Listen

Again the bride dreams (“I slept, but my heart was awake.”). And the dream is intensely erotic, described using common Hebrew euphemisms.

The dream: She and her husband are in bed asleep, and the husband initiates to his beloved, to open herself to him (2). She had prepared herself for this (3). He stimulates her (4), and she is thrilled. She awakes a bit more, and becomes physically ready to receive him (5). And just at the moment when she takes him and is about to receive him . . . He is gone (6).

So she again runs through the streets at night (7), being beaten by the night watchmen, perhaps for causing a ruckus. She is sick with love (8).

A few observations. First, dear reader, remember that this is in the Bible - a fact so obvious as to be overlooked. The Bible is erotic at times, made possible without sin by setting the erotica like a diamond within the entire wedding ring of the rest of the Bible. Thus it is set in the design of God and in marriage, which is a living parable of the initiating love of Christ for his Bride, the Church.

Thus sexual desire in marriage should be fulfilled by mutual initiation and reception (1 Cor. 7:5). But always in purity. And this purity is especially necessary when circumstances dictate we must burn a bit while waiting for the other.