Troublesome Topic: NAKEDNESS IN THE LAW

WHY SHOULD WE CARE WHAT THE LAW SAYS?

Many Christians today feel like all instructions from the Law are irrelevant to us today, or they feel like they can pick and choose which ones to follow and which ones to ignore. Most have been taught to think that we need to follow the Ten Commandments but that is all.

Do we even follow the Ten Commandments? I think we should stop calling them the Ten Commandments and start referring to them as the Seven Suggestions. Some so-called Christians don’t even follow seven of them. This illustrates what I said about us picking and choosing what we want to follow.

 But in reality we should carefully follow all of the principles taught by the regulations of the Law.

Since the issue of nakedness has to do with the curse of sin pronounced to Adam and Eve, it predates the Law given through Moses. We are all born under that same curse. Therefore it should be a topic we are concerned about as well. What our culture says about nakedness should be irrelevant to us. The only thing that should matter to us as followers of Jesus is what God’s word says about the topic, and that includes the principles taught by the Law.

So yes, we should study what the Law says about nakedness because it is a very important issue, it is tied to shame and the curse of death, there are important principles that come from this topic, and it was not set aside by Jesus. The Law’s regulations about modesty and nakedness are hard to separate from the principles. We should not give ourselves the freedom to change the details just because our culture has moved far from those regulations.

WHAT DOES THE LAW TEACH?

The Law clearly taught that even mild forms of suggestive dress are outside the limits of God’s desire for us. The connection between nakedness and the curse of sin were behind the regulations about covering up most of the body.

Through the regulation about not showing the legs God was sending a strong message that we should not reveal anything “close” to the reproductive organs unless it is in the privacy of a marriage relationship.

Admittedly, the coverings that Adam and Eve made for themselves probably showed skin above waist that was closer than one foot away from the reproductive organs. They probably interpreted their shame in the simplest manner and from it came up with a principle which they applied in a minimalistic fashion. But we believe that the garments God made for them covered more of their bodies than their loincloths of leaves had done.

One reason for the difference between the thigh and the belly, is that the thigh was associated with reproduction in the ancient Near East as the following examples illustrate. When a woman was unable to have children, it was said that her thigh waisted away. In such cases the “thigh” was code language for “the female reproductive organs” because the upper thigh is very close to those organs. We do the same thing by having various code words we use for a certain room in a house or building. We use names like the rest room (even though we don’t go in there to rest), the bathroom (even though some of them don’t have a bathtub), the water closet (even though its purpose is not to store water). Why don’t we call it the toilet room? That would be accurate, but it is also a bit crude and undesirable, so we come up with code names. The ancients did the same with the reproductive organs. Notice that I am not using exact names, rather I am calling them by the general term “reproductive organs.”

The second example relates to certain oaths that were taken between two men. We see in the case of Abraham and Eliezer. For the oath Abraham had Eliezer sware, Abraham told Eliezer to place his hand under his thigh. Because this oath had to do with offspring and thus related to reproduction, the cultures of that part of the world required Eliezer’s hand to be placed under the thigh close to the buttocks where the tips of the fingers would have been close the Abraham’s testicles. Proximity to the reproductive organs gave the oath proper gravity.

I believe a man could show his chest and stomach without being in violation of the Law. However, the principle of “don’t get close to the reproductive organs” still stood, meaning that he could not show any part of his buttocks and could not let something ride down low in front.

It was the principle that mattered, and the regulation about not showing the thigh taught the principle very well.

The issue of nakedness was considered a big deal. In Isaiah 57:8 the people are being judged for idolatry, for adultery and because “you looked on their nakedness.”  One of Noah’s sons was punished for looking at his father when his father was naked (Gen 9:20-27)

Why was it so wrong to see someone else’s nakedness?

One reason is because it has to do with the fall into sin, and with the resulting shame. The shame we bear is a very personal thing, even though we all bear it. It is enough for me to be aware of my sin and shame when I think about who God is and who I am. Unless a special punishment is involved, God wants to spare us from the added shame of others being able to see our symbol of shame—our nakedness. When God clothed Adam and Eve before sending them out of the Garden of Eden He was doing them a huge favor, He was covering their shame so that only they would be conscious of it.

It is also a big deal because the reproductive organs are the way we pass on our image, our likeness to the next generation. They will be like us. We are supposed to be like God and teach our children how to be like God, but since most people are full of sin and covered in shame, that is what they will pass on to their children. That is why only the reproductive organs needed to be covered up by Adam and Eve.