Foreigners and trueborn Israelites

Leviticus 19 ³³ You shall not oppress a stranger who resides in your land. ³⁴ You shall treat strangers who reside with you as native-born Israelites. You shall love them as yourself, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt. I am the LORD your God.

24 ¹⁰ A man who was born to an Israelite woman and an Egyptian man had come with the Israelites. One day, this man got into a fight with an Israelite ¹¹ and uttered a curse in which he blasphemed God's name, so he was brought before Moses.

His mother's name was Selomit; she was a daughter of Dibri and belonged to the tribe of Dan. ¹² The man was taken into custody until YHWH could decide what should be done. ¹³ And YHWH said to Moses: ¹⁴ "Take the blasphemer outside the camp. All who heard him must lay their hands on his head, and he must be stoned to death by the entire community. (...) ²² Strangers and native Israelites must be judged by the same standard. I am YHWH, your God."

Moses did not know what to do. He had made the name YHWH known among the Israelites, against the advice of Reuel and Zipporah. And with that, the name became a god like the gods of Egypt. A name that could be used to curse others. The one who cursed used the name as a magical means to harness God for his own purposes.

            "He is a stranger," the people said. "He does not belong with us."

            "It doesn't matter who his father is," Moses replied. "He is my neighbor, and I love him as I love myself."

Moses prayed but heard nothing. He had the man imprisoned until God would say what should be done with the sinner. Finally, he thought he knew:

            "Our camp must be a holy camp in order to dwell in the holy presence of YHWH. This man has endangered us all by misusing the name of YHWH. YHWH says that we must stone him together until he dies."

            "But he doesn't know any better," said Selomit, his mother. "It's his Egyptian father's fault that he does that."

"It doesn't matter who his father is," Moses replied. "If he wants to live in the presence of YHWH, the same rules apply to him. YHWH wants us to kill him now."

Zipporah cringed. It sounded as if Moses was cursing the man in the name of YHWH.

Gossip and slander

Numbers 12 ¹Miriam and Aaron criticized Moses for marrying a Cushite woman: "He has married a Cushite!" ²They also said, "Has the Lord spoken only through Moses and not through us?"

Zipporah's grief manifested itself in bitterness. She could be curt or withdrawn. She was unable to laugh carefree with the women in the camp. Some found her haughty and unloving toward Moses. Others found her strange. She was someone who had not shared in the misery of Egypt, but was the wife of their leader and prophet. They called her "that Cushite."

            It was an easy insult. Zipporah came from Kush, the region of Midian where they now were. That made her a Cushite. But in Egypt, Kush stood for dark Africa, the place where the power of the pharaohs ended. It was a misunderstood world that was both enchantingly beautiful and threateningly different to the Israelites. Just like Zipporah.

Rumors circulated in the camp. They understood why Moses kept her at a distance.

It turned into a heated discussion between Miriam, Aaron, and Moses. People could hear it.

"A man must leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and they will become one flesh," Miriam prophesied. "You can't be a leader of this people if you can't even take care of your own family."

"A woman does not have control over her own body, for she has a husband," she continued, "but neither does a man have control over his own body, for he has a wife. You cannot take that intimacy away from your beloved; only together can you decide to devote yourselves to prayer for a time. But if you don't come back together, the hissing of the snake will sound in your heart and the poison of distrust will bite into you."

"Treat her with respect," she now begged, "otherwise it will stand in the way of your prayers."

Moses remained silent. He did not know what to say—what YHWH said.

            "Think, Moses," Aaron said. "The death of Nadab and Abihu, the fire in Tabera, why is YHWH so angry with us? Isn't the source of all impurity in yourself and that foreign woman? And don't forget that she is still beautiful and that men look at her."

"He who first sent his wife away cannot take her back in all cases," prophesied Aaron, "suppose she has fallen in love with another man, then she has become unclean to her first husband. Whoever takes her back casts a stain on the land that YHWH, your God, will give you as your possession. What if she turns out to be pregnant? Will you stone her? You must do something before these rumors become unstoppable."

Moses remained silent. People around them could have heard everything, and he would no longer be able to stop the growing distrust—not even in himself.

Jealousy

Adapted from Numbers 5:11-31

 What if she has been unfaithful but no one has caught her? What if her husband distrusts her in a fit of jealousy? And what if she has not committed adultery and he has come to distrust her anyway?

