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Song of Solomon, Part 1 – Kisses/Arousal Comes before Desire

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Song of Solomon, Part 1 – Kisses/Arousal Comes before Desire

[Study Aired October 29, 2022]

In the “Introduction” to the Song of Solomon, we couldn’t clearly identify the name of the Shulamite or her ethnic background. That neutrality is positive since she represents the Bride of Christ and is the mother of the entirety of humanity and her spiritual ethnicity and integrity are what matters. Her physical and spiritual character is utterly opposed to the Great Whore of Revelation. The Bride is not that long past being “treacherous”, having unwittingly called herself a Jew while holding the oracles of God in unrighteousness. 

Jer 3:9 And it came to pass through the lightness of her whoredom, that she defiled the land, and committed adultery with stones and with stocks. 
Jer 3:10 And yet for all this her treacherous sister Judah hath not turned unto me with her whole heart, but feignedly, saith the LORD. 
Jer 3:11 And the LORD said unto me, The backsliding Israel hath justified herself more than treacherous Judah. 

Rom 2:28 For he is not a Jew, which is one outwardly; neither is that circumcision, which is outward in the flesh: 
Rom 2:29 But he is a Jew, which is one inwardly; and circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit, and not in the letter; whose praise is not of men, but of God.

Remember the “two armies” in the last part of the Introduction, Hagar and Sarah, Old Jerusalem and the Heavenly Jerusalem above and Israel and Judah ~ the Shulamite represents the spiritual positives of those entities.

Gal 4:25 For this Agar is mount Sinai in Arabia, and answereth to Jerusalem which now is, and is in bondage with her children. 
Gal 4:26 But Jerusalem which is above is free, which is the mother of us all.

It is profane in the Body of Christ for us not to juxtapose the physical with the spiritual. However, it is understandable that discussion on bedroom intimacies can jar some folk’s sensitivities. At our Lord’s hand, those intimacy reviews will be seemly.

For us to now rush through the relatively short book of the Song of Solomon and, looking down, shuffle our feet in shame and dismiss its powerful imagery of physical intimacies is akin to remaining our elder sister, Israel, and her dismissal of her Lord’s tender courtships. The Body of Christ is personally aware that marital intimacies are a shadow of our Lord’s spiritual intimacies (Eph 5:1-5, Eph 5:22-33). As vile and offensive as forced and unwanted intimacy is, it is a shadow of our former selves enthusiastically ingratiating our spiritual food on another. Being intoxicated on the word revolts a possible babe by the foul adulterous spiritual breath and cuts off his ears from receiving any truth. 

The Bride in the Song of Solomon doesn’t half-step or deny her Lord with her physical ardour, nor should we with the reality of our spiritual ardour since we expectantly are she.

2Ti 2:11 It is a faithful saying: For if we be dead with him, we shall also live with him: 
2Ti 2:12 If we suffer, we shall also reign with him: if we deny him, he also will deny us:
2Ti 2:13 If we believe not, yet he abideth faithful: he cannot deny himself.

In the Song of Solomon, the Bride is finished being dragged from her decreasing Babylonian Christian spiritual fickle and flighty temperament, which is usually synonymous with her physical nature in Babylonian marriage. She was the gatekeeper of physical intimacies that reflect her spiritual condition perfectly when in the wilderness. She only desired her Lord when it suited her, mostly when the titillating blessings of courtship flowed. When His inevitable arousal for her became evident, that was too much; she preferred to bathe in the bliss of being perpetually pursued and to pursue affection by any good-looking man without bringing forth righteous fruit. (Eze 23:12-23). She had a multitude of neighbouring tribes who could sustain her insatiable quest to be desired in her timing, reminiscent of Queen Vashti controlling her standing in the eyes of the kingdom of Persia which dramatically backfired on Vashti being dismissed as Queen. Esther, another stunning shadow of the Bride and with superior spiritual poise, was given Vashti’s former status as Queen. (Est 1:1-22)

It is a beautiful thing that women inherently desire to be loved, yet her curse from Eden soundly enables the negative side of her desires. Her Lord designed her that way and patiently waited while she complained and groaned, effectively, for four thousand years.

