Until The Time Is Right

Promise me, O women of Jerusalem,

by the gazelles and wild deer,

not to awaken love until the time is right. Song Of Songs 2:7

SEX CAN BE such an uncomfortable topic that we’re a bit surprised to find a whole book in the Bible about it. But we learn from the outset of Song of Songs that sex is not inherently dirty or shameful. In fact, the picture of sexuality painted by the writer of the Song harkens back to the Garden of Eden, where Adam and Eve enjoyed the beautiful wonder of being naked and unashamed.

The Song presents sexuality as a good gift protected by marriage, not as an evil thing made permissible by marriage. Most of the world sees Christians as very prudish or repressive about sex. But the Bible makes it clear that sex is a God-blessed way to say to another person, “I belong completely, exclusively, and permanently to you.” Sex creates deep intimacy, oneness, and communion between two people. God knows that human emotions come and go, and that we need something that binds us to each other. So God requires a public, legal covenant as the infrastructure for intimacy. This guarding of sexual love by public covenant is at the heart of the chorus that is repeated three times in this short book: “Promise me, O women of Jerusalem, by the gazelles and wild deer, not to awaken love until the time is right.”

In this little chorus we discover a shocking message for our culture: Sexual desire can lie dormant. You can be a complete human being without having sex. Oh, how difficult it is for us as parents living in a culture that celebrates any and every kind of sexual expression to communicate a joyful celebration of sex exclusively within marriage and encourage our children “not to awaken love until the time is right.”

Lord, we really need your help to faithfully communicate to our children the good gift you intend sexual love to be, as well as the boundaries you have set for it. It seems at times that everything in the world is working against us as we try to pass along to our children a healthy and holy enjoyment of this good gift. We desperately need your grace to work in and through us to overcome the collective voice of the world around us.