Ravished

“Let her be as the loving hind and pleasant roe; let her breasts satisfy thee at all time; and be thou ravished always with her love.”  Proverbs 5:19 (NIV)

Ravished – Punch-drunk love!  That’s the way the Bible describes the kind of sexual experience that marriage should produce.  In fact, the word saga actually carries the meaning “to be intoxicated”.  It describes the staggering motion (going astray) of a man who has had too much.  Imagine this imagery in the bedroom.  God intends a husband to be so intoxicated with his wife that he can hardly stand.  Now that is great sex!

The Bible is hardly a prudish text.  Consider this allegory in Proverbs and the parallel imagery in Song of Solomon.  The Bible thinks sex is terrific.  And why not?  God invented it.  If we thought the Bible was anti-sex, we must have read it someplace else.

The real issue in the Bible is not a prohibition against the powerful, nearly drunken-like ravishing experience of marital sex.  It is about whom you have sex with.  In the Bible, sex like this belongs only within the sanctity of marriage.  God packs some powerful gifts into the marriage covenant and this is certainly one of them.  Marriage is God’s safe ground for crazy pleasure.

These verses raise two serious questions.  The first is obvious.  Why don’t Christians embrace wholeheartedly this wild, intoxicating, out of your mind view of marital sex?  Imagine what a difference it would make to our children if they understood that God planned marriage to be this exciting.  It would definitely be worth waiting for.  But we seem to have settled for the non-alcoholic version of sex.  At best we might allow a little light beer variety.  But drunk in love?  No way!  What a shame that we have shortchanged our marriages and mis-informed our children.

The second question is a little more personal.  If this is what God intended, does it reflect what’s happening with you?  Husbands, are you intoxicated with your wives?  Wives, do you glow in your husbands’ sexual intoxication over you?  Maybe it’s time to put some saga in the bedroom.  And you won’t need a gin and tonic to do it.