God is not silent on the issue of rape. The Bible documents
a whole range of human actions, including rape. It is a diverse book including history, poetry and letters. The Bible is primarily
the means through which God has declared who He is and His means (the death and resurrection of Christ) of saving people from
his own righteous judgment which would otherwise condemn them to hell. Through this, however, we understand the moral standards
expected of those created in His image. These standards are declared in both declarations of what we should and shouldn’t
do and in the documentation of the consequences of our sinful nature. Please be aware that what follows
may ‘trigger’ for some readers.
In 2 Samuel 13 the rape of
a woman by her half-brother is documented. Amnon declared love for his sister Tamar and set up a situation whereby, what was
merely lust, would be expressed in rape. Tamar had no witnesses since Amnon had sent his servants away. After the rape, his
so-called ‘love’ turned to hatred and he sent her away knowing that she would now face destitution because of
no longer being a virgin and therefore being unable to marry.
Judges 19 records the gang
rape of a woman. Whilst against what God intended (Genesis 2:24), Israelite society allowed for a man to have a concubine-a
woman who had the role of a wife in both sexual and household matters, but with few of the privileges such as inheritance
rights for her children. Travelling from the concubine’s parental home back to her master’s home, an elderly man
invited them to stay overnight. During the evening, what the Bible describes as ‘the wicked men of the city’,
surrounded the house and demanded that the elderly man’s male guest be brought out so that they could have sexual relations
with him. Rather than taking a courageous stance, the man offered both his daughter and the concubine to them. Eventually
both men agreed to send out the concubine who was raped throughout the night until near death from her injuries. By morning,
left at the doorway of the house where the elderly man and her master slept, she was dead.
In Genesis 19, Lot
is visited by two angels who had the appearance of men. Offering them hospitality, that evening ‘…all the men
from every part of the city of Sodom-both young and old-surrounded the house.’
They demanded that the two men be brought out to them in order to have sex. Lot instead offered his
own two daughters to the men. This potential gang rape of two young women was averted by the angels who blinded the men who
had surrounded the house, enabling them to leave the city before it was destroyed by God.
These three examples are documented in the Bible to reveal
the depravity of man in his sinful nature. Whilst God has revealed Himself in creation, people ignore Him and in doing so
their hearts become increasingly ‘darkened’: ‘Therefore, God gave them over in the
sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity …and to a depraved mind, to do what ought not to be done.’ (Romans
1). These actual and would-be rapes contravene God’s purposes regarding sexual relationships between a man and woman
as considered earlier and express the essential sinfulness of mankind. Whilst we live in a fallen world, our depravity will
be revealed in many ways. Nevertheless, God has not left us without hope (Christ and You)
Does God justify rape?
God’s creation of men and women
and His gift of sex to them within the moral context identified, reveals how the act of rape is clearly condemned. However,
there are sections of the Bible which, it is claimed by atheists and feminists show a justification for rape. One of these
is in Deuteronomy, the fifth book in the Old Testament.
This book continues to document the history
of God’s chosen people: Israel. Deuteronomy relates
how Moses reminded the new generation of what God had done for their parents in rescuing them from their slavery in Egypt.
Their lack of obedience however had led to them ‘wandering’ in the desert for forty years.
In Deuteronomy we read of how Moses then
reminded the people of God’s moral laws in the concise form of the Ten Commandments and numerous civil and ceremonial
regulations. The distinction between moral, civil and ceremonial
laws in the Old Testament is fundamental to an understanding of the verses concerning rape.
In Deuteronomy Chapter 22, various laws are
expressed including those relating to sexual behaviour. Verses 28-29 reads:
If a man happens
to meet a virgin who is not pledged to be married and rapes her and is discovered, he shall pay the girl’s father fifty
shekels of silver. He must marry the girl, for he has violated her. He can never divorce her as long as he lives.
Initially this verse may seem difficult to
understand, let alone accept. If Christians believe that the Bible is the inspired Word of God, then is He showing no real
concern for the rape victim? Is she really an object owned by a male head of household whose monetary compensation, rather
than her welfare, is the prime concern? Marrying a rapist! Is this not the final ‘nail in coffin’ of a woman’s
dignity?
As stated previously, to really make sense
of such verses one has to consider the distinction between the moral, civil and ceremonial laws revealed initially in the
Old Testament:
· The Moral Law is the guidance for living which expresses the moral character of God. These
are found most clearly in the Ten Commandments. These laws are binding across time and place. We however are unable to fully
keep such laws in our own strength. These laws reveal the sin that, until we are given salvation in Christ, imprisons us.
