Today's Daily Lesson come from Numbers chapter 5 verses 11 through 22. TRIGGER WARNING: This Lesson deals with issues of punishment and forced abortion against women.
11 The Lord spoke to Moses, saying: 12 Speak to the Israelites and say to them: If any man’s wife goes astray and is unfaithful to him, 13 if a man has had intercourse with her but it is hidden from her husband, so that she is undetected though she has defiled herself, and there is no witness against her since she was not caught in the act; 14 if a spirit of jealousy comes on him, and he is jealous of his wife who has defiled herself; or if a spirit of jealousy comes on him, and he is jealous of his wife, though she has not defiled herself; 15 then the man shall bring his wife to the priest. And he shall bring the offering required for her, one-tenth of an ephah of barley flour. He shall pour no oil on it and put no frankincense on it, for it is a grain offering of jealousy, a grain offering of remembrance, bringing iniquity to remembrance.
16 Then the priest shall bring her near, and set her before the Lord; 17 the priest shall take holy water in an earthen vessel, and take some of the dust that is on the floor of the tabernacle and put it into the water. 18 The priest shall set the woman before the Lord, dishevel the woman’s hair, and place in her hands the grain offering of remembrance, which is the grain offering of jealousy. In his own hand the priest shall have the water of bitterness that brings the curse. 19 Then the priest shall make her take an oath, saying, “If no man has lain with you, if you have not turned aside to uncleanness while under your husband’s authority, be immune to this water of bitterness that brings the curse. 20 But if you have gone astray while under your husband’s authority, if you have defiled yourself and some man other than your husband has had intercourse with you,” 21 —let the priest make the woman take the oath of the curse and say to the woman—“the Lord make you an execration and an oath among your people, when the Lord makes your uterus drop, your womb discharge; 22 now may this water that brings the curse enter your bowels and make your womb discharge, your uterus drop!” And the woman shall say, “Amen. Amen.”
Today's Lesson is difficult and even disgusting, and certainly not uplifting. Yet as we are reading the Bible together this year, I have chosen it to highlight the complexities of what we find in the Bible, and also the insanity of claims that we need to "get back to the Bible".
Really? Have they read this stuff? Do they really think we should make women eat the dust of the sanctuary at the whim of their jealous husbands? Do they know the Bible actually prescribes this as a form of divine-sanctioned and induced abortion?
So here are some general comments.
1. The Bible should not be read as a book of Divine Laws. It should be read as a catalogue of the early history and development of HUMAN-MADE Laws.
2. It is important to understand that the Laws in the Bible which we sometimes now view as draconian were in their time in their time somewhat progressive. An example: "An eye for an eye" was a Law which actually LIMITED retribution. This is an example of punishment being made to fit the crime, rather than exceed it. Perhaps today's Lesson is also of this nature. However repugnant and also patently patriarchal, the so-called "trial" did at least bring in a priest and a certain form of due process which took the Law out of the hands of the jealous husband. This gave a decent priest an opportunity to intervene for the sake of the woman and perhaps the fetus within her.
3. The Hebrew Bible Laws were indeed patriarchal in nature. Generally Laws like this governing women's bodies in today's Lesson have no cognate relative to men and their bodies. This historical inequality continues to shape our own Laws today. We must open our own eyes to this injustice and work to make the Law more equal for all sexes and genders.
The Bible is a catalogue. It's a Law Library. And getting "Back to the Bible!" is seriously problematic. It's demagogic and patriarchal. And it's downright scary.
Woe to the people that buy into it.
NOTE: We are reading the whole Bible this year, sometimes critically. Tomorrow's Lesson is from Numbers 7.
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