Justice in the Field: God's Law and the Heinous Sin of Rape Text: Deuteronomy 22:25-27
Introduction: Justice That Offends the Unjust
We live in an age that is simultaneously obsessed with and utterly confused by the concept of justice. Our culture screams about injustice at every turn, yet it has sawed off the very branch on which the concept of justice rests. Having rejected the transcendent Lawgiver, they are left with nothing but arbitrary, shifting standards of personal offense and mob sentiment. They want justice, but they despise the only One who can define it. And nowhere is this confusion more apparent, or more deadly, than in how our society deals with the crime of sexual violence.
On the one hand, we have a radical feminism that has so broadened the definition of "rape" that it can include a clumsy advance or a regrettable morning after. When everything is rape, then nothing is rape. This serves to trivialize the brutal, soul-shattering violence of a true forcible assault. On the other hand, when a clear and monstrous evil is committed, our secular system of justice is often limp, confused, and impotent. It offers counseling and therapy and plea bargains, when what is required is a sword. It psychologizes the predator and often, in its serpentine legal processes, re-traumatizes the victim.
Into this chaos of sentimentalism and brutality, the law of God speaks with a fearsome clarity. The Mosaic law is not a collection of dusty, irrelevant regulations for a primitive tribe. It is the application of God's unchanging character to the civil realm. It is a revelation of true justice, a justice that protects the innocent, punishes the wicked, and maintains the sanctity of God's covenant community. The laws we are about to examine are not embarrassing relics to be explained away; they are a floodlight exposing the darkness of our own compromised and cowardly views on justice.
This passage deals with a specific case law, but the principles it establishes are eternal. It teaches us about evidence, responsibility, the gravity of sin, and the fierce, protective justice of God. Our task is not to blush at these laws, but to learn from them, to see the wisdom of God in them, and to understand how they point us to the ultimate justice and mercy found in Jesus Christ.
The Text
“But if in the field the man finds the girl who is engaged, and the man forces her and lies with her, then only the man who lies with her shall die. But you shall do nothing to the girl; there is no sin in the girl worthy of death, for just as a man rises against his neighbor and murders him, so is this case. When he found her in the field, the engaged girl cried out, but there was no one to save her.”
(Deuteronomy 22:25-27 LSB)
The Crime and the Penalty (v. 25)
We begin with the scenario and the prescribed punishment.
"But if in the field the man finds the girl who is engaged, and the man forces her and lies with her, then only the man who lies with her shall die." (Deuteronomy 22:25)
The setting is crucial: "in the field." This is contrasted with the previous verses, which deal with a similar sin in the city. The field is a place of isolation, a place where help is not readily available. This is a key factor in determining guilt and innocence. The law of God is not a blunt instrument; it pays careful attention to circumstances. It is not just, as our moderns would have it, "he said, she said." The context, the location, the evidence, all matter.
The action is explicit: "the man forces her and lies with her." The Hebrew word here is chazaq, meaning to overpower, to seize, to compel. This is not seduction. This is not a consensual act that is later regretted. This is violent, forcible rape. The law of God makes a sharp distinction between consensual sin and violent crime. Adultery, in the previous verses, required the death of both parties, because both were culpable. Here, the culpability is assigned to one party alone.
And the penalty is absolute and severe: "only the man who lies with her shall die." Let that sink in. In our enlightened age, where we give rapists a few years in a correctional facility with cable television, the God of the universe declares that the just penalty for this crime is death. Why? Because God takes sexual purity and the covenant of marriage with utmost seriousness. A betrothed woman was considered legally bound to her husband. This act was a violent violation of her person and a violent assault on that covenant bond. It was a capital crime because it was an attack on the foundational building block of society. God's law builds a wall of fire around the marriage bed, and those who would violently breach that wall do so at the cost of their own lives.
This is not bloodthirsty vengeance. It is righteous justice. It is the only penalty that truly reflects the gravity of the crime. It is the only penalty that purges such evil from the land (Deut. 19:19). A society that is unwilling to execute rapists is a society that does not truly believe rape is a heinous crime.
The Presumption of Innocence (v. 26)
Next, the law makes a crucial declaration concerning the victim.
