The Brides Matchless Beauty - most beautiful woman
The bride in Solomon’s Song of Songs is the “most beautiful woman.” Song 1:8 Both her inner moral beauty and outer beauty are matchless. Literally she is the most beautiful woman. Both her inner beauty and outer beauty are unmistakably above all other women. So much so that all the other queens praised her Song 6:9. All you need to do is look at how king Solomon describes her.
Of all the Love Songs Solomon wrote this one stands above all the others in its ability to communicate to our whole hearts true idea’s of love. Love is a moral inner beauty yet all outer natural physical or secondary beauties are only reflections or shadow of God’s moral beauty or excellency. God’s Moral Beauty is His Holiness, whereby God is without flaw. So when we see a woman without flaw on the outside we get some idea of how God is without flaw and morally beautiful.
Each beauty is an emanation of the Beauty of God, yet each beauty can communicate to us various aspects of God’s beauty that are more lively in one beauty than another.
Her beauty lies in the fact that she consents and is united with Being in General. The stricter the union and the greater the quality of consent the more beautiful. God is beautiful. God is Spirit. God’s Spirit is beautiful and Beauty itself. She is beautiful and delightful to behold for her natural beauty is stunning yet there is a better moral beauty and more delightful beholding in the sight of the glory of God in the face of Solomon and the best infinite Beauty and most delightful beholding in the sight of the Glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ! 2 Cor. 3:18
Her moral beauty which consists in her love manifested by her loving obedience to his request of her to “come down from the mountain” when her life was at stake, was more delightful than wine and ravished his heart. Song 4:8-10
All nature, including the human body consists, in things being precisely according to strict rules of harmony both privately and generally. Each single or private beauty is harmonious within itself and the general beauty of her whole body and soul.
For example in Song 4:1-5, the bridegroom is adoring the upper half of his brides beautiful body starting from her hair down. The beautiful length of her hair gives us a lively idea of the weight of her beauty and glory which is great due to it being described as “flock“…”coming down from mount Gilead” 4:1. Yet the beauty of her teeth doesn’t communicate to us so much of the weight of her beauty and glory but the symmetry and proportion of it for her teeth are “matched and none are missing” 4:2. Plus also the description of her teeth communicates to us that they could do their job quite well. Her teeth were fit for their purpose. At any rate my purpose isn’t to explain what aspect or adumbrations of God’s glory and beauty are reflected in each external beauty of the bride but more so to list all the external beauties.
The better or more lively the outward illustration or picture of God’s beauty the better the communication of it to our minds. Two women could communicate to us some idea of God’s moral beauty yet one woman may be more beautiful than another, thus having greater emanations of God’s internal beauty reflected in her natural external beauty. Yet the more beautiful woman externally may do a terrible job in her life in displaying holiness in her life and therefor fail miserably at glorifying God.
There are degree’s of beauty both internal and external. One rose can look more beautiful and less deformed than another. Teeth can look more beautiful and less deformed than another. So also the hair, cheeks, lips etc. Since the purpose of external beauty is to reflect moral beauty then it would be fit and proper that the woman in a love song above all others would be “the most beautiful woman.” Not only internally but externally as well.
From the beginning of the Song to the end here is a list of the external, natural, secondary physical beauties of the bride.
Beauty #
- The whole Bride. Internal and externally she is “the most beautiful woman“. Song 1:7, 15, 4:1 and 4:7, 6:4, 6:8-9, 6:10, 7:6. 8x
- “Flawless one” 5:2
- Her “cheeks” 1:10
- “Neck” 1:10, 4:4, 7:4. 3x
- “Doves Eyes” 1:15, 4:1, 6:5, 7:4. 4x
- “Face” or “form” 2:14
- “Hair” in 4:1, 6:5, 7:5. 3x
- “Teeth” 4:2, 6:6
- “Lips” 4:3, 11
- “Mouth” 4:3
- “Temples” 4:3, 6:7
- “Breasts” 5:5, 7:3, 7:7, 8:10. 4x
- “Feet” 7:1
- “Legs” 7:1
- “Navel” 7:2
- “Waist” 7:2
- “Nose” 7:4
- “Head” 7:5
What do we learn from this?
We learn that Solomon praised the external beauty of his wife quite often.
Solomon didn’t leave out much at all.
The overall beauty of the bride herself was praised more than anything else. About 10 times the brides overall beauty was adored, gazed upon, beheld, praised or brought attention to.
It shouldn’t surprise us that a woman of superlative beauty is the bride in a Love Song that is better than any other love song.
The purpose of the wisest man on the planet to have a wife of unmatched beauty as his wife isn’t to illustrate that a king with unmeasurable wisdom ought to have a wife of unmatched external beauty but that such a beautiful woman would best reflect the beauty of God.
A woman of superlative external and internal beauty would best reflect the internal moral Beauty of God which is His Holiness consisting in Love, therefore a better idea of the love of God is communicated to our minds when beholding a woman of superlative beauty.
To be holy is to be without sin or without moral flaw. Set apart for the purpose of God. Each body part of the woman was set apart to reflect the beauty of God and each part was beautiful therefore when viewed all at once she was the most beautiful woman.
The bride of Israel’s Messiah was without external flaw, which reflects the Holiness of God. The holiness of God is His Beauty! It is delightful to behold the moral beauty of God reflected in the external beauty of the bride and every woman ought to delight to behold that beauty and not get jealous wherever it manifests itself.
It is also interesting to note that of all her body parts her breasts were mentioned the most out of any other part. 4x they are mentioned. Solomon when warning his son about adultery encourages him to intoxicated with the love and breasts of his wife and be satisfied with them alone and no other woman.
“How beautiful you are, my darling!
Oh, how beautiful!“
Also note that her “Eyes” were mentioned 4x as well. Her eyes were beautiful when they were eye to eye for the first time and they were like doves. Then again in 4:1 they are like doves on the wedding night. And again on the wedding night, “one glance” of her eyes his way when he called was more delightful than wine. And in 6:5 her stunningly beautiful eyes were nearly to much for him. Then again he adores them in 7:4.
Its a tie also for the second most mentioned single body part. Both her hair and neck are mentioned 3x. The woman hair is her glory.
Her temples, teeth and lips get mentioned twice. And if you include her lips and mouth to be the same thing then her lips are also mentioned twice.
“Her cheeks were beautiful with earrings” Song 1:11
Since Solomon was young. The maiden more than like was as well.
External beauty does fade but while it is there the external beauty of the bride in the Song of Songs did a great job of reflecting the moral beauty of God.
A praise of the natural beauty is a praise and delight in the reflected moral beauty of God. God is beautiful and any manifestation of his beauty is a reflection or shadow of his beauty. We are to delight in God and any manifestation of His Beauty, this is what we were created for.
When we behold external beauty, wherever it may be found may we not just see the beauty of a woman, a rose or sunset but be reminded of the Source of that image of God seen in the secondary beauty.
Some people have commented on some of these girls looking younger than 14. I have no clue how old they were, but in Jewish culture and law the youngest a woman could be was age 12. The Talmud recommends the man to be between 18-24 and the woman 12 or older. My guess is that Solomon was about age 15-17 when he took the throne. Remember when God came to him in a dream and asked him what he desired. Solomon said, “I am but a child, can I have wisdom to lead Your people.” Then God gave young king Solomon unmeasurable wisdom more than likely the night of his wedding which was the same day he got married. Solomon’s Song of Songs
CATEGORIES
Comments
Post a Comment