Strangers In The Land: Ger 020

Numbers 9:6-14

Now there were certain men who were defiled by a human corpse, so that they could not keep the Passover on that day; and they came before Moses and Aaron that day. And those men said to him, “We became defiled by a human corpse. Why are we kept from presenting the offering of the Lord at its appointed time among the children of Israel?”

And Moses said to them, “Stand still, that I may hear what the Lord will command concerning you.” 

Then the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, “Speak to the children of Israel, saying: ‘If anyone of you or your posterity is unclean because of a corpse, or is far away on a journey, he may still keep the Lord’s Passover. On the fourteenth day of the second month, at twilight, they may keep it. They shall eat it with unleavened bread and bitter herbs. They shall leave none of it until morning, nor break one of its bones. According to all the ordinances of the Passover they shall keep it.  But the man who is clean and is not on a journey, and ceases to keep the Passover, that same person shall be cut off from among his people, because he did not bring the offering of the Lord at its appointed time; that man shall bear his sin.

‘And if a ger dwells among you, and would keep the Lord’s Passover, he must do so according to the rite of the Passover and according to its ceremony; you shall have one ordinance, both for the ger and the native of the land.’ ”

What Does It Say?

Numbers 9 takes place in the context of the second Passover, that is, the first one where Egyptian babies weren't being killed by the angel of death. Some of the men of Israel are ceremonially unclean at the time and ask Moses what they should do.

Moses asks the Lord for an answer (which you can read above), and the Lord throws in some bonus advice on ger who might want to celebrate the Passover. The short version: they can, as long as they follow the same rules.

This fits in with many, many other verses we've looked at that mandate one law for the native and the ger. Nothing really new here, but it is interesting to see the ger contrasted with the native born who fail to celebrate the Passover despite being able to. Where the ger can join in, the native-born who don't fulfill the law are cut off. As we've seen before, that may indicate being cast out of the land or perhaps even capital punishment.

Next: Numbers 15

Strangers In The Land: Ger 019

Leviticus 25:45-55

Moreover you may buy the children of the towshab who dwell among you, and their families who are with you, which they beget in your land; and they shall become your property. And you may take them as an inheritance for your children after you, to inherit them as a possession; they shall be your abad. But regarding your brethren, the children of Israel, you shall not rule over one another with rigor.

‘Now if a ger and towshab close to you becomes rich, and one of your brethren who dwells by him becomes poor, and sells himself to the ger and towshab close to you, or to a member of the ger's family, after he is sold he may be redeemed again. One of his brothers may redeem him; or his uncle or his uncle’s son may redeem him; or anyone who is near of kin to him in his family may redeem him; or if he is able he may redeem himself. Thus he shall reckon with him who bought him: The price of his release shall be according to the number of years, from the year that he was sold to him until the Year of Jubilee; it shall be according to the time of a sakiyr for him. If there are still many years remaining, according to them he shall repay the price of his redemption from the money with which he was bought. And if there remain but a few years until the Year of Jubilee, then he shall reckon with him, and according to his years he shall repay him the price of his redemption. He shall be with him as a yearly hired servant, and he shall not rule with rigor over him in your sight. And if he is not redeemed in these years, then he shall be released in the Year of Jubilee—he and his children with him. For the children of Israel are ebed to Me; they are My ebed whom I brought out of the land of Egypt: I am the Lord your God.

What Does It Say?

This section of chapter 25 deals with the ownership of human beings. Now, if you recall, towshab are foreigners who have not been circumcised and thus are not subject to the protections of the law to the same extent as ger. Therefore, towshab can be owned as property (abad) and worked hard. They are closer to the modern definition of slaves since they are not freed on the Year of Jubilee.

Israelite can sell themselves as servants, whether to other Israelites or to ger and towshab. However, they cannot be held as property permanently; they must be freed on the Year of Jubilee. Further, they can be freed from their servitude by paying the remainder of the price they were sold for at any time.