· The Ceremonial Law is the guidance concerning the many rituals undertaken as sacrifice in
order to cleanse people, before God, of their sin. Hebrews 10:1 tells us, “The
law is only a shadow of the good things that are coming--not the realities themselves.’. These rules were a representation
of the future sacrifice of Christ for the sins of all who would believe in him. For Christians, now Christ has come to earth,
died and been resurrected, these rituals are no longer needed. The perfect sacrifice has now been presented to God the Father.
· The Civil Law is the guidance given to Israel
concerning its social and economic affairs. This included its criminal law. These laws were identified to provide a necessary
form of social control for the people of Israel forming a
society at that particular historical, social and cultural juncture. The civil law in that sense is relative. However, any
society seeking to be obedient to God will have a civil law which reflects the moral law of God. As sinners by nature no human
society will ever fully achieve this since the moral law of God can ultimately only be fulfilled by Christ Himself (and humans
governed by Christ’s Spirit, but not even then on this side of heaven).
Back to the verse: God’s rules concerning
the dealing with this particular type of rape offence reflect, firstly, His moral
laws concerning sex outside of marriage and the need for self control. The man has obviously infringed these. He will be punished. The punishment however reflects, secondly, the civil
laws relevant and applicable in that particular society, at that particular point in time. They would not be applicable today
though the essence of the immorality of rape remains. The punishment: An inability
to ever be freed from the responsibility of materially providing for the woman
and any child which might have been the result of the rape. He has no choice but to marry her and to then obey all the requirements
of the marriage bond. Women today, in a society where marriage is no longer absolutely essential for physical survival and
social acceptance, would not of course benefit at all from such an arrangement. Women at that time however would suffer not
only the indignities of rape, but the indignity of never being accepted as a wife because of no longer being a virgin and
therefore social and material destitution. God’s anger at rape is therefore revealed in the providing for her material
needs. The payment of 50 shekels of silver was very punitive and would be paid regardless of whether she married the offender. This would be on top of the usual dowry expected at that time. The rape is condemned
in these verses, the punishment understandable in the civil context of that time-but not applicable today.
A second example is in Numbers, the fourth book of the
Old Testament. In chapter 31, vengeance taken by Israel against
the Midianites, under the direction of God, is documented. The Midianites were a nomadic pagan people whose worship included
temple prostitution and the burning alive of their sons and daughters as a form of sacrifice to their false gods. They enticed the Israelites into such worship and God brought divine judgement against them; through the
Israelites declaration of war, he condemned them to destruction. However, Moses’ men did not completely obey and kept
the children and women alive; in doing so, complete destruction, as demanded, was initially unfulfilled. Verses 15-18 record
the response of Moses:
Have you allowed all the women
to live?...They were the ones who…were the means of turning the Israelites away from the LORD…Now kill all the
boys. And kill every woman who has slept with a man, but save for yourselves every girl who has never slept with a man.
Does this verse imply, as some have suggested, that Moses
was encouraging his men to capture virgins for their own pleasure-to rape them? Such an interpretation bears no weight. Moses
had previously rebuked them for sexual immorality-such actions would have breached God’s law concerning sexual relations.
The civic law governing war at that time allowed for the taking of slaves from the population of defeated people. Female slaves
were of value to Israelite women in terms of household tasks. Furthermore, virgins could be fully assimilated into Israeli
society through provisions of marriage which provided for a woman’s dignity in terms of mourning, financial and social
safeguarding and freedom from slavery (Deuteronomy 21:10-14). Midianite women who were not virgins could not be so assimilated
and furthermore were more likely to have been involved in the enticing of Israelite men into sexual forms of worship which
violated God’s moral law.
God takes rape seriously. He is not silent on it. It is
condemned because by its very nature it contradicts God’s moral law concerning sexual relationships. The Bible records
rapes by family members, gang rapes and the threat of rape. It records the social consequences of it. It reveals it to be
an expression of the sinful nature of mankind and the levels of depravity which are within us all. Were it not that, in His
common grace, God provides for some restraining influences in the form of contemporary civic laws and forms of retribution,
the numbers of those who suffer from such sin would be magnified even further. The civic law at the time of the Old Testament
provided the severest of punishments where it could be proven that rape had occurred-the death penalty. Breaching the moral
law of God, the Bible declares that all such sin will be ultimately punished in eternity (Revelation 21:8; 1 Corinthians 6:9-10).
When the civic law of a contemporary society provides little protection and or justice for the victims of rape, we can know
with absolute certainty that God is angry.
