A Lesson Learned from Teaching the Song of Solomon
I’m only a couple of weeks away from finishing teaching a Bible class on the Song of Solomon. This is actually the second time I have taught through that book, and, while challenging, it is a joy.
Since the book is quite short, we are able to throw in a few “special studies” on marriage, but they all come from the concepts found in that great love poem. Overall, though, the vast majority of the class is just going through the poem and being encouraged by what is there.
It is interesting to me that, while Song of Solomon is “famous” for its very descriptive language, that part of the book is not found as often as you might think. My opinion is that those sections (such as where the husband describes his wife’s body) are so different from virtually anything else found in the Bible that we tend to think the whole book is that way.
However, in preparing and teaching this book, it stands out to me that these two people–both before and after their marriage–are friends. It is very obvious that they are attracted to each other, and that in a healthy way. But the friendship is what stands out to me just as much.
In the book, the couple beautifully expresses love, but it is more than the sexual love that makes the book so famous (and causes a lot of people to avoid it, sadly). Both of them show forgiveness, sentiment, and honor for the other person.
It is no wonder, then, that, as the book comes near its conclusion, you have some of the most beautiful words ever written about the relationship between a husband and wife: “Love is stronger than death” (8:6).
Too many couples do not get this balance right. Some build their relationship–or try to–on the “rush” of pleasure from the erotic side of marriage. While that is a wonderful part of marriage, that alone is not enough to make things lasting and powerful.
Others want to be friends, but do not build that “one flesh” part of marriage, which includes the sexual glue which holds a couple together. Friendship is so needed–it’s essential–but God placed sex within marriage as a cement to hold that couple together more closely than any other human relationship.
The Song of Solomon has a lot of lessons, but finding that completeness of friendship and sexual romance is one of the most powerful lessons any couple can take from this great poem. I know that teaching the book again has challenged me to be far better as a husband and to strike that completeness for “my beloved.”
Maybe I’ll teach it again one day! (But, until then, may I live it.)
AUTHOR: Adam Faughn