This is Spoken Gospel.

We’re dedicated to seeing
Jesus in all of scripture.

In each episode, we see what’s
happening in a Biblical text

and how it sheds light
on Jesus and his gospel.

Let’s jump in.

As she did with the temple
in the opening of the Song,

The bride is now conflating her lover’s presence with
the presence of God in the Garden of Eden.

The bride and groom flirt about the midday
rendezvous they’re planning on the groom’s farmstead.

The lovers exchange compliments filled with
language about fragrances, vineyards, flowers, and trees.

The bride recounts how her groom
took her into the house of wine,

where people were celebrating and drinking, and
proclaimed his love for her before the crowd.

She so desperately wants to
be with her beloved that it hurts.

The groom tucks his arm behind her head,
draws her close, and then the song is disrupted.

As soon as she gets close to her lover,
their intimacy is interrupted.

The bride turns to her bridesmaids and warns
them not to awaken love until the proper time.

In the middle of her own heated passion, the bride warns them not
to give themselves over to sexual intimacy until they are married.

Because sex is a physical picture of intimacy with God,
waiting until marriage is a picture of waiting for God.

Sex outside of marriage is an attempt to
manufacture intimacy apart from waiting on God.

Apparently, the bride’s
lover is not near anymore.

He is far away but calling out to her.

She calls to him to run
quickly to her like a gazelle.

Even though the bride’s wait for a husband is over,
she is still waiting.

In response, the groom
returns and speaks to her.

His language is again filled with mentions
of food, animals, vineyards, and flowers.

The garden of love the bride longs for is springing
up all around her with the presence of the groom.

The bride’s words finally break in after
recounting her groom’s garden promises,

“My beloved is mine and I am his.”

This statement of oneness and unity is a poetic
reflection of God’s words to Adam and Eve in their garden,

“They become one flesh.”

Longing and waiting are common ways the
Bible speaks about our relationship with God.

That is because we have been separated
from God since the Garden of Eden.

All of us are created for intimacy with God.

But upon separation from him at Eden, our deepest desire
for contentment, satisfaction, and love are always unfulfilled.

Whether we recognize it or
not, we ache for God to return.

We long for intimacy with the
one for whom we were made.

The good news is that
Jesus is the groom who truly brings a new
Garden of Eden when he returns.

Jesus’ return is also described
using garden imagery.

When Jesus comes we will hear words that echo
the bride’s words about belonging to her beloved—

we will be with God
and God will be with us.

But it is not yet the proper
time for this love to awaken.

So, like the Daughters,
we wait with longing.

Nevertheless, we can say with
the bride, “Look, here he comes.”

And our beloved will respond,
“Yes, I am coming soon.”

I pray that the Holy Spirit will
open your eyes to see the God

whose presence is better than
the paradise of a perfect garden.

And that you will see Jesus as the groom
who is returning soon to bring us into that place.