In Episode 10 of Journey Through the Song, Sam and Debbie continue into one of the most profound and intimate moments in the Song of Solomon, where love reaches its full expression within the safety of covenant. This episode explores how true sexual intimacy in marriage is not rushed, but thoughtfully pursued through patience, sensitivity, and deep connection. As the relationship unfolds, listeners will see how God designed intimacy to be mutual, meaningful, and deeply satisfying—rooted in love that seeks to give, not just receive.

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Welcome to the Fortifying youg Family podcast.

It can be daunting to navigate through an anti marriage and family culture.

Our teacher will expound biblical principles to help fortify our families and keep these sacred institutions strong.

And now, here's this week's teaching from Sam Wood.

We want to welcome you back to our journey through the Song of Songs.

And ma', am, this has been a fantastic journey.

Hard to believe.

This is the 10th session and we want to invite you in this session to get out your Bibles.

Turn with us to Song of Solomon, chapter four.

I want to remind you also that if you've got questions, feel free free to submit your questions.

We'll try to get answers back to you as we go through this teaching.

But we're in Song of Solomon, chapter 4.

And in the last session, we paused in the middle of a very intimate scene between Solomon and his bride.

And Solomon was praising the beauty of different parts of his bride's body by using very distinctive metaphors that she would understand being a country girl.

And as he gets to verse seven, it's like he reaches this crescendo after looking at her face and her figure and how beautiful she is.

And he says, thou art fair, my love.

There's no spot in the.

I love the verse.

And when he says, thou art fair, he's saying, hey, baby, you're all together beautiful.

There is no spot in me.

You're just so beautiful.

Now we pick up this scene in this session in verse eight.

And Solomon is speaking here and he says, come with me from Lebanon, my spouse with me from Lebanon.

Look or depart from the top of Amana, from the top of Sear and Hermon, from the lions dens, from the mountains of the leopards.

Now, in reading verse 8, it just seems very odd.

I mean, all of a sudden he's given this crescendo of how beautiful she is.

He's looking at her body.

And now he says, listen, in this passionate, romantic scene, he says, I want you to join me and travel with me from the mountains of Lebanon.

And it's kind of strange in reading this verse when you first read this, but every commentary we read and read had different interpretations and explanations of this.

Some fields, this describes an upward journey.

And Solomon is inviting his bride, inviting her to climb to the peaks of ecstasy.

Up and up, away, we might say, into orgasm.

But the wording depart from the peak really indicates rather than ascending, descending, rather than climbing, up, going down.

So knowing the minds of females and considering the whirlwind events of the Bride's past week.

I mean, they've had the wedding day and she had the wedding procession.

All these things that happen.

We tend to agree with Dillo and Penna's comments that Solomon is gently convincing his homesick bride to really set aside her thoughts of her homeland and join his thoughts in the relationship in the bridal chamber and the wonderful love they're experiencing.

During the past few days since arriving at the palace Shulamite, all of a sudden she's encountered a totally different world that she has to claim as her new normal.

And she left the familiarity of a modest country home.

She traveled through the wilderness by these extravagant means, you know, in a parade, she was always the center of attention.

And she landed in this luxurious palace full of, of the inquisitive stares of a multitude of divas and princesses.

I mean, then there's the wedding, there's the formal banquet, and now she's in the bedroom with the king.

This is pretty bewildering.

And she's trying to digest this and at the same time offer intimate attention to the king.

So it's natural she would feel a little bit homesick.

Whose thoughts wouldn't wander a little bit.

And you know, for females, it's not uncommon that at the end of the day when we're unwinding, we might find ourselves on the path of romance, but our thoughts might veer slightly off that path into random thoughts.

It's part of de stressing letting go of the day.

And the mind just vacillates from thought to thought until they're dismissed.

And, you know, I remember this one young wife, and she told us she could find herself in a very passionate moment and all of a sudden be distracted because she noticed there was a little bit of dust on the post of the bed.

Really?

Dust on the post of the bed.

So she automatically instructs herself to make a note to dust the next day.

She didn't intentionally direct her mind that way.

Her thoughts just landed on a responsibility.

Yeah.

You know, and Solomon, who is a really a picture of Jesus Christ, understands the emotional needs of his wife, of his bride.

And he doesn't get frustrated, he doesn't get impatient with her, but instead he gently and poetically shifts her attention away from her thoughts of her home country where she's homesick and she's left it behind her and invites her to steer her thoughts to the beauty and passion of the moment that they're in.

And that's just so, so wonderful.

No wonder she's been impressed with his understanding not only did Solomon understand the importance of being sensitive to her needs, but God, the inspiration of the song wants husbands to be reminded that love is patient and love is sensitive.

And sometimes when I say these words, I think about all the conferences we've done, and I look at the expressions of many wives.

Sometimes when we're teaching this, and it's like, really?

Would you say that again?

So my husband hears that, that God wants husbands to be reminded that love is patient and love is sensitive.

Wives can trust a husband with such this kind of compassionate understanding.

God speaks these truths to couples in order to enhance their sexual intimacy.

