by erika haveman
I left you last week only having just started to scratch the surface on some laws that we might consider offensive. But we need to read this book remembering that we glean from it the truth of what God is saying. This book wasn’t written directly to us – it was written directly to a people in a nation with specific and often vastly different issues than ours. With that in mind, here are 2 things we need to consider in light of, specifically, the law about rape and the victim marrying their rapist.
1. We have to realize our parents don’t set up our marriages anymore. I know this is shocking for a lot of you unmarried people because you were under the impression that your parents have been actively looking for your mate since your childhood. This just isn’t expected of them! I’m sorry (not sorry), but you do need to put yourself out there and ask people out, respond to date invites, and maybe even do things like online dating to see who is in the same boat as you. Just saying. Or maybe you do have parents trying to set you up…and hey, all the power to them. But really, we all know that this isn’t the expected norm in our culture. It’s just not. Because we have the luxury (or bond?) of choice, we generally find our own spouse (and we trust God with that, yes, of course). We have the freedom to make that choice. Old Testament Israelite women did not have a choice in who they would marry. This was why in the OT the man who violated the woman needed to marry her. Without the marriage, she would never be provided for (and no, we are not getting into gender roles and “who provides for who” right now). Men knew that rape meant bearing the aftermath and responsibility of such an offensive act. In our culture, rape is a crime that is punished by our laws. God’s law in the OT provided justice in a culturally appropriate way. In the case of Israel, the Bible was shaping their culture in light of the norm that parents needed to provide a spouse for their children. Sex, whether consensual was indicative of a marriage commitment.
2. Sex is still important enough to be indicative of a marriage commitment. But the things in our present day, western culture that lead up to a marriage commitment are very different than that of Israel’s culture. Regardless of whether or not we can agree with the concessions God made to deal with the disobedience of the Israelites, God clearly seemed to underscore the importance of one’s sexuality being expressed exclusively in a marriage relationship. If this wasn’t the case, there wouldn’t be commands, detailed commands, about what to do when consentual sex outside of marriage is had (Deut. 22:13-30) or why not to take many wives (Deut. 17:17) or even how to deal with accidental nocturnal emissions (not my words; Deut. 23:9-11).
God genuinely cares about the posture of our hearts when it comes to our sexuality. Beyond that, God just flat out cares about our sexuality. And more than just “don’t have sex before marriage because I said so.”
In the Old Testament God’s mercy is seen through the Law. Rather than seeing the Law as God’s righteous box of never having fun we need to see it as part of our higher calling to submit ourselves to God. If you’re not willing to submit yourself to God, why do you bother claiming to follow Him? Seriously. That’s a harsh word, but part of being a disciple of Christ is discipline. Discipline is real stuff. For the Israelites, their discipline was clearly laid out in the Law of God. Disobedience to God’s Laws deserved death. This is why God lays down all these seemingly ridiculous, hard to read and nearly impossible to understand rules about sacrifices. God was a perfect, holy God and He deserves nothing less than that. For Israel this meant giving God the best of their livestock and harvest. Throughout the OT we see God’s people suffer and we might think, “How can we serve a God that was so vengeful?”
Were you told as a child not to touch the stove because it was hot and you’d burn yourself? Maybe you touched the stove anyways, and learned the truth the hard way. Either way, somebody warned you of danger, and you either heeded it or ignored it. If you heeded the word, you didn’t get burned. If you ignored it…well you may still have the scars to prove it. When someone warns you of something, and tells you what the outcome will be if you do something or ignore something, you make an informed decision and move forward – am I right?
It was that simple with Israel. God told them, “Follow my Laws and I will bless you. Ignore, disobey, or disregard my Laws, and I’ll curse you. Simple as that.” These blessings and curses are even clearly explained for us in Deuteronomy 28. It’s not even like the people of Israel had to guess what the blessings and curses were. They knew. They absolutely knew. And they still disobeyed. And disobedience deserved curses. Disobedience deserved death.
Do you get this? I mean, like do you really understand this? Disobedience deserves death. This is not just a little something I’m saying to be dramatic. I’m being real. The Israelites deserved to die and suffer in torment forever. We deserve to die and suffer in torment forever. God in His mercy to Israel gave them the ability to sacrifice animals and parts of their harvest – death of good, strong, perfect fruitful things because disobedience deserves death. These sacrifices stood in place of Israel being wiped out. Sacrifices were not to appease God like He’s some mad, selfish God, demanding God, but because in giving them the sacrificial system He was saying, “Hey, I don’t want to kill you. I don’t want you to die. You can’t save yourself. Let this perfect sheep or goat or pigeon or the first of your grains be given to me in your place.” It wasn’t a perfect system, and God knew this. God knew all along that the only way to redeem sinful, broken, disobedient, fallen man was to sacrifice something absolutely perfect and absolutely human. Why was a human necessary? Because it was through humans that sin, brokenness, disobdience and fallen nature entered in to the lives of every single person on the planet.
Yes, Jesus died for you. It’s all nice and flowery sounding. But do you realize that you deserved death? You deserved the wrath of God? You deserved the worst of the curses. You’ve committed capital offenses (a crime that is treated so seriously that death is considered an appropriate punishment)*.
“If a man guilty of a capital offense is put to death and his body is hung on a tree, you must not leave his body on the tree overnight. Be sure to bury him that same day, because anyone who is hung on a tree is under God’s curse. You must not desecrate the land the Lord your God is giving you as an inheritance.” – Deuteronomy 21:22-23
Do you even notice the placement of this message? Right before the majority of the laws concerning sexual immorality. These laws weren’t placed in the Bible helter skelter. They were written methodically and inspirationally.
And what was it that Jesus did? He hung on a tree, cursed, over 1500 years after this law was given. His body was removed before sundown and buried the very same day – regardless of the fact that most people crucified would be hung for days, slowly and painfully suffocating to death. Death on a cross was offensive to God. Jesus’ death on a cross was always in the plans. But Jesus never deserved this death.
I deserved death on a cross.
As a New Testament Christian living under the reality of Jesus’ death on the cross and His resurrection to new life and His impartation of the Holy Spirit how much more am I expected to live holy? God in His mercy doesn’t just give me a way of doing life that honours Him, but He gives me life and life eternal! This is why I don’t express my sexuality outside of marriage in such ways that are selfish, self serving, self gratifying and not sustainable (just trying to create some alliteration; what I mean by “not sustainable” is marriage is meant to last. Sex outside of marriage isn’t marriage. I think you know what I’m saying).
How are you shaping your convictions on sexuality? Are you allowing your culture to shape your convictions, or are you allowing God’s standards to shape your convictions?
Commandments, God’s standards, need to shape your culture; your culture does not shape God’s commandments.
*Definition found at dictionary.com.
This is part of a series going through the entire Bible to offer you a bigger picture on God’s standards for sexuality. The opening post can be found here.
the rambling missionary 