Even harlots yearn to be loved. In the interim, harlots have very little interest in physical intimacies. Their goal is to be paid monetarily or validly where time is of the essence to accommodate as many customers or suitors as physically able. Not so here in this study of the Song of Solomon. The Bride of Christ awaits the Lord’s good pleasure with enough oil even while asleep and, as is our custom, delights in His word of protracted spiritual arousals. That blessing is a foundational theme of the Bride in the Song of Solomon in delightedly receiving the good seed of the Kingdom of God within, having learned to wait even while painfully barren.

Gen 30:1 And when Rachel saw that she bare Jacob no children, Rachel envied her sister; and said unto Jacob, Give me children, or else I die. 

Act 2:41 Then they that gladly received his word were baptised: and the same day there were added unto them about three thousand souls. 

Joh 15:8 Herein is my Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit; so shall ye be my disciples.

Let’s begin with the first verse of the Song of Solomon.

Son 1:1 The Song of songs, which is Solomon’s.

The Bride Confesses Her Love

Son 1:2 Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth: for thy love is better than wine.

The first verse in the Song of Solomon is called “The song of songs, which is Solomons” (Son 1:1).

Since we know that Solomon and the Shulamite’s intense visionary dreaming of marital intimacies is a shadow of Christ’s spiritual, marital intimacies, the Song is the Bride’s expressive masterpiece ~ a Song of Songs; the grand finale of anticipatory consummation! With the tremendous and glorious knowledge of who she is and what she has been given, no wonder she is trembling with enthusiastic anticipation and can hardly contain herself. Her physical and spiritually animated passion unconsciously prepares her mind and body for marriage.

The remnants of a wife being against her husband in the Shulamite’s mind are gone in utter contempt, for the curse that waxed gross against her husband had done its good work within.

Mat 13:15 For this people’s heart is waxed gross, and their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes they have closed; lest at any time they should see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and should understand with their heart, and should be converted, and I should heal them.
Mat 13:16 But blessed are your [the Bride’s] eyes, for they see: and your ears, for they hear.

The Shulamite’s former disdain that a man, a husband, should be her “head” and have authority over her is now utterly gone; she is unconditionally at “one” with him!

Unbeknown, and more likely powerfully resisted by her elder sister, in comparison, the Bride knows that a wife’s unreserved submission to a righteous husband is the key to rapidly unlocking her God-given and post-honeymoon phase, her sluggish physical intimacies, the shadow of the spiritual. The honeymoon phase of Israel leaving Egypt was no different. 

Exo 14:8 And the LORD hardened the heart of Pharaoh king of Egypt, and he pursued after the children of Israel: and the children of Israel went out with an high hand. 

Exo 19:4 Ye have seen what I did unto the Egyptians, and how I bare you on eagles’ wings, and brought you unto myself.
Exo 19:5 Now therefore, if ye will obey my voice indeed, and keep my covenant, then ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto me above all people: for all the earth is mine: 
Exo 19:6 And ye shall be unto me a kingdom of priests, and an holy nation. These are the words which thou shalt speak unto the children of Israel. 
Exo 19:7 And Moses came and called for the elders of the people, and laid before their faces all these words which the LORD commanded him. 
Exo 19:8 And all the people answered together, and said, All that the LORD hath spoken we will do. And Moses returned the words of the people unto the LORD. 

Inherent with women’s curse on Eve, what relatively righteous woman isn’t extremely cautious for what lustful suitor she gives her mind and body? Apart from her virginity, she has a lot to lose that is not genuine love. Her ultimate happiness in marriage is at stake.

The Shulamite’s implicit belief in her Lord for his exceptional goodwill and plan for her causes her to unhesitatingly respond:

Son 1:2 Let him kissH5401 me with the kisses of his mouth: for thy love is better than wine. 

