FRIDAY, JULY 19, 2024 - JUST AN ALTERNATIVE VIEW

On Friday, I generally write about spiritual things.

Today, I’m “challenging” some traditional ideas - Moses and The Law.

One account states: “There were about six hundred thousand men on foot besides women and children.” (That same author added that if the men were married and had an average of 5 children, that brings the total to about 4.2 million.)

If one takes the Bible literally, Moses never entered the “promised land.”  So, all of his pronouncements and laws were in the desert.  

Such a large group in the wilderness - living in tents, still herding livestock. Water was scarce; living conditions were rough.  Let’s assume about six hundred thousand women were in the group (to match up with me.  Sources suggest that the average period for women is between three and seven days.  Let’s say that maybe 200,000 women were not pregnant and were having periods.  Let’s guess that maybe 10% of the women would have their period on any given day.  

Mosiac law says that women were not allowed to be in the camp while they were having their period.  So, 20,000 women would be kicked out of the camp on any given day.  Likewise, there were times when men were kicked out of camp.   Hmmm - kicked out of camp - from the water, manna, quail, and whatever else for food - because they were ceremonially unclean.  

So, a semi-nomadic society in a wilderness had people in and out of the camp on any given day.

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Moses said, “No tattoos.” I agree with him. Would you get a tattoo in a camp with a million people without sanitary conditions? Now, when they got settled and had houses, maybe a person could get a tattoo (in my opinion).

Moses said, “No pork.”  Growing up, we were warned about trichinosis.  However, in the United States, trichinosis is rare.  In the desert - with wild animals, there would be a more significant percentage of trichinosis.  I agree with Moses that in the desert, there should be no pork (it would be hard to get it cooked properly).  But, in a society with ovens and heat-based cooking - you could have your bacon.

Some scholars have questioned whether Moses wrote the Pentateuch. The (many) laws at that time were partially related to being in the desert/wilderness. Considering that over a million people would live in tents in the desert (without proper toilets and sanitation), precaution would be reasonable.  

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Some Christians claim that Christ has done away with the laws of the Old Testament.  There are some Jewish people I know who disregard some of the laws, most notably the prohibition of the port.

Let’s look at Deuteronomy 22:5

“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.

In our society today, some women dress as men (tomboys), and men dress as women (might be called sissies).  But at that time (with Moses in the wilderness), a man who didn’t want to fight might wish to dress as a woman as they were preparing for war.  

There are other verses about men being with men and women being with women.  Is that relevant today?  If a person loves God with heart, soul, mind, and strength and loves their neighbor, might that be enough?

1 John 2 talks about loving your brother and sister; I John 4 says God is Love; 1 Peter 4:8 says, “Love covers a multitude of sins

Guess what - I’m not perfect.  But I’m leaning toward all the Old Testament rules being out of cleanness and hygiene being outdated.  

The key to me is LOVE 

I really do mean that LOVE DOES WIN

And, I really do mean that LOVE CAN TRANSFORM ANYONE

Karen Anne White, July 19, 2024