Whatever happened to "the meek shall inherit the earth"?: Part 3: Rape--2

I've broken up this post because it was going to be NOVEL length... so... carrying on.... 

I want to look at some ideas about women and biblical culture and God...

Many people, including women, have told me that God sees women as possessions, second class citizens and "lower than men". This is just not true. Though Jewish culture tended to give power to men over women, from the beginning, Eve, woman, was valued as a life-giver, a life-saver, as the name ezer kenegdo describes (God's name for Eve in Genesis).

Over and over in the Old and New Testaments, women are given position in society and history--from brave Jael, who killed the captain of an oppressing army and won the war, to the prophetess Deborah who prophesied the victory, to Esther, who saves the Jews from genocide at the hand of Haman, to the daughters of Zelophehad in the book of Joshua, who were given the right to inherit their father's land so it wouldn't pass out of their name. In the New Testament there are countless women named as prophets and teachers, disciples and apostles mentioned by Jesus and Paul. And in Galatians 3:28, Paul shockingly asserts that "there is no Jew nor Greek, slave or free, no male or female for all are one in Christ Jesus." 

It's clear that God doesn't want women to be mistreated, and definitely not raped, but treated as equals... we are all equals in the eyes of our Lord. In the Old Testament, Amnon, one of King David's sons, rapes his half sister, Tamar. Possibly because she was a princess, she wasn't killed, though she did stay in Amnon's house for a while. After he raped her, he hated her, and sent her home where she lived as a "desolate woman" in her brother, Absalom's house: 2 Samuel 13:10-22

And Tamar took the bread she had prepared and brought it to her brother Amnon in his bedroom. 11 But when she took it to him to eat, he grabbed her and said, “Come to bed with me, my sister.” 12 “No, my brother!” she said to him. “Don’t force me! Such a thing should not be done in Israel! Don’t do this wicked thing. 13 What about me? Where could I get rid of my disgrace? And what about you? You would be like one of the wicked fools in Israel. Please speak to the king; he will not keep me from being married to you.” 14 But he refused to listen to her, and since he was stronger than she, he raped her. 15 Then Amnon hated her with intense hatred. In fact, he hated her more than he had loved her. Amnon said to her, “Get up and get out!” 16 “No!” she said to him. “Sending me away would be a greater wrong than what you have already done to me.” But he refused to listen to her. 17 He called his personal servant and said, “Get this woman out of my sight and bolt the door after her.” ....19 Tamar put ashes on her head and tore the ornate robe she was wearing. She put her hands on her head and went away, weeping aloud as she went. 20 Her brother Absalom said to her, “Has that Amnon, your brother, been with you? Be quiet for now, my sister; he is your brother. Don’t take this thing to heart.” And Tamar lived in her brother Absalom’s house, a desolate woman. 21 When King David heard all this, he was furious. 22 And Absalom never said a word to Amnon, either good or bad; he hated Amnon because he had disgraced his sister Tamar.

Later, Absalom and another brother has Amnon killed as revenge for his sister's honour. Though through the blood of Christ we no longer adhere to the philosophy of "a life for a life", which I'll discuss in the next segment of this post, everyone feels little better after Amnon is dead. And we should, right? A horrible crime as been committed: a crime against nature, against family, and against God... right? We should be happy Amnon is dead? More to come...