God designed deep soft kisses of that nature for any man, especially young men, to become immediately aroused and to burn with passion. To the dismay of most women, men (Babylonian with no regard for the word of God) can lustfully engage or violate pretty much any woman. Scripture and the world are littered with such violence. As scripture profusely paints, men idolise women, and women, with impunity when it suits them with the haughty impudence of Israel, love the attention. Without the word and spirit of God, mankind is but a beast!

Son 7:9 And the roof of thy mouth like the best wine for my beloved, that goeth down sweetly, causing the lips of those that are asleep to speak. 

Only a harlot encourages aggressively and tactlessly kissing any male she perceives as momentarily valuable of the type in the above verse unless she is like the Bride and highly esteems the man’s integrity and noble intentions. A little later in the Song of Solomon, those same intimate kisses for a righteous bride are in chaste limitations while engaged and lavished in marriage.

Jer 10:14 Every man is brutish in his knowledge: every founder is confounded by the graven image: for his molten image is falsehood, and there is no breath in them.

Ecc 3:19 For that which befalleth the sons of men befalleth beasts; even one thing befalleth them: as the one dieth, so dieth the other; yea, they have all one breath; so that a man hath no preeminence above a beast: for all is vanity.

A kiss[H5401] with the nature described in the Song of Solomon is a derivative is H5400 and means:

1Co 7:8 I say therefore to the unmarried and widows, It is good for them if they abide even as I. 
1Co 7:9 But if they [the virgin Shulamite] cannot contain, let them marry: for it is better to marry than to burn [G4448 – 1. to burn with fire, to set on fire, kindle]. 

The Shulamite has learned (is learning) not to shy away from any form of burning. The burning of dead works brings forth refined gold and blossoms in burning spiritual passion for the Lord as is expressed in the Song of Solomon.

Her faded memories of harlotry are from the same mouth of soft, gentle kisses.

Jas 3:10 Out of the same mouth proceedeth blessing and cursing. My brethren, these things ought not so to be.
Jas 3:11 Doth a fountain send forth at the same place sweet water and bitter? 
Jas 3:12 Can the fig tree, my brethren, bear olive berries? either a vine, figs? so can no fountain both yield salt water and fresh. 

Rom 1:27 And likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward another; men with men working that which is unseemly, and receiving in themselves that recompence of their error which was meet.

A kiss can be relatively meaningless or have massive positive or negative consequences.

Spiritually righteous passionate kisses arouse burning desire in a discourse of the word that should expressly result in the consummation of truth and builds permanent bonding.

Unrighteous kisses likewise convey the negative that is always a lie.

As a kid, I can graphically remember shyly, yet with respect, not avoiding the greetings of a few elder female relatives. One aunt, in particular, would, with the accuracy of a puckered-up homing missile, aim for my lips with a deadly and damp explosion smack on target! No matter how finely tuned my momentary weaving and dodging, I always got a mortal blow of bright red lipstick that was just as instantly and cheerily wiped from my lips with her thumb ~ I felt a little violated.

In my late teens, with an attractive girl who had designs for me, she kissed more eloquently, and the difference was out of this world! Though she was a Christian, the Lord gave me excellent control; she didn’t belong to my particular faith, so I considered us unequally yoked. This single relationship afforded the libertine opportunity to all the delights Solomon likewise never toiled with 1,000 plus wives. For a short time, I was breathlessly awakened to the multiple burnings of what a kiss can do. The Biblical thought of hasty romance stabbing me through the liver with a dart severely tempered my ardour; tortuously, the word of God won.

The following scripture speaks about any girl or guy next door or in your group of friends with degrees of passive or aggressive intentions of intimacy and not necessarily a harlot with direct intentions.