The reason given that Israelites cannot be sold as abad is because they are the ebed (servants) of God. In other words, they belong to God. So just as the other parts of chapter 25 deal with the restitution of property, so does this section. In dealing with Israelites, you are dealing with God's property. His claim overrules the claim of the ger and towshab that they are sold to.

We do see some interesting possibilities in this passage. It seems to indicate that it is not just ger, or towshab living as servants that might exist in Israel. It seems that towshab (who are ger in the sense of being ethnically different, hence "ger and towshab") could also live in the land and become wealthy without being circumcised. In that case, one would not have to worship the One True God in order to live in Israel.

Would these towshab also be allowed to practice their foreign religions? That's still somewhat ambiguous in our study. They certainly would not be allowed to sacrifice their children to Moloch, as we have seen in earlier passages. The most we can say so far is that there would be some restrictions on their religious practice.

And with that, we leave the book of Leviticus and move on to Numbers.

Next: Numbers 9

Strangers In The Land: Ger 018

Leviticus 24:10-22

Now the son of an Israelite woman, whose father was an Egyptian, went out among the children of Israel; and this Israelite woman’s son and a man of Israel fought each other in the camp. And the Israelite woman’s son blasphemed the name of the Lord and cursed; and so they brought him to Moses. (His mother’s name was Shelomith the daughter of Dibri, of the tribe of Dan.) Then they put him in custody, that the mind of the Lord might be shown to them.

And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, “Take outside the camp him who has cursed; then let all who heard him lay their hands on his head, and let all the congregation stone him.

“Then you shall speak to the children of Israel, saying: ‘Whoever curses his God shall bear his sin. And whoever blasphemes the name of the Lord shall surely be put to death. All the congregation shall certainly stone him, the ger as well as him who is born in the land. When he blasphemes the name of the Lord, he shall be put to death.

‘Whoever kills any man shall surely be put to death. Whoever kills an animal shall make it good, animal for animal.

‘If a man causes disfigurement of his neighbor, as he has done, so shall it be done to him— fracture for fracture, eye for eye, tooth for tooth; as he has caused disfigurement of a man, so shall it be done to him. And whoever kills an animal shall restore it; but whoever kills a man shall be put to death. You shall have the same law for the ger and for one from your own country; for I am the Lord your God.’ ”

What Does It Say?

This passage is one of the most revealing and complex of all that we have come across so far. There are some challenges to interpreting the mindset of the author, so take what I say with a larger grain of salt that usual. I'll try to make my personal interpretation clear and leave room for other opinions.

Let's start with the obvious: no one is exempt from the law, Israelite or ger. Ger are also required to take part in stoning blasphemers to death.

It's also interesting that this law on blasphemy is included in a list of "eye for an eye" punishments. The implication that blasphemy is so terribly wicked that the only equally appropriate punishment is death. Just as the perfectly proportionate punishment for the destruction of an eye is the destruction of the offender's eye, so the the perfectly proportionate punishment for blaspheming the Lord and Creator of Life is the death of the offender.

Let's look at the more debatable stuff about race mixing now.

The passage starts with the explanation of a legal case. The son of an Israelite woman and an Egyptian man gets into a fight with an Israelite man, and, in the heat of the moment, blasphemes the name of the Lord. It's something we might even find a bit understandable - perhaps he simply lost control of his tongue.

It's not clear where his father is in all this. As the Israelites were recently slaves in Egypt, it's possible the boy is the product of a rape. It's also possible his Egyptian father followed the Israelites out into the wilderness. There is some evidence in Exodus that the people who left Egypt were not purely Israelites. Exodus 12:38 says that "A mixed multitude went up with them also, and flocks and herds—a great deal of livestock." The words translated as "mixed multitude" are ereb rab.

Ereb is used mostly in the Bible to refer to mixed cloths - think a polyester-cotton blend. However, it is also used  in Nehemiah 13 to refer to Ammonites and Moabites who had been "mixed" into the Israelite population. Specifically, verse 3 says that these mixed-in people had to be removed. So we know it can refer to a ethnically mixed population. Rab is a more general term used to describe an abundance or great number.

