Narrative Lectionary Key Verse for Today
“When a man seduces a virgin who is not engaged to be married, and lies with her, he shall give the bride-price for her and make her his wife. But if her father refuses to give her to him, he shall pay an amount equal to the bride-price for virgins.”
NL Daily Devotion for Friday, July 1, 2022
by R. M. Fergus, Clergy Stuff
Translation: If a man rapes an unmarried woman, he either marries her or pays her father compensation. Such was life in the patriarchal society of the Israelites, and it’s not okay. In our modern context we need to struggle with these ancient, culturally bound texts, because like it or not, they have a profound influence even now on how women are valued and treated in our society. Attitudes about a woman’s rights—including the now-overturned right to have control of her own body—are shaped by these patriarchal notions that many people still believe ought to be the norm: that women should be subservient, sexually available, and the property of men. And this is not okay. Let me say it again: Not. Okay.
God, who is not male, created humans male and female as coequal partners in the stewardship of creation. God, who is not male, but often relates to God’s people in traditionally feminine ways, honors and upholds a woman’s autonomy. God, who is not male, surely did not endorse any laws of Moses that directly diminished the full personhood of any individual.
We are to struggle with these laws, to wonder where God is in the midst of them, to question their validity, to dig deep into how to discern which of Moses’ long, long, list of (more than 600) laws were actually from God’s lips to Moses’ ear, and which were the organizational efforts of one man or a group of men trying to create a society that benefitted them.
God bless you in your struggle, and remind you daily that our God is a God of wholeness, grace, creativity, and love, whose desires for us do not diminish our personhood, but embrace and celebrate it, regardless of its unique expression.
How do I discern God’s voice in challenging scripture texts?