“Your lovemaking is more delightful than wine.” Song 1:21
The first comparison that we are met with in the Song of Songs – is with wine. And interestingly, the first public miracle Jesus Christ did was to transform ceremonial water into top-quality wine. (John 2:1-11) And at a wedding, no less!
I don’t believe this is a coincidence. Especially knowing that Moses performed a miracle of turning water into blood, as a sign of impending plagues coming on Egypt. Jesus, however, demonstrated in His miracle that he was bringing in a new era of grace,2 and He is the bridegroom of the world that invites a people into relationship with Him!
(A cup of wine was also shared between a Jewish couple at their engagement, as a symbol of entering into a new covenant together. See: Wine For The Bride Custom)
Wine is rich with nuances. It’s tasty to drink, intoxicating to varying degrees, and in order to make wine, it takes pressure on the grapes, and patient time to mature.
But, like all the pleasures of this world, (food, sex, entertainment, hobbies, social media, etc) wine can also be addicting.
That is, if there is some disconnect from living a purposeful and abundant life, as we were meant to live.
What do I mean by this?
❤︎ Filled To The Full
Be not drunk with wine, but be filled with the Spirit, Ephesians 5:18
We quickly sense in the opening cry of the Bride, that this Woman has tasted something in the love of Solomon that has completely changed her life. She is intoxicated by him, and every fiber of her being is filled with a self-giving reason to exist. If she ever had any addictions or competing lovers, they lost their ability to have any power over her. The passion of being newly in love has a way of doing that! It’s an unquenchable fire that is “stronger than death” itself. (Song 8:6)
There is a principle that says, and I believe it is true: “The cure for addiction is not sobriety. It is connection.”
Meaning, “just saying no” is not the answer to the hole in the human heart, that fills itself with various substitutes for true intimacy. Cut something unhealthy out of your life – and feel no passion or higher meaning for getting out bed in the first place – and it won’t be long before something unhealthy comes rushing in to fill the void.
But truly “be in love,” (in context here, with our bridegroom, Christ) and well … that’s a different story. :-) Suddenly you experience an other-worldly, never-ending intoxication that causes you to “sober up” to a preoccupation with temporary earthly pleasures and pursuits ~ and life takes on its truest meaning.
We live truly free, when held captive by the cords of Love.
1 NET Bible / 2 John 1:17, 3:29
📖 PREVIOUS POST: “Thirsty For A Kiss – Song 1:2“
📖 ALSO SEE THIS RELATED POST: “Joy Unspeakable & the Discovery of a Chiasm”
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I know I’ve been lingering long in verse 2, and after this post will likely move on to something else. But my sense from the Spirit has been that this verse is at the beginning of the Song for an important reason. Personally, it expresses a “door of death” that I’ve had to pass through myself in the last several months, in order to know that these are more than just pretty lyrics in a song, but are true and life-giving words. Some may not agree that the Song of Songs is meant to get this practical, as to touch our secret addictions and loves, but I don’t see how an intimate relationship with Christ can be anything else but life-changing in ALL areas of life. I knew going into this study, that it would affect me, and hopefully others, in challenging ways. But the “joy unspeakable” is so worth it!
If anyone else has any thoughts about this subject, or on the metaphor of wine, love, etc. please jump in. There is so much depth in the text, that I’m not able to cover in these posts, and it’s always helpful and refreshing to hear other people’s perspectives. :-)
I recall hearing years ago that the wine of Christ’s first miracle symbolized the joy of the Holy Spirit. It struck a chord in my spirit then and now. Your observation on addictions is spot on and it is always refreshing to see the subject approached without the dogma lens of “wine in the bible was non-alcoholic grape juice, and they wasn’t dancing, neither!”
Author
Ha, that lens is a sure fire to trip up. While dancing, of course. ;-) And thank you for the insight into the wine being a symbol of joy. If wine needs pressure/pressing, and time to mature – then that makes joy much more than a shallow, fleeting feeling. I like that!
As often as I’ve heard the water to wine story preached which influenced how I read and interpreted it on my own, I never heard anyone explain what the water in those stone jars was for. Being a westerner and not having a cultural and historical understanding of the Jewish practice(s) of ceremonial washing. The point being, the water was largely for washing dust and dirt off of feet and hands, not drinking. So turning the water into wine marked an important shift in the way of salvation: from that which was an external religious practice that never succeeded in cleaning a man’s inner being, to that which is internal and the Holy Spirit cleanses a believer at the very core where uncleanliness (sin) is rooted.
