February 16 - Song of Solomon 8:6

February 16 - Song of Solomon 8:6

“Set me as a seal upon your heart, as a seal upon your arm; for love is strong as death, passion fierce as the grave. Its flashes are flashes of fire, a raging flame.”

The love story found in the Song of Solomon is as much a story of Solomon’s love for a woman as it is the story of God’s love for His people.  That passion that we feel when falling in love with someone or the way we love our children is the same passion that God desires we feel in our relationship we Him. In fact, He wants our love for Him to outweigh anything on earth.

God yearns for us to draw close to Him.  By allowing Him to be in our hearts, by showing the world that we are His with a seal on our arm, we acknowledge His presence in our lives. 

To this day, phylacteries (or tefillin) are worn by devout Jews.  They are small boxes with leather straps that are bound to the upper arm or on the forehead. Within the box is found the Shema from Deuteronomy 6:4, “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord our God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.”

Moses then instructs the people that the commandments are to be upon their hearts and tied as symbols to their arms and foreheads as well as written on the doorframes of their homes and their gates.

The passion of the Israelite’s love for God was to be found in the hearts and on their arms.

Jesus carried the message of God’s love for us to the cross.  Love is strong as death.  “Greater love has no man than that he lay his life down for a friend.”  Jesus’ death on that cross showed us what passionate love is really all about and calls us to love like that.