Valentine Day and the Song of Songs

My daughter shared this really cute video about the proverbial relationship  “doghouse.”  If you understand “spending time in the doghouse,” you will appreciate the video.  There is a follow up that provides the genesis of the video and it promoted this blog post concerning the Song of Songs a few days before Valentine Day.

Once you view the second video you realize the capitalism (and creativity) of retailers on Valentine Day.  But in the Song there is no Valentine Day. Based on that observation some of you may wish to live back in Solomon’s a day!  There was no gift giving expectations! There was no struggle with what gift not to buy for V-Day.  While it is true there is no day dedicated to proclaiming love and affection in the Song, it is equally true that ALL the days (and nights!) of these two lovers are devoted to love’s proclamations and subsequent erotic actions!  In this relationship everyday is Valentine Day!  If this is true and February 14th is mainly for giving romantic gifts, you can almost hear your wallet crying.

In my study for this post, I had hoped to find that the Song would argue against such crass commercialism and the trappings of Valentine Day i.e. expensive jewelry, rich chocolate, etc. Instead I found that the female lover was worthy of a fine-jeweled necklace and rich ornamental earrings (SoS 1:10, 11). Her appetite also craved the food of the day,  “love food” to keep her energy for their evening of passion (SoS 2:5)!

There seems to be no escaping the trappings of the 14^th day of the second month of the year.  So follow the Song; skip the vacuum and blender as gifts and think biblically in your offering.  However, as you consider your 2014 V-day gift I would suggest that while you want to follow a literal interpretation AND application of the biblical text, in this instance skip the literal apples and raisin cakes,….. splurge for Godiva chocolates—in the shape of apples and dark chocolate covered raisins just to be closer to the text. Buying a bag of apples and a loaf of raisin bread could land you in the doghouse this weekend!