It seems that no sooner do I get some "problem" I have found with the Bible worked out than I find another discovery that threatens my trust in God. You'd think by now I would know better than to doubt God's goodness. But alas! Old habits die hard.
Just two nights ago after two years of struggling with these "misogynistic" undertones in God's Love Letter, particularly the feminization of everything evil in God's sight (the great whore, Israel being an adulterous woman, Israel being a prostituting woman, the lewd woman waiting to snare the unsuspecting man in Proverbs [oh, wait - I have not yet worked that one out.. )-:], etc), it finally dawned on me that this was simply because Israel (and the Church of Jesus Christ) is depicted as God's bride. Naturally then, when God's bride strays He is going to call her an adulteress. When she is committed to several other lovers, He will call her a whore. I felt so good about my new discovery....that was until I began to read Jeremiah.
The book begins by detailing just how Israel had been like a bride to the LORD, devotedly loving and following Him through the desert. But then it takes a sudden shift as God declares Israel's infidelity and likens her unfaithfulness to that of a prostitute with an insatiable hunger for sex. He is deeply offended, not only because she has been unfaithful, but because it was like a slap in the face that she turned from Him to something so pathetic. He harshly condemns her for her eager unfaithfulness to Him.
"long ago you broke off your yoke and tore off your bounds; you said, 'I will not serve you!' Indeed, on every high hill and under every spreading tree you lay down as a prostitute." (2:20)
"You are a swift she-camel running here and there, a wild donkey accustomed to the desert, sniffing the wind in her craving— in her heat who can restrain her? Any males that pursue her need not tire themselves; at mating time they will find her. Do not run until your feet are bare and your throat is dry. But you said, ‘It’s no use! I love foreign gods, and I must go after them.’" (2:23-25)
"Look up to the barren heights and see. Is there any place where you have not been ravished? By the roadside you sat waiting for lovers, sat like a nomad in the desert. You have defiled the land with your prostitution and wickedness. Therefore the showers have been withheld, and no spring rains have fallen. Yet you have the brazen look of a prostitute; you refuse to blush with shame." (3:2-3)
By now I am speechless. If this is how God portrays prostituted women and the factors that influence their entry into prostitution, is it really any wonder we are so unsympathetic to their plights? They are just base, sex-crazed nymphos - the most depraved creatures of all creation. And thus we have a common occurrence in the pages of Holy Scripture: God likening the detestable sins of His beloved Israel to the vile and shameful prostitutes - the lowest of the low.
Of course, I instantly had a problem with this because I am fully aware that this take on prostituted women is not true to reality. A common misconception of most of us who look down on prostitutes, viewing them as wanton and sexually immoral, but a misconception nonetheless. It was my experience - and the experience of virtually every prostituted woman I have ever met or have heard of - that these women did not just wake up in heat one day and turn to the streets in a greedy pursuit of lovers. Somewhere along the way they were plucked out of a situation of oppression and turned out on the streets, or they turned to the streets for survival. In fact, Post Traumatic Stress is so prevalent in prostituted women only because it is everything but a pleasurable experience for them. So I thought to myself, "what in the world are You talking about, God? Surely You of all know better than to spoon-feed us this ignorance! I spend enough energy and time trying to clear up the misconceptions, and now I have to convince You as well?"
Then tonight again, as I took in FOTF's eighth Truth Project, the same thing: Dr. Tackett tackles our adulterous tendencies to turn away from God and look elsewhere for our significance by referring to us as "prostituting ourselves by going after the lusts of our own hearts and eyes." (Numbers 15) I was completely aghast!
"What on earth," I thought, "makes God think that prostituted women are 'going after the lusts of their own hearts and eyes?'" That may be the illusion that enables good Christian men to "fall" into consuming prostituted women without feelings of guilt, but again, it is not the reality. It is this illusion which is continually perpetuated (even in the Church?!) that prevents us from taking pity on these women who are most in need of our compassion and help. So I came home tonight and got to work looking these passages up and taking a closer look. And do you know what I found? I'll tell you.
First, there are three different Hebrew words used in the OT that, for some strange reason, are rendered - all three of them - "harlot" (KJV) and "prostitute" (NIV) in the English translations. Yet in the Hebrew they each have a very different meaning and significance.
1. 'zânâh', translated "harlot" in verses such as in the aforementioned Jeremiah 3 and Numbers 15:39, can rightfully be (and is) used interchangeably with "whoring." It means: "wanton, to commit adultery, simple fornication and rarely of involuntary ravishment, figuratively to commit adultery, cause to commit fornication, play the harlot, play the whore." (Strongs definition)
These are the women who are simply following the lusts of their hearts, leading them to be promiscuous. (But note that even in these situations there are always underlaying motives for the behaviour.) The point is, they are analogous to each one of us, as Dr. Tackett pointed out - we are all guilty of "whoring around" after strange lovers.
2. 'châlal', translated "prostitute" in Leviticus 19:29, "Do not degrade your daughter by making her a prostitute, or the land will turn to prostitution and be filled with wickedness.," means "to wound, to profane, to break, to defile, pollute, stain, slay." (Strongs definition)
These are the women and children who are coerced or trafficked into prostitution, or who turn to prostitution as a means of survival.
3. 'qedêshâh, found in Deuteronomy 23:17, "No Israelite man or woman is to become a shrine prostitute," which means " a sacred person, a devotee (by prostitution) to licentious idolatry." (Strongs definition)
These are the women who give themselves, or are given over to prostitution as a religious rite. They honestly believe that their god(s) will be pleased with this behaviour. (e.g. the belief that this practice arouses the 'fertility gods.')
Well, I'll be - God does make dinstinctions between "whoring" and "prostituting." The fact that we are using these words interchangeably is our own folly, not that of God. God judges fairly.