There's also some mathmatical evidence for extended race mixing in Egypt that I'm not going to go into detail on. Here's a link to a blog discussing it (I'm not vouching for the blog, just the math in that post).

If this is the case, it definitely informs our understanding of race mixing in the Bible. While there are many passages where interracial marriage is shown in a negative light (the incident with Phineas springs to mind), these instances are always explicitly mixed with concerns of religious mixing. So if we have this example of interracial marriage being perfectly fine when there's no concern of faith mixing, it clarifies the Bible's stance.

There are of course plenty of individual instances of mixed-ethnic marriages in the Bible, including Moses' previously discussed marriage, and several women in Jesus' own family tree. But it would be interesting if it was happening commonly in the background, not just in special exceptions.

In the interest of fairness, we should say that there is no overwhelming evidence in the Bible for large-scale intermarriage. And even if it was normal at the time of the Exodus due to the Israelites living in Egypt, I'm not familiar with any evidence (so far) that it was normal after the Israelites entered the Promised Land. If anything, taboos against intermarriage seem to increase in Cannan due to the hostile and unrepentantly pagan people surrounding Israel, as well as the tendency of the Israelites to fall into idol worship.

Still, the lack of explicit condemnation of intermarriage per se would indicate it was allowed even if not common.

Next: Leviticus 25

Strangers In The Land: Ger 017

Leviticus 23:22

‘When you reap the harvest of your land, you shall not wholly reap the corners of your field when you reap, nor shall you gather any gleaning from your harvest. You shall leave them for the poor and for the ger: I am the Lord your God.’ ”

What Does It Say?

No, that's not a typo, this verse is almost identical to Leviticus 19:10. This time it comes directly after a list of regulations for the Feast of Weeks, aka Shavuot. It's part of a chapter 23's descriptions of all the various holidays of the Hebrew calendar.

The Feast of Weeks is also sometimes called the Feast of Reaping, as it takes place during the time of the wheat harvest. That's likely why the commandment is repeated here: it's a reminder to make provisions for the poor and the stranger as we celebrate the bounty God has given to us.

As such, it serves as a good reminder that our blessings come from God, and that God wants us to love others as He has loved us. Our treatment of other people should be a reflection of how we believe God treats us.

Is our God a loving God? Then we should be loving. Is our God a just God? Then we must not pervert justice in favor of the poor or in favor of the rich. We make provisions for those who cannot feed themselves just as God feeds us, those who depend on Him.

Next: Leviticus 24

Strangers In The Land: Ger 016

Leviticus 22:17-19

And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, “Speak to Aaron and his sons, and to all the children of Israel, and say to them: ‘Whatever man of the house of Israel, or of the ger in Israel, who offers his sacrifice for any of his vows or for any of his freewill offerings, which they offer to the Lord as a burnt offering—you shall offer of your own free will a male without blemish from the cattle, from the sheep, or from the goats. 

What Does It Say?

Leviticus 22 mostly deals with priestly regulations: who can offer sacrifices, who can partake of the sacrifices, and what can be sacrificed. We see here that ger can also sacrifice freewill offerings (voluntary sacrifices not required by the law) or sacrifices promised to the Lord in a vow.

In other words, the ger are not cut off from the worship of the true God. They are included in the spiritual life of Israel. This "Judaism" (something of a misnomer) is not an exclusive ethnic club. While the nations around Israel are unclean, it is due to their rejection of the law of God, not because of their heritage - otherwise, they could not have approached the altar.

Next: Leviticus 23

Strangers In The Land: Ger 015

Leviticus 20:1-5

Then the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, “Again, you shall say to the children of Israel: ‘Whoever of the children of Israel, or of the ger who dwell in Israel, who gives any of his descendants to Molech, he shall surely be put to death. The people of the land shall stone him with stones. I will set My face against that man, and will cut him off from his people, because he has given some of his descendants to Molech, to defile My sanctuary and profane My holy name. And if the people of the land should in any way hide their eyes from the man, when he gives some of his descendants to Molech, and they do not kill him, then I will set My face against that man and against his family; and I will cut him off from his people, and all who prostitute themselves with him to commit harlotry with Molech.

