Sex is foundational to the created order for mankind. In the opening chapters of Genesis, as God revealed Himself to mankind, He taught us about His creation of man and woman. As He did so, He taught us about His perfect purpose and plan for our sexuality as well. It doesn’t take long in our continued reading of Genesis, however, to get to sin’s distortion of our sexuality.
The breakdown of marriage began with sin entering the world. The perfect union of man and wife, body and soul, described in Genesis 2 is immediately affected by Adam and Eve’s sin. Mankind’s view of sex itself, too, became radically affected through sin. The consequences of the ensuing abuse of sex are tragic.
As we read this first book of the Bible, we see that sexual immorality (deviation from God’s plan) becomes a primary display of mankind’s rebellion against God. It is shocking how frequently sexual sin comes up in the early human history recorded there. It is important that we take the time to see this emphasis.
We will now look at how this is revealed to us by God’s Spirit, limiting ourselves to the book of Genesis.
Sexual Sins in Genesis Illustrating Mankind’s Fallenness
Adam to the Flood
Polygamy is the first sexual immorality mentioned as Lamech is mentioned as having two wives (4:19). This sin would become so common as to not even register on the conscience even of otherwise godly men until later in God’s revelation. They even had tiered marriages, often having lesser wives with fewer rights called concubines. In Genesis, the horrible consequences on the family are seen in the families of Abraham and Jacob. Strife, hatred, oppression, jealousy, deceit, attempted murder, etc., can all be traced back in part to this sin (chapters 16-50).
The next aberration is spoken of in Genesis 6:1-4: “the sons of God saw that the daughters of man were attractive. And they took as their wives any they chose,” which was clearly not God’s will and had a disastrous result. Some claim that these “sons of God” are the godly line of Seth (4:26) that now rebelled against God and married pagan wives. I think the context is quite clear that these “sons of God” are fallen angels that took on human form to commit despicable evil and degrade mankind (Consider 2 Pet 2:4ff; Jude 6-7 ). Either way, the issue at hand was about sexual choices that resulted in spiritual tragedy. There seems a very close connection with this type of sin and the extreme depravity and violence that leads God to destroy the earth with the Flood (v.5ff).
The depraved display of sexual immorality continues even after the Flood. Noah’s unwise drunkenness led to inappropriate nakedness. The shame of that instance led to him cursing his son who made it known to others (9:20-25).
Abraham to Isaac
We next see great leaders of men abusing their power and becoming sexual predators. Pharoah of Egypt thinks it is within his rights to take any attractive and unmarried woman as his own. He takes Sarai, Abram’s wife, but God spares her from violation (12:10-20). This happens to them again later, now Abraham and Sarah, this time with the ruler Abimelech. Abimelech assumes sexual rights over all women unattached for himself or those he wants to reward. It was common for such rulers to kill husbands to get their wife as a sexual trophy. Again, Sarah is spared (20:1-18). Isaac has this same thing happen to him because of king Abimelech of Gerar, but Rebekah is spared (26:6-11).
Various forms of sexual oppression would be understood as a part of slavery in general, as it always has throughout human history (wars of the kings and enslavement of enemies, chapter 14).
Extreme sexual perversion of Sodom and Gomorrah
Lot and Abram have to separate because of the size of their flocks. Given the choice of where to settle, Lot chose the area of Sodom. God described the city this way: “Now the men of Sodom were wicked, great sinners against the LORD” (13:13). Later we see two angels and the preincarnate Messiah visit Abraham and Sarah. Upon their departure they mention that they had come to execute God’s judgement on Sodom and Gomorrah “Because the outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah is great and their sin is very grave” (18:16-21).
In Genesis 19, we see what this extreme wickedness is that is alluded to in these other passages. Not only is the city of Sodom given over to homosexuality, but homosexual gang rape of even visitors happens there. They were willing to murder to satisfy their perverted lust (19:1-11). God rescued Lot’s family from there before His judgement fell upon those wicked cities (19:12-29).
The sexual perversion of the culture of Sodom had greatly affected Lot’s family. Post-judgment, they were living in a cave and hopeless. Lot’s wife and his two sons-in-law were dead. Lot’s two daughters took turns getting their father drunk and sleeping with him to ensure they each got pregnant, which is incest (19:30-38).
Implications of circumcision
It is no accident that God chose male circumcision as the sign of His covenant with Abraham and his descendants (17:1-14). This minor surgery communicated that all of Abraham’s progeny would be a part of the blessing God had promised. The surgery was made on the male sexual organ, symbolic of submission to God about all of life, even the most private.
Jacob and His Sons
Laban uses deceit to get Jacob to unknowingly marry his firstborn Leah, after promising his second daughter, Rachel. After consummating the marriage, Jacob discovers what had happened. Laban used this to marry off his less-desirable daughter and guarantee free labor from Jacob (29:1-30). This created a horrible polygamous marriage with decades of pain and sorrow. Rachel and Leah struggle against one another for sexual intimacy with their husband. The bitterness and hatred was ongoing (29:31-30:24).
Sexual sins and horrible consequences
Dinah, Jacob’s daughter, is raped by Shechem, the son of Hamor the Hivite. It says that by raping her he “seized her and lay with her and humiliated her” (34:2). His lust was so strong and his arrogance so great, that he thought he had such a right and then could marry her as though he loved her. Jacob was grieved that Dinah had been “defiled” (v.5). This led to some of her brothers killing many people in brutal retaliation. The brothers said that by raping her Shechem had treated her like a prostitute (v.31).
Jacob’s son, Reuben, had sex with Bilhah, one of his father Jacob’s concubines (secondary lesser wives)(35:22). This is a form of incest, something Jacob is very bitter with Reuben about (49:3-4).
Hypocrisy and sexual sin
Judah, another of Jacob’s sons, frequently sought out prostitutes. He ended up impregnating his daughter-in-law (incest) who posed as a prostitute to bear a child from Judah. He was going to put Tamar to death for being immoral until he found out it was his own child (38:1-26). Judah’s total disregard for the women he used and the absence of the fear of the LORD is clear.
In Genesis 39, enslaved because of his brothers, Joseph was bought by a wealthy captain of Pharoah’s guard. With God’s blessing, he rose in favor quickly and became steward of the man’s entire household. The man’s wife wanted to conquer Joseph sexually. When the adulteress could not get him into bed with her, she used deceit and jealousy to get her husband to throw Joseph into the dungeon.
A man reflecting God’s image
In this passage, righteous Joseph refers to sexual immorality as “great wickedness” and “sinning against God” (v.9). Rape is referred to in the passage as “mocking” the victim as powerless and unable to seek recourse (v.14, 17). Joseph, out of the fear of God, maintains his integrity by faith.
Acknowledging God’s Lordship through our Sexuality
One obvious way we acknowledge our Creator’s lordship over our lives is by maintaining a God-honoring sex life. The fear and love of God must cause us to repent and turn away from all forms of sexual sin and instead embrace God’s much better and perfect plan for our sexuality. This is extremely important in God’s eyes.
Sexual perversion is a clear evidence of mankind’s sinfulness and guilt before God. Men and women of all cultures and at every time need forgiveness of sins and also new life in Jesus in order to change. We cannot begin to be restored into God’s image without this restoration.
Once we have Jesus, we are “to put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness” (Eph 4:22-24).
This is the second article in this series on sexuality. Consider reading the first article in this series:
Unless otherwise noted, Scripture quotations are taken from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®).