"Take her to the priest. Bring a grain offering. But do not pour olive oil on it or put fragrant spices on it, for it is an offering of jealousy. It is an offering that brings sin to mind."

Aaron would then bring her forward. As a priest, he brings her before YHWH. He fills a bowl with holy water and mixes it with bitter substance that lies on the floor of the tabernacle. He loosens her hair. He places the grain offering of jealousy on her palms. Can you imagine how she feels?

 "If you have not committed adultery," he says, "this bitter water will not harm you, and you will still be able to conceive. But if you have slept with a man other than your own husband, Yahweh will cause your belly to swell and your womb to wither. The people will curse you daily in their prayers. Do you understand?"

 "Amen, amen," she will say, with the grain offering still in her hands and tears in her eyes.

 Then the priest had to write this curse on a sheet of papyrus. He placed the sheet in the bitter water until the ink with the words of the curse was absorbed into the water. Then Aaron takes the grain offering of jealousy from her hands. He breaks off a piece and burns it on the altar. And then he makes her drink the water. She must absorb the water into her body, into her womb and into her mother's womb. And then the jealous husband should let go.

Moses was silent.

How could he accuse her when he himself was not faithful in his role as father and husband? How would she look at him if he took her to Aaron? What would she say when the curse was pronounced? After all, her womb was already cursed in this marriage.

            And then Moses became angry. Something of the indignation of the past returned, when he had beaten the slave driver to death and chased away the shepherds. He became angry at the people who carelessly gossiped and destroyed the lives of others, angry at Aaron who fed his distrust, angry at Miriam who had been unable to keep her mouth shut, and angry at Zipporah for not supporting him.

            Or rather, not angry at Zipporah—it was more that the mere thought of her made him feel ashamed.

Angry at a God who asked too much of him. He remained silent, but it couldn't stay that way.

"God, what should I say?" he prayed.

Anger

Numbers 12 YHWH heard this. ³Now Moses was a very humble man – no one in the whole world was as humble as he was. ⁴Immediately YHWH commanded Moses, Aaron, and Miriam: "All three of you go to the meeting tent." They did so.

⁵ Then YHWH descended in the pillar of cloud, stood at the entrance of the tent, and called Aaron and Miriam.

After they had both come forward, ⁶ He said, "Listen carefully. If there is a prophet of YHWH among you, I will reveal Myself to him in visions and speak to him in dreams. ⁷ But with my servant Moses, whom I can trust completely, I deal differently: ⁸ with him I speak directly, clearly, not in riddles, and he sees my form. How then dare you make remarks about my servant Moses?"

 ⁹ JHWH became angry with them and left.

Moses was accustomed to speaking confidentially with God. He shared everything that was on his mind. And in everything he heard God's voice. This intimate relationship with God had made this prince of Egypt modest and gentle. But now it was as if a storm wind had taken possession of him. God was furious. Miriam and Aaron had used prophetic words like hatchets to call their brother to order.

"To the meeting tent!"

So now YHWH spoke directly to Aaron and Miriam as well.

Or was it through the mouth of Moses?

Illness

Numbers 12 ¹⁰ No sooner had the cloud left the tent than Miriam was covered with a rash, her skin as white as snow.

When Aaron turned toward Miriam and saw her, ¹¹ he said to Moses, "Oh, my lord, do not hold us accountable for the sin we have committed in our foolishness. ¹² Do not let Miriam remain like a stillborn child, whose body is already half decayed when it comes out of the womb!"

¹³ Then Moses cried out to the Lord, "I beg You, God, heal her!"

¹⁴ JHWH answered Moses, "If her father had spit in her face, she would have had to bear that shame for seven days. Therefore, she must be kept outside the camp for seven days, after which she may return."

Leviticus 13 ¹ JHWH said to Moses and Aaron: ² "If anyone has a swelling, rash, or light spot on his skin that may indicate a skin disease that makes him unclean, he must be brought to the priest, to Aaron or one of his descendants, ³who must examine the condition.

(...)

¹⁸ If a sore appears on a person's skin and heals, ¹⁹ but a white or pale red swelling or spot appears in the place of the sore, that person must be examined by the priest. ²⁰ If the priest determines that the spot is deep in the skin and the hair on it has turned white, he must declare the person unclean because of the skin disease that has developed at the site of the sore. ²¹ But if the priest, upon examining the spot, finds that the hair is not white, the spot is not deep in the skin, and it is dull, he must isolate him for seven days [and examine him again].