Pro 7:13 So she caught him, and kissed him, and with an impudent face said unto him, 
Pro 7:14 I have peace offerings with me; this day have I payed [H7999] my vows. She is at peace with her Babylonian ways.
Pro 7:15 Therefore came I forth to meet thee, diligently to seek thy face, and I have found thee. 
Pro 7:16 I have decked my bed with coverings of tapestry, with carved works, with fine linen of Egypt. 
Pro 7:17 I have perfumed my bed with myrrh, aloes, and cinnamon.
Pro 7:18 Come, let us take our fill of love until the morning: let us solace ourselves with loves. 
Pro 7:19 For the goodman is not at home, he is gone a long journey:
Pro 7:20 He hath taken a bag of money with him, and will come home at the day appointed. 
Pro 7:21 With her much fair speech she caused him to yield, with the flattering of her lips she forced him. 
Pro 7:22 He goeth after her straightway, as an ox goeth to the slaughter, or as a fool to the correction of the stocks; 
Pro 7:23 Till a dart strike through his liver; as a bird hasteth to the snare, and knoweth not that it is for his life. 
Pro 7:24 Hearken unto me now therefore, O ye children, and attend to the words of my mouth. 
Pro 7:25 Let not thine heart decline to her ways, go not astray in her paths. 
Pro 7:26 For she hath cast down many wounded: yea, many strong men have been slain by her. 
Pro 7:27 Her house is the way to hell, going down to the chambers of death. 

Do you recall what the Hebrew for H7999 refers to? Alarmingly, ShulamiteH7759 means “the perfect” or the “peaceful”, and is the derivative of H7999.

The negative intentions of a “kiss” are the precise opposite of the Shulamite, whose name likewise means “peaceful; a covenant with peace” as does Jerusalem; the “two armies” of the earthy and heavenly Jerusalem. Classically we have Satan parading the intoxicating nature of a beautiful girl’s tender and warm kisses as authentic and peaceful; an unwitting betrayal with no consequences! Christ knew the consequences of Judas’ kiss, that Judas resulted in his literal innards, his liver being thrust through with the dart of a stake rupturing his belly upon his botched suicide.

Mat 26:47 And while he [Jesus] yet spake, lo, Judas, one of the twelve, came, and with him a great multitude with swords and staves, from the chief priests and elders of the people.
Mat 26:48 Now he that betrayed him gave them a sign, saying, Whomsoever I shall kiss, that same is he: hold him fast. 
Mat 26:49 And forthwith he came to Jesus, and said, Hail, master; and kissed him. 

It’s amazing how the seeming simplicity of a kiss can take up an entire study with barely a dent and many more hours of discussion.

This mutual burning of the Shulamite and her Lord is from the immense mindfulness of her future in Him. That knowledge is the best and smoothest wine… “for thy love is better than wine”.

Wine figures 137 times in scripture, and we all know the result of its use and abuse, especially from our sometimes reckless youth. The righteous use of wine can vastly brighten alertness for spiritual understanding, yet when lingered upon, it dulls wise spiritual counsel of the mind, that still small voice that says, ‘… don’t kiss!… and definitely not amorously’.

The harlot and the Shulamite know precisely where the seemingly innocuous act of a kiss can and does rapidly lead a man ~ to unrighteous or righteous lust that wine amplifies.

Jas 1:14 But every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed. 
Jas 1:15 Then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin: and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death. 

2Co 13:11 Finally, brethren, farewell. Be perfect, be of good comfort, be of one mind, live in peace; and the God of love and peace [G1515 – peace; tranquillity] shall be with you.
2Co 13:12 Greet one another with an holy kiss. [G40 of G53 – 1.

The Lord designed all violence in nature or mankind for our spiritual learning. Every woman, and especially wives, knows the power of her kiss. As stated earlier, lustful male Babylonian Beasts disgustingly have no discretion when at war or in the field or city simply follow their inherent nature to mindlessly violate any woman. Man is but a Beast.

The Shulamite is smitten by her Lord with the intoxicating knowledge of him patiently waiting in love for her until she is a mature young woman.

