Questions/Comments

Here are some thoughts and questions from your fellow-readers:

I am reading thru the Bible this year in a Historical manor, but as thus far we are still together in sequence. As for the first question (the ceremony to test a wife’s faithfulness): I think this is included to show how seriously god takes commitment. Commitment to him and to our spouse, as well as to each other. Maybe I’m trying to read something in that is not there but this is how it spoke to me.

--Linda Wyatt

I see the ceremony showing God's grace to the woman in comparison to the fierce ordeals prescribed in pagan circles, where it is said hardly are you innocent, but lead into guilt. The question I have is - In the 10 commandments it says “Thou shall not commit adultery.” It sounds like this was only for women in the ancient world. I know God meant it for everyone. What's the deal??????

--Caroline Birkner

Pastor Jared,

I had a few questions this morning.

Numbers 4:? What is a sea cow?

The short answer: it is some kind of sea animal, probably related to a dolphin (if it’s related to the Arabic word that is close to the Hebrew word) or a manatee. Whatever it’s closest to, it’s skin was one type of skin used to cover the tabernacle and its equipment (Exod 25:5, etc.)

Numbers 3:15 Why count males from one month old and not newborns, too?

I would guess that it has to do with the number of babies that did not survive the first month of life. The conditions in ancient Israel, like most places in the ancient world, were very difficult and the number of children that survived the first month of life was significantly lower than today.

Numbers 3:39 - 42 I've been trying to figure this out mathematically. There were 22,000 male Levites and out of the remaining 11 tribes, there were 22,273 first born males? That tells me that there were only 1,117 families in each tribe, so the families must have been quite large. What am I missing here? Thanks!

--Debbie

I’ve never tried to figure this out mathematically to see how many would have been in each family, but families were significantly bigger then (look at the Patriarchs) partly because they had as many children as they could, but also partly because many men had multiple wives. The family would also have included servants, so you can see how the numbers could begin to grow quickly.

Hope that helps!

The ceremony to test an unfaithful wife seems rather harsh and ancient by most standards. However, most people (not you all) fail to realize that this was actually protection for the women against unjustifiably jealous husbands. There was no such test in other ancient cultures and women could be divorced or killed if the husband suspected unfaithfulness. The ancient world was VERY patriarchal—this was meant to protect women.

Happy reading!

Pastor Jared