Joel M Bradshaw

13“If any man takes a wife and goes in to her and then hates her 14and accuses her of misconduct and brings a bad name upon her, saying, ‘I took this woman, and when I came near her, I did not find in her evidence of virginity,’ 15then the father of the young woman and her mother shall take and bring out the evidence of her virginity to the elders of the city in the gate. 16And the father of the young woman shall say to the elders, ‘I gave my daughter to this man to marry, and he hates her; 17and behold, he has accused her of misconduct, saying, “I did not find in your daughter evidence of virginity.” And yet this is the evidence of my daughter’s virginity.’ And they shall spread the cloak before the elders of the city.18Then the elders of that city shall take the man and whip him, 19and they shall fine him a hundred shekels of silver and give them to the father of the young woman, because he has brought a bad name upon a virgin of Israel. And she shall be his wife. He may not divorce her all his days. 20But if the thing is true, that evidence of virginity was not found in the young woman, 21then they shall bring out the young woman to the door of her father’s house, and the men of her city shall stone her to death with stones, because she has done an outrageous thing in Israel by whoring in her father’s house. So you shall purge the evil from your midst.–Deuteronomy 22

This is not a passage that we enjoy reading. But three things stood out to me this morning and one notable person.

1. The attitude of the husband. You can argue that he felt lied to, defrauded and betrayed. Unless he was willing to be chaste for awhile, he would have no reason to believe that first pregnancy was indeed his child. I could see his perspective. But the text said he hated his newlywed wife, accused her publicly, and gave her (and essentially her father) a bad name. There was no grace or forgiveness or understanding.
2. The priority of truth. I don’t claim to understand how the evidence process worked on this one. I imagine it was something like a bedsheet from their wedding night. But the the truth decided the matter. Truth matters and we in society get upset when truth is denied or when lies continue injustice.
3. The protection of the woman. Now if she was guilty, she died. High handed sins of commission resulted in death during this covenant. To have an issue with that is to question God’s system. But, If she was found to be innocent of the charges, not only was her husband severely penalized, but he could not divorce her ever. In a world where men would later divorce women for almost any reason, this would protect her from being taken advantage of, but also would provide for her the rest of her life. Some might ask why he wouldn’t get the death penalty. Two reasons. The first is that the wife deserved her husband to provide for her. To kill him was to make her a widow. The second is that if he was not humbled by this, he would be suffering in his heart every day of this marriage. Attitudes matter.

Now there exists a famous Biblical figure who in a way lived this situation. Joseph. His betrothed wife was found to be pregnant. This was worse than her not being a virgin on the wedding night. This was being with child before the wedding! Many don’t appreciate the dilemma that Joseph went through. Matthew 1…

19And her husband Joseph, being a just man and unwilling to put her to shame, resolved to divorce her quietly. 20But as he considered these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, “Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary as your wife, for that which is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. 

Joseph was righteous or just. Truth mattered to him. He deserved to get the answers for this issue that he faced. Was he going to be raising someone else’s child? Would another have claim on that child? Was this Mary trustworthy if she couldn’t tell the truth about this issue? In Joseph’s world, a lot seemed at stake.

But he was unwilling to put her to shame. This attitude separates Joseph from the allegedly wronged husband of Deuteronomy 22. That husband was quite willing, but Joseph not so. He was able to get past whatever self-oriented sense of justice he might have required, and was willing to handle the matter privately. Just let that sink in. In a way, Joseph modeled the denial of the self that Jesus would one day require of disciples.

Truth also mattered to God, and so God made sure to privately inform Joseph. God cared for the innocence of the wife, but ALSO the justice for the husband. Joseph was considering his options and when God provided an answer, Joseph trusted God. So focus on Joseph this morning as you wade though this harder text.–JMB