the Lord Jesus be their navigator to lead them into, first, a sweet husband and wife relationship; second, a God-fearing marriage; and, third, becoming a couple that serves the needs of the world.