"But you shall do nothing to the girl; there is no sin in the girl worthy of death, for just as a man rises against his neighbor and murders him, so is this case." (Deuteronomy 22:26)
Here we see the beautiful justice of God's law. In a world where female victims of sexual assault were, and still often are, shamed, blamed, or treated as damaged goods, God's law explicitly declares her innocence. "You shall do nothing to the girl." She is not to be punished. She is not to be shamed. She is not to be cast out. She is the victim of a violent crime, and the law protects her.
The law goes even further, providing a stunning legal analogy: "for just as a man rises against his neighbor and murders him, so is this case." God equates forcible rape with attempted murder. This is not hyperbole. It is a divine legal definition. The rapist is, in principle, a murderer. He has violently assaulted the life and personhood of his victim. He has treated a woman made in the image of God as a thing to be used and discarded. This is why the death penalty is appropriate. The punishment fits the crime because the crime is analogous to the ultimate crime of murder.
This analogy demolishes the wicked modern tendency to blame the victim. Do we ask the man who was stabbed in an alley if he was "asking for it"? Do we question the homeowner whose house was invaded by a murderer about what he was wearing? Of course not. The very idea is grotesque. By equating rape with murder, God's law places the full weight of guilt squarely on the shoulders of the perpetrator and protects the victim from any insinuation of complicity. This is a profound statement of the dignity and value God places on women.
The Standard of Evidence (v. 27)
The final verse explains the legal reasoning behind the presumption of her innocence.
"When he found her in the field, the engaged girl cried out, but there was no one to save her." (Deuteronomy 22:27)
This verse addresses the practical problem of evidence in a case where there are no eyewitnesses. The standard requirement in biblical law is two or three witnesses (Deut. 19:15). So what happens here? The law establishes a crucial principle: the location itself serves as a corroborating factor. In the city, a woman's silence would be taken as evidence of consent, because she could have cried out and been heard. But in the field, the law presumes she did cry out. Her cry for help is assumed.
The burden of proof is not on her to prove she resisted; the location establishes the presumption of her resistance. "There was no one to save her." The law acknowledges her vulnerability and does not hold it against her. This is a merciful and wise provision. It recognizes that evil men prey on the vulnerable and that justice must account for this. It is the exact opposite of the feminist canard that the Bible is somehow anti-woman. This law is a fortress for women against the predatory evil of wicked men.
This is God's standard of justice. It is not based on feelings, but on facts and righteous principles. It is not based on the shifting sands of public opinion, but on the bedrock of God's holy character. It is swift, severe toward the guilty, and fiercely protective of the innocent.
The Gospel and True Justice
Now, how do we as Christians handle a law like this? Do we simply dismiss it as part of an obsolete civil code? God forbid. All Scripture is profitable. This law reveals the heart of God concerning justice, and it points us toward the gospel in at least three ways.
First, it reveals the true nature of our sin. We have all, in our hearts, been rebels against God. We have not just broken a few rules; we have risen up against our neighbor, and ultimately against God Himself. Our sin is a capital crime. We have committed high treason against the King of heaven. The penalty prescribed by the law, death, is the penalty we all deserve for our rebellion. "The wages of sin is death" (Rom. 6:23). This law reminds us that our sin is not a small matter; it is a violent offense against a holy God, and it requires a capital punishment.
Second, it reveals our desperate need for a savior. The girl in the field cried out, but "there was no one to save her." This is the state of all humanity under the curse of sin. We are overpowered, held captive by sin and Satan, and there is no one in ourselves or in the world who can save us. We are utterly helpless. We need a rescuer. We need someone to intervene, to fight for us, to save us from the one who seeks to destroy us.
And that brings us to the third point. Jesus Christ is the one who came to save us when there was no one else. He came into the field of this fallen world to rescue His bride, the Church. He found us overpowered by our enemy, and He did not stand idly by. He rose up against our great Accuser and Murderer, Satan, and He crushed him. But He did it by taking the penalty for our capital crimes upon Himself. The righteous justice of God required death, and so Christ died. He, the only innocent one, was executed so that we, the guilty, might be declared righteous. God did nothing to His bride, the Church, but laid the full penalty on the one who came to redeem her.
Therefore, we uphold the justice of God's law. We see its wisdom and goodness. We see that God is a God who hates violence and protects the vulnerable. And we see that this very justice, which condemns the rapist to death, is the same justice that condemned Christ to death in our place. He satisfied the demands of the law perfectly, so that we could be set free. He is the one who heard our cry when there was no one to save, and He has rescued us for all eternity.