Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers
Note to the reader: This article is part of a larger discussion I have been having about the nature of modern religions. This blog is not focused on a religion, and I am not in any way a religious scholar. These are my opinions and reactions to the texts and the stories they convey, and do not reflect my opinions of people who follow these religions or come to different conclusions about the meanings of the stories these books contain. I firmly believe discrimination is wrong, and that people have a right to live their lives however they choose to, so long as it does not affect the ability of others to do the same.
I am using the New Oxford Annotated Bible, with Apocrypha.
Introduction
So I want to say at the outset that while I generally found this section of The Bible much less upsetting to read, it still has its own share of issues. I am going to try and avoid rehashing already discussed subjects and instead move on to some new ones. Namely its portrayal of women, the nature of free will, and the interactions between God and Moses.
Women and Society
The Bible's portrayal of women is a bit … strange to me. Firstly because they don't seem to appear nearly as often as one would expect, and never in any substantial or independent role; at least so far. Now I accept that this is at least in part a product of who wrote The Bible, and the expectations of the societies they were a part of. However, if I am being honest, I don't understand why an entity so far beyond humanity would choose to reinforce those biases. And, while I acknowledge that it could simply be that due to social constraints, males were simply the best tools to get what needed doing done, I find that answer to be a bit unsatisfying in the context of a God who can flood the earth.
More to the point; many of The Bible's examples of human failure seem to be arbitrarily assigned to women. Women are also depicted as more prone to evil, or simply as glorified possessions. When a woman is positively mentioned, so far as I can recall reading; it's because she gave birth. Genesis 19:8, Genesis 19:26, and Genesis 19:31 create a pretty good representation of how The Bible seems to view women. First as possessions, then as weak and fallible, and lastly as having value only for their ability to bear children.
Author's note: I am trying to not get bogged down in a discussion of slavery, and rape again. But I do want to say, the actions described in Genesis 19:31 are just … incredibly* disgusting. Rape is always wrong, and that is what that chapter described.*
Free Will and Choice
One thing that I have found genuinely confusing is the limits; self imposed or otherwise, of God's ability to interact with the world. It seems reasonable to assume that God has the ability to directly control anything that they want to, and that they simply choose not to in most situations. But in the case of the Pharaoh, God seems to be directly subverting human choice and free will?
And the Lord said to Moses, "When you go back to Egypt, see that you perform before Pharaoh all the wonders that I have put in your power; but I will harden his heart, so that he will not let the people go. Then you shall say to Pharaoh, 'Thus says the Lord: Israel is my firstborn son. I said to you, "Let my son go that he may worship me." But you refused to let him go; now I will kill your firstborn son.'"
–Exodus 4:21
Now the interesting portion of this to me is God saying "I will harden his heart, so that he will not let the people go." More for the fact that it seems to imply that god is directly subverting or overriding a human's ability to make choices, than because it is counterproductive. This hardening is repeated several times throughout the chapter, and it really made me wonder. If God has both the ability and willingness to override human independence, why they don't do so more often? What are the moral implications of choices made as a result of that intervention.
One example of this is the deaths of the Egyptians who pursued the Hebrews as they fled into the desert. The Egyptian army pursued the Hebrews at the command of the Pharaoh who was being… influenced by God. I acknowledge that the death of a few thousand charioteers is bordering on inconsequential by the scale of a being that has previously wiped out all life on earth. But I do think its worth considering that those Egyptians are mounting the pursuit at the order of the Pharaoh, who is being influenced to do so. Is it unreasonable to say that the entity doing that influencing is responsible for those deaths? More generally, how does that type of intervention affect the morality of those following the Pharaoh. Can you really say that the Egyptians were in the wrong here, when they were explicitly following God's plan?
Moses and God
I want to end this post on a bit of a lighter note, not everything in The Bible has been terrible to read. Following the escape from Egypt into the Wilderness, an almost co-operative dynamic develops between God and Moses. My favorite example of this was;
But Moses said to the Lord, "Then the Egyptians will hear of it, for in your might you brought up this people from among them, and they will tell the inhabitants of this land. They have heard that you, O Lord, are in the midst of this people; for you, O Lord, are seen face to face, and your cloud stands over them and you go in front of them, in a pillar of cloud by day and in a pillar of fire by night. Now if you kill this people all at one time, then the nations who have heard about you will say, 'It is because the Lord was not able to bring this people into the land he swore to give them that he has slaughtered them in the wilderness.' …"
–Numbers 14:13
Which I could not help but translate it into a modern conversation.
"Yeah you could kill all of us. No one's denying that. But if you do… everyone will think you are a quitter"
I found these interactions between God, Moses, and the Israelites to be a really interesting dynamic. With Moses acting as a mediator between the fallible and often short-sighted populace, and God, who often seems to fail to consider human motivation, lifespan, and social dynamics. Instead expecting rote obedience, which within the context of the Abrahamic faiths is understandable. The fundamental tenet is, "fear and obey God".