Today’s Readings:
Numbers 33-36; Hebrews 7
Numbers 33:
[51] “Say to the people of Israel, When you pass over the Jordan into the land of Canaan, [52] then you shall drive out all the inhabitants of the land from before you, and destroy all their figured stones, and destroy all their molten images, and demolish all their high places; [53] and you shall take possession of the land and settle in it, for I have given the land to you to possess it.
Old Testament God is not very cool. There is no love thy neighbor here. This is all out displacement. Take their land because it is yours now, I have given it to you. How is this just? Later, God explains in detail to Moses the cities he will need to build for the displaced people. Moses is required to erect 48 cities, some specifically for the “manslayers” of the region, where they are to be cast out and exiled.
It’s just aggravating because it’s passages like this that give people permission to wage territorial war. Sacred text hardliners can use wording such as this to justify taking land that is no longer their own. Yes, I understand that land is not what many of these disputes are centered around, but shit like this doesn’t help.
I’m going to be completely unrealistic for a moment. In Numbers 35, God details to Moses what the boundaries are to be for the city. He doesn’t say share the land and work it together. He says this is what you own. This is what he and he and he owns. This is what everyone single one of you gets and what everyone else does not get. Now, don’t fuck it up.
Borders have existed since crops have existed since damn forever, but the whole system seems so futile. We think of everything in terms of these imaginary lines that don’t exist. Physical maps and satellite images are sometimes incomprehensible to the modern person because he or she is so used to seeing everything with borders that don’t really exist. Humanity’s obsession with property and unadulterated ownership causes so much grief and pain, yet it has almost nothing to do with who we are as individuals. You are not the things that you own. You are the things that you are. You are made of your emotions, your interactions, your experiences, your love. You are not made of your possessions.
This passage is frustrating because I feel God is telling Moses you are the land that you live on. It seems the same general principle that the Catholic Church perceives that you are the church that you go to. The Church is not a part of who you are, or your community, but the location that you step foot into on Sunday mornings. The Church is not your personal devotion or the sharing of your connection with God with other people, but how intently you listen to the priest for his seven to eight minute homily.
We are not the things that we own.
We are not the national outlines upon which we stand.
Our lives should not be contained by boundaries that don’t exist save on paper.
