Day 15, Numbers 34-36, Deuteronomy 1-7

Good morning, and happy Sunday. If you don't mind, I would like to take a moment to reflect on some sad events in my own life before beginning today's entry, and perhaps raise some discussion questions. Today, I am distressed to say, is an hour of solemn mourning for all of Giants Nation, because our noble and valiant baseball team has fallen from contention. We will not be making the playoffs.

Why, you may be asking, do I have the gall to bring up this completely unrelated event instead of doing my job and talking about the bible? Well, this tragic circumstance got me thinking. It is so easy for those of us who consider ourselves atheists, agnostic, or otherwise rational thinkers to pass harsh judgment on people with religious convictions. We examine this text and see the contradictions, the absurdities, and we scoff at them. But today I wonder, how different are we? After all, I believed passionately that this moribund and hapless group of ball players might string together enough wins to capture their division and defend their World Series Championship -- even as evidence repeatedly showed me it was not to be. I think that everyone must hold some sort of bizarre and nonsensical conviction that gives them comfort and helps them sleep at night. As long as these beliefs don't hurt anyone, I don't see a problem with it -- that's to say, Christians should refrain from starting Holy Wars, and I will refrain from hitting Dodgers fans on the head with a baseball bat.

With that being said, I'd like to pose the question: what do you believe in? Leave a comment and tell us about it! Is it crazy? That's okay. Don't worry about it. We still like you.

Onto the bible! Today's reading was somewhat uneventful, which makes me feel a little better about taking that self-indulgent prelude. In chapter 34, Moses explains the boundaries of the promised land, and gives instructions on how to take it. He picks a leader from each tribe who is to be in charge of assigning the territory, since God has decreed that Moses himself must die before the group enters Canaan.

Chapter 35 gives us some weird murder laws. Basically, certain murders -- like striking someone with iron or a "wooden thing" (Numbers 35:18) -- are immediately punishable by death, whereas more subjective deaths are subject to greater scrutiny. However, instead of a typical trial as we westernized readers might expect, the killer is instead instructed to go to a "city of refuge", where he will live until the high priest dies and is replaced. Then he's free to go. Um... Okay!

God wraps this section up by declaring to the people, "You must not defile your land by bloodshed. Blood defiles the land; no expiation can be made on behalf of the land for blood shed on it, except by the blood of him who shed it" (Numbers 35:33). Cool! Makes perfect sense! Since killing defiles the land, we should solve this problem by killing killers!

Chapter 37 concerns our gang of well-named heiress sisters from yesterday's reading: Mahlah, Tirzah, Hoglah, Milcah, and Noah. Everyone is nervous about them inheriting money, being women and all, so it is decreed that any woman who inherits money from a dead relative must marry within her tribe, so that inheritance cannot pass between the tribes. The girls oblige and all marry their cousins.

And thus ends the book of Numbers! Before we embark on Deuteronomy I will provide the cursory etymology. The word Deuteronomy means "second law" and apparently we should expect to see repetition of much of the legislation from Exodus, Leviticus, and Numbers. Oh boy. Legislation is so fun, especially legislation we've already read. The majority of Deuteronomy is a series of first-person discourses that Moses makes to the people before his death.

Moses kicks off his first sermon by providing a lengthy and rather revisionist recap of the forty years spent in the wilderness; for instance, when he discusses the disloyal scouts he claims that the Israelites insisted upon sending them, rather than God. He also describes an event where the Israelites ignore God's command that they refrain from fighting the Amorites, who subsequently "[come] out against [them] and [swarm] after [them] like bees" (Deut 1:44). My bible's footnotes don't draw any attention to this, which makes me wonder... Did I miss something? I totally don't remember this happening!

Chapters 2 and 3 continue the summary, which I won't delve into because we've already read the books being discussed. Who wants to read a summary of a summary? I will say that I felt a little bad for Moses when he got to the part of the story where he appoints Joshua as his successor. He relates a conversation he had with God, where he pleaded, "Let me cross over, I beg, and see that good land which lies on the other side of the Jordan, and the fine hill-country and the Lebanon" (Deut 3:25). But God refuses his request, saying that he should instead "go to the top of Pisgah and look west and north, south and east; look well at what you see, for you will not cross this river Jordan" (Deut 3:27). Poor guy! He worked so hard on behalf of the whiny Israelites, and now he doesn't even get to see the fruit of his labor.

Chapter 4 emphasizes the importance of following the covenant once the Israelites are settled in Canaan, especially the part about worshiping only one God, and not making idols. I have to say, the Jewish rejection of idols is actually pretty cool and interesting; the ancient Greeks were intrigued by it, and during the period of Hellenization would send philosophers into Palestine to observe the Jewish customs. While most Near Eastern temples during this period would contain a sacrificial room with an idol of the group's god, the Jewish temple featured an empty room for sacrifices. Their devotion to an abstract and intangible God is quite unique.

Chapter 5 repeats the Ten Commandments, and chapter 6 is simply an "elaboration" on the first of these laws -- to "love [God] and keep [his] commandments" (Deut 5:10).

Chapter 7, today's final chapter, concerns the dislodged groups throughout Canaan: the Hittites, Girgashites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites. God tells the Israelites to treat them mercilessly; they must "pull down their altars, break their sacred pillars, hack down their sacred poles, and burn their idols" (Deut 7:5). Wow! What a jerk! I still don't get why God has a "chosen people" who gets all these special privileges, especially when the Jews are so whiny. What on earth makes him like them so much?

God goes on to say that if the Israelites follow the covenant, they will be exceedingly prosperous. Among other things, God promises, "Neither among your people nor among your cattle will their be an impotent male or a barren female [and] the Lord will keep you free from all sickness" (Deut 7:14-15). I wonder what pious Jews of later times would think when they got a cold, or when their cow had a miscarriage! That they had inadvertently defied God and were being punished?

The chapter ends with a repetition of the importance to worship only one God and to not make idols. Apparently we should remember this one! Or maybe we should forget it so that it doesn't seem redundant and annoying when it pops up every other sentence.

That's about all for today. Not the most interesting of readings, but better days will come!