The Grammar of Gender: An Abomination to Yahweh Text: Deuteronomy 22:5
Introduction: The War on Reality
We are living in a time of manufactured chaos, a generation dedicated to the frantic erasure of lines. Our society is in a full-blown, tantrum-throwing rebellion against the created order. And like all rebellions against God, it is ultimately a rebellion against reality itself. Men have decided they can be women, women have decided they can be men, and our cultural elites applaud this display as though it were courage, when it is in fact a profound and tragic confusion. They are calling mental illness a civil right, and they demand that we all participate in the delusion. To refuse is to be branded a bigot, a hater, a phobe of some description.
But Christians are not called to be fashionable; we are called to be faithful. We must not bend the knee to the spirit of the age. We have a book, and this book defines the world for us. It tells us what a man is, what a woman is, and why it matters. And in the middle of a list of various civil laws in Deuteronomy, we find a verse that lands on our modern sensibilities like a meteor. It is a verse that our sophisticated age finds bizarre, archaic, and deeply offensive. And because it is all those things to the world, it is a verse that we must understand, treasure, and apply.
The issue at stake is not, at bottom, about kilts or trousers or whether a woman can wear blue jeans. The issue is whether God has the right to define us. Does the Creator have the right to tell the creature what it is? The modern world screams, "No! I am my own, I define myself." The Christian humbly replies, "No, I am not my own; I was bought with a price." This verse in Deuteronomy is not about arbitrary fashion advice. It is a guardrail against pagan confusion. It is a declaration that the distinction between male and female is a non-negotiable part of God's good creation, and to deliberately blur that line is an abomination to Him.
An abomination is a strong word. It is a word of theological revulsion. It is what God feels toward idolatry, perverse sexuality, and child sacrifice. And He attaches that word here, to the act of a man putting on a woman's garment, and a woman putting on that which pertains to a man. We must therefore tread carefully and listen closely. What is God protecting? What is He prohibiting? And what does it mean for us today?
The Text
A woman shall not wear man’s clothing, nor shall a man put on a woman’s clothing; for whoever does these things is an abomination to Yahweh your God.
(Deuteronomy 22:5 LSB)
The Unchangeable Distinction
Let us break this verse down into its two prohibitions, and then consider the reason God gives for them.
"...nor shall a man put on a woman’s clothing..." (Deuteronomy 22:5b)
We will start with the second clause because it is the more straightforward of the two. A man is not to put on a woman's garment. This is a direct prohibition of transvestism. It is a man attempting to present himself as a woman, to adopt her appearance, to erase his God-given masculinity under a layer of feminine apparel. This is forbidden, flatly.
Why? Because it is a lie. It is a visual falsehood. God made him male, and for him to dress as a female is to act out a rebellion against his own created nature. It is an attempt to become his own creator, to redefine his own being. This is the very heart of the sin that began in the Garden: "you will be like God." You will decide for yourself what is good and evil, what is male and female, what is true and false. This is a fundamental assault on the Creator/creature distinction.
In the pagan cultures surrounding Israel, this kind of cross-dressing was frequently tied to idolatrous worship and cultic prostitution. Priests of pagan goddesses would often emasculate themselves and dress as women. So this command is not just about personal confusion; it is about separating Israel from the perverse worship of the nations. To dress like a woman was to act like a pagan. It was to identify with the rebels, not with the covenant people of God.
The principle is clear: masculinity is a gift from God, and it is to be embraced, honored, and visually represented as such. A man should look like a man. This does not mean there is a divinely mandated uniform of flannel and work boots, but it does mean that a man's attire should be congruent with his masculinity, not deliberately subversive of it.
The Gear of a Warrior
Now let's look at the first clause, which requires a bit more careful attention to the Hebrew.
"A woman shall not wear man’s clothing..." (Deuteronomy 22:5a LSB)
The English translation "man's clothing" is a bit too general. The Hebrew phrase is keli geber. Geber is the word for a strong man, a warrior, or a mighty man. And keli refers to an article, a vessel, or gear. So a more literal and accurate rendering is that a woman shall not put on the "gear of a warrior."