When Aaron saw the white rash, he panicked. His dear sister looked like a leper. He immediately feared for her future life, that she would have to cry out "unclean, unclean!" to anyone who threatened to come near her, like a shriveled, outcast soul. And why should she be punished for what they had done together? Had Moses really cursed her?

"Oh, my lord," he begged Moses, "do not hold this foolish sin against us."

Moses was also shocked by his words:

            "I beg you, God, heal her."

Then he regained his composure. He calmed down and said to his brother and sister:

            "You know the law. Examine her carefully and apply the law."

            "But Moses," said Aaron, "then I must isolate her outside the camp for seven days."

            "God has punished her as a father spits openly in his daughter's face; such a daughter would not have been allowed to come home for a week either."

"But we are on our way north, she will perish in the desert."

            "Then we will wait for her. If God is merciful, she will survive and we will continue on together."

Zipporah, he thought, I must speak to Zipporah. We must do something about this.

Exclusion

Deuteronomy 24 ⁸ In the case of a skin disease that makes you unclean, you must carefully follow the instructions given to you by the Levitical priests; adhere strictly to what I have prescribed for them. ⁹ Remember what YHWH, your God, did to Miriam during your journey from Egypt.

 Numbers 12 ¹⁵ So Miriam was shut out of the camp for seven days, and the people did not set out until she was brought back. ¹⁶ After she was brought back, they set out from Hazeroth and camped in the wilderness of Paran.

Moses searched everywhere for Zipporah, but he could not find her. No one knew where she was. He could not find the boys either, and the tent had been broken into. Could she have left to go to her family in Kushan? The inhabitants of the neighboring tents pointed him to the tent of Elisheba, Aaron's wife, where she might still be.

            "Is my wife with you?" Moses asked.

            Elisheba looked at him pityingly. "What do you want from her?"

            "I'm worried. Tell me where she's gone."

            "Go to Hur," she replied, "your sons are there."

At the tent of Hur and Miriam, he found Gershom and Eliezer.

            "Father!" Eliezer ran to him.

Gersom and Chur remained seated in the shade of the tent.

            "Why are my sons with you?" Moses asked.

Chur looked ahead.

            "I would have given you something to eat, but my wife has been banished from the camp."

            "I know," said Moses, and sat down beside him.

After a while, Chur said, "You can't go to Zipporah now, or you'll become unclean too."

            "Where is she then?" Moses asked.

            "She has pitched her tent outside the camp."

            "But why?"

            "To take care of Miriam; no one knows the desert like she does."

*      *      *

Suggestions for reading groups

• Check in with the group and with yourself, seek stillness/humility.

• First share the story. In this chapter, the simmering marital conflict between Moses and Zipporah comes to the surface. Moses wants to live a holier life and Zipporah has a greater need for intimacy. Miriam and Aaron interfere and come into conflict with Moses. But the points they raise do come from the Bible (the New Testament and the Torah). What did you read?

• Encourage, comfort, inspire. How do intimacy and spirituality relate to you? Is faith something that belongs to you alone or also something you share with your loved one? Does a healthy or unhealthy approach to (physical) intimacy influence your relationship with God? If there are differences between loved ones, what is the best way for you to discuss them?

Reflecting on Numbers 12 and Leviticus 15-22, spiritual and physical intimacy

Physical uncleanness is not the same as sin. It is, however, a condition in which you cannot be intimate with God or with another person. That is why cleansing is necessary. There is also uncleanness (such as incest and prostitution) that involves injustice and sin and damages you spiritually. Such uncleanness must be avoided, and sin must be atoned for. Priests in particular must be careful, not because of gossip, but because their uncleanness must not stand in the way of intimacy between God and his people. "Difficult" rituals can help with this.

• Encourage, comfort, exhort. How important is it for you to live a holy life and regularly seek cleansing and reconciliation? How important is it for you that your priest, if you have one, does the same? Suppose you were a priest, would that give you a greater responsibility?

• Leave room for silence and contemplation. Perhaps you may "see" or "hear" something from "God." Like Moses and Zipporah, do you dare to enter into conversation with that voice? What answer wells up within you? How do you test that answer?