I have already stated that God, as its Creator, is very pro-sexuality. What insights does His word, the Bible, give us that substantiates that statement? The answers may surprise you because the focus on sexual issues involve covenant relationship more than physical acts as the centerpiece of attention.

The 613 laws of Moses were inspired by God and were given as civil and religious ordinances to govern the ancient nation of Israel under Theocracy, or God's direct rule. As Christians, we are told in the New Testament that we are no longer "under the law" but under grace (Galatians 3:23; 5:18). This, however, doesn't mean we can't glean insight and wisdom about what God thinks by looking at His law.

According to the law of Moses if a man and woman lie together sexually apart from marriage there are many different legal ramifications that may result. Men were allowed to have more than one wife and also concubines. Women were not allowed more than one husband because there would be no way of ascertaining whose progeny the children were. This would've confused inheritance rights.

If you had sexual relations with someone else's wife it was considered adultery. Exodus 20:17 gives a list of things that belong to your neighbor that you are not to covet or desire to have. His wife is one of them. This is one of the Ten Commandments that are part of the 613 laws of Moses. Leviticus 18:20 tells us that it was illegal to have sexual intercourse with your neighbor's wife.

In Deuteronomy 22:24 the penalty is given if a man commits adultery with his neighbor's wife. It describes two people having intercourse in the city (where there are people about who could hear her cry out) and the woman is complicit because she failed to call out. In other words, she was not being raped. Once discovered, both were to be executed by stoning.

Upon first blush someone may think that God is anti-sexual pleasure and that it was the sex act that was being condemned. This is not the case. Another passage sheds further light on this. Deuteronomy 22:28 says, "If a man finds a girl who is a virgin, who is not engaged (covenanted to another man) and seizes her and lies with her and they are discovered, then the man who lay with her shall give to the girl's father fifty shekels of silver, and she shall become his wife because he has violated her; he cannot divorce her all his days."

All the man had to do was pay the dowry price due the girl's father and marry her. The man had forfeited any future divorce option because he had inflicted a hurt on her as she was now "damaged goods" whom nobody may want to marry. Still, this is far removed from being stoned to death. Here is the same exact sexual activity (coitus) as in the former verse only now the penalty is completely different. Why? The answer lies in covenant.

Covenant means everything to God. It is the basis with which He has always related to man. A covenant is an agreement between two parties and usually involves a contract of sorts that enumerates what both parties will do. This is called a conditional covenant. When the promises are all stated and made by one party then it is an unconditional covenant or unilateral promise.

In the Bible God has made both kinds of covenants with man at different times. Of course, a covenant is only as good as the ability and character of the person making the pledge. If the person has a weak will, and does not or cannot keep his word, then it is foolish to make a covenant or agreement with that person. You can't trust him or her. God, however, is omnipotent, loving, forgiving and not fickle. You can trust a covenant He makes or a word He speaks in pledge.

Under the Mosaic law, when a woman would give her word to a man that she would be his wife, she was considered as good as married as far as the need to keep herself only unto him was concerned. It didn't matter that there had been no ceremony or sexual consummation. The character issue was in play and it became a matter of integrity and promise. This was why Jesus' adopted father Joseph wanted to put Mary away (divorce her) privily when he discovered she was with child, from what he could only imagine was her having been with another man. They were, what we would say, "only" engaged (Matthew 1:19). Yet God had instructed that culture over many years to take the giving of a promise very seriously. Words meant something!

Deuteronomy 22:25-27 states: "But if in the field the man finds a 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." The presumption of innocence was given to the engaged girl out in the country.

These verses also show how God feels about the mistreatment of women, especially in the case of rape. When the woman caught in adultery was brought before Jesus in order to trick Him into saying something wrong, (see John 8:7) and the crowd demanded that she be stoned according to the law of Moses, one has to ask -where was the man? The capital crime aspect to it accentuates that integrity and the keeping of your word is the prime focus. The single girl and the man who has sex with her doesn't die, but they both are executed if the girl is married or pledged to another!

When God made a pledge to Noah that He wouldn't ever again destroy the Earth by flood, the sign of the covenant was the rainbow. This appropriately was a very public declaration. The sign of the forever covenant with Abraham and his children was, and is, the circumcision of all future baby boys. This sign fittingly concerns itself with that organ which produces future progeny. The sign of the new covenant with Jesus is bread and wine. This symbolizes His body that was broken for us and His blood that was shed for us. It is a very apt way of showing the intimacy of His dwelling in us and our being one with Him. (see John 17) Likewise, the sign of the covenant of marriage is sexual intercourse. When two become one it is making the statement that the two intend on being covenanted together as one flesh under God forever. Because it is so personal and intimate a covenant, it is not done publicly but is experienced between the two people in the presence of God alone.

The Apostle Paul declares how marriage models the divine covenantal aspect of God's relating to us. In Ephesians 5:25 & 28 he states "Husbands love your wives just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her....So husbands ought also to love their own wives as their own bodies. He who loves his own wife loves himself; for noone ever hated his own flesh but nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ also does the church." The marriage covenant is dear to the heart of God because it represents or "pictures" the relationship He has with the Church through the shed blood of Jesus. Nothing could be dearer to His heart than His Son's sacrifice and the relationships it establishes.

Only in the safety and continuity of covenantal relationships can any depth of feeling occur and can there be a taste of the stability and blessing of what Heaven will be like. It has been reported by many that for great sexual relations to occur it takes time to get to know one's mate and there must be meaning behind the act. Redbook magazine conducted a survey a few years ago that revealed that women claiming to be "born again" Christians had the highest rate of orgasm in their relationships with their husbands. They attributed it to the "trust" factor in their relationships. When you understand covenant you have unlocked the door to the greatest relationships both human and divine, sexual or non-sexual, that anyone can ever experience. But what allows that "unlocking" to happen?

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