Did God say in Deuteronomy 25:11-12 your wife cannot get in the middle of your fight and take your opponent out by the genitals?
God said through Deuteronomy 25:11-12 what seems like a direct command. Don’t touch another man’s family jewels. It turns out this might be a bit on the spiritual side. Let’s unpack this together. These verses have a lot of symbology, but the passage has even more like spitting and sandals.
Here is a paraphrase of the verse:
This verse has two opposing men fighting and the wife reaches out to grab the other man by the secrets (NKJV is the best translation for the backstory – in this case).
For reference: husband+wife = one flesh = Christ with the church. This is not a temporal marriage, but a marriage according to Eph 5:31-32.
Breaking it Down:
First, this is a spiritual book, which does not reference temporal male and female. It’s like Paul telling us oxen aren’t oxen, but people (1 Cor 9:9). God created man as male and female (Gen 1:27) then out of male and female man God made woman (Gen 2:22). One flesh, however, is a temporal union with the spiritual side. The word ‘wife’, indicates that relationship.
Symbology:
Deuteronomy 25:11-12 uses body parts in a pretty graphic way. Body parts represent lineage or a kind of person at the time. Maybe think of multiple personalities, but that is not really deep enough. It’s more like multiple perspectives of the same car crash – like the synoptic Gospels represent. Each has a different veil to their understanding, but that’s a longer topic.
Hands, feet, hips, legs, staffs, etc. All relate to a human condition. Think of Job 40:13-14, where God admits our own right hand will save us, and relate that to palm branches on Palm Sunday. Palm branches make more sense as the right arm saving the left arm. The palm of the hand is the fruit on a family tree branch.
Think of Jesus as the Branch from the stump of Jesse. The Tree of Life and the Tree of Knowledge are more like family lines or family trees. They cannot blend.
Private parts are more like the inner self veiled for future revelation – waking up. This refers to Lev 18, when Ham saw his dad Noah naked, becoming and adult or adultery, etc. If the woman of one man unveils or uncovers the private part or inner self of another the woman defiles/unfiles him. It’s simply against the rules.
Kinds:
Each person has the righteous and unrighteous side. This is the coming together as one flesh – no man can separate you into two, right (Matt 19:6)? That is only done via DNA, which God alone can accomplish (Heb 4:12 – NIV). Righteous is the right side. Unrighteous is the left side. The woman is unrighteous (Eve = temptation). The kinds of people are much more nuanced than this, but the idea is a chasm between those in the oven of life (meaning of Egypt/dryness/desolation) and the heat of the air (2 Pet 3:10, 12). All await New Jerusalem and the New Heavens, but in suspense (Is 66:22, 2 Pet 3:12).
Rules:
The rules of creation require hiddenness (Job 3:23, 2 Chron 22:12, 2 Kings 4:27, among countless other citations). This means God is hidden behind a veil, like Moses wore. This means there are two sides of each hand, front and back (Ham’s brothers walked in backward to re-cover their dad). Since the woman represents unrighteousness, that kind of person must be under control of the man during this hand to hand battle, therefore the wife cannot grab the other man through the revelation of his secret.
It is essentially saying not to cheat in the gauntlet of life. That is against the rule of eating from the tree of knowledge. The wife cannot get in the battle between two men because the laws of creation don’t allow it. When one wakes up to the way things are, his ‘wife’ dies, like Ezekiel’s. And, like Ezekiel, he was not to mourn, but to mumble and groan. That’s it. Then we remarry Christ as the Holy Spirit enters.
Family Tree:
We may not agree on the proper translation as secret or genitals, so I wanted to address how this might read if we use the alternative translation of the word. The genitals are the family line or offspring. The unrighteous side or woman/wife of one cannot cut off the family line of another righteous person, without consequences.
Deuteronomy 25:11-12 seems really bizarre, but if we use creation as the context, it can have a reasonably good meaning. It tells the order of things, but symbolism hides meaning. Now, ask your pastor what this means and see what he says!
