The Unquenchable Flame of Yah Text: Song of Solomon 8:5-7
Introduction: A Love That Is Not for Sale
We live in a sentimental age, which is to say, we live in a cheap age. Our culture speaks constantly of love, but it is a love that is flimsy, disposable, and ultimately, for sale. It is a product to be consumed, an experience to be had, and a feeling to be chased. When the feeling fades, the love is declared dead, and the contract is void. The modern world knows nothing of a love that is stronger than death, a love that cannot be bought, a love that burns with the very fire of God Himself.
But the Scriptures know of such a love. The Song of Solomon is a book that makes the spiritually squeamish uncomfortable, and it is intended to. For centuries, interpreters have tried to tame this book, either by turning it into a flat allegory where the breasts represent the Old and New Testaments, or by treating it as a merely human poem with no bearing on our life with God. But the Bible refuses to be so neatly categorized. This book is an intensely earthy, erotic, and passionate celebration of the love between a man and a woman. And precisely because it is that, it is a glorious picture of the love between Christ and His Church. The two are not at odds. Marriage is not the gospel, but a rightly ordered marriage is a gospel carrier. It proclaims the truth of Christ's covenant love for His people.
In our text today, we come to the climax of this Song. The Shulamite bride, having come through trials and tribulations, now emerges from the wilderness, leaning on her beloved. And in this emergence, she declares the nature of the love they share. It is a love that is exclusive, permanent, powerful, jealous, and priceless. It is a picture of the kind of love that God designed for marriage, and it is a reflection of the kind of love that Christ has for you, His bride. Our world is starving for this kind of love, and it is looking in all the wrong places. We must learn to look for it here, in the Word of God.
The Text
"Who is this coming up from the wilderness Leaning on her beloved?" "Beneath the apple tree I awakened you; There your mother was in labor with you; There she was in labor and gave you birth. Put me like a seal over your heart, Like a seal on your arm. For love is as strong as death, Jealousy is as severe as Sheol; Its flashes are flashes of fire, The very flame of Yah. Many waters cannot quench love, Nor will rivers overflow it; If a man were to give all the riches of his house for love, It would be utterly despised.”
(Song of Solomon 8:5-7 LSB)
From Wilderness to Garden (v. 5)
The passage opens with a question from an observer, a member of the chorus.
"Who is this coming up from the wilderness Leaning on her beloved?" (Song of Solomon 8:5a)
This is the picture of the Christian life. The Church, the bride of Christ, is always coming up out of the wilderness. The wilderness is the place of testing, of trial, of wandering, and of dependence. It is the place where we have no resources of our own. It is where Israel was tested for forty years. It is where Christ was tempted for forty days. The wilderness is where God strips us of our self-reliance so that we learn to rely on Him alone. And so the bride comes, not in her own strength, but "leaning on her beloved."
This leaning is not a sign of weakness, but of wisdom. She is not fainting; she is trusting. She is resting all her weight, all her hope, all her future on the strength of her husband. This is how the Church comes through history. We do not advance by our own clever strategies or political machinations. We advance by leaning on Christ. This is a picture of justification by faith. We do not stand before God based on our own righteousness; we stand leaning on the perfect righteousness of our Beloved. And as we lean, He leads us out of the wilderness of this fallen world and into the garden of His presence.
The beloved then responds, reminding her of the beginning of their love.
"Beneath the apple tree I awakened you; There your mother was in labor with you; There she was in labor and gave you birth." (Song of Solomon 8:5b)
He takes her back to the place of her birth, the place of her awakening. The apple tree is significant throughout this song. It is a place of shade, sweetness, and communion. He reminds her that his love for her is foundational; it was there at her very beginning. He awakened her to love. This is what Christ does for us. We are spiritually dead, asleep in our sins. He comes to us and awakens us. "Awake, O sleeper, and arise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you" (Eph. 5:14). Our salvation, our spiritual life, begins with His sovereign act of awakening us. He doesn't find us when we are lovely; He finds us in our helpless state, like a newborn, and makes us lovely.
The Seal of Covenant Possession (v. 6)
The bride, secure in this love, now makes a demand of her beloved.
"Put me like a seal over your heart, Like a seal on your arm." (Song of Solomon 8:6a)
A seal in the ancient world was a mark of ownership and authenticity. A king would press his signet ring into wax to seal a decree, marking it with his authority. The bride is asking to be marked as his possession, permanently and publicly. She wants to be a seal over his heart, the seat of his affections and intentions. She wants his innermost being to be stamped with her as his own. And she wants to be a seal on his arm, the instrument of his strength and action in the world. She wants his public life, his work, his strength, to be marked by his covenant commitment to her.
