Love as Strong as Death

The rain has stopped. The hills are suddenly green. Doves are calling from the trees. And over the hillside, leaping like a young deer, someone is running towards a house, calling a name.

Tucked between Ecclesiastes and Isaiah is a book unlike any other in the Bible. It is called the Song of Songs, which means the greatest song, and its first line links it to Solomon. It is a collection of love poetry between a young woman and the man she loves, a bride and her groom. They speak to each other, and sometimes friends join in. There is no battle, no king's decree, no miracle. Just love, set in the gardens, vineyards and hills of ancient Israel. The Bible includes it because the love between a husband and wife is one of God's good gifts. Many readers, Jewish and Christian, have also heard in it a picture of God's own faithful love for his people.

The young woman is at home when she hears him. “The voice of my beloved! behold, he cometh leaping upon the mountains, skipping upon the hills.” He is like a gazelle, she says, like a young stag. Now he is standing just outside the wall of the house, looking in through the window, peering through the lattice. She can see his eyes, bright with happiness. And he calls to her: “Rise up, my love, my fair one, and come away.” He has a reason. Come outside, look around you. Something wonderful has happened.

“For, lo, the winter is past, the rain is over and gone; the flowers appear on the earth; the time of the singing of birds is come, and the voice of the turtle is heard in our land.” The turtle here is the turtledove, cooing in the branches. In the land of Israel the winter rains end around March and April, and almost overnight the hillsides fill with red anemones and other wild flowers. The young man keeps going. The fig tree is ripening its first green figs. The vines are in blossom, and they give off a sweet smell. Then he says it again, because he can't wait: Arise, my love, my beautiful one, and come away. Spring has come, and so has love. Everything is new.

Near the end of the Song, the young woman speaks some of the strongest words about love ever written. “Set me as a seal upon thine heart, as a seal upon thine arm.” Keep me close, she says, like the seal you wear, the one that stands for who you are. For love is as strong as death. Its jealousy is as fierce as the grave. Its flashes are flashes of fire, the very flame of the Lord. Then she says something that sounds like the sea crashing against rocks: “Many waters cannot quench love, neither can the floods drown it.” And if a man tried to buy love by offering everything in his house, he would be laughed at. Real love cannot be bought. It is given. And once it is truly given, it does not give up.

What is a seal? In the ancient world, important people carried a seal, a small carved stone or a ring, engraved with their own mark. Pressed into soft clay or wax, it stamped a document as theirs, like a signature. People wore their seal on a cord around the neck or as a ring on the hand. In Genesis, Judah carries his seal and cord with him. To ask to be set as a seal on someone's heart was to ask to belong to them, closely and for ever.

You'll find these poems in the Song of Songs, chapter two, verses eight to thirteen, and chapter eight, verses six and seven. A love song about springtime, and a love that many waters cannot quench. So here is a question to carry with you. What does it look like to love someone faithfully, even when it is hard?