Biblical Romance

There’s plenty of ways that people see the Bible. Some like a history book, others as individual stories, and some people think it’s complete fiction.
If you know me, you know I believe it’s a big story. ONE story. But in the pages live stories of ordinary people living out amazing things because God is great.

Romance is there. In the Bible? Romance? Yes, and because it’s February let’s talk a little about a few of the love stories you can find in the pages of the greatest book ever. In no particular order.

Jacob & Rachel

Commitment // Genesis 29 // Jacob is in love with Rachel at first sight. Genesis 29: 17 says that she was “beautiful in form and appearance.” He agrees to work 7 years for permission to marry her. SEVEN. Well her dad tricks him and he ends up “laying” with her sister Leah. But Jacob loves Rachel so much that he agrees to another seven years of work to marry her. So Jacob works for FOURTEEN years to marry her.

He then has 2 wives and each wife had a servant. So technically Jacob is laying around with 4 ladies. But there’s still some romance in the way that Jacob loved Rachel. There’s so much baby mama drama happening because Leah could have kids but Rachel couldn’t. Then the servants had children. Eventually, Rachel has a son, then another, and actually dies during the birth of her second son. Total Jacob has 12 sons, God renames him Israel, and the sons are the 12 tribes of Israel. (See Genesis 30-35 for all that).

The point is that Jacob loved Rachel and was committed to having her as a wife.

Boaz & Ruth

Redemptive // Ruth 2-4 // Ruth is an incredible woman. I have so much to share about her that I’ve started this paragraph over a few times. First off, she’s an important figure in the story of Scripture. She’s one of the few women mentioned in the genealogies of Jesus Christ and she just loves the Lord. She’s a Moabite (foreigner) who marries the son of Naomi, a woman from Bethlehem. After Naomi’s husband and 2 sons die, Naomi decides to return to her family and tells her two daughter-in-laws to return to their families. But because Ruth loves Naomi, she tells her that she’s not turning her back on her or her God. (Ruth 1:16-18)

That’s the back story. Kind of. Boaz is a wealthy land owner. He’s also the relative to Naomi’s dead husband and Ruth’s dead husband. See the Bible is filled with twists and turns. It’s so interesting. He sees Ruth collecting scraps in the field and he cares for her because of her love for Naomi. I don’t want to spoil the romance, I want you to go read Ruth and fall in love with the story of love.

Their marriage is important to the lineage of Jesus Christ, the Church, and all of us.

Abraham & Sarah

Steadfast// Genesis 17-18 // You can’t really talk about biblical love and marriage without these two. The first mention of love in the bible is God speaking to Abraham about his love for his son. So these are people that know what love is. They might also be the longest married couple in history. This I don’t know I’m just guessing that because they lived to be so old that this could be possible.

Their story is a winding one. Where Sarah is impatient and has Abraham sleep with a servant to try to fulfill God’s promise of children. But eventually she has her own son. Then she’s a little bitter and makes her husband send his first son and mom away. You wouldn’t even think this is a great love story. Right?

But read through it. The joy that comes when they have their son. The joy in seeing God’s promises fulfilled. The love they must have felt looking into each other’s eyes while watching their son grow up. Even if eventually Abraham almost sacrifices Isaac, but God provides.

Bride & Groom

Admiration // Song of Solomon // I can’t even sum this story up. But if you read this book out loud and truly listen to the words, all you get is love and romance. I think sometimes we want to leave out any sexy from the bible, but the gift of sex is written all through scripture when it’s between a husband and wife. This story is not one of texting and quick dates. It’s a story of real intentional love.

Mary & Joseph

Faithful // Matthew 1:18-25 // It’s easy to forget that they were real people. A young girl, barely a woman, about to be married to a carpenter. The words in Matthew about what Joseph could have done instead of loving her are true. He could have shamed her. He could have called off the marriage. He could have punished her. Instead, he was faithful to God and trusted both Him and Mary. Thankfully he decided to be faithful.

Mary often is portrayed as meek and weak. She probably was meek but I think she’s one of the strongest mothers ever to walk this earth. Jesus was a confident young man and reading the stories of the beginning of his ministry, you start to think his mom might have wanted to roll her eyes at him or potentially just knock some motherly sense into him. Maybe that’s just me reading scripture as a mom of boys.

God entrusted her to carry His son in her womb, birth him in a stall, and raise him. That all seems easy compared to the fact that she was a witness to her son’s torture and stood at the foot of His death on a cross. Not weak at all.

If you like a little romance, don’t discount the Bible. There’s some drama, plenty of love triangles, even some rhombuses. But the sweet sweet love is there.