If believers – the body at large – were ever to take this fundamental truth to the heart – that of transitioning from externalized religious rituals that never do a thing – to taking the Holy Spirit to heart and yielding our unclean flesh to Him – the practice of our faith in this world would transform radically and look nothing like the traditional Christianity practiced today.
Far too much emphasis is put on “form” and too little on “content”. Habitually traditional Christianity externalizes and makes rituals of that which the Messiah intended for us to take personally and internally. It grieves me just how badly traditional Christianity has missed the point.
And thus Revelation 3:20, like the SoS, our Lover is there calling to us, where if we hear His voice and open the door, He will “come into us” … funny how it doesn’t say the Son will come into that church and unto everyone, JUST the one who hears His voice and opens the door – whereupon the Son enters into Him who hears opens the door. And that place He enters in? Our very being? The Kingdom of God – like a beautiful garden of delights – unfolding within our being?
Pam, doesn’t it seem like Revelation 3:20 is potentially another expression of the SoS? Of He who plants and tends the garden coming to us with intent to make a beautiful living and growing thing within us – with Him in the midst of it all?
Love you sister! Jack
Author
Throughout the Song there are similar invitations to “hear his voice,” and “open the door.” So that connection to Rev. 3:20 is quite striking! And what you said in the first part of your comment jumped out at me, because just this morning I read the words of Jesus that talked about wine and wineskins. In the Passion Translations, Luke verse 5:38-39 says it like this:
“New wine must always be poured into new wineskins. Yet you [i.e. the religious leaders/law-keepers] say, ‘The old ways are better,” and you refuse to even taste the new that I bring.'” 😲
That’s yet another way to express why the Song is so hard to understand. Because it is wrapped up in such intimate, relational language, it especially need the lens of Jesus Christ and His Kingdom of grace to properly interpret it. It just cannot be put into old wineskins of traditional “churchianity,” as you talked about. It’s being tried of course, but it’s bursting out of its confines 🎉 Praise God!
That is a very insightful and thoughtful piece. It’s true that wine is rich with nuances and you have elucidating many of them. I heard a man teach that the significance of Cana and the wine was not randomly the first mention of his ministry, but hints at the profound, the pleasurable, a wedding context, the best was yet to come, held at the end. Servants were the carriers of the wine vessels.
C.S. Lewis described Eros as one of the Four Loves, that it can uniquely lead you to believe that it is the highest, most enthralling or esquisite of them all, but it was meant for bonding. Agape is above it, and we do understand that it these pleasures have their place, but God’s higher love transcends, and encompasses that rapture.
A point: one thing in common with drinking and the H.S. is the phenomena of speaking truthfully, without a self-protective filter. Only the one who has said “too much” from alcohol regrets it later.
Well said all.
Author
“hints at the profound, the pleasurable, a wedding context, the best was yet to come, held at the end.”
WOW. If that string of words don’t summarize the Song of Songs, I don’t know what does! 😯🔥
Thank you for your comment. If anyone is a master of the nuances of wine, it would be you. ;-)
Here’s to speaking the truth in love! 🍷
Very insightful and thoughtful post, indeed, Pam.
“ Your love is better than wine”
The comparison with wine is interesting. Personally I can’t relate since I don’t drink wine or any kind of alcohol, never have. I didn’t like the taste of alcohol.
But of course wine speaks of gladness, what makes the heart glad. Psalm 104:15
And we all have had our “wine/wines” …
I remember the time when my heart become powerfully affected by the love of Christ,
when, for the first time, realizing something of the preciousness of His love.
His love surpasses all. And so “ though ten thousand loves may be, Lord, You are the chiefest among ten thousand”
Many years ago, filled with the joy of the Spirit, one day I burst singing Tina Turner’s song “You are simply The Best” ( my version)
You’re simply the Best
Better than all the rest,
Like nothing ever seen or heard
Jesus you rock my world.
Oh, You set my heart free
I live in You and You in me,
And there is no better place
O You’re simply The Best!
Seems like the association with wine, and joy (gladness of heart) is a reoccurring theme in the comments here. :-D
(Which is why I enjoy these comments so much.You all help fill in gaps by bringing in other applicable scriptures, songs, stories, etc., and I always learn something.)
Speaking of, thanks for sharing your story with the Tina Turner song. I’m newly discovering such songs, and enjoyed going to YouTube and listening to it. (found this one: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FqDZOekUDzE )
It’s incredible, really. No human love can remotely match such words that she speaks about. For awhile it may seem to – but only divine love never fails.
Our Lover IS simply the best, and yet how exciting it is to think too, as Frank Sinatra says, “The best (in Him) is yet to come.” :-D