What Does It Say?

Leviticus 20 is also mostly a list of prohibitions, with one distinct difference from Leviticus 19. Whereas Leviticus 19 has a mixture of both positive and negative commandments (a mix of "do this" and "don't do that"), Leviticus 20 is a list of offensive that warrant the death penalty. In addition to the section quoted above, the chapter lists other capital offenses, such as:

-Consulting familiar spirits (spiritism)
-Cursing your parents
-Adultery
-Incest

Now, a few of these commandments specify that a person who does these things shall be 'cut off' and some of them specify stoning as a method of execution. I suppose you could argue that 'cutting off' is a form of exile, but it's also used to describe the people who perished in Noah's Flood (Gen. 9:11). Most likely, it just means that the method of death does not need to be stoning. In fact, the penalty for consulting a spirit medium is that God Himself will cut off the offender (v. 6).

Molech, of course, is a Canaanite diety who was worshiped by human sacrifice. So 'giving your descendants to Molech' does not mean consecrating them to the worship of the false god, but rather burning them in an unholy sacrifice. This shows why the offense of Molech worship was so evil that it required the death penalty, whether the offender was a native Israeli or a ger.

Once again, we see that ger are particularly required to observe the same religious laws as the Israelis in order to dwell in the land.

Next: Leviticus 22

Strangers In The Land: Ger 014

Leviticus 19:1-2, 9-10, 33-34

And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, “Speak to all the congregation of the children of Israel, and say to them: ‘You shall be holy, for I the Lord your God am holy.
...
‘When you reap the harvest of your land, you shall not wholly reap the corners of your field, nor shall you gather the gleanings of your harvest. And you shall not glean your vineyard, nor shall you gather every grape of your vineyard; you shall leave them for the poor and the ger: I am the Lord your God.
....

‘And if a ger dwells with you in your land, you shall not mistreat him. The ger who dwells among you shall be to you as one born among you, and you shall love him as yourself; for you were ger in the land of Egypt: I am the Lord your God.

What Does It Say?

Leviticus 19 is another list of various laws and regulations, mostly about how the Israelites are supposed to treat each other. There are a few various laws regarding sacrifices (v. 5-8; 20-22)), idol worship/divination (v.4, 26-28, 31) and a few kosher regulations (v. 19, 23-25), but the overall theme of the passage is how to maintain holiness. As verse 2 says, "You shall be holy, for I the Lord your God am holy."

Part of holiness is how we treat the ger, the ethnic outsider. One of those ways is by providing a form of charity for the poor and the marginalized. By not harvesting the entirety of the field, we leave a small portion for those who have no land of their own (the book of Ruth shows and example of how this works out). By not being greedy for everything that is "ours" by right, we show holiness.

Now, notice that God doesn't require us to give all that we have to the poor (though those that do are called blessed in the New Testament). And also notice that the poor and the ger still have to go and gather the crops we leave for them. But the principle of leaving a way for the poor and the ger to take care of themselves is still there.

Verses 33 and 34 are even more intense in describing the type of love we are supposed to have for the ger. The ger, the non-Israeli who lives in the land is to be treated "as one born among you." While they are often marginalized, needing to glean the leftovers from the field, they are not second-class citizens. Moreover, we are to love them in the same way we love ourselves.

The word translated here as "love" is ahab, and it covers a wide variety of 'loves.' It describes everything from the romantic love that Jacob felt for Rachel (Gen. 29:18) to Issac's love for a good stew (Gen. 27:14) to the love that God has for His people (Deut. 4:37) and the love that we are supposed to have for God (Deut. 6:5, "And thou shalt love the LORD thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might").

And while we're not called to love the ger will all our hearts, souls, and might, and while the ger are expected to live by the same civic and religious laws as the native-born, there is absolutely no room given here for hating them or driving them out solely on the basis of ethnicity. This too, is part of being holy as God is holy.

Next: Leviticus 20