She is the “Is, Was and Will Be” apple of His eye before the foundations of the Earth. Her very opening phrase of devotion in the Song of Solomon is with her kisses. She knows her God-given power to arouse her Man with bright-eyed enthusiasm that, in turn, blesses her with the spiritual magnificence of “wine” for which she righteously lusts. She no longer desires milk but the taste of smooth wine, spiritual truth directly from the roof of His mouth; the marital form of a “holy kiss”. Her wounds from his chastisements are long ago healed, and those reproofs are no longer felt as loveless fiery trials but are within a burning of truth in passion from the roof of his mouth with the blessed metaphor of wine.

Pro 27:6 Faithful are the wounds of a friend; but the kisses of an enemy are deceitful. 

Deceitful lips and kisses are from the former works of iniquity she learned from her first father, the Devil. She knows too well that she was like her brothers and sisters in Jerusalem who unwittingly remained to shed their blood, the metaphoric wine of her Lord.

Rom 3:9 What then? are we better than they? No, in no wise: for we have before proved both Jews and Gentiles, that they are all under sin;
Rom 3:10 As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one:
Rom 3:11 There is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God.
Rom 3:12 They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable; there is none that doeth good, no, not one. 
Rom 3:13 Their throat is an open sepulchre; with their tongues they have used deceit; the poison of asps is under their lips: 
Rom 3:14 Whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness: 
Rom 3:15 Their feet are swift to shed blood: 
Rom 3:16 Destruction and misery are in their ways: 
Rom 3:17 And the way of peace have they not known: 
Rom 3:18 There is no fear of God before their eyes. 
Rom 3:19 Now we know that what things soever the law saith, it saith to them who are under the law: that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God. 
Rom 3:20 Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight: for by the law is the knowledge of sin. 

Why are her Lord’s kisses and love “better than wine”?

The Shulamite is poetically juxtaposing the laws that bring death, covered by his wine, Christ’s blood, which He first spilled for her. For us, it is profoundly understood by her Lord’s kisses. His kisses are “better than wine” since the “wine” for her has completed its good work once and forever; now she is about to enter the consummate glory of being perfectly yoked in him, and he in her ~ that staggering spiritual knowledge that kisses convey “is better than wine”. For her, Christ’s work is finished. She is about to drink the new spiritual wine in His Kingdom with her Lord, her husband.

Jesus, having turned six stone pots of water into wine, is covertly declaring the end from the beginning with His first miracle and recorded marriage feast pointing to His marriage.

Joh 2:10 And [Jesus] saith unto him, Every man at the beginning doth set forth good wine; and when men have well drunk, then that which is worse: but thou hast kept the good wine until now. 

The Shulamite in the Song of Solomon looks forward to drinking that wine in the Kingdom of eternal life. Her inferior old wine that the flesh thinks is good wine is gone!

Luk 5:37 And no man putteth new wine into old bottles; else the new wine will burst the bottles, and be spilled, and the bottles shall perish. 
Luk 5:38 But new wine must be put into new bottles; and both are preserved. 
Luk 5:39 No man also having drunk old wine straightway desireth new: for he saith, The old is better. 

Mar 14:24 And he said unto them, This is my blood of the new testament, which is shed for many.
Mar 14:25 Verily I say unto you, I will drink no more of the fruit of the vine, until that day that I drink it new in the kingdom of God.

Luk 22:20 Likewise also the cup after supper, saying, This cup is the new testament in my blood, which is shed for you.

Joh 6:54 Whoso eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, hath eternal life; and I will raise him up at the last day.
Joh 6:55 For my flesh is meat indeed, and my blood is drink indeed.
Joh 6:56 He that eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, dwelleth in me, and I in him.

The Shulamite’s narrative in the Song of Solomon sensationally anticipates that “last day” without having a say in being chosen as the Bride. She was given to die daily and thus spiritually shed her old wine (blood) and drink the new wine in her Lord in their marriage following the First Resurrection. She knows that she has been “no better than they” (Rom 3:9 What then? are we better than they? No, in no wise: for we have before proved both Jews and Gentiles, that they are all under sin) and weeps for her brothers and sisters yet to be trodden in the winepress of Babylon, as Christ wept for what was to happen with the imminent sacking of Jerusalem.

