Was God’s Law Unfair To Women?

Some Old Testament rules and regulations seem especially unfair to women, although men might push back by bringing up the joys of circumcision. Why did God require what he did? I don’t know; he is God and he had his reasons. But the ceremonial system for purification was actually a revelation of grace: a holy God was making a way for both men AND women to be close to him. Today, the ultimate outcome for what he asks us to do is the same: fellowship with him. God wants us to be with him that much! That’s grace!

The Journey // Focus: Leviticus 12:1-5

The Lord said to Moses, “Say to the Israelites: ‘A woman who becomes pregnant and gives birth to a son will be ceremonially unclean for seven days, just as she is unclean during her monthly period. On the eighth day the boy is to be circumcised. Then the woman must wait thirty-three days to be purified from her bleeding. She must not touch anything sacred or go to the sanctuary until the days of her purification are over. If she gives birth to a daughter, for two weeks the woman will be unclean, as during her period. Then she must wait sixty-six days to be purified from her bleeding.’”

I suppose many women would read today’s passage in Leviticus 12 on ceremonial cleansing and childbirth (among other women’s health issues that are mentioned) with a, “wow, that sure seems unfair to women!” And since we are talking about fairness, to be fair, I would agree that it sure seems women paid a heavier price than men in what God required of them—although men might push back by bringing up the joys of circumcision!

But again—and if you are following this blog through Leviticus, I might sound like at broken record as this point—God was teaching his people, Israel, what it meant to walk in holiness before him. Why? Because he had chosen them, sovereignly, out of all the people on the planet, to be set apart as his very own people. They were to be a nation of priests, representing a holy God to an unholy world. And the Israelites, fresh off 400 years of literal and cultural enslavement in godless Egypt, had to be taught what it meant to be holy.

Now as I pointed out in the reading for Leviticus 11, “while God’s restrictions may seem oppressive to us in our modern, sophisticated world, there is no indication that the Israelites felt cheated out of their freedom. They simply understood that they were God’s holy people, set apart from all others, as belonging to God. And that was a great honor to them.”

I don’t know why God chose certain laws and procedures for his people, and in particular, these rules and regulations for women, but he is God and he has his reasons. That is not a cop-out, it is just true. We can deduce some practical reasons and applications for these ceremonial laws, but at the end of the day, only God knows. Furthermore, these laws for ceremonial cleanliness were for Israel at that time, not for us today. Now before you call me a heretic, I would add that there are spiritual benefits that we must discern from the principles of the law. That requires the hard work of disciplined hermeneutics, but these arcane Old Testmament laws have amazing application for us today, which is the whole effort of this blog.

So let me bring this particular effort to do just that to a point of practical application, and one of the best ways I know to do that is to offer this insight from the Charles F. Stanley Life Principles Bible,

To us, the instructions seem complex; it almost looks as though God went out of His way to make it difficult for His people to get to Him. But the whole sacrificial system—fulfilled and culminated in the sacrifice of Jesus Christ on the cross—actually pictures God’s grace, since through it He provided a way for His people to get to Him. God designed this system to allow sinful men and women to carry on a relationship with their sinless Creator. God, of course, was under no obligation to provide such a system. Yet He had such a strong desire for fellowship that He willingly went to great lengths to make such fellowship possible.

Female or male, God wants you to be in close fellowship. His wants to bless you, use you and pour out his love upon you—both now and for all eternity. In order to have that, God calls you not to blend in with your surrounding godless culture. It may no longer be through a waiting period of thirty-three days or through circumcision, but the call to be holy is still in effect.

God desires you to be distinctly his? I believe that if you will honestly ask him, he will be faithful to show you what being separate and distinct from your culture will look like for you.