Headlines abound about the growing international tensions between the United States and China, primarily over the status of Taiwan and the economic direction of the Pacific region. While some pundits are predicting a military conflict within the next six months, how this situation unfolds is known only to God. However, in the event of a major conflict, our military will almost certainly need to expand quickly to meet the challenges. That means we will face the very real possibility of a draft. Given our national environment, one where the natural understanding of men and women is drastically distorted by the lies of leftist progressive secular feminism, there are more and more calls to support the expansion of the military draft to include young women as well as young men. However, as a church committed to the Biblical understanding of man and woman, we must seek to understand what the Scripture commands regarding this issue.
While there are many texts that help us understand the overall created order and the actual divine purposes of men and women, the key text for us to consider here is Deuteronomy 22:5 which states,
“A woman shall not wear anything that pertains to a man, nor shall a man put on a woman’s garment, for all who do so are an abomination to the Lord your God.”
Deuteronomy 22:5 (NKJV), emphasis mine
At first glance, it appears that this is simply a command that a woman not wear a suit and tie and that a man must not cross dress. However, as we study the phrase underlined above, “anything that pertains to a man,” we must examine the compound Hebrew word behind that translation, keli-geber. That Hebrew word means the raiment of a valiant man or warrior.[1]
Why would the Scripture forbid women from wearing combat clothing? The answer to this question gets to the heart of what a woman is for in God’s created order. Women were created to be givers of life, and the Bible describes any effort to conscript them as instruments of death as an abomination.
Furthermore, the Bible describes instances where men have ceased to defend their homeland as an example of divine judgement. In Jeremiah 51:30, the city of Babylon is under the judgement of God. The men of Babylon stopped fighting and their strength failed such that they became like women. The clear biblical implication is that the men failed in their assigned task to defend their city. The Communion of Reformed Evangelical Churches states the matter plainly:
It is not lawful for women to be mustered for combat service, for our Lord has declared it an abomination for women to don the martial attire of a man (Deut 22:5). Christian fathers must protect their daughters from being seduced or coerced into such a circumstance, and the Church must support them as they do so. It is the duty of men not women to protect their countries (Jer 51:30).
crec book of memorials, rev. ed. 2017, memorial E
Based on Holy Scripture, therefore, it is immoral and unlawful for governments to draft women for military service, neither can governments open service in combat units to women. Women can certainly serve their nation in support roles, as many have done in previous wars with courage and steadfastness. But it is clear that, according to scripture, the burden of direct combat falls on men. I pray that the men of our nation will be able to rise to meet the call of duty.
[1] The New Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 1995), 3627, 1397