Is God Unfair? Part 1: Does God Condone Rape?

How can you believe in a God who condones rape, incest, and murder? This was the basic premise of a video on youtube that I recently watched. The video seeks to 'prove' that if God truly exists, then he is actually not at all a good moral compass. But is this really true? Does the same God who forbade murder and sexual sin actually condone those things in his actions in the Old Testament? 

This is obviously a bit of a hefty topic for me to take on, but I will do my best.   Considering the largeness of the topic and my own lack of time (too much homework waiting for me! :S )  I am going to separate the issue into several posts and write it over several days or weeks (or months).  We shall see how much free time I have.    I very much hope that the reading of this will be helpful to you who may have struggled with any of these questions.  They aren't easy questions, and I most certainly don't have all the answers....but, onward and upwards we go, attempting to understand and explain the difficult issues of scripture.


                                                      Part 1: Does God Condone Rape?

The first subject approached in the video was the issue of rape and incest. The video points out that Lot offered his virgin daughters to a mob of lustful men in order to protect the two angels that were currently in his home. This, says the video, is God condoning rape. But is that really true? I cannot say that I have the absolute proof on this one, but I tend to think that Lot's offering of his daughters to the men was completely sinful on his part. God did not tell him to do it, and the story illustrates Lot's lack of faith in God. Instead of trusting God to protect him, his guests, and his family, he leans on his own power, and tries to placate the men on his own instead of trusting God to protect him. The story does in no wise show that God approves of rape. (For the full story, see Genesis 19)

Later on in the story of Lot, we see that Lot's daughter's, afraid that they will never get married and will therefore not continue their father's line, get Lot drunk and rape him in order to get pregnant. This, says the video, is God condoning both rape and incest. I don't know if I even need to explain that one, it seems pretty obvious to me that the action that Lot's daughter's took was most definitely not sanctioned by God. Their actions were completely sinful, and the consequences of those actions are readily apparent later on in the Bible. Lot's daughter's both gave birth to sons, and those sons became the father's of the Moabites and the Ammonites, both great nations. These two nations were later cursed by God, and became bitter enemies of the israelites, who were God's chosen people.

So, does this show that God condones rape and incest? Not at all! In fact, it shows the opposite! Rape and incest are obviously condemned by God. If people insist upon falling to these sins, the consequences may not appear right away, but we can be sure that somewhere down the road someone is going to get hurt because of them.    

><>Rosie<><