And on that note, I also found this very well written article by Adults Saving Kids found here. Definitely an article worth reading.
Just two nights ago after two years of struggling with these "misogynistic" undertones in God's Love Letter, particularly the feminization of everything evil in God's sight (the great whore, Israel being an adulterous woman, Israel being a prostituting woman, the lewd woman waiting to snare the unsuspecting man in Proverbs [oh, wait - I have not yet worked that one out.. )-:], etc), it finally dawned on me that this was simply because Israel (and the Church of Jesus Christ) is depicted as God's bride. Naturally then, when God's bride strays He is going to call her an adulteress. When she is committed to several other lovers, He will call her a whore. I felt so good about my new discovery....that was until I began to read Jeremiah.
The book begins by detailing just how Israel had been like a bride to the LORD, devotedly loving and following Him through the desert. But then it takes a sudden shift as God declares Israel's infidelity and likens her unfaithfulness to that of a prostitute with an insatiable hunger for sex. He is deeply offended, not only because she has been unfaithful, but because it was like a slap in the face that she turned from Him to something so pathetic. He harshly condemns her for her eager unfaithfulness to Him.
"long ago you broke off your yoke and tore off your bounds; you said, 'I will not serve you!' Indeed, on every high hill and under every spreading tree you lay down as a prostitute." (2:20)
"You are a swift she-camel running here and there, a wild donkey accustomed to the desert, sniffing the wind in her craving— in her heat who can restrain her? Any males that pursue her need not tire themselves; at mating time they will find her. Do not run until your feet are bare and your throat is dry. But you said, ‘It’s no use! I love foreign gods, and I must go after them.’" (2:23-25)
"Look up to the barren heights and see. Is there any place where you have not been ravished? By the roadside you sat waiting for lovers, sat like a nomad in the desert. You have defiled the land with your prostitution and wickedness. Therefore the showers have been withheld, and no spring rains have fallen. Yet you have the brazen look of a prostitute; you refuse to blush with shame." (3:2-3)
By now I am speechless. If this is how God portrays prostituted women and the factors that influence their entry into prostitution, is it really any wonder we are so unsympathetic to their plights? They are just base, sex-crazed nymphos - the most depraved creatures of all creation. And thus we have a common occurrence in the pages of Holy Scripture: God likening the detestable sins of His beloved Israel to the vile and shameful prostitutes - the lowest of the low.
Of course, I instantly had a problem with this because I am fully aware that this take on prostituted women is not true to reality. A common misconception of most of us who look down on prostitutes, viewing them as wanton and sexually immoral, but a misconception nonetheless. It was my experience - and the experience of virtually every prostituted woman I have ever met or have heard of - that these women did not just wake up in heat one day and turn to the streets in a greedy pursuit of lovers. Somewhere along the way they were plucked out of a situation of oppression and turned out on the streets, or they turned to the streets for survival. In fact, Post Traumatic Stress is so prevalent in prostituted women only because it is everything but a pleasurable experience for them. So I thought to myself, "what in the world are You talking about, God? Surely You of all know better than to spoon-feed us this ignorance! I spend enough energy and time trying to clear up the misconceptions, and now I have to convince You as well?"
Then tonight again, as I took in FOTF's eighth Truth Project, the same thing: Dr. Tackett tackles our adulterous tendencies to turn away from God and look elsewhere for our significance by referring to us as "prostituting ourselves by going after the lusts of our own hearts and eyes." (Numbers 15) I was completely aghast!
"What on earth," I thought, "makes God think that prostituted women are 'going after the lusts of their own hearts and eyes?'" That may be the illusion that enables good Christian men to "fall" into consuming prostituted women without feelings of guilt, but again, it is not the reality. It is this illusion which is continually perpetuated (even in the Church?!) that prevents us from taking pity on these women who are most in need of our compassion and help. So I came home tonight and got to work looking these passages up and taking a closer look. And do you know what I found? I'll tell you.
First, there are three different Hebrew words used in the OT that, for some strange reason, are rendered - all three of them - "harlot" (KJV) and "prostitute" (NIV) in the English translations. Yet in the Hebrew they each have a very different meaning and significance.
1. 'zânâh', translated "harlot" in verses such as in the aforementioned Jeremiah 3 and Numbers 15:39, can rightfully be (and is) used interchangeably with "whoring." It means: "wanton, to commit adultery, simple fornication and rarely of involuntary ravishment, figuratively to commit adultery, cause to commit fornication, play the harlot, play the whore." (Strongs definition)
These are the women who are simply following the lusts of their hearts, leading them to be promiscuous. (But note that even in these situations there are always underlaying motives for the behaviour.) The point is, they are analogous to each one of us, as Dr. Tackett pointed out - we are all guilty of "whoring around" after strange lovers.
2. 'châlal', translated "prostitute" in Leviticus 19:29, "Do not degrade your daughter by making her a prostitute, or the land will turn to prostitution and be filled with wickedness.," means "to wound, to profane, to break, to defile, pollute, stain, slay." (Strongs definition)
These are the women and children who are coerced or trafficked into prostitution, or who turn to prostitution as a means of survival.
3. 'qedêshâh, found in Deuteronomy 23:17, "No Israelite man or woman is to become a shrine prostitute," which means " a sacred person, a devotee (by prostitution) to licentious idolatry." (Strongs definition)
These are the women who give themselves, or are given over to prostitution as a religious rite. They honestly believe that their god(s) will be pleased with this behaviour. (e.g. the belief that this practice arouses the 'fertility gods.')
Well, I'll be - God does make dinstinctions between "whoring" and "prostituting." The fact that we are using these words interchangeably is our own folly, not that of God. God judges fairly.
And on that note, I also found this very well written article by Adults Saving Kids found here. Definitely an article worth reading.
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