Rev 14:8 And there followed another angel, saying, Babylon is fallen, is fallen, that great city, because she made all nations drink of the wine of the wrath of her fornication.
Rev 14:19 And the angel thrust in his sickle into the earth, and gathered the vine of the earth, and cast it into the great winepress of the wrath of God.
Rev 14:20 And the winepress was trodden without the city, and blood came out of the winepress, even unto the horse bridles, by the space of a thousand and six hundred furlongs. ~ and is synonymous with six jars of wine.

“Kisses ~ Arousal Comes before Desire”

From Adam until the Shulamite, the world, besotted by every sensuality that Solomon likewise exhausted, desires to return to the Garden to live the imagined esoteric purity of nakedness.

1Co 15:44  It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body. There is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body. 
1Co 15:45  And so it is written, The first man Adam was made a living soul; the last Adam was made a quickening spirit. 
1Co 15:46  Howbeit that was not first which is spiritual, but that which is natural; and afterward that which is spiritual. 
1Co 15:47  The first man is of the earth, earthy: the second man is the Lord from heaven. 
1Co 15:48  As is the earthy, such are they also that are earthy: and as is the heavenly, such are they also that are heavenly. 
1Co 15:49  And as we have borne the image of the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly. 

In the very opening sentence of the Song of Solomon, the Shulamite (and Solomon) knows that a wife, the Church, as opposed to the husband’s speedy intimacy arousal, is deliberately designed to be much slower. The Shulamite needs more tender nurturing and expressions of love than her sister in the wilderness. Yet, in the night and the brightening dawn of her arousal and desire for her husband, she sees her future more brightly.

Isa 26:9 With my soul have I desired thee in the night; yea, with my spirit within me will I seek thee early: for when thy judgments are in the earth, the inhabitants of the world will learn righteousness. 

2Sa 23:4 And he shall be as the light of the morning, when the sun riseth, even a morning without clouds; as the tender grass springing out of the earth by clear shining after rain. 

It can be a hotly contested point, yet most people think that desire comes before arousal in women. Men can be relatively unattractive, as was Jesus to most women and men. However, suppose an average-looking guy ticks all the boxes of charm, leadership, relative masculinity, cleanliness, work ethics and moral integrity, to name a few priority needs. In that case, she is slowly aroused to desire him. We don’t need to be told that men are infinitely more visually aroused, which just as swiftly induces desire.

If women were as easily aroused as men, lovemaking in marriage would be a dreary affair. The world would have been overpopulated in the first one thousand years.

Speaking of Jesus, the Christ, to come:

Isa 53:1 Who hath believed our report? and to whom is the arm of the LORD revealed? 
Isa 53:2 For he shall grow up before him as a tender plant, and as a root out of a dry ground: he hath no form nor comeliness; and when we shall see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him. 
Isa 53:3 He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not. 
Isa 53:4 Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. 
Isa 53:5 But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed.

To most beautiful young women seeking their equal in an attractive, dashing, brave, powerful and respected man in the gates of her city, Jesus was not her type! However, the Shulamite in the Song of Solomon was slowly (figuratively) for two thousand years, becoming spiritually aroused and agape for what was being presented to her. She is in the love-induced dreamy submission that good wine cajoles her to fantasize about her arousal and his for her. Righteous lust, that is, desire, follows arousal as she achingly yet chastely contains her passion. 

Son 8:3 His left hand should be under my head, and his right hand should embrace me. 
Son 8:4  I charge you, O daughters of Jerusalem, that ye stir not up, nor awake my love, until he please.

The Lord designed women to be aroused differently from men. In a recent study in Canada that would reflect the Western World, and no doubt the entire world, astonishingly, women spent significantly more on dreamy novels and all kinds of romantic theatre than men on sexually explicit visuals.

Spiritual kisses and dwelling spiritually on the word of God slowly produce arousal and then escalates desire that is in keeping with the “natural” that comes first.

Continuing with the Song of Solomon, the Shulamite substantiates those erotically driven differences.

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