Here is another question from Facebook, where I asked anyone to reply with questions about God and the Bible.
Question:
The treatment of women in the Old Testament. Read Judges 19,
where a man casually gives a woman over to be raped and killed.
“Look, here is my virgin daughter, and his concubine. I will
bring them out to you now, and you can use them and do to them whatever you
wish. But as for this man, don’t do such an outrageous thing.”
It gets worse from there. A lot worse. And this isn’t even
the story of Lot.
Answer:
The quick answer here is you are absolutely right. The
treatment of his concubine is horrible. There are many terrible things that
happen in the book of Judges, and it is here that we need to look at the
context of what this book is all about.
“In those days there was no king in Israel. Everyone did
as they saw fit.”
This is a common phrase throughout Judges. Quick summary of
this book: the Israelites, after Joshua died, had no leader and forgot about
the miracles that God had performed to help them escape from Egypt and get to
the promised land. Without a leader, the people fell into idolatry, sin, and at
times anarchy. They did whatever they wanted, and whatever they thought was
right. God would then need to raise up a Judge to discipline the Israelites and
eventually lead them back to God – which then the people would forget God and
their promise again, and the cycle would repeat.
It is not a good part of the story. The depravity that
occurs in the book is awful, no question there. So why is it included in the
Bible? And does this really point towards the Bible showing that women can be
treated so badly and have people get away with it?
I have heard some Jewish scholars in debate talk about how
the Old Testament paints some pretty ugly pictures of their people, and that appears
to be some proof for the validity of the Bible. What person in their right mind
would try to write a story that has so many negative aspects to it, and then use
it as justification to get people to believe in the god that it represents? The
Jews do not hide the fact that things like this happened. Instead, they remember
it so that it can be used as a lesson of how not to act and behave.
Let’s look at this passage that has been referenced, Judges
19. It would be a mistake to say that this is representative of the entire
message of the Bible. The Levite here gives up his concubine to be raped and she
dies as a result of the experience; he is in the wrong, plain and simple.
However, remember the line that is a theme of this book? For chapter 19, the
first line is, “Now in those days, Israel had no king.” It isn’t an excuse
for his sinful behaviour, it is simply a commentary and reminder: Israel had no
king, they had forgotten God and His commandments, and did whatever they wanted
thinking it was right and okay to do so. This Levite doesn’t seem to care at
all that his concubine is dead and seems completely unphased at her death. When
he gets back to his own home, he cuts her body up and sends pieces to the other
tribes, inciting anger from them all.
Basically, what is happening here is that the Levite did
wrong, but then blames the tribe of Benjamin for what happened instead of
taking any responsibility for his actions, and then he encourages the rest of
Israel to punish Benjamin for what they have done. They raise an army! Instead
of him asking forgiveness or owning up to his mistakes, he sends the armies of
Israel to attack one of their own tribes. It really is absurd – “How dare you
rape and murder the concubine I carelessly threw out into the street? Now I’ll
show you!”
So, the men who raped and murdered that woman, do they get
away with it? No. In fact, the war here is quite bloody and brutal, and the
tribe of Benjamin is almost wiped out completely – and this just starts another
section of the book of Judges where more terrible things happen.
The primary message of the book of Judges is that God will
not allow sin to go unpunished, but He is also compassionate and shows mercy
along with His judgement. Israel was God’s chosen people – God was their King,
but they had forsaken their covenant established at Mount Sinai. God disciplines
them for following other gods, disobeying laws, blatant immorality, and
committing acts of evil. Yet they were still His chosen people, so God sends
Judges when the Israelites cry out for mercy. These Judges were godly people
who were leaders to try and deliver the nation. Eventually, this cycle leads to
the people getting a central monarch, a king chosen by God as His intermediary,
in the hopes that this would help the people to remember God and stop sinning
(which doesn’t entirely work – but that’s a different book).
There are some lessons to be learned from Judges: that we
must remember to keep God as the pointer of our moral compass; that when we
fail to remember God, to ask forgiveness and seek if possible to fix it; and that
we need to be wary of hedonism and anarchy, doing things our own way instead of
thinking of others needs and God’s will. Bottom line, Judges can be looked at
as what not to do.
To address the treatment of women in the Bible, this single
passage from Judges is not indicative of all women in the Bible. When Jesus
arrives on the scene, He instructs people to care for and respect women. This
is definitely outside of the norm! Remember that in the times of Christ, women
did not have the same rights as men in any respect. Women were little more than
property. So why is it that Jesus treats them with such respect, dignity, and
love? In John 4, Jesus is speaking with a Samaritan woman, and does so kindly
and openly. When his disciples see this, they begin asking each other why he is
doing this, but they don’t interrupt. Jesus shows them that women, and the
Samaritan people too, deserve respect so they can be saved.
In those times, a woman’s word held no weight in a court of
law, so why would God have women be the first witnesses to Jesus’ resurrection?
If this was a hoax concocted by his disciples, they would never have picked
women to be the first to spread the story! They would have hired well-respected
men in positions of authority to tell others about Jesus coming back to life.
Instead, the angels appear first to Mary and other women, and tell them to let
others know. Mary runs and gets Peter and John, who return with her to the
empty tomb. The men are saddened by what they see and leave to go home – Mary
stays and weeps, and then Jesus arrives and asks her why she is crying. After
Jesus speaks her name, she recognizes him and realizes he is alive. She is the
first person to see Jesus alive after His resurrection! That is an incredible
honour, and it was given to women.
Throughout the Bible, there are many instances of strong
women: Sarah, Ruth, the daughters of Zelophehad, Priscilla, Hannah, Ester, and many
others. Women play a crucial part in the story the Bible and deserve to be
honoured and respected.
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