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consensual and criminal

Deuteronomy 22:20-22 (JDV)

Deuteronomy 22:20 But if this accusation is true and no evidence of the young woman’s virginity is found,
Deuteronomy 22:21 they will bring the woman to the door of her father’s house, and the men of her city will stone her to death. You see, she has committed an outrage in Israel by being promiscuous while living in her father’s house. You must purge the evil from you.
Deuteronomy 22:22 “If a man is discovered having sexual relations with another man’s wife, both the man who had sex with the woman and the woman must die. You must purge the evil from Israel.

consensual and criminal

Sexual immorality was seen as such an evil within the Israelite community precisely because it was a covenant community. The covenant of marriage was sacred because it was part of the greater covenant with the Lord. One could break the lesser covenant by having sexual relations before marriage or by having an affair with someone else during marriage. It did not matter whether it was consensual. It was evil,and it had to be purged from the nation. It reflected the casual attitude about sex that pervaded the pagan nations God had already judged. It was criminal!

Former generations understood why such restrictions were necessary. How much heartache and family dissolution must we in this present generation endure before we realize that the God who gave us sex in the first place has provided appropriate boundaries for its enjoyment?

Lord, renew our minds so that we can see the evil in transgressing the boundaries you have set for us.