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12. This was their first time. She is called 'a locked garden'. Some people would laugh at that, and think she must be prudish, frustrated, and repressed. But when they're married, she enthusiastically says: ‘Come into my garden and taste its fruit’ Why might they have saved sex for marriage? No risk of unwanted pregnancy. No (anti-)social diseases. They didn’t feel ready for the emotional attachment sex brings. Maybe they wanted their first time to be with the person they would love for life. The Bible encourages this choice. 13. They understand each other’s fears. She tells him about her nightmare of losing him and being abused by soldiers. He listens to her fears of being used and hurt and manipulated, or not performing well, and is patient, gentle and encouraging. He wins her trust and encourages her to take the risk of love. |
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Why was the church so shy about sex? NOT because of the Bible, as we’ve seen. It’s because of Plato (not a washing up liquid - a Greek philosopher!). He said people were made of two parts: body and soul. The soul was godly and good and the body was inferior. What the soul did (thought, prayer) was good, but things of the body (food, sex, sport) were less noble. Plato invented the ‘Platonic relationship’ - mind-to-mind, but not body-to-body - and said that was the best way. But the Bible had no such hang-ups. In Genesis, God created the human body ‘male and female’ and said it was ‘very good’ and ‘the man and his wife were naked and knew no shame’. | |||
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