An Atheist Explores the Bible Part 29: Featuring idol worship that God *is* okay with; and a pair of comedy villains (Numbers 21-25)

Numbers 21-25

Featuring idol worship that God is okay with; and a pair of comedy villains.

Welcome to another instalment of An Atheist Explores Sacred Texts (Bible version).

In this series I work my way chapter-by-chapter through the King James Bible, commenting on it from the point of view of the text as literature and mythology. 

For more detail, see the introductory post http://bit.ly/2F8f9JT

For the online KJV I use, see here http://bit.ly/2m0zVUP

And now:

Numbers 21

“And Moses made a serpent of brass, and put it upon a pole, and it came to pass, that if a serpent had bitten any man, when he beheld the serpent of brass, he lived.

There’s an issue with these chapters in Numbers, Leviticus and Exodus so far, in that it’s becoming increasingly evident that the same events are being described in different ways, so the chapters, and books as a whole, are compilations of all these versions. Numbers has been particularly egregious for this. This chapter is almost like a summary of all that has gone before, with the Israelites defeating the Canaanites, then wandering in the desert, becoming disgruntled, complaining and getting cursed by God.

This has been described before, where God sends a plague. Here, He sends a plague of fiery serpents, and as before Moses pleads mercy on behalf of his people. There’s a strange interlude here, where in order to cure the snakebites the Israelites build a bronze serpent. Now, this smacks to me of idolatry, which is surely a big no-no? Perhaps it’s different because God orders the construction of the serpent, but it still strikes a strange note. I wonder if it’s a variant version of the Golden Calf lesson – one telling of the story says that the Israelites built a gold calf to worship and God cursed, the other reverses it and tells that God curses the people and then builds a Bronze Serpent to cure it. The simplicity of the sympathetic magic on display here – an image of a serpent will cure snakebite – is also one that doesn’t gibe well with the more complex Yahweh religion that is developing amongst the Israelites. Odd.

The rest of the chapter is more Reverend Lovejoy stuff “We have shot at them; Heshbon is perished even unto Dibon, and we have laid them waste even unto Nophah, which reacheth unto Medeba”

whereby the Israelites carve out territory amongst the Amorites and the Moabites, which they do with apparent ease. There are some great names of people and places that crop up here – the land of Beer, and Og, King of Bashan, struck me in particular.

Numbers 22

“And Moab said unto the elders of Midian, Now shall this company lick up all that are round about us, as the ox licketh up the grass of the field. And Balak the son of Zippor was king of the Moabites at that time.”

Unusually we get a shift in perspective for this chapter, from the point of view of Balak, king of the Moabites and then Balaam, king of Pethor, and yes, the two do get confusing with their similar names. Balak sees the size of the Israelite host and worries, and sends to Balaam for aid.

Balaam, strangely, prays to God, who tells him that the Israelites are under His protection and will prevail. This is an interesting development as it implies that cultures other than the Israelites worship Yahweh. It’ll be interesting how this plays out – will Balaam end up facing the Israelites and how will this work? Balaam refuses help to Balak, Balak tries bribery. Balaam seeks guidance from God again and … things get confused, as they often do. As far as I can make out, God tells Balaam to go ahead, but that he will only be able to speak God’s word, but then when Balaam sets forth on his donkey God gets angry and sends an angel to block him. So which is it? Stay or go? No wonder Balaam is confused later on.

Next we have an odd little interlude where an angel keeps spooking Balaam’s donkey, Balaam (who can’t see the angel), gets angry with the donkey and beats it. God speaks through the donkey, and finally the angel is revealed to Balaam. We then go back to what was already said – go to the meeting with Balak but you will only be able to speak God’s word. I don’t know if it’s in the writing style or in the composition but this comes across as God messing with Balaam’s head for the sake of it, otherwise it’s a nice change of pace.

Numbers 23

“And Balaam said unto Balak, Stand by thy burnt offering, and I will go: peradventure the LORD will come to meet me: and whatsoever he sheweth me I will tell thee. And he went to an high place.”

Balaam tells Balak to make an offering, and then, rather than speak a curse upon the Israelites as Balak hoped, Balaam invokes a blessing on them. Balak says “What are you doing dude?”, to which Balaam replies, “Sorry, word of God, can’t do anything about it.” Optimistically, Balak tries to do the same thing in a different place, but of course the same thing happens, only Balaam’s invocation of the Israelites is more elaborate, including saying that they have the “strength of a unicorn”. Balak then says “Yeah, okay, just don’t say anything at all.” They then go to a third place to try it again, and there the chapter ends.

Refreshingly for Numbers, there’s some nice poetry in this chapter, short though it is. Strange that the Moabites and ... Pethorites? ... worship Yahweh, if Yahweh has decided that He's going to back the Israelites all the way and squash anyone who gets in their way.

Numbers 24
“And Balaam lifted up his eyes, and he saw Israel abiding in his tents according to their tribes; and the spirit of God came upon him.”

Continuing from the last chapter, again Balaam praises Israel rather than curse it, and again his praise, or his “parable” as the text calls it, is more elaborate concerning the might of the Israelites. And again Balak gets annoyed and Balaam points out that he’d already said that he wouldn’t be able to speak against the will of God. He goes on to prophecy the destruction of various kingdoms by the Israelites, and then Balak and Balaam go their separate ways.

And thus the narrative Rule of Three is satisfied. What an odd pair of incompetent villains, like the bumbling henchmen from a Disney cartoon; maybe Horace and Jasper from 101 Dalmations.

Numbers 25

“And Israel abode in Shittim, and the people began to commit whoredom with the daughters of Moab.”

Meanwhile, the Israelites are continuing to annoy God, this time by mingling with the Moabites. God strikes them with yet another plague, which is resolved when Phinehar, grandson of Aaron, kills an Israelite, Zimri, and his Moabite wife, Cozbi, with a javelin that kills both of them in one strike. This is enough to satisfy God, who then orders the destruction of the Moabites.

Personally I find the racial purity sentiment somewhat disturbing here, but also as before in Numbers this is a variant version of a situation that we’ve already been given, this time with a few more specifics. Otherwise more set-up for coming conflict.