In Africa, there is a tradition that must be followed if a man wants to take a wife for himself. He is required to pay a dowry in cows to the bride’s father, and the father is the one who establishes how many cows must be paid. There are many young couples in Africa who live together as married but are, as yet, not married officially because the cow dowry is not yet been paid, simply because the young man has not been able to afford it yet. In that condition, there is a level of disgrace and shame that the bridegroom lives with until he is able to pay off the cow dowry. The governments in many nations have tried to outlaw this practice but it has been with very little success because the cow dowry is such a part of tribal tradition. The amount of cows that are paid say a lot about how much the bridegroom loves and values the young girl and, if it is a lot of cows that are paid, the young girl lives with a great sense of public worth and significance in the eyes of others and in her own eyes.
Take a look at these verses in the Song of Solomon, “For your love is better than wine. Your oils have a pleasing fragrance. Your name is like oil poured out, therefore the maiden’s love you. Draw me after you and let us run together.” The Shulumite has discovered the most important thing that any human being could ever discover and that is that the love of Christ is better than anything the world has to offer. She declares that no pleasure she has ever known in the world can compare to experiencing the love of Jesus. She then says that his oils have a pleasing fragrance, which means that in encountering the love of Jesus she has also discovered that nothing is more satisfying than His presence. The Psalms says, “In His presence is fullness of joy, and at His right hand there are pleasures forevermore.”
The encounter that the Shulumite had with the love of Christ was when she discovered the nature of his love which is summed up in the phrase your name, or your identity, is like oil poured out. A better translation would probably be “your name is Emptied Out.” In other words, using the African analogy of the cow dowry, the Shulumite discovered how many cows Jesus is willing to give to have her as his bride. The amount he was willing to give was his own life emptied out for her. This price he was willing to pay for her established her worth and significance in his eyes and therefore in hers. She had never seen such love.
Jesus was not willing to give something for us; instead he gave Himself for us. In light of this revelation and encounter of the love of God in Christ, the Shulumite cries out, “Draw me after you, let us run.”