SEXUAL EXPECTATIONS IN CULTURE

I think many people expect the Bible to present some sort of consistent picture of sexual morality, from start to finish.  You know.  Just don’t do it!  Unless, of course, you’re married.

But different cultures have different ideas about what is right and wrong regarding sex. The ultimate example may well be Mohammed, the founder of Islam, who married a six-year old girl named Aisha and consummated the marriage only a few years later. To Western thinking, influenced as it has been by Judeo-Christian morality, this is abhorrent in the extreme, yet no Muslim would dare accuse their prophet of wrong-doing in this regard.

In the book of Genesis, it must be admitted that standards of sexual morality were not yet fully evolved or defined. Chapter 34 depicts a horrendous clash of cultures over the issue of sexual morality.

Jacob’s daughter, Dinah, innocently ventures out to meet other young women in her new neighborhood.  The son of the region’s prince, a young man named Shechem, falls in love with her and, in modern terminology, rapes her.  Surprisingly, though, the writer of Genesis paints Shechem as a decent, honourable young man - v19 literally states that he was “more honourable than all the household of his father”!

Jacob doesn’t know how to handle this situation.  Having made every effort to befriend the men of the area, he doesn’t want to cause trouble.  But two of his sons, Simeon and Levi, devise a (brilliantly) deceitful plot to avenge their sister.  They end up murdering Shechem, his father the prince, and all the other males in the city!  Then, with the help of the other brothers, they plunder the city, taking captive all the girls and women!

I would have thought this was a bit extreme.  But when Jacob challenged his sons, they simply said: "Should he treat our sister like a harlot?"

We are led to believe that Shechem honestly didn’t think he had sinned in defiling Dinah.  There is absolutely no evidence that he thought of her as a harlot.  In fact, he desperately wanted to marry her.  In his culture, he was a good man.  But he fell foul of a culture clash with a group of men who apparently believed that the rape of one sister was so reprehensible that it warranted the murder and plunder of a whole city.

There is no mention in this story of Dinah’s feelings.  Our modern sensibilities, like those of her brothers, are outraged.  But, from her perspective, things may have been rather different.  She might not have been so outraged.  Shechem loved her and would undoubtedly have given her a good life.  There are many instances in Scripture of women learning to adapt to marital circumstances that, today, we would find objectionable.

So what’s my point?  Just this.  Sexual morality in the Bible is a gradually unfolding thing.  After Genesis 2, the ideal of one man, one woman marriage doesn’t really reappear until the New Testament and the teachings of Jesus.  It is common for Old Testament heroes to have more than one wife, often treating them as commodities or possessions. 

We affirm that sex outside of marriage is wrong but we cannot back this up from the Old Testament.  Even the laws of Moses make provision for polygamy (Ex 21:10) and rape in the case of an unbetrothed virgin (Deut 22:28,29).

The Christian view of sexual morality is based primarily on the teachings of Jesus and the later epistles.  Our standards are part of Christian culture, which I think are easily defensible as the best and highest culture in this regard.  But people whose culture puts them outside the people of God in Christ have different standards.  And this is what we see around us today. 

Can we allow this to challenge our thinking and attitudes?  Shechem would not have understood the sexual morality of Jacob’s family because his culture was different.  Likewise, there is no point in Christians castigating (let alone trying to punish) non-Christian people for their sexual immorality if we have not attempted to demonstrate why our cultural perspective on sex is better and more honourable than theirs.

I believe that, increasingly, Christians will be called upon to defend their moral positions in a world of competing cultures.  But mere ranting and raving will not help.  There are many Shechems who simply don’t know any better.  How would Shechem and his people have reacted if Jacob and his sons had carefully explained their standards?  The evidence of Genesis 34 suggests that they would have adapted their culture to accommodate Israel.

It was a cultural clash matter back then and it’s a cultural clash matter now.