And in doing so, he marvelously displays, displays the depth of love and care that he has for us as believers.

So it's a beautiful picture.

As Solomon invites his new wife to release her thoughts and to concentrate on their journey of love.

The couple is right there on the edge of explicit or maybe even erotic sexual activity.

And at this point, it's the first time in the song that Solomon refers to his love as my bride.

And this really, this phrase, my bride really emphasizes that their marital covenant is now official and supports the scriptural principle that sexual intercourse is reserved for marriage.

And he continues in verse 9 and 10 and says, Thou has ravished me, my heart, my sister, my spouse.

Thou hast ravished my heart with one of your eyes, with one chain of your neck.

How fair or beautiful is thy love, my sister, my spouse.

How much better is your love than wine or big party and the smell of your ointments than all the spices that can be found?

And in these verses, we can see tell that the bride is actively displaying skills as a lover.

The word for love means caresses, and wine represents the supreme pleasure.

So Solomon is complimenting his bride on her caresses that bring him pleasure.

Now, the oils refer to.

Now, these are natural moisture that results from female excitement.

It's like a lubricant.

And when a body is clean and fresh, the oils have a pleasant smell to a man.

So the bride, hey, ladies.

She looks good, she smells good, she tastes good, and she's responsive.

And notice she's no longer thinking about the cultural standard of beauty and how she doesn't match up.

She's concentrating on her lover.

So Solomon continues to describe her.

He says, thy lips, O my spouse, drop as the honeycomb.

Honey and milk are under thy tongue, and the smell of thy garments is like the smell of Lebanon.

Now, we know she's not passive here.

She's very actively involved because this verse vividly, vividly describes the way she kisses your lips, drip nectar and honey and milk under your tongue.

And also she must be wearing a really sheer open negligee that's scented from her signature perfume packet, you know, it would be mixed with blossoms and spices from her homeland.

And we said that the negligee is probably sheer or open.

Joseph Dillo comments, or he advises wives, if your husbands like black see through lingerie, don't wear flannel pajamas to bed.

You're not living in the nunnery, you're sleeping with a man.

He's not interested in fighting through yards of clothes, missionary muumus in order to find you.

That's good.

A wife's wardrobe should include some sexy lingerie.

So Solomon Responds in verse 12, a garden enclosed is my sister, my spouse, a spring shut up, a fountain sealed.

Now Solomon poetically uses the word garden to speak of his bride's vagina.

She's a virgin, she's never been entered.

And gardens were in that day very hidden and private.

And they had fruit trees in them.

There were winding paths, there were canals of running water, fountains, sweet smelling blossoms and shade and refreshment.

And so to make love with her, he's saying, is like entering paradise.

You know, when he calls it garden, I can't help but think back to the original garden, the garden of Eden.

And Eden, if you look up, that word means an enclosed place of pleasure.

And I can't help but think that perhaps he has that in mind, that your garden is an enclosed place of all types of pleasure.

Her pleasures are secret and hidden from everybody but her husband, everybody but Solomon, who's a rightful owner of her garden.

So Solomon is anticipating entrance into her secret refreshing garden.

And pay attention to the beauty and the preciousness of the description he gives.

In verse 13 he says, Thy plants are an orchard of pomegranates with pleasant fruits, campfire with spikenard, spikenard with saffron, calamus and cinnamon, with all trees of frankincense, myrrh and aloes, with all the chief spices.

By calling her garden an orchard of pomegranates, he says that her garden contains all the most delectable and delicious fruits.

Then in verse 15, he says, a fountain of gardens, a well of living waters and streams from Lebanon.

Her garden, he says, is like an open well from which he can draw refreshment.

Just as a thirsty traveler could come upon a well in a dry desert, and it refreshes him.

These streams of Lebanon refer to the juices that lubricate her vagina for intercourse.

So Solomon has slowly and very gently journeyed along Shulamite's body.

With tender thoughtfulness, he romantically convinces her to enjoy the progression and take pleasure with him in this progression.

And this wise lover, Solomon, understood and respected the differences in the way God has made us physiologically between a male and female body.

I think it's good that you pointed out that the groom has very slowly and gently enjoyed her full body, not just zeroing in on the strategic areas.

She feels completely appreciated.

She's relaxed and she's responsive, and she communicates to this to the groom.

In verse 16, she says, Awake, O north wind, and come thou south.

Blow upon my garden, that the spices thereof may flow out.

Let my beloved come into his garden and eat his pleasant fruits.

Now, north winds, they bring clear weather, and they remove clouds.

South winds bring warmth and moisture.

But crosswinds promote the growth of a garden.

So she's telling her groom that the things he's doing are stimulating her garden.

See, communication is vital in the sexual progression.

You can't put a woman's body into a formula for stimulation.

And a guy's body is wired so differently than a female body that communication becomes essential.

But the wording for communication can be awkward.

Talking to each other.

Yeah, when you use proper names for body parts, you might feel like you're in bed with your gynecologist.

If you use slang names, you feel dirty or degraded.

So a lot of women choose slang, silent sex.

But this can hinder the groom's understanding of what his bride really needs.

