Chapter 12.

Woman in the Law




The acupuncture rationale sees disease as resulting from an unbalanced energy flow. This theory sees dual forces of "yin" and "yang" moving through twelve meridians. "Yin" is female and negative, while "yang" is male and positive. The acupuncturist carefully selects the points for his needles, then inserts them to stimulate a balanced flow of energy through "yin" and "yang." The "yin" (female) is front body, the "yang" (male) is back.

This information, gleaned from a skilled acupuncturist, reminded me, among other things, that the Lord said to Moses,
"...you shall see my back; but my face shall not be seen." Exodus 33:23

The context was the giving of the Law to the people of Israel. The back provides structure, strength, and support to the body, while the front provides its social function and expression. In the letter of the Law we see the moral structure of our humanity in the context of the strength and authority of God, the Father.

In the living Word of God, the Lord Jesus Christ, we see "the image of the invisible God" (Colossians 1:15), "For in him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily" (Colossians 2:9), and "he reflects the glory of God and bears the very stamp of his nature, upholding the universe by the word of power" (Hebrews 1:3). In the Person of the Lord Jesus Christ we have the full expression of the moral character of God--both authority and submission, law and grace, prohibition and liberty. In him is the perfect harmony of masculinity-femininity. He is the full expression of the love of God "which binds everything together in perfect harmony" (Colossians 3:14). "He is both the first principle and the upholding principle of the whole scheme of creation" (Colossians 1:17, Phillips paraphrase). The Lord Jesus Christ is life's synthesis!
"For it is the God who said, 'Let light shine out of darkness,' who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ."

We are told that Moses had a face-to-face relationship with God, that God spoke to Moses "as a man speaks to his friend" (Exodus 33:11). The Gospel of John tells us (1:18) that "no one has ever seen God; the only Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, he has made him known." Hebrews 11:23-28 tells the story of Moses' faith in the promised Messiah, which sustained and motivated him through insurmountable difficulties which "he endured as seeing him who is invisible." Moses saw beyond the letter of the Law, to the living reality of the Lord Jesus Christ who was to come, therefore, he had an intimate relationship with God.

In the new freedom of God's grace to us in his Son, we find provision to change our perspective from the futility of trying to please God in our own energy. Knowing the perfection of God's moral law, and our hopeless inability to keep it, we delight in the freedom of knowing God through the Lord Jesus Christ:
"And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being changed into his likeness from one degree of glory to another; for this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit." II Cor. 3:l8

l. With unveiled face: no fig leaves; no hidden agenda; no cringing fear; openly transparent.

2. Cherishing the face-to-face relationship once known to Moses, now available to us!

3. Beholding Him changes us!

There were godly women, as well, who envisioned a God-anointed Savior, the Messiah. As did Moses, these women looked beyond the letter of the Law to its fulfillment in Christ. Such were Anna the prophetess, Elizabeth the cousin of Mary, and Mary the mother of Jesus. "Now the man Moses was very meek, more than all the men that were on the face of the earth" (Numbers 12:3). Anna, Elizabeth, and Mary are pictured as gentle, devout women of great spiritual beauty.
"Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth." Matthew 5:5

These humble persons were in stark contrast with the religious leaders who disfigured their faces "that their fasting might be seen by men," who blew trumpets in the synagogues to announce their almsgiving. Unsubmissive to the Lawgiver, they used his Law to gain personal prestige, and, blinded by their own self-centered perspective, they crucified the Lord of glory who was prefigured in the Law.

The Law was not given to redeem, but to reveal the need for redemption. Our failure to keep the law reveals our spiritual poverty, our yen for rebellion, and above all our self-centeredness. Law is a necessary containment of evil, but it is not the cure. The Law given by God to Moses contains three basic elements:

1. God's intent for our humanity, the moral framework within which we may image his character;

2. The stimulus to our sin nature, which produces either rebellion or humility;

3. In its sacrificial offerings, the symbolic revelation of God's redemption to be consummated in the
death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ.

In the Law, as in all of Scripture, we have God's view of sexual distinctives. A Law based on equality of worth. The Law challenges our self-centeredness by asserting the prior claim of the Creator-God " Thou shalt have no other gods before me", love thy neighbor as thyself: equal responsibility and privilege. In it there are also the distinctives of sexual function based on the creative purpose of God's own people, imaging God's fatherhood as well as His nurturance. I hope to demonstrate that Jesus and the apostles viewed the Old Testament Scriptures from this perspective.

The effect of human reasoning divorced from the revelation of God's Spirit is alienation from truth. It is like boarding a ship without a rudder. God's Law, interpreted by human reasoning, led to the crucifixion of his Son. Our view of God determines our perspective on ourselves and others. There is, in fact, no meaningful way to assess human equality apart from the creature-to-Creator relationship. If we do not belong to God, then we must compete for worth and status.

It is understandable, then, that much of the extra-biblical rabbinical teaching and tradition misapplied and misinterpreted the Divine intention of the Law as it relates to the male-female relationship. However, it is Jesus himself who warns us that we must expect to be judged by the same criterion by which we judge others. So is the male chauvinism of which we accuse the discriminating rabbis any more distorting to truth than the defensiveness born of envy and self-pity? A hostile misuse of Scripture and lack of reverence for God and others is often evident in feminist ranks (both non-Christian and Christian, sad to say). It seems to me it is one thing to establish right, another to fight for our rights.

With a light touch, but telling implications, Christianity Today's Eutychus, March 16, 1973, twits
a feminist method of Scripture interpretation. I quote in part:
"Too long we men have been silent about the sexist nature of the Bible. Without question an anti-masculine stance characterizes the Scriptures in general. Paul, often pictured by feminists as the original male chauvinist pig, is in actuality a detractor of men. He boldly asserts that in Adam all die (1 Corinthians 15:22). If you will check the data closely in Genesis 3, you will find that it was mother Eve who took the first forbidden nibble. Paul blithely sails over this evidence and fixes the blame on poor old Adam. Gentlemen, we've been had. So there you have the whole unhappy business. It just goes to show that a little proof-texting and some phony Copyright 1975 by Elaine L. Stedman
A Key-Word Book
Word Books Publisher
Waco, Texas
Revised May 1996.