Love is...
... woman liberating.
Possibly the first recorded acts of women's lib occur in the Old Testament. I know that sounds shocking because we read the laws in Leviticus and elsewhere and think about how awful it must have been for women in that day. But it is the height of modern arrogance for us to think we could even begin to understand what it was like to live in those times and then to chastise God for the way He chose to deal with women.
Our problem is we're coming at it from the wrong perspective. Sure, from a 21st-century point of view, those laws sound awful. What modern-day woman would want to have lived in those days? But if we think about it from the perspective of where those women were coming from, we get a completely different take on it.
In that time, other cultures did not have laws which protected women. Women could be tossed out on the street like garbage. They could be used by men and no one had to do anything about it because women were worse than second-class citizens. A man did not have to be faithful to his wife and he could get rid of her whenever he wished. If a woman was a virgin and she was raped, no man would have married her and her parents might have disowned her. If she got pregnant as a result of the rape, no one was required to help her or her baby. No one would have provided for her. There were no protections for her whatsoever.
But then, God looked down on the women of Israel with love and compassion, and came to Moses to give the Hebrews laws which required men to be faithful to their wives and to provide for them. If any man did not provide for his wife, he would have been punished. It was a shame to him.
If an unmarried woman was raped, the offender had to at least offer to marry her or be punished. This sounds terrible to our 21-century ears. What woman would want to marry the man who raped her?! Not only that, but shouldn't he be punished?! But let me reiterate. Those women were coming from a completely different perspective than we are. The reason for this law was because no one would have wanted to marry her and she would have no one to provide for her and take care of her. And forget it if the rape had resulted in pregnancy! But because of God's love for the women of His people, He refused to allow those atrocities to take place any longer.
Can you see now how these things were a protection for women? There was no other recourse for them. And pagan cultures certainly didn't have laws which required men to take care of women and provide for them. Contrary to the lies we've been taught in our day, the Mosaic laws were revolutionary for women... in a very good way.
Love is woman-liberating.
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