God, why did You make me this way? (Numbers 30)

Why wasn’t I born tall? Athletic? In a prosperous country? To wealthy parents? In a loving, stable home? There are so many ways popular culture, our peers and we ourselves can tell us that we are less than valuable. We might glean from a cursory pass through the Torah readings מטות Matot (“tribes”) and מסעי Massei/Mase’y (“journeys of”), covering Numbers 30–36, a few more points of discrimination against us: born a woman, born in the wrong family.

Yet we will discover in this Bible study after lifting the hood on the full message from Heaven, rather than pulling soundbites convenient to our bias, that where we start out in life and where we find ourselves doesn’t have to define what truly matters: “the content of our character,” to quote Martin Luther King Jr.

Here’s what Moses, Isaiah and apostle Paul have to say.

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Yet we will discover after lifting the hood on the full message from Heaven, rather than pulling soundbites convenient to our bias, that where we start out in life and where we find ourselves doesn’t have to define what truly matters: “the content of our character,” to quote Martin Luther King Jr.

This reading has some accounts that sound horrifyingly archaic in the decades since women’s suffrage. There are the accounts of the annulment of a maiden’s or wife’s vows by a father or husband who doesn’t agree with the commitments (Numbers 30), forced adoption of girls of Midian not involved in the “honey trap” set by Bilam (Balaam) of Peor (Numbers 31) and the dilemma of tribal inheritance by the daughters of Zelophehad (Numbers 36). A woman or girl in this situation could ask, why must I lose my freedom to do what I want because of my gender?

The answer lies in a long-running metaphor in the Bible that teaches one to look for what the final “shape” of a person’s character is, rather than the molding of the moment. We may be powerless over the moment, but we’re not powerless over allowing ourselves to be molded.

The LORD and His people: Potter and clay

A recurring lesson for Israel (North and South) through the prophets Yermiyahu (Jeremiah) and Yeshiyahu (Isaiah) is of יָצַר yatzar and חֹמֶר chomer, the One Who forms (Potter) and that which is formed (clay) (Jer. 18:4, 6; Isa. 29:16; 41:25; 45:9; 64:8). Especially in the prophecy given through Yeshiyahu we see the path from being indifferent to the Creator to anger to repentance. These are steps we can retrace.

Isaiah 29:13–16: You don’t see me!

Though critics will disagree on the timing and authorship of Isaiah 40–66, this chapter is connected to the reigns of kings mentioned in Isaiah 1:1, dating to the seventh or eight centuries B.C., before the exile of the northern kingdom of Israel by Assyria.¹

Israel’s leaders think their deeds against the LORD’s instructions and following other deities aren’t seen by the LORD.

Isaiah 41:25; 45:9: You’re impotent or incompetent!

Israel’s leaders admit the LORD can see their deeds, but the Almighty didn’t get Israel’s formation right or is powerless to form the nation at all.

Isaiah 64:8: We’re incompenent in shaping ourselves. Shape us again!

This lament comes with recognition that Yerushalayim (Jerusalem) is destroyed. This is a call for Heavenly reform, to re-form the clay of the Israel into the Potter’s original design.

The question at the end of Isaiah 64 about whether Heaven is silent at a time like this is followed by Heaven’s answer in Isaiah 65–66. That reform would come, but it would come by way of jealousy for the work the LORD would do to nations (goyim, aka “gentiles”) that weren’t originally part of Abraham’s calling but would trust the Caller like he did.