This is not a blanket prohibition on women wearing trousers. The issue is not the cut of the cloth, but the function of the uniform. This is a prohibition against women enlisting for military combat. A woman is not to suit up for battle. She is not to wear the gear of a soldier and go out to war.
This makes perfect sense of the parallel. The man is forbidden from becoming soft and effeminate. The woman is forbidden from becoming hard and masculine in a particular way, by taking up the man's calling to be a warrior and protector. God has designed men and women differently, with different strengths and different callings. Men are called to be the protectors, the defenders, the ones who stand between the danger and their homes. Women are called to be the life-givers, the nurturers, the ones for whom the men fight. To reverse these roles is to defy the created order.
Our modern, egalitarian military, which is so proud of putting women into combat roles, is in direct violation of this command. A nation that sends its daughters to war is a nation under judgment. It is a sign of profound societal decay. It is a disgrace to the men who allow it, and it is degrading to the women who are put in that position. God calls this an abomination. We call it progress. Someone is desperately wrong, and it is not God.
An Abomination to Yahweh
The verse concludes with the reason for these prohibitions, and it is severe.
"...for whoever does these things is an abomination to Yahweh your God." (Genesis 22:5c LSB)
An abomination is something that is detestable, loathsome, and repulsive to God. It is a word reserved for the most serious offenses: idolatry (Deut. 7:25), profane worship (Deut. 17:1), and gross sexual immorality (Lev. 18:22). And here, God applies it to the deliberate confusion of the sexes.
Why is it so serious? Because the distinction between male and female is not an arbitrary detail. It is a fundamental picture of the gospel. The entire Bible is a story of a divine romance between a bridegroom (Christ) and His bride (the Church). "For the husband is the head of the wife, as Christ also is the head of the church" (Ephesians 5:23). Masculinity and femininity are not just biological realities; they are theological symbols. They are icons that point to the relationship between Christ and His people.
To blur these lines, therefore, is to vandalize an icon. To erase the distinction between male and female is to obscure the picture of the gospel. The man who presents himself as a woman is marring the image of Christ. The woman who takes up the warrior's gear is marring the image of the Church. The world's frantic push for androgyny and gender-fluidity is, at its root, a satanic attempt to make the gospel unintelligible. If no one knows what a bridegroom is or what a bride is, then the story of Christ and the Church becomes nonsense.
This is why God takes it so seriously. This is not a matter of cultural preference. It is a matter of covenant faithfulness. It is an attack on the very grammar of creation and redemption.
Conclusion: Clothes Make the Man (and Woman)
So what does this mean for us, living under the New Covenant? The principle remains, because the creation order remains. The gospel that it illustrates remains. We are not under the specific civil code of ancient Israel, but we are under the moral law of God that it reflects.
This means Christian men should strive to be masculine. They should take responsibility, lead, protect, and provide. And their demeanor, including their clothing, should reflect that. They should not be effeminate. They should not be ashamed of being men. They should embrace their God-given role with gratitude.
And Christian women should strive to be feminine. They should embrace their role as helpers, as life-givers, as the glory of man. Their clothing should be modest and appropriate to their sex. They should not seek to usurp the man's role, particularly the role of protector and warrior. They should rejoice in their God-given design.
Our culture is drowning in a sea of confusion. People genuinely do not know who they are. They are chasing their own tails in a desperate attempt to invent a self. The church must be a sanctuary of sanity. We must be a people who know who we are because we know whose we are. We are men and women created in the image of God.
And this distinction is not a burden; it is a gift. It is part of the glory and richness of God's creation. When a man and a woman embrace their distinct callings in faith, they put the gospel on display. Their life together becomes a sermon. The world may call it an abomination, but our God calls it beautiful. And His is the only opinion that matters.