Divine Exclusivity
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 the LORD. Song of Solomon 8:6
Jealousy – Are you the jealous type? Before you deny this denigrated emotional attitude, you better understand the meaning of qin’ah, the Hebrew word used in this verse. Plainly put, if you don’t have this kind of jealousy, you will make a terrible and unfaithful mate.
Qin’ah comes from the root word qanah. It means “intense passion and emotion, greater than anger or wrath.” It is the word used to describe God’s zeal over Israel, an emotional attitude that allows nothing to deflect or defer His love for His people. While the word itself can be used in both a negative or positive sense (depending on context), here it is definitely something worth having. In fact, love without jealousy is nothing but passing affection.
Why must my love contain a jealousy that is as tenacious as the grave? Because my love must be so single-minded that nothing, not even death, can interrupt its desire. This is a proclamation of total fidelity, of unyielding exclusivity. This is a passion that tolerates not a single rival! If your relationship with your spouse (or your God) is missing qin’ah, you are lukewarm in your affection and commitment. God will vomit you out (Revelation 3:16) and so will your mate (if she has any sense of divine intention). Love without jealousy is robbed of its consuming fire.
But love with qin’ah is so hot to handle that you get burned with the fire of God’s own flames. This is love exploding, love raging, love consuming. This is the stuff of legends and stories – and it is what every one of us longs to experience – a love so strong and so intense that we are swept up in its heat and we never want anything else. This is pure passion unleashed, the little death when I am wholly given away to another.
If you thought the Biblical record was tame, or that Hollywood was the only place to find passionate romance, you’ve never read this poem in Hebrew. The Bible knows (no pun intended) the passion of sex – and the true depth of love without restraint. This is how God loves and how we are to love. Exclusively. Utterly. Nothing held back.