So what we challenge you to do is to choose your own pet names or follow the example of this scripture.

I mean, they talk about gardens and fruits and spices, and then they know each one of them understands what.

What the conversation's about.

The bride encourages her husband to promote the growth of her sexual past passion.

She's saying, you know, I want more.

And once she's fully aroused, she invites him to enter his garden.

She began saying, stimulate my garden, but now she relinquishes ownership of the garden to him.

It's his garden.

His garden.

And I can't help but think if you reread really the last few verses, you repeatedly notice the bodily transfer, we might say, of ownership.

And they're officially in covenant, and they're saying again and again, you, blood, to me, you are mine, and I have authority over your body.

Even as we said refers to First Corinthians, chapter 7, and verse 4.

I like what Ian Dugat says about this.

He says the family wall that separated them in chapter 2 and verse 9 has been bridged with the creation of a new family unit.

And she has left her father and mother and been joined to her husband.

And the two have become one flesh.

That wall has been torn down.

Now they're married, they're in the covenant of marriage, so they can join together as one flesh, as husband and as wife.

And at the point of her invitation, at this point her body is prepared and it's lubricated and she's ready to experience him completely.

That's when she gives him the invitation.

So in chapter five, in verse one, listen to Solomon's we like to call it the afterglow.

After having making love with his wife, he says, I, I am come into my garden, my sister, my spouse.

I've gathered my myrrh with my spice, I've eaten my honeycomb with my honey, I've drunk my wine with my milk.

Now he says to gather.

He's talking about gathering, eating, drinking.

All this refers to sexual enjoyment.

He's telling Shulamite, his bride, how exhilarating it was to make love with her.

And as you can see, the afterglow is an essential element of lovemaking and often tell couples, especially the guys, you shouldn't just roll over and go to sleep after you make love with your wife.

You need to savor that moment with each other, express to each other how pleasurable it was to make love with each other and have fun, thankful you are for each other, even thanking God that he would allow you to come together this way to enjoy each other and take pleasure as one flesh.

This prepares the atmosphere.

When you do that, it prepares the atmosphere for the next sexual lovemaking experience that you may have the next day or sometime in the future.

But note at the end of chapter five and verse one, a third person speaks to the couple and endorses their lovemaking experience.

Because it says, eat, O friends, drink, Yea, drink abundantly.

Or that word drink abundantly means being.

Be drunk with love, oh beloved.

And so someone is speaking in to their intimacy, and they have just enjoyed and is talking with them to be drunk with love and joy, this gift that God has given to you.

Ian Duga clarifies.

And he says, at this central and climatic moment of the poem, an unidentified speaker adds words of approbation.

Eat, friends, drink and get drunk with caresses.

Whether the speaker is the daughters of Jerusalem, the wider community, or God himself, as we tend to think, giving his sanction on the couple's union is ultimately unimportant.

Whoever is speaking reflects the author's evaluation of the consummation of the marriage, declaring it to be very good.

Yet these words remind us once again that sex and marriage are not simply the private satisfaction of individual appetites and pleasures between consenting adults, but always exist in the larger context of the community of faith.

It's beautiful, and I love the passage today because it so powerfully illustrates the depth and intensity of combining covenant love, affectionate love and sexual love.

What an incredible bonding.

And this is what every person longs for.

And the groom and the bride both set aside self to intentionally concentrate on enhancing the relationship or the experience for the benefit of their covenant partner.

And the result was mutual ecstasy.

You know, I just really marvel, I really do, at God's plan for marriage as he lays this out in the Song of Songs.

God is saying, this is so important that you understand these things.

And I'm putting it in the word, word of God.

I'm not bashful about it.

I'm very open about how I created you to be sexual creatures, how you to come together in the covenant of marriage, how you would enjoy each other and take pleasure in each other.

But I also agree with what Ian Dugat says.

He says the goal of the Song of Songs is not simply to teach God's people to have great sex with in marriage.

Rather, the song gives us a glimpse into the heart of the God who Himself loves us so passionately.

And I think that is so true.

He gives us just a glimpse of the heart of God who.

Who abounds in love for his people.

And I think that's so true.

Only an unsurpassable passionate love could result in the sacrificial death on the cross for such an undeserving bride as you and I and all of us, us only this wonderful love of God.

The cross proves that he didn't marry us because we were beautiful.

He married us in order to make us beautiful by the power of his transforming love.

And his covenant love completely fulfills us.

And we should strive to emulate that same covenant love in a relationship with our spouse.

And you know, the more we obsess with God's love and understand his love, the more we can overflow with that same covenant love toward each other.

And our prayer is that the truths that we share today will drive you to selflessly pursue each other and to burn with desire for the perfect love relationship that can only be found in Jesus Christ.

I hope you've been blessed again, by the way, session today and all these sessions in the journey through the song.

And if you have.

I hope you'll share it with other people that you know and other couples you know.

I think it can be a blessing to them.

And until next time, may the grace and peace and protection of our wonderful heavenly bridegroom be with you all.

Love you.

God bless you.

Thank you for joining the Fortifying youg Family podcast.

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