GOD’S WORD FOR YOU
SONG OF SOLOMON 6:3
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3 I am my beloved husband’s,
and my beloved husband is mine;
he browses among the lilies.
As I have said before, at times in this translation and in the state of English in our present culture, it seems wiser and clearer to the text to translate the Hebrew for “lover, beloved” (dōd) as “beloved husband,” since there is so much confusion about sexual roles, gender identity, and the divine origin of marriage (as opposed to the secular world’s myth about marriage as a social construct).
The wife lays claim to her husband: “He is mine.” She will not share him with any other woman nor a rival wife. When God gave the law to Moses on Mount Sinai, there was likewise confusion about sex and marriage and the number of wives a man could have. In the Bible, the basic law about marriage is that it shall be between one man and one woman (the Sixth Commandment). “The marriage bed should be kept pure” (Hebrews 13:4). “A man will be united to his wife, and they will become one flesh” (Genesis 2:24). “A married woman is bound to her husband as long as he is alive” (Romans 7:2). It is also to be a choice that the couple makes freely, as we see in the account of Rebekah’s marriage: “Let’s call the girl and ask her about it” (Genesis 24:57). When there are multiple wives in the Bible, it is not God’s idea, but a sin to be reckoned with.
But in addition to claiming her husband, the wife first acknowledges that she, too, belongs to him, and to him alone. “I am my beloved husband’s.” Here she says exactly what Paul teaches in his letter: “Because of sexual sins, each man should have his own wife, and each woman her own husband. For his wife, the husband must fulfill his marital duty. And the wife for her husband. The wife is not the only master of her body, but her husband as well. And the husband is not the only master of his body, but his wife as well” (1 Corinthians 7:2-4).
In marriage, this is the case: A man’s body does not belong to him alone. As the Sonnet says, “Thou mine, I thine.” When he marries, his body becomes the flesh of their marriage, and her body becomes the flesh of their marriage, for “the two will become one flesh” (Genesis 2:24). Therefore they will seek sexual fulfillment from one another, and only from one another; anything else is a violation of the will of God. And they should also take care to honor and respect one another’s bodies. When a man has a cut on his arm, he will favor it and cradle it until it can be bandaged, and he will take extra care about it until it heals. So it is with his wife’s body. If she is hurt or has some other trouble with her body, he will favor her and cradle her in his actions and choices, showing his love and concern for her, treating her wound as his own, and she must do the same. And when age comes? The same sonnet says, “Love in love’s fresh case, weighs not the dust and injury of age, nor gives to necessary wrinkles place” (108:9-11).
A brief word here should be said about marking and making changes to the body. Leviticus 19:28 says, “You shall not cut your flesh for the sake of the dead or put any tattoo marks on yourselves. I am the LORD.” Now, this part of the law of Moses is, like the rest of the civil and ceremonial law, no longer in place. But tattoos remain a touchy subject. As I already said in a devotion in 2016, “Most tattoo issues fall under the Fourth Commandment (whether or not a child’s parents approve) or under the Sixth (whether one’s present or future spouse will approve or be offended). Tattoos that can be seen while in worship and while taking the Lord’s Supper should be especially avoided, since they might cause offense in the Scriptural sense to someone struggling with whether or not they are sinful. This is part of the application of 1 Corinthians 8 and 9. ‘When you sin against your brothers in this way and wound their weak conscience, you sin against Christ’ (1 Corinthians 8:12).” Therefore, a wife should seek the consent of her husband before she gets a tattoo, and a husband will do the same for his wife. If she is not in favor of his getting one, he should refrain for her sake and to please her, and this will always take priority over pleasing himself, and vice versa.
“I am my husband’s, and my husband is mine.” Another truth to be uncovered here and put on display for all to see is that she has one and only one husband: Not another husband besides this one, and there is no fantasy husband in her mind, an ideal she dreams about over and above the man she has. And he will not set his desire on any woman who is not his wife. Her body is the garden, the lilies, among which he browses. And as for his body, his body alone is the one that may come and browse, to use the language of the verse. Once married, do not dream for a spouse you do not have, but pray about how you can please your spouse, and dream about ways to make each other happy and fulfilled.
How shall we apply this verse to the mystic union of Christ and his Church? In what sense does Christ browse among the lilies of his church? This will be in the true union of Christ and the church in heaven, where there will be no sexual undertone nor thought, but only joy and delight. But here below, in the created world this was also the appearance of Christ in the flesh during his incarnation. While here, he even took time to muse about the relationship between the lilies themselves and the needs of mankind. His application then was to clothing, but it applies to any physical blessing. Jesus said, “Consider how the lilies grow. They do not toil or spin. But I tell you, not even Solomon in all his glory was dressed like one of these. If this is how God clothes the grass in the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the furnace, how much more will he clothe you, you of little faith? Stop searching for what you will eat or what you will drink. Don’t be worried about it. To be sure, the people of the world chase after all of these things, but your Father knows that you need them” (Luke 12:27-30).
He also supplies all our other needs. Man cannot understand the depths of the mind of God. “I have seen the burden God has laid on men. He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the hearts of men; yet they cannot fathom what God has done from beginning to end” (Ecclesiastes 3:10-11). But man can and does know that he has sinned, for even the conscience condemns him (Romans 2:15). But God in his compassion has spared those who put their faith in him. “‘They will be mine,’ says the LORD Almighty, ‘in the day when I make up my treasured possession. I will spare them, just as in compassion a man spares his son who serves him’” (Malachi 3:17). For “Everyone who calls on the name of the LORD will be saved” (Joel 2:32; Acts 2:21; Romans 10:13). And following all this, the Lord sends us his holy word again and again, to teach us, instruct us, firm up our doctrine, and to direct us along our path. “So that your trust may be in the LORD, I teach you today, even you” (Proverbs 22:19). And he has “appointed repentance for sinners, so that they may be saved.”
O Bride of Christ, put your hope in the Lord both now and forevermore.
In Christ,
Pastor Timothy Smith
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Pastor Smith serves St. Paul’s Lutheran Church, New Ulm, Minnesota
God’s Word for You – Song of Solomon 6:3 I am his, and he is mine