How are Eunuchs Devotional?

This may be the first personal devotion you’ve read about eunuchs. But just maybe God has a word for us in it, so lean in.

Eunuchs  they were genetically male but anatomically different than the rest of the males, making them sexual minorities. They were commonly court officials because they couldn’t have children, thus they were not a threat to the throne; they could also move in and out of the women’s quarters without being a sexual threat, so they made good guards for queens and princesses. So eunuchs occupied a place in society that was different from other men and women - that has to do with their gender (their role in society). They were gender minorities. Quick definitional summary: Eunuchs were sexual and gender minorities in the Bible.

Here’s what the Old Testament has to say about these minorities:

No man with a crippled foot or hand, or who is a hunchback or a dwarf, or who has any eye defect, or who has festering or running sores or damaged testicles.No descendant of Aaron the priest who has any defect is to come near to present the food offerings to the Lord. He has a defect; he must not come near to offer the food of his God. - Leviticus 21:19-21

This passage from the Law gives some context for how eunuchs (males with damaged or no testicles) may have been treated. From our vantage point, these restrictions seem unkind and discriminatory. So we have to wonder if there were other things going on in the context of the giving of the Law when it comes to these passages. In particular, we see a real departure from this restriction later in the Old Testament.

Let no foreigner who is bound to the Lord say,
    “The Lord will surely exclude me from his people.”
And let no eunuch complain,
    “I am only a dry tree.”

For this is what the Lord says:

“To the eunuchs who keep my Sabbaths,
    who choose what pleases me
    and hold fast to my covenant—
to them I will give within my temple and its walls
    a memorial and a name
    better than sons and daughters;
I will give them an everlasting name
    that will endure forever. - Isaiah 56:3-5

The very group of people who were forbidden from God’s temple in Leviticus are told by God that they will have a special place in the temple! Clearly there’s been a shift in how the Bible is speaking about sexual and gender minorities.

How about you - has there been a shift in your life about how you’ve thought about or treated sexual and gender minorities? What was the context of how you first thought versus how you think now? What has made a difference? How might God be showing up and speaking to you in this story of how you treat people?