You might want to clutch your pearls and think this sort of talk is unbecoming of a church website, but what can I say? It’s in the Bible so I’m not going to not talk about it, especially when it’s occasionally used by God-hating wackos who will twist anything they can in the Bible to make God out to be a monster.
Here’s the text in question…
Son of man, when the house of Israel dwelt in their own land, they defiled it by their own way and by their doings: their way was before me as the uncleanness of a removed woman.
(Ezekiel 36:17)
The text begins with God reminding the people of their crimes against Him: They dwelled in the land Jehovah provided for them, and defiled it by going their own way. Ezekiel’s writing compares them to the uncleanness of a woman during menstruation period. It’s not the most pleasant metaphor, I grant you, but compared to some of the other metaphors Ezekiel has employed in this writing, it’s pretty tame (seriously, Ezekiel holds nothing back in his book).
Ordinarily, we could just make the point that Ezekiel makes and move on, but these are not ordinary times. These are the days of insane people who rabidly hate God and the Bible and will say anything to discredit holy things. So…do I want to spend a paragraph or two talking about why God’s Old Law deemed menstruating as an unclean thing and why that doesn’t make God anti-woman or whatever other silly arguments that godless feminists might say? No, I don’t want to.
But I’m gonna…
First of all, something being “unclean” in the Law was not the same as something being sinful. If you were deemed unclean for whatever reason it didn’t make you a leper or anything. God’s law was highly ceremonial and based around purity, it also had very specific laws and regulations regarding blood, so it makes perfect sense why the “hyper-specific about little things” Old Law would mention PMSing. What’s most unfair is how the intentions behind the Law have been twisted by radical feminists when, in fact, God’s regulations were there to protect the woman in question, not demean her.
Keep in mind, there were many pagan beliefs and misconceptions about menstruation cycles, with heathens believing a woman’s period was the result of some evil spirit taking hold of her. It was not uncommon for pagan cultures to verbally abuse and even physically assault women during their menstruation period, under the belief that such action drove the demon away. It’s akin to the dog that barks at every passing car, believing their yapping is what’s causing the car to keep driving away from their house. The pagans believed they were warding off evil spirits by abusing a woman on her period. Had they left her alone, they would have realized the cycle would end after a week or so, and that such things were a natural function of womanhood.
Thus, it was a great relief that the Law deemed such women ceremonially unclean as it prevented them from being touched or bothered for a week-long period. It also meant a woman on her period would be free from performing her regular activities, allowing her to use that week to rest and endure the suffering. Remember, this is an era when medication for pain was non-existent. A little rest and a week off their work went a long way. The Old Law didn’t just provide it; the Old Law demanded it for the health and protection of the woman. So spare me the “God hates women” spiel, you feminists.
Have a good rest of your week.
~ Matthew