Solomon
3 reminds me of my late teens and the restlessness of knowing
something is missing. Young people can be fearlessly impulsive.
With thoughtless naivety they can spontaneously react in order to
fill the gap. As today’s chapter begins, this young lady goes
after her awaited love. We only know he is not yet with her as she
expects, “All
night long on my bed I looked for the one my heart loves;
I
looked for him but did not find him“.
She cannot wait any longer and goes out into the night to search for
him, “I
will get up now and go about the city, through its streets and
squares; I will search for the one my heart loves. So I looked
for him but did not find him“.
Some suggest this is a dream, but this is how young love behaves.
This is not a spy mission, but it is a desperate pursuit of her love.
With words of longing, she asks the night watchmen, “Have
you seen the one my heart loves?“.
Please note that she does not check the local bar, but instead she
goes to the city gate, the place of respectability. You who are no
longer a teen, has apathy replaced desire? Young love begins with
reaching out for the hand. It does not roll over; it does not
pretend to sleep. Ephesians 4:26 reminds us, “Do
not let the sun go down while you are still angry, and do not give
the devil a foothold“.
As
the chapter continues, she finds him where she is looking, because
she is expecting the best from him. After asking the watchmen,
“Scarcely
had I passed them
when
I found the one my heart loves“.
She does not scold, nor question; she just holds him tight. “I
held him and would not let him go till I had brought him to my
mother’s house, to the room of the one who conceived me“.
This is not some desperate act to try to keep him. This is a
reference to the next formal step of the marriage union. They are
alone together with full parental acceptance. Interestingly, she
again repeats her caution to young ladies not to get things out of
sequence, “Daughters
of Jerusalem, I charge you… Do not arouse or awaken love until it
so desires“. She
already knows his character and his financial status and his family.
Now her passion is unrestrained.
The
chapter closes with her description of her Prince arriving for the
final part of the wedding celebration. This is the party after the
ceremony. It is clear she is anticipating his arrival, “Look!
It is Solomon’s carriage“.
His escort is prepared for war, he is “escorted
by sixty warriors all of them wearing the sword, all experienced in
battle… prepared for the terrors of the night“.
He will fight to protect her. He knows there are dangers from the
outside and he has enlisted support. I cherish the prayers of
protection offered at my wedding and I am honored to lift up all
newlyweds with the same covering. Marriage can have disagreements,
but the fight should be to protect the union. They leave together in
style, “King
Solomon made for himself the carriage… Its seat was upholstered
with purple, its interior inlaid with love“.
She speaks of him with words of pride and sees complete satisfaction
in his eyes for her, “come
out, and look, you daughters of Zion… Look on King Solomon wearing…
the crown with which his mother crowned him on the day of his
wedding, the day his heart rejoiced“.
Old friend, do you remember young love? Do you still speak with
pride and expect the best? Is something missing? “May
the Lord make your love increase and overflow for each other and for
everyone else” (1
Thessalonians 3:12).