The Love God

Put me like a seal over your heart, like a seal on your arm; for love is as strong as death, jealousy as severe as Sheol; its flashes are flashes of fire, the very flame of the LORD. Song of Songs 8:6

Flame of the LORD – The capstone of Song of Songs is found in one single word, shalhebetya.  This is a compound word, shalhebet (flame) plus ya (Yah).  Translating this word as “flame of the LORD” disguises something amazing and incredibly important.  The Hebrew word contains a short version of YHWH in the final syllable, ya.  While this could be rendered in English as “LORD” (according to the tradition of not saying the divine name YHWH), such a translation obscures the fact that the divine name is incorporated into the word for flame.  This capstone verse tells us that love is an essential expression of holiness.  How do we know that?  Because the association of fire with YHWH is always connected with God’s holiness.

Consider the relationship between fire and holiness.  When God descends on the mountain, He appears to the people in fire, thick cloud and earthquakes.  When He descends on the Tabernacle, fire accompanies His presence.  The prophets speak of God in terms of fire.  Daniel 7:9-10 describes the Ancient of Days as fiery flames.  And the New Testament calls God a “consuming fire.”  From altar to imagery, flames accompany God’s character, word and behavior.  Song of Songs tells us that these flames are flames of love, directly connected to the very nature of God.

It is perhaps not accidental that the Greek version of the Hebrew Scripture (LXX) translates this word with agape, not eros.  In spite of the overwhelming eroticism of the Song of Songs, the rabbis chose a word that expresses the deepest possible connection between sacrificial love (think of the flames on the altar) and the character of God.

Why is this etymological revelation important?  It’s important because it sets aside, once and for all, any notion that sexuality is bad, wrong or sinful.  Within the parameters set by the author of sexuality, love play imitates something about God’s very nature.  Song of Songs is holy eroticism.  Sexual intimacy has a holy character.  Given by God, consummated in His garden of delight, enacted under His banner according to His design, sexual intimacy is an act of worship, an experience of something connected directly to holiness, so close to God’s nature that it is as if we are burned by His flames.

How different would our lives become if we understood this holy aspect of sex?  I don’t mean to say that we just need more rules about sexual behavior.  I mean that God’s gift of sexuality provides us with a doorway to something much more than physical behavior.  What we are supposed to discover is the deepest form of community.  What we are given is a pathway into unity, harmony and care that intimates the presence of shekinah glory.  Sexual activity without the flame of Yah is simply animal attraction.  But with the flame, the hidden world of spiritual ecstasy opens.  How different it would be if believing, married couples exhibited the presence of the flame of Yah in lovemaking.  What an impact it would have on the fertility-cult culture if believers reveled in God’s gift of fire in the bedroom.  The great rabbi Akiva recognized the essential connection between man, woman, sexuality and holy fire.  If you have the time, you can read his insight here.

Topical Index:  flame of Yah, shalhebetya, Song of Songs 8:6