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Coping with Life 45 – Bestiality
Coping with Life 45 – Bestiality
Mike Willis
The word “bestiality” refers to a human being have sexual relations with an animal. It is difficult to imagine that man, who was created in the image of God, would so degrade himself as to have sexual relations with an animal. Despite how hard this is to imagine, the Scriptures forbid bestiality because some people were guilty of that sin.
“Whoever lies with an animal shall be put to death” (Exod. 22:19).
“And you shall not lie with any animal and so make yourself unclean with it, neither shall any woman give herself to an animal to lie with it: it is perversion” (Lev. 18:23).
“If a man lies with an animal, he shall surely be put to death, and you shall kill the animal. If a woman approaches any animal and lies with it, you shall kill the woman and the animal; they shall surely be put to death; their blood is upon them” (Lev. 20:15-16).
“‘Cursed be anyone who lies with any kind of animal.’ And all the people shall say, ‘Amen.’” (Deut. 27:21).
In view of the sexual perversions so prevalent in our modern society (such as, “there are no moral absolutes”), it seems necessary to teach about the sinfulness of bestiality. Fortunately, most states in America still have criminal statues against bestiality.
Legal prohibitions against bestiality go back in history at least to the law code of the ancient Hittites (1650-1500 BC) (Ancient Near Eastern Texts, Pritchard, “Hittite Laws” # 188, #199-200, pp. 196-197). The Hittite Laws inconsistently invoked the death penalty in some cases of bestiality and not in others. Older laws regulated bestiality based on morality and legal punishments, but the newer laws in America are more focused on animal rights or cruelty to animals (“Bestiality Law in the United States: Evolving Legislation with Scientific Limitations,” Brian James Holoyda, available online at https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9219431/).
What made bestiality abhorrent to God was its perversion (see Lev. 18:23, above). The word “perversion” is translated form the Hebrew word TEBHEL which means “confusion, disgracefulness” (HALOT, 1683). It used not only of bestiality but also of incest (Lev. 20:12). Mixing animals with mankind is “confusion.” Man is made in the image of God; animals are not made in the image of God and intermixing the two is an abomination to the Lord.
Though scripture says nothing about using sex toys, it appears to me that having sexual relations with a machine is just as much “confusion” as with an animal. As of 2021, the sex toy industry had grown to a $34 billion market and is expected to reach $81 billion by 2030. There is no doubt that mankind debases itself when trying to find sexual gratification with a MACHINE instead of a PERSON. Mankind debases oneself when one tries to buy sexual gratification from another who is selling himself or herself—two anonymous people meeting in the cheap motel for a few minutes, never to see each other again.
The biblical model of sexuality is so much superior to that. It is a heterosexual relationship between two partners committed to each other in the bonds of marriage for the rest of their lives, committed to partnering together to raise those children who are conceived in wedlock to prepare them for their own self-sufficient adult lives. Why would anyone think that having sex with an animal or machine can provide comparable gratification?
