It’s back to laws and rituals today. I do love the importance on annual festivals. This time we have a list of daily, weekly, and monthly sacrifices. As my pastor remarked in our bi-monthly podcast, the Scripture establishes a holy rhythm to life. Then we get the big festivals. As a cultureless WASP this makes me think of the role St. Patrick’s Day plays in my wife’s family with a bit of envy.
“The accompanying drink offering is to be a quarter of a hin of fermented drink with each lamb. Pour out the drink offering to the Lord at the sanctuary.” Num. 28:7. This pouring out a drink for the Lord is repeated for each offering. How connected is this to the practice today of pouring a drink for a fallen friend? Seriously, I wonder. Is there a direct connection, or is it just that drink evokes celebration which leads to remembering?
Chapter 30 is all about how women’s vows are not really valid unless affirmed by their father or husband. And, what to do if you have a vow made while she was living with her father, but shortly before she was transferred to her husband. The most horrible thing about treating women as subhuman is how long the practice has continued. “States’ deprivation of married women’s right to contract was judicially condoned through at least the mid-1900s.” This article, starting at page 25. David P. Weber, Restricting the Freedom of Contract: A Fundamental Prohibition, Yale Human Rights and Development L.J., Feb. 2014.