Slides: Dealing with Fallen Sexuality in the Old Testament

Dealing with Fallen Sexuality in the Old Testament

Henry and Pamela Reyenga

Polygamy

Genesis 4:19    Lamech married two women, one named Adah and the other Zillah.

 

Evil Power and Pleasure

Genesis 6:4-6     The Nephilim were on the earth in those days—and also afterward—when the sons of God went to the daughters of men and had children by them. They were the heroes of old, men of renown.
The LORD saw how great man’s wickedness on the earth had become, and that every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil all the time. The LORD was grieved that he had made man on the earth, and his heart was filled with pain.

God starts over with Noah.

 

Homosexual Abuse

Genesis 19:5   They called to Lot, “Where are the men who came to you tonight? Bring them out to us so that we can have sex with them.”


Judges 19:22     While they were enjoying themselves, some of the wicked men of the city surrounded the house. Pounding on the door, they shouted to the old man who owned the house, “Bring out the man who came to your house so we can have sex with him.” 

Incest

Genesis 19:34-36     The next day the older daughter said to the younger, “Last night I lay with my father. Let’s get him to drink wine again tonight, and you go in and lie with him so we can preserve our family line through our father.” So they got their father to drink wine that night also, and the younger daughter went and lay with him. Again he was not aware of it when she lay down or when she got up. So both of Lot’s daughters became pregnant by their father. 

 

Wife Sharing

Genesis 12:17-19     But the LORD inflicted serious diseases on Pharaoh and his household because of Abram’s wife Sarai. So Pharaoh summoned Abram. “What have you done to me?” he said. “Why didn’t you tell me she was your wife? Why did you say, ‘She is my sister,’ so that I took her to be my wife? Now then, here is your wife. Take her and go!” 

Slave Sexual Relations

Genesis 16:3   So after Abram had been living in Canaan ten years, Sarai his wife took her Egyptian maidservant Hagar and gave her to her husband to be his wife.

Visiting Prostitutes

Genesis 38:13     When Tamar was told, “Your father-in-law is on his way to Timnah to shear his sheep,”

Genesis 38:15-16     When Judah saw her, he thought she was a prostitute, for she had covered her face. Not realizing that she was his daughter-in-law, he went over to her by the roadside and said, “Come now, let me sleep with you.”
“And what will you give me to sleep with you?” she asked.


Fallen Sexuality in the Old Testament Bible

Sexual intimacy and pleasure has a twisted history in the Old Testament. Many today laugh at the Book of Leviticus, but it was needed.

Abraham was willing to share his wife sexually, twice. Isaac did it once.

Lot’s daughters sleep with their father.

Judah with Tamar

Only Joseph showed some restraint, but that might have been because she was forbidden.

The Israel populace was pretty sexually broken too.

Old Testament – Many specifics are mentioned in Leviticus. Laws that were transforming a nations of slaves into a people.

These laws were very specific and many of them are honored today in most places in the world as self-evident practices.

A Commentary on Why Leviticus was Needed

Judges 19:25-30     But the men would not listen to him. So the man took his concubine and sent her outside to them, and they raped her and abused her throughout the night, and at dawn they let her go. At daybreak the woman went back to the house where her master was staying, fell down at the door and lay there until daylight. When her master got up in the morning and opened the door of the house and stepped out to continue on his way, there lay his concubine, fallen in the doorway of the house, with her hands on the threshold. He said to her, “Get up; let’s go.” But there was no answer. Then the man put her on his donkey and set out for home.

When he reached home, he took a knife and cut up his concubine, limb by limb, into twelve parts and sent them into all the areas of Israel.  Everyone who saw it said, “Such a thing has never been seen or done, not since the day the Israelites came up out of Egypt. Think about it! Consider it! Tell us what to do!”

Leviticus

The Book of Leviticus outlines laws in the context of those ancient peoples.

Most of the laws completely make sense. The trend is to default to more and more wickedness.

Condemned Practices in Leviticus

With an Animal

Leviticus 18:23     “ ‘Do not have sexual relations with an animal and defile yourself with it. A woman must not present herself to an animal to have sexual relations with it; that is a perversion.

 

Condemned Practices in Leviticus

With Your Step Mother

Leviticus 18:8     “ ‘Do not have sexual relations with your father’s wife; that would dishonor your father.

With Siblings or Step Siblings

Leviticus 18:9     “ ‘Do not have sexual relations with your sister, either your father’s daughter or your mother’s daughter, whether she was born in the same home or elsewhere.

Condemned Practices in Leviticus

Child Abuse

Leviticus 18:10     “ ‘Do not have sexual relations with your son’s daughter or your daughter’s daughter; that would dishonor you.

Close Family Relations

Leviticus 18:12     “ ‘Do not have sexual relations with your father’s sister; she is your father’s close relative.

Leviticus 18:13     “ ‘Do not have sexual relations with your mother’s sister, because she is your mother’s close relative.

 

Condemned Practices in Leviticus

Family Incest

Leviticus 18:7     “ ‘Do not dishonor your father by having sexual relations with your mother. She is your mother; do not have relations with her.

Leviticus 18:15     “ ‘Do not have sexual relations with your daughter-in-law. She is your son’s wife; do not have relations with her.

Leviticus 18:16     “ ‘Do not have sexual relations with your brother’s wife; that would dishonor your brother.

Leviticus 18:17     “ ‘Do not have sexual relations with both a woman and her daughter. Do not have sexual relations with either her son’s daughter or her daughter’s daughter; they are her close relatives. That is wickedness.

 

Condemned Practices in Leviticus

 

Leviticus 20:18     “ ‘If a man lies with a woman during her monthly period and has sexual relations with her, he has exposed the source of her flow, and she has also uncovered it. Both of them must be cut off from their people.

 

Condemned Practices in Leviticus

Male Homosexuality

 

Leviticus 18:22     “ ‘Do not lie with a man as one lies with a woman; that is detestable.

  

Condemned Practices in Leviticus

Adultery

Leviticus 18:20     “ ‘Do not have sexual relations with your neighbor’s wife and defile yourself with her.