Tag Archives: Women

Solomon’s Downward Spiritual Spiral Begins

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Beautiful egyptian woman bronze portrait.

2 Chronicles 8:11, Daughter of Pharaoh…my wife. Solomon couldn’t bring his heathen wife into the City of David, for fear of defiling the holy ground thereof. So why did he marry her in the first place?

This obviously was a marriage strictly for political purposes (and being a kings daughter, she was probably good looking to boot!)

This type of action on Solomon’s part was the beginning of his spiritual descent that eventually led to idolatry and witchcraft.

Even as Samson had a weak spot for beautiful women and it led to his downfall, the same happened with Solomon. Instead of trusting in YHVH to be the strength of his kingdom as he had promised to do, Solomon relied on comprising political alliances, horses and chariots—something which YHVH commanded his servants not to multiply (Deut 17:16). To do this would lead them into a secular downward spiral orientation and take them away from trusting in Elohim for their defense and protection.

What is the lesson in this for us? Though we are in the world, we are not to be of the world, as Yeshua said in John 17. To live on this earth, we must sagaciously navigate the waters of this cosmos without getting sucked in to using worldly methods to advance the kingdom of Elohim. If not careful and discerning we can fall into the trap of using the methodologies of this world as a pretext for doing “the Lord’s work” when in reality we’re fulfilling our own carnal agendas and desires for money, power and public recognition.

 

The Significance of Women in the Bible

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Numbers 27:1–11, The daughters of Zelophehad. A Torah Commentary For Our Times/ATCFOT (UHAC Press, NY, 1993) has an interesting discussion regarding the incident involving the daughters of Zelophehad (Num. 27:1-11) that may answer some questions that contemporary women have regarding the Torah’s view of women. “Modern commentator Jacob Milgrom contrasts ancient Israelite practices of inheritance with those of their neighbors.” He notes that the practice of equality of inheritance between sons and daughters was upheld in Egypt and Mesopotamia one thousand years before the codification of the Torah. Later on the Greeks can be added to this list of countries that practiced “equal rights.” Milgrom then asks, “In face of such ‘equality’ of treatment how then are we to explain the fact that the Bible gives women no inheritance rights except in the case where there are no sons?” Does the Torah seem to discriminate against women regarding the inheritance of land and property from the estates of their parents, he asks? (p. 80)

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“Milgrom suggest that in contrast to ancient Israel’s neighbors…where ‘centralized urban societies’ already existed, the early Torah laws of the Israelites reflect a nomadic-clan structure. In such a society ‘the foremost goal of its legal system was the preservation of the clan.’ Equity between members of the tribe or family preserves peaceful relationships and strengthens cooperation between all person.” He goes on to say that this explains the justness of the pleas of the daughters of Zelophehad where the principle of upholding the clan is preserved. The Torah sees that the daughters receive their father’s inheritance and at the same time that the clan and father’s name are preserved. (ibid.)

This solution does not promote equal rights, as we know it today, with sons regarding inheritance. Both the Torah and Talmud teach that in most cases inheritance of property is from father to son and that women share the lot of their husbands and do not inherit from their fathers (ibid., quoting from JPS Commentary: Numbers, pp. 482-484).

The Jewish sages further note that though the daughters aired their complaints about Continue reading →