This is a demand for total, exclusive, covenantal love. It is the cry of every Christian heart to Christ. We want to be sealed by Him. And the glorious truth of the gospel is that we are. "In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, who is the guarantee of our inheritance" (Eph. 1:13-14). The Holy Spirit is the seal of Christ upon our hearts, marking us as His eternal possession. This is not a brand of slavery, but the glorious emblem of our security. We belong to Him, and nothing can break that seal.
She then gives the reason for this radical demand.
"For love is as strong as death, Jealousy is as severe as Sheol; Its flashes are flashes of fire, The very flame of Yah." (Song of Solomon 8:6b)
Here is the heart of the matter. This covenant love is not a trivial thing. It is as strong, as relentless, as inescapable as death. Death comes for every man, and nothing can stand in its way. So it is with this love. It is an unconquerable power. And Christ's love, of course, proved to be stronger than death, for He entered into death's domain and shattered its gates from the inside.
And with this love comes jealousy. Our culture has made jealousy into a purely negative, petty emotion. But the Bible speaks of a righteous jealousy. God Himself is a jealous God (Ex. 20:5). This is not the insecure envy of one who wants what another has. This is the righteous, zealous protection of what is rightfully yours. A husband who is not jealous when another man attempts to seduce his wife is not a virtuous man; he is a wicked man who does not love his wife. The bride's jealousy, and the groom's, is as "severe as Sheol," the grave. It is exclusive. It demands absolute fidelity. This love creates a universe with only two people in it. So it is with Christ and His Church. He will brook no rivals for our affection. He is jealous for us, and we are to be jealous for Him, casting down all idols.
This love is not a smoldering ember; its flashes are "flashes of fire." More than that, it is the "very flame of Yah," the flame of Yahweh. This is the only place in the Old Testament where this phrase appears. The love between a man and a woman in the covenant of marriage is not a mere human invention. It is a spark from the forge of heaven. It is a fire kindled by God Himself. This is why it is so powerful, and this is why the world, the flesh, and the devil are so intent on extinguishing it.
The Priceless Treasure (v. 7)
The final verse continues to describe the unquenchable and invaluable nature of this love.
"Many waters cannot quench love, Nor will rivers overflow it; If a man were to give all the riches of his house for love, It would be utterly despised.” (Song of Solomon 8:7)
The flame of Yah cannot be put out. The "many waters" of trial, suffering, poverty, sickness, and disappointment cannot quench it. The "rivers" of chaos and opposition cannot sweep it away. A love that is truly a covenant love, a love kindled by God, will endure the floods. This is a promise for every Christian marriage that is built on the rock of Christ. The storms will come, but the house will stand. And it is the ultimate promise for the Church. The gates of Hell, the floods of persecution, will not prevail against the Church, because Christ's love for His bride is unquenchable.
And because this love is a divine fire, it is priceless. It cannot be commodified. "If a man were to give all the riches of his house for love, it would be utterly despised." You cannot buy this. You cannot earn it. You cannot trade for it. Our world tries to do this constantly. Men think they can buy a woman's affection with wealth. Women think they can purchase a man's commitment with beauty. But true covenant love laughs at such transactions. It is a gift. It must be freely given and freely received.
This is the ultimate statement about the gospel. What is the price of God's love for us in Christ? Could we purchase it with all our good works, with all the substance of our house? The thought is blasphemous. It would be utterly despised. God's love is free. His grace is a gift. The redemption we have in Christ is not for sale, because its price has already been paid, not with silver or gold, but with the precious blood of the Lamb. To try and add our own currency to that transaction is to despise the gift.
Conclusion: Leaning on the Beloved
This passage gives us the anatomy of a godly love. It begins in weakness, leaning on the beloved. It is secured by a covenant seal, a mark of permanent ownership. It burns with the intensity of God's own fire, a fire that is as strong as death and as exclusive as the grave. And it is a treasure that cannot be quenched and cannot be bought.
For those who are married, this is your calling. You are to cultivate a love that reflects this reality. You are to lean on one another, and together lean on Christ. You are to be zealous for the exclusivity of your covenant. You are to recognize that the love in your home, when it is rightly ordered, is a supernatural thing, a flame of Yahweh Himself. And you are to treat it as the priceless gift that it is.
And for every believer, married or single, this is the reality of your relationship with Christ. You are the bride, coming up out of the wilderness of sin and death. You must not walk in your own strength. You must lean, every day, on your Beloved. He has awakened you. He has sealed you with His Spirit. His love for you is stronger than death, and His jealousy for you is a comforting fire. The floods of this life will not overwhelm you, because His love cannot be quenched. And you can rest in this love, because you did not buy it, and you cannot lose it. It was given to you at infinite cost to Him, and is therefore offered to